| Here is a brief synopsis of the seven books.
I guess I should say up front that this entire note string will contain
numerous *SPOILERS*, so if you are the type of person who likes to read
everything for yourself before someone tries to explain it to you, I
advise you to stop reading this note immediately and run out and buy your
own copy of "The Chronicles of Narnia". Here's a form feed to prevent you
from reading something that you shouldn't.
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Four children, named Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, walk into a magical
wardrobe and are transported to the land of Narnia. Narnia is a country
that has been put into perpetual winter by the evil White Witch. Aslan,
the magical lion, in fulfilment of an ancient prophesy, comes to Narnia to
save Narnia from the witch. However, Edmund betrays his brother and
sisters to the witch, and although Aslan comes to save the day, Edmund's
life is forfeit according to the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time. Aslan
allows himself to be killed in Edmund's place, but is resurrected the next
morning thanks to the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time. Aslan
kills the witch, and the four children rule as kings and queens in Narnia
for many years, until as adults they enter Lantern Waste and are magically
transported back to England. They find themselves as children again, at
the very hour of the day that they had first entered the wardrobe.
2. Prince Caspian
This story takes place a thousand years after the events of The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe according to Narnian time but only one year later
according to English time. Prince Caspian is the nephew of the evil King
Miraz, who usurped the throne after killing Caspian's father. When
Miraz's wife gives birth to a son, Caspian is forced to flee for his life.
In the wilderness he encounters the Talking Beasts of Narnia, who have
remained hidden during the years of human Telmarine domination over the
country. He and his army fight a civil war against Miraz, and at their
most desperate hour of need blow the magical Horn of Queen Susan. This
summons the four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, back from
England into Narnia. With Aslan's help they defeat the Telmarines, and
Caspian is crowned as King of Narnia with a promise that he and the kings
who come after him will for all time treat the Talking Beasts of Narnia
with fairness and kindness. The four children are transported back to
England, after Aslan tells them that the two oldest, Peter and Susan, can
never return to Narnia because they are too old and must learn to know
Aslan by the name he is known by in England. There is still hope that Edmund
and Lucy may return to Narnia.
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
This story takes place three years after the events of Prince Caspian
according to Narnian time, one year later according to English time.
Having secured Narnia against all dangers from the Telmarines and
neighboring countries, King Caspian has set sail from Narnia aboard his
ship The Dawn Treader in search of the Seven Good Lords of Narnia, who had
supported Caspian's father against Miraz. They are joined at sea by
Edmund and Lucy and their obnoxious cousin Eustace, who have been
magically transported to the world of Naria. The ship and its crew have
many magical encounters on its way east. Eustace, because of his greed,
is transformed into a dragon. After meeting Aslan, who frees him from the
enchantment, Eustace is reformed and becomes -- well, a little less
obnoxious; it's a gradual process. Eventually the children and the Mouse
Repicheep reach the Uttermost East, the End of the World, Aslan's country.
The children are transported back to England, after Aslan tells them that
Edmund and Lucy can no longer return to Narnia.
4. The Silver Chair
At the start of this story King Caspian is an old man, at the point of
death. Eustace and Pole, a girl who attends the same horrible school as
Eustace (Scrubb), escape a mob of bullies and are magically transported to
Aslan's country at the top of a stupendously high cliff. After Eustace
falls off the cliff due to Pole's bravado, Aslan meets Pole and gives her
instructions on what she must do in Narnia. She must memorize these
instructions perfectly and repeat them to herself every day. Aslan then
blows the two children into Narnia. They must find and rescue Prince
Rilian, Caspian's only son, who was kidnapped by an evil witch several
years earlier. The children journey north, accompanied by Puddleglum the
Marsh Wiggle. Eventually the children rescue Rilian from the Emerald
Witch's underground kingdom, and are transported back to Aslan's country.
There they find the recently deceased Caspian alive and young again.
Caspian is permitted to enter England briefly with the children, where
they quickly send the school bullies running in terror.
5. The Horse and His Boy
This story takes place in the years when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were
ruling as kings and queens in Narnia. The story is initially set in
Calormen, a huge empire to the south of Narnia. Shasta is a young boy who
runs away from home accompanied by a talking horse, Bree. Bree is from
Narnia and wants to return there, and he is willing to let Shasta
accompany him on the way. They are joined by a runaway nobleman's
daughter, who also has a talking horse. In Tashban, the capital of
Calormen, they overhear plans for an invasion of Narnia. With many
adventures on the way, and encounters with Aslan, they arrive in
Archenland, which lies between Narnia and Calormen, in time to warn the
Narnians and Archenlanders and defeat the Calormenes. Shasta turns out to
be the long lost heir of the house of Archenland and lives there happily
ever after.
6. The Magician's Nephew
This story takes place many years, according to English time, before the
events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Professor Kirke, who is
an old man in TLTWATW and the owner of the Wardrobe in question, is a
young boy in The Magician's Nephew, and is indeed the nephew of a (not
very knowledgeable and not very nice) magician. This magician devises a
set of rings that transport Kirke and his friend, the girl who lives next
door, to other worlds: first to a dead world where, through Kirke's
foolishness, they release an evil witch from the frozen enchantment under
which she had placed that world, and then to Narnia at the Dawn of Time.
They see Aslan create Narnia and the Talking Beasts. A horse cab driver
and his wife, who were also transported from England, are crowned as the
first King and Queen of Narnia, but the witch escapes into the north
and establishes her own dynasty of evil.
7. The Last Battle
This story takes place many generations after the events of The Silver
Chair in Narnian time, but only a few years later in English time. Narnia
is plunged into confusion because of a false doctrine promulgated by an
Ape and a Cat: that Aslan and Tash, the god of Calormen, are one and the
same. The Ape, disguised as a lion, proclaims himself to be Tashlan, and
orders the Talking Beasts of Narnia to bow down to him and to his friends,
the men of Calormen. The children Eustace and Pole are transported back
to Narnia to help its last King fight this tyranny. This time, though,
the forces of good are defeated and Narnia is conquered by Calormen. The
real Aslan returns to Narnia and brings about the End of the World. The
children, joined by Peter, Edmund and Lucy, enter a New Narnia created by
Aslan, and are happy eternally afterward.
-- Bob
|
| In discussing each of the books, I'll first repeat the synopsis of the
book that I gave in reply .1 and then go into a more detailed discussion.
As in .1, I'm giving a *SPOILER* warning followed by a form feed.
SYNPOSIS:
Four children, named Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, walk into a magical
wardrobe and are transported to the land of Narnia. Narnia is a country
that has been put into perpetual winter by the evil White Witch. Aslan,
the magical lion, in fulfilment of an ancient prophesy, comes to Narnia to
save Narnia from the witch. However, Edmund betrays his brother and
sisters to the witch, and although Aslan comes to save the day, Edmund's
life is forfeit according to the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time. Aslan
allows himself to be killed in Edmund's place, but is resurrected the next
morning thanks to the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time. Aslan
kills the witch, and the four children rule as kings and queens in Narnia
for many years, until as adults they enter Lantern Waste and are magically
transported back to England. They find themselves as children again, at
the very hour of the day that they had first entered the wardrobe.
*********
At the beginning of the book, Lucy enters the world of Narnia through a
magical wardrobe. When she returns to England, though, she can't convince
her brothers and sister that she had actually travelled to another world.
Apparently the magic of the wardrobe isn't 100% reliable, and when Lucy
tries to take the others through the wardrobe the magic doesn't work and
it appears to be just an ordinary wardrobe.
Peter and Susan are concerned about Lucy, since she really seems to
believe that she has been to another world, and they ask kindly old
Professor Kirke for advice.
"How do you know?" he asked, "that your sister's story is not
true?"
"Oh, but --" began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see
from the old man's face that he was completely serious. Then
Susan pulled herself together and said, "But Edmund said they had
only been pretending."
"That is a point," said the Professor, "which certainly
deserves consideration; very careful consideration. For instance
-- if you will excuse me for asking the question -- does your
experience lead you to regard your brother or your sister as the
more reliable? I mean, which is the more truthful?"
"That's just the funny thing about it, Sir," said Peter. "Up
till now, I'd have said Lucy every time."
"And what do you think, my dear?" said the Professor, turning
to Susan.
"Well," said Susan, "in general, I'd say the same as Peter,
but this couldn't be true -- all this about the wood and the Faun."
"That is more than I know," said the Professor, "and a charge
of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a
very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed."
"We were afraid that it mightn't even be lying," said Susan.
"We thought there might be something wrong with Lucy."
"Madness, you mean?" said the Professor quite coolly. "Oh,
you can make your minds easy about that. One has only to look at
her and talk to her to see that she is not mad."
"But then," said Susan and stopped. She had never dreamed
that a grown-up would talk like the Professor and didn't know what
to think.
"Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "Why don't they
teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities.
Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is
telling the truth. You know that she doesn't tell lies and it is
obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any
further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the
truth."
This is essentially the "Lord, Liar or Lunatic" argument which C.S. Lewis
made in at least one of his books on Christianity and which is discussed
in a previous note in this conference. The argument goes that we don't
have the option of merely admiring Jesus as a great moral teacher. Since
Jesus proclaimed himself to be God, either he really was God, or he wasn't
God and knew he wasn't God, in which case he was lying, or he wasn't God
but didn't know he was God, in which case he was crazy. Neither a liar nor
a lunatic would deserve our respect a teacher of morality, so if we have
any respect for Jesus at all we have to assume that he is God.
I won't repeat the counter-arguments to this which I made in the "Lord,
Liar or Lunatic" topic, but I will point out a few things with respect to
Lucy's story in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. First I'm not sure
that it's "obvious" that Lucy wasn't imagining the wardrobe incident. The
human mind is a mysterious subject that we still don't completely
understand. If Lucy did create the whole thing out of her own imagination
it wouldn't necessarily mean that she would be visibly stark, raving mad.
Second, the fact that Lucy was personally well known to Peter and Susan
made it possible for them to discount the possibility that she was lying.
And the fact they heard the wardrobe story from Lucy first hand eliminates
the possibility that Lucy had been misquoted and hadn't claimed to have
gone to Narnia. When we evaluate the claims of Jesus, on the other hand,
we have to consider not just whether Jesus himself was lying but whether
those around him who recorded his words many years later were lying, or
indulging in literary license or pious fraud, or if they remembered what
he had said incorrectly.
Finally, it turns out in a later book, The Magician's Nephew, that the
Professor himself had visited other worlds, including the world of Narnia,
when he was a boy. This would explain his willingness to believe Lucy's
story. I'm not sure whether C.S. Lewis had already decided on the Professor's
past history at the time that he wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was written in 1950, while The
Magician's Nephew was written in 1955.
-- Bob
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