This artist’s depiction of Aslan, with its eerie staring eyes, shares a disturbing similarity to the cat pictures of popular Victorian English artist Louis Wain. Wain is often cited in psychology textbooks as a classic case of how schizophrenia alters the afflicted’s sense of reality.
A charming anthropomorphized fox from the first movie.
As written by Lewis, the Talking Beasts of Narnia cover a wide range of species. The Magician’s Nephew, which was the third book Lewis wrote (but the 6th published) gives a good depiction of their genesis: they bubble up from the earth itself like bubbles of gas through hot lava. There’s an elephant, big cats, deer. Yet, there are gaps in the worldbuilding. Mice, according to Aslan in Prince Caspian, were created later, after Aslan’s ordeal on the stone table. And the more exotic species don’t enter the story at all, as characters that is. There’s a Talking Lion who plays a bit part in the first book, and an elephant in Nephew, but that’s it. Where did they all reside? How did warm climate creatures like elephants and cheetahs withstand Narnia’s winters? And speaking of those elephants, there’s a Hall of Ivory in Cair Paravel. Did they donate their tusks? Were they killed for them?
The animals that do get the most screen time are the ones Lewis would have been the most familiar with as denizens of the British countryside: foxes, bears, deer, beavers, hares, ravens. Well, bears and beavers were in short supply in England in the 20th century, but they would have been there, but for man; that’s their biome.
It is also worth reflecting on the fate of wolves. They are the only species which had given itself over to evil, during the Long Winter; but were all of them thus turned? Were they exterminated after that, or did they repent? (Someone write a fanfic about this please.)
Anyway, more talking beasts that might have existed had the series gone on.
| Rabbits / Hares
Springlegs Weedwinter Quickblossom Hollyharp Dawndash |
Moles
Chunkstep Popcollar Spadebrood Plumpling Earthness |
Hedgehogs
Cricklehitch Mossmouth Wormsniggle Pennypop Spinebrow |
| Eagles
Trueseek Windjoy Highcrest Stormwing Quillfrost |
Foxes
Slypath Bluffhunter Redthatch Moonglade the Vixen Vulpina |
Wolves
Graykin Longpace Bruteflank Blackfrost Vandalpaw |
Cair Paravel, Narnia’s royal castle, as depicted in a Pauline Baynes illustration from the original book, and in an artist’s concept for the movie. The movie version is larger and grander but keeps to the same outline.
Reepicheep toasts Ramandu the Star’s Daughter in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Pauline Baynes did the illustrations for all the books.
Speaking of Prince Caspian, the book contains one of the most memorable of all the series’s peripheral characters: Reepicheep the Mouse, short in stature but long on bravery. To me he was the Narnia equivalent of Scrappy-Doo, Scooby-Doo’s more eloquent little nephew: annoying. He does introduce, however, the Narnian way of naming mice: three-syllable names based on the noises they make.
The other talking animals of Narnia have distinctive names as well, often related to what they do, filtered through a pastoral English wonderland. Moles are named Clodsley Shovel and Lilygloves. A squirrel is named Pattertwig, a badger Trufflehunter. And on and on.
Writing Narnia fanfic? Here are some ideas for your animal characters.
| Mice
Neepileep Pipichip Chippiteep Teepisqueek Neepinip Cheepititch Feepimeep |
Squirrels
Luckbranch Patterpaws Tumblefluff Joytwig Rainleaf Fairflick Graywhistle |
Deer
Starhorn Snowmist Gladfoot Joygrove Gallanthoof Northsong Lanklegs |
| Beavers
Logsnap Shortbelly Paddletail Darkdive Pondflapper Coldbrook |
Badgers
Cobblefern Moonwhiskers Rootsnuffle Snowmask Hextangle Jennysalt |
Ravens
Runefeather Proudbeak Goodcroak Crookpenny Combescry Sootwing |
This is hilarious.
Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian in the movie version, decidedly older and hunkier than the character in the book.
C. S. Lewis actually wrote Prince Caspian, the second book of The Chronicles of Narnia, hot on the tail of the first. In it, he explored an idea he had been playing around with for a while: What if King Arthur actually returned to England during the Battle of Britain as prophesied (when England was in its “darkest hour”) thereby saving the day? He cast the Pevensie children in the role of Arthur, made the peril out to be an invading kingdom bent on destroying Narnian culture, and so Prince Caspian (named after the sea, no less) was born.
Though the book was second in the series, I read it the last, and might have been spoiled for it by the other books. Still, it’s the weakest, IMO, of the Narnia books. The plot is frustrating (there’s a lot of dull wandering around in the woods before we get to the action) and many decidedly un-Narnian elements in it that never recur, like necromancy, werewolves, and Narnia being converted into a facsimile of a repressive British town complete with a bureaucratic school system. If the books had stopped there, as a duology, the worldbuilding might have made sense; but the wilder and more metaphysical elements of the later books sit oddly with the modern-day (mid twentieth century) elements of this one. It’s also a disappointment for readers, I think, to discover that the Narnia they loved and knew had been been completely plowed under in the intervening years between the events of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and this one. (I could say more, and will, in a later entry.)
Prince Caspian does, though, have the simplest title of the Narnia books; and here are some alternate versions with the same sound.
| Prince Sasdian
Prince Dysnian Prince Testian Prince Baskian Prince Thesvian Prince Nosthian Prince Yesthian Prince Lesrian Prince Yösdian Prince Rasdian |
Prince Gesthian
Prince Nassian Prince Risrian Prince Chestrian Prince Tosnian Prince Sesdian Prince Tosbrian Prince Missian Prince Fuslian Prince Thöszian |
One fan’s photoshopped spoof. Note the spelling of “Narsis” is not consistent.
British writer C. S. Lewis’s well-loved children’s fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, began in 1950 with the publication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by publisher Geoffrey Bles (in the U.S. Macmillan was the publisher.) The book was, according to Lewis, inspired by a drawing of a faun — a satyr — hurrying through a snowy wood carrying a bundle of packages and an umbrella. Intriguingly, it is not known whether he was inspired by an actual picture, or one that existed only in his head. Said he, “Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: ‘Let’s try to make a story about it.’ ”
His story, begun in the late 1940s, drew on the British style of children’s fantasy exemplified by author Edith Nesbit where young people in a contemporary setting encounter magical objects and other worlds. As one of the Inklings, he was surely also inspired by Tolkien (and from him, E. R. Eddison) who was working on The Lord of the Rings trilogy at the same time. The recent events of WWII also influenced the book’s setting, which begins in an old country mansion where the Pevensie children shelter to escape the bombing of London. It is in this sprawling house where Lucy, the youngest child, hides in a wardrobe and emerges into the fantasy land of Narnia with its mythological creatures and talking animals. But all is not well. Narnia’s Hitler analog, The White Witch, has made it eternal winter (“and never Christmas”) and tyrannizes the local populace with her wolf secret police force and a wand that turns victims into stone. A plot summary is here for those not familiar with the books (though you should be.)
I first encountered the book in 6th grade in parochial school, where an exceptionally hip and creative nun read it to us, aloud. I was completely mesmerized. At that time, I was familiar with myths and fairy tales and was starting to read some SF, and the concept of combining contemporary characters who were kids, like me, with magic and myth (what we might call urban fantasy these days) went off in me like a skyrocket. I attempted my very first first fanfic, Aslan’s Birthday Party, and a Narnia adventure of my own, The White Witch and the Heat Queen. Alas, neither were finished.
Part of the appeal of the first Narnia book lies with its title. How nicely it rolls off the tongue, how intriguing the images it generates. The mind starts wondering immediately how the three relate. The two W words at the end add a nice touch of alliteration, too. A more descriptive title, like The Eternal Winter of Narnia, would neither have had the impact or the British sense of whimsy.
In some other universe, there were books produced that were like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, without being exactly like them. Here are some examples.
| The Lion, the Knight, and the Knapsack
The Swan, the Queen, and the Quince Tree The Serpent, the Rogue, and the Rose The Falcon, the Witch, and the Windlass The Lion, the Dwarf, and the Dagger The Manticore, the Maid, and the Maypole The Eagle, the Sphinx, and the Sphere The Crow, the Warrior, and the Warden The Otter, the Sylph, and the Strawberry The Weasel, the Witch, and the Wood The Vulture, the Farmer, and the Fen |
Of all the depictions of The White Witch, this is the closest that comes to my own vision of the character. Regal, aloof, alien, and seductive.
There’s a lot of upsetting stuff going on in the world right now. COVID-19. Racism. Unemployment.
So, to preserve my own sanity, this summer I’m going to go back to where it all began for me, as a writer and a fantasy fan — Narnia.
There will be posts on the books, my opinions of them, naming conventions, and art, and what they meant to me and still do. Let the Narnia trumpets sound! Begin the feast at fair Cair Paravel! Let the revels begin!
