Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/25/25: Narnia Big Cat Names (Narnia LIX)

Though C. S. Lewis apparently had a hatred for small cats (look at Ginger’s fate in The Last Battle) he admired the larger species. Aslan was a lion, after all, and his attendants were leopards, panthers, and other (unnamed) species of big cats; a cat-a-mount is mentioned as being one of the statues in the witch’s courtyard, which might be a puma or cougar or some other wild cat like a lynx. But it was the leopards who were mentioned most, which makes sense, as they were featured on European royal crests and sigils almost as much as lions were.

They also took on some human characteristics, as in the above picture from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Next to Aslan stood two leopards of whom one carried his crown and the other his standard. — The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe

Now, “stood” could just mean standing on legs, whether they were two or four. But the leopards couldn’t have carried the objects if they didn’t have the use of forelimbs.

So it does appear the big cats had prehensile paws and the choice of a bipedal posture, at least in this book. That includes Aslan. In one of Pauline Baynes’ original illustrations he walks alongside the White Witch on two legs with his paws folded behind his back. He also claps his paws — which wouldn’t have made much noise, having pads — and touches Peter on the shoulder with a paw to direct his attention; a few paragraphs later he waves a paw to indicate Peter should respond to Susan’s horn. Then, after Susan is saved from the wolf:

“Hand it [the sword] to me and kneel, Son of Adam,” said Aslan. And when Peter had done so he struck him with the flat of the blade and said, “Rise up, Sir Peter Fenris-Bane. And, whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword.” — The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe

Well, hmmm. There’s more in this section I could analyze, such as Aslan’s priggish harping on cleaning the sword, but that is for another post.

Later, there’s this:

“Wow!” roared Aslan half rising from his throne — The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe

Sitting on a throne and half-rising from it is what humans do. If Aslan was sitting on the throne as a cat would, he couldn’t half-rise, because he’s already half-risen with his haunches on the ground and his front paws supporting his upper body.

In Prince Caspian though, Aslan doesn’t evince any of this anthropomorphic behavior save, in one part, where he shakes hands with Peter (!) Of course Aslan was not present for a good chunk of the book, at least until Lucy spots him in the woods for which she is jeered at. But when he is present, he is more cat than human.

By The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Lewis is rethinking entirely his earlier conceptions of what Aslan can and can’t do. When Eustace is de-dragoned he tells Edmond:

“After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me—” “Dressed you. With his paws?” “Well, I don’t exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes—the same I’ve got on now, as a matter of fact.” — The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardobe

The implication is Aslan doesn’t do that kind of mundane physical stuff. In fact, as the books progress, he grows more distant, more mysterious, more iconic, and more static. By The Silver Chair, he doesn’t even pierce his own paw with a thorn — he has Eustace do it. This is actually a pretty neat trick of author, going from the fairy-tale hands-on character of the first book, meant for young children, to the almost-forgotten myth he was in the last, which was meant for young adolescents. The idea of Aslan changed as the reader did, with the object of deepening their faith  and interiorising it.

Back to the leopards and other big cats. If they can carry standards and crowns, it’s possible they had names like these.

Narnian Names for Big Cats