Three Narnian maps that got it wrong.

I shouldn’t even be posting this one, because it’s AI. But it’s a clear example of how things can get loused up.

First of all, that’s not the Narnia we know and love. Second, some locations, like the Shrieking Wood, Corinth and the Oaken Grove, do not exist in the books, nor do the people, places, and things that exist in them. Third, what gets mixed up, like the town of Beaverdam with the house of Mrs. and Mrs. Beaver, and the snowy clearing of The Lantern’s Wardrobe. Which is the only amusing thing about this map as all the other mistakes could be places from any generic fantasy book.

This map seems to be a mashup of how the artist pictured things from both the books AND the Walden movies. But it’s far from canon.

On the other hand, I give the mapmaker points for trusting their own mind in this matter and not the opinion of the original artist(s).

And here’s an artist who did adhere to canon, at least in mapping Narnia and Archenland. But they’re small parts of a whole continent of other places, including Faab, Oyka, Serement, and Tamaril. Why is Telmar so huge, and Calormen missing?

What is the story behind this? Someone’s map for their Narnia AU?

 

Narnia 1979 (Part 6)

Susan escapes from Fenris Ulf (Maugrim) in this cell from the TV special. I’ve always wondered why she never used that bow.

Here’s two more press releases from the animated special. Both say what’s been said before, with a different slant, bringing in some quotes from C. S. Lewis himself. Other than that I don’t have a lot to say about them.

The White Witch releases a drop from her magic vial that will turn into a hot drink for Edmund. Like all witches, she has pointy fingernails.

 

Narnia 1979 (Part 5)

The Professor, from the animated special. “My Goodness, what do they teach them in those schools?”

The press sheets below detail the making of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe animated special from conception to finish. As with the other press material, the special letterhead stationary created for the project was used, but the rest was typewritten.

A concept sketch by Melendez for the movie. Notice how the Pevensies resemble the Peanuts characters more than they do the final version of themselves.

The “Lord of the Rings” Melendez refers to here was undoubtedly the Ralph Bakshi one. Animators were a tight-knit bunch back then and everyone knew everyone else and what projects they were working on.

Fun Fact: Ralph Bakshi was Palestinian-American.

Narnia 1979 (Part 4)

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver give the Pevensies some advice in this still from the special. Note Mr. Beaver’s pipe and the gold ashtray on the table which was common for kaffeklatsches in the 1970s. Or are they having tea in those tiny cups, not espresso?

More educator’s notes / press releases. The first is a character and plot sheet.

Not bad in how everything was reduced to its basics. I wonder if AI could write the same thing today? Let’s find out.

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/5/26: The Narnian Joust (Narnia LXXXII)

 

Just as there were tourneys and tournaments in Narnia, surely there were jousts, which were part of King Lune’s future plans for Corin as relayed by Mr. Tumnus.  I quoted the passage in last week’s Worldbuilding Wednesday, then realized Tumnus didn’t mention a tourney, only tilting and jousting. But these skills were honed and practiced at tourneys, or more likely behourds, which was a tourney meant just for knights-in-training and squires.

Jousting was undoubtedly the most exciting event at a tourney. Fully armored knights, dressed in their finest tourney silks and armed with shields and lances, charged at each other down a long, straight course. At first the charge was freeform; later on combatants were separated by a tilt, which could be a fence, rope, or delineation of fabric of equal length so they didn’t wander off course. Lances hit helms or shields, and BOOM! anything could happen. Knights could be knocked off, shields and lances splintered, horses fallen and injured, and competitors maimed for life. King Henry VIII of England was famously unhorsed in a 1536 joust in an impact so violent his fully armored mount (likely a Percheron-type breed, ouch) fell on him too, crushing his legs and knocking him unconscious. The accident was catastrophic for the king. It caused painful ulcers on his legs and slowly declining health for the once-vigorous monarch, as well as personality changes that influenced later history for the worse.

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AI done got it wrong.

Image prompt: “Generate a picture of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe from the Chronicles of Narnia.”

Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/29/26: The Narnian Tourney (Narnia LXXXI)

In the later years of royal tourneys knights were elaborately outfitted for their duels

Tourneys, tournaments, and jousts are mentioned several times in the Chronicles. The first time is in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in which Caspian mentions a tourney the Duke of Galma arranged for his visit. The second occurs in The Horse and His Boy, when Mr. Tumnus tells Cor (who he thinks is Corin) of the time he will be allowed to attend a tourney: ” [ … ] you are promised your first suit of armour and your first war horse on your next birthday. And then your Highness will begin to learn how to tilt and joust. And in a few years, if all goes well, King Peter has promised your royal father that he himself will make you Knight at Cair Paravel.”

Then, in the last book, Tirian regales Jill and Eustace with tales of Narnia’s more peaceful times: “He talked of whole centuries in which all Narnia was so happy that notable dances and feasts, or at most tournaments, were the only things that could be remembered, and every day and week had been better than the last.”

Daffy Duck takes a turn in the saddle

Those who grew up in Western culture are familiar with Medieval jousts and tourneys. There’s even been a chain of restaurants dedicated to the concept, where diners wear cardboard crowns at banquet tables, pulling apart roast chickens with their hands as knights battle in the dirt arena below them. Then there’s media depictions, from colorful movie spectacles like Ivanhoe and Robin Hood to Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The setting still has legs judging by the popularity of the late Heath Ledger’s A Knight’s Tale movie and HBO’s House of the Dragon, in which an unfortunate contestant has his face bashed to hamburger by a rival knight. Scholars of chivalry and romance literature know them too, the idea of a lovesick knight receiving a bauble from his ladylove which marks him as her champion.

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Narnia 1979 (Part 3)

Animation cell from the special, with overlays. Apparently just after Edmund stole away to betray them to the witch.

More material relating to the 1979 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe animated TV special. These releases were made available to teachers and educators who would be using the special as class material. These two press releases detail the involvement of the Children’s Television Workshop, a nonprofit educational television production and media company which was formed to 1968 to produce the world-renowned Sesame Street children’s show. Today the company is known as Sesame Workshop, but the original name had brand recognition among children of a certain generation for its involvement in afterschool TV fare like The Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact. It also famously launched the career of puppeteer Jim Henson.

More information on David Connell.

Captain Kangaroo was a CBS children’s show that aired weekday mornings from 1955 to 1984. It could be said to be a forerunner of Sesame Street and first cousin to Mr. Rogers. Both had genial, child-oriented hosts (though portly Captain Kangaroo, in his cartoonish red frock coat and Beatle haircut, was more of his time) and combined animation, puppetry, real-life adventures like visiting a farm or crayon factory, and slapstick comedy that was more chaotic than the gentle Fred Rogers show. I was a devoted fan. in my preschool years. I also had some merch from from it, a talking Grandfather Clock. Other puppets were Mr. Moose, Bunny Rabbit, who introduced children to classical music with piano concertos, and a life-size costumed performer called Dancing Bear who did the same for dance.

When I began to write this series I never dreamed of all the various connections I’d find. Whew!