Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/23/21: The Twins of Archenland (Narnia XIX)

Archenland is a country to the south of Narnia proper (that is, Narnia the nation-state not Narnia the world) and lies between it and Calormen, providing a buffer of sorts. Rather, its mountains provide a buffer. There’s a northern range lying between it and Narnia, and a southern range that provides a barrier to the Great Desert and Calormen. I’d always pictured Archenland like Switzerland, a small country in a green valley between the two ranges. Lewis never states how high they are, but since Shasta/Cor crosses them in The Horse and His Boy without feeling a lack of oxygen, I’d say they’re under 7,000 feet, probably more like six or five thousand. High enough to have passes blocked by snow and ice in the winter months.

The other thing Archenland is famous for is twins. My memories from The Horse and His Boy were that twins ran in the line of the Royal family, and if male they were always named a certain way: a short name for the first-born, a longer one deriving from the first twin’s name for the second born. To my surprise, when I went back to Horse to research this, I discovered otherwise.

“Apparently King Lune is my father,” said Shasta. “I might really have guessed it. Corin being so like me. We were twins, you see. Oh, and my name isn’t Shasta, it’s Cor.” “Cor is a nicer name than Shasta,” said Aravis. “Brothers’ names run like that in Archenland,” said Shasta (or Prince Cor as we must now call him). “Like Dar and Darrin, Cole and Colin and so on.”

This says nothing about twins being common in Archenland or the Royal family, and in fact doesn’t even say twins alone received this naming convention… all brothers did. Though it could get awkward if a family has, say, seven sons, and son #7 gets a name of seven syllables… consisting of all the previous brothers’ syllables with his own tacked on the end. Alternately, each following brother might get the name of the first, plus his own unique syllable.

I am sure, however, that Lewis meant twin brothers here — fraternal or identical — and not all brothers, just because in real life twins have names that resonate more often than not, such as beginning with the same letter (Jaimie and Jason) or rhyming (Jax and Dax) or associated in some other way (Michael and Gabriel, Hannibal and Alexander).

If the twins are male and female, I suppose we would have Cor and Cora, Dar and Dara, Cole and Coleen, etc.

Later in The Horse and His Boy, Cor finds out that he, not his brother Corin, is the one who will inherit the Crown from his father. (From this passage I deduced that the first-born gets the shorter name. So King Lune might have a brother named Lunetic or similar.)

“Nay, lad,” said King Lune, “thou art my heir. The crown comes to thee.” “But I don’t want it,” said Cor. “I’d far rather—” “‘Tis no question what thou wantest, Cor, nor I either. ‘Tis in course of law.” “But if we’re twins we must be the same age.” “Nay,” said the King with a laugh. “One must come first. Art Corin’s elder by full twenty minutes. And his better too, let’s hope, though that’s no great mastery.” And he looked at Corin with a twinkle in his eyes. “But, Father, couldn’t you make whichever you like to be the next King?” “No. The King’s under the law, for it’s the law makes him a king. Hast no more power to start away from thy crown than any sentry from his post.”

Suppose the elder twin is entirely unsuitable to be king, like, say, Charles II of Spain? Do you choose the law, or the good of the country? Primogeniture sucks. (Then again, the story had to end in a happy way, which it ultimately was.)

If you’re looking for twin names… or brother names… for some Archenland fanfic, here’s a bunch.

Twin names in Archenland

Brother names in Archenland,
Additive Theory

Names are getting mighty awkward by the fourth brother here! The naming method below makes more sense.

Brother names in Archenland,
with ending variations