Worldbuilding Wednesday 07/23/25: Names of the Seven Isles (Narnia LXIII)

In the Chronicles the island group known as the Seven Isles did not receive much worldbuilding. Two of them were named: Brenn and Muil, and there was a city, Redhaven. That’s as much as we know. Some wikis say they under Narnia’s dominion the same way the Lone Islands were, but there’s no evidence from the books to support this. Pauline Baynes’s maps locate them as east of Ettinsmoor. They were visited by the Pevensie Kings and Queens during the Golden Age and by Caspian in The Voyage of The Dawn Treader who says:

… five days more we were in sight of Muil which, as you know, is the westernmost of the Seven Isles. Then we rowed through the straits and came about sundown into Redhaven on the isle of Brenn, where we were very lovingly feasted and had victual and water at will. — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Now the word isle suggests they were smallish; but in truth, in the English language isle and island are practically synonyms, isle being used in more poetic nomenclature than island. Take the  commonly-used title of The British Isles, for example. The Seven Isles simply has a grander ring to it. Plus, a place known as the Lone Islands already existed, and Lewis sought to differentiate between them.

Why were there seven? Again, that poetic ring. But as they’re mentioned in VODT, perhaps they are meant to echo the seven lost lords.

So, my headcanon is going to fill them in a bit. They are islands big enough to support a sizable population, and they are their own country. Though they are the northernmost of the known islands, the climate is not harsh because of a warm current and in fact may be more mild than Narnia’s. I’m going to say also they were accomplished sea traders and explorers, so the names given there will reflect a combination of Portuguese and Dutch.

Names used in the Seven Isles