Category: Fantasy

Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/29/22: More Narnian Magic (Narnia XXXIV)

Magic is everywhere in Narnia; yet the characters don’t use it in the way the Harry Potter kids use it, or even how a party in a fantasy RPG would use it. Only in the first book is magic used fluently and for purpose by the main characters, in form of Peter’s sword and shield, …

Continue reading

Aslan on Stage (Part II)

In Part I we got to see a few examples of a puppet Aslan that served as the character in a staged version; now I’ll talk about the human-actor Aslan. Though puppet Aslan has the advantage of looking grand and mystical — especially accompanied by specialty lighting and sound effects — its use limits Aslan …

Continue reading

Aslan on Stage (Part I)

When comparing Tolkien to Lewis, Lewis wins in the theatrical department. Every year, around the world, theater groups are tackling The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, creating different interpretations of the same text by their choices of costume, casting, lighting and sets. I can’t see anyone staging The Fellowship of the Ring the same …

Continue reading

Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/22/22: Gods of Calormen (Narnia XXXIII)

zardeena-small

In contrast to Narnia’s monotheism and its “true” God, Aslan, the desert nation of Calormen was polytheistic. Three gods are mentioned: Tash, Zardeenah, and Azaroth, all referenced in the book The Horse and His Boy, which was written by Lewis after The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but published later. HHB was Lewis’s ode to …

Continue reading

The Lion of Lucerne

The Lion lies in his lair in the perpendicular face of a low cliff—for he is carved from the living rock of the cliff. His size is colossal, his attitude is noble. His head is bowed, the broken spear is sticking in his shoulder, his protecting paw rests upon the lilies of France. Vines hang …

Continue reading

Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/15/22: Queen Swanwhite’s Descendants (Narnia XXXII)

As I wrote in my previous post, Queen Swanwhite is something of an oddity, in Narnian terms. The reader hears about her only through the comments of another character, unlike, say, Ram the Great and King Erlian, two other characters the reader never meets but receive a mention from Lewis-the-narrator with the authorial weight that …

Continue reading

The (Al)Lure of Queen Swanwhite

[Jewel] spoke of Swanwhite the Queen who had lived before the days of the White Witch and the Great Winter, who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards. This …

Continue reading

A New Summer of Narnia

Yes, it’s the start of a new Summer of Narnia! This is the third one. Stay tuned for more Narnian names, essays, worldbuilding, commentary, and artwork, like the marvelous painting above. Which shows the unshowed final meeting of lion and witch, though she’s more resigned than terrified, and looks like she’s rather enjoying it. But …

Continue reading

Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/25/22: Let’s Talk About Dumbledore

  As I’m sure every fantasy fan already knows, Dumbledore (full name Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore) is the mysterious but kindly Headmaster of Hogwarts, the magical boarding school Harry Potter attends. In the movie series, he’s depicted in full-on Gandalf mode, with hippy-style long gray hair and a like beard he keeps tied in …

Continue reading

Nontraditional Chimerae

As I said in my post about traditional artistic depictions of chimerae there was little doubt to the creature’s appearance, which remained iconic over hundreds of years. The written descriptions, however, differed in the particulars. Artists of the Medieval age and beyond, depending on which writer they had access to, created different beasts from the …

Continue reading