Questions tagged [c-s-lewis]
Questions about the British author C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963), or any of his works, most famously his fantasy series 'The Chronicles of Narnia'.
79 questions
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How old is too old for Narnia?
In Prince Caspian, Peter and Susan are told that they won't return to Narnia again because they're "getting too old", although Edmund and Lucy aren't. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, ...
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Why was Telmar unpeopled and Narnia in disorder?
Near the end of Prince Caspian, Aslan tells the story of Caspian's ancestors and how the Telmarines came to Narnia. The original ancestors were pirates in our world, who settled on a South Sea island ...
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Is there any significance in the way Hollies are described in Narnia?
Among the various types of trees listed in Prince Caspian when Aslan is waking the dryads and the trees are coming to life, I noticed in particular the description of the hollies:
What Lucy and Susan ...
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Is there any deeper significance to Lucy's thought of what if "men started going wild inside" in our world?
In Prince Caspian, the group of Pevensies and their D.L.F. are attacked by a bear, which Trumpkin quickly shoots dead. Susan was slow to shoot, wondering if it might have been a Talking Bear. While ...
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Why the title The Silver Chair?
The titles of the Narnia books mostly make sense.
The Magician's Nephew: title refers to the main protagonist, through his relation to a more minor character but that's how he got involved in all ...
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Significance of Caspian's name?
Caspian is perhaps the most important Narnian character in the series (meaning someone who was born and lived their whole life in Narnia, so neither Aslan nor the eight Seven Friends of Narnia count). ...
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Is there an in-universe explanation for the contradictory language and euphemisms used in *The Screwtape Letters*?
For example, terms like "the patient," "our Father below," and Screwtape's affectionate language towards Wormwood. It actually strikes me as oddly similar to the "doublethink&...
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Why is Reepicheep so heroic?
Reepicheep the Talking Mouse is probably the most courageous and valiant character in the entire Narnia series. Many times, in the books where he appears (Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn ...
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Is the story of Jill and Eustace meant to evoke that of Cain and Abel?
Towards the beginning of The Silver Chair, Eustace and Jill get into a little fight which culminates in Eustace falling off the cliff to his apparent death.
“What are you doing, Pole? Come back — ...
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What was the purpose of including (or rather excluding) Pittencream in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader?
In Chapter XIV of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Caspian and his friends have some difficulty in persuading all of the sailors on the Dawn Treader to continue beyond Ramandu's island to the end of ...
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When did the Pevensies forget their origins?
At the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe we find out that the Pevensies do not remember their English past, nor even how they came to Narnia in the first place:
So they alighted and tied ...
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Does the blackness in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have any religious significance?
In Chapter 12, "The Dark Island", of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the ship reaches a patch of mysterious blackness in the ocean. Nobody wants to enter it, but after a speech from the ever-...
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Did the travelers know how long the voyage into the darkness took or not?
In Chapter twelve of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the adventurers encounter a Darkness, and after some deliberation decide to row through it. The following description of the timeline is given:
...
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Significance of "further up and further in"?
In C.S. Lewis's Narnia grand finale, The Last Battle, one chapter is entitled "Further Up and Further In", and this phrase is repeated a great many times by various characters:
"Then [...
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In which C.S. Lewis essay or book chapter did he talk about the habit of using the word "we" when preaching?
I remember C.S. Lewis writing somewhere about how some preachers like to use the word "we" when pointing out a problematic behavior. For example, consider the statement "We secretly ...
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Is there a consensus on Lindskoog's accusations toward Walter Hooper?
In the late 1980s, Kathryn Lindskoog created quite a stir in the "C.S. Lewis community" by attacking the authenticity of many of the works posthumously released by the Lewis estate. In a ...
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Who is Mrs LeFay in "The Magician's Nephew"?
In The Magician’s Nephew, Andrew refers to his godmother, Mrs LeFay, who gave him the powder he used to make the rings. Other than this and a reference to her possessing "fairy blood", ...
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A Narnian mole based on a British admiral?
Clodsley Shovel: a talking mole who plays a minor role in Prince Caspian.
Cloudesley Shovell: a British admiral who died off the Isles of Scilly.
What's going on here? Did Lewis ever acknowledge the ...
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C. S. Lewis after life with Joy
After the death of Joy, did Lewis ever seriously consider suicide? He mentioned "An overdose of sleeping pills" in A Grief Observed but I believe that was written from a strictly academic ...
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Did the Friends of Narnia die at Harrow and Wealdstone?
In The Last Battle, all of the Friends of Narnia (except Susan - the people from our world who had been to Narnia over the course of the seven books) die in a horrific train accident and end up going ...
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Meaning of this quote from C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain"?
For about a hundred years we have so concentrated on one of the virtues—‘kindness’ or mercy—that most of us do not feel anything except kindness to be really good or anything but cruelty to be really ...
druga bairavi
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What is the source for C.S. Lewis' quote "A good book should be entertaining"?
What is the source for C.S. Lewis' quote "A good book should be entertaining"?
I am looking for a written source from the author and/or attempting to discover if he wasn't just recorded by ...
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Aslan as an alternative version of Jesus as the form in which he may have appeared in an alternative reality?
The Wikipedia article about The Chronicles of Narnia contains the following statement about Aslan:
C. S. Lewis described Aslan as an alternative version of Jesus as the form in which he may have ...
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Does this edit in The Magician's Nephew (from "had her bathe" to "had her bath") fundamentally change the meaning of the sentence?
Later editions of C.S. Lewis 'The Magician's Nephew' have been edited, presumably to reflect modern usage.
Polly went down and had her bathe; at least she said that was what
she'd been doing, but we ...
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Why would "Bareface" be mistaken for a Western?
From the Wikipedia page on C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces:
C. S. Lewis originally titled his working manuscripts "Bareface". The editor (Gibb) rejected the title "Bareface" on ...
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How does Bacchus fit into the Christian allegory of Narnia?
The setting and story of The Chronicles of Narnia are strongly linked to Christianity: Aslan, who sacrifices himself for a traitor in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before returning to life, ...
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Is there any significance in the cry "Euan, euan, eu-oi-oi-oi" in Prince Caspian?
In Prince Caspian, there's a passage where Aslan apparently uses his power to summon up the spirit of Old Narnia, leading to the eventual defeat of the Telmarines with very little bloodshed. A wild ...
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For and Against different Reading Orders for Narnia
There are two common reading orders for the Chronicles of Narnia:
The original publication order:
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
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Why is the order of The Chronicles of Narnia changed from original publication?
When I originally read The Chronicles of Narnia I read an older boxset which has the books numbered in original publication order:
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of ...
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Why is C.S. Lewis so concerned with being locked into a wardrobe?
In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe author C.S. Lewis makes five references to the characters making sure to not latch the wardrobe from the inside:
[Lucy] immediately stepped into the wardrobe [...
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What is the significance of Jane's maiden name Tudor in That Hideous Strength?
In C. S. Lewis's novel That Hideous Strength, the main character Jane Studdock had the maiden name Jane Tudor. This is only mentioned once in the book itself - I had forgotten it and only noticed it ...
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How does That Hideous Strength show the influence of Charles Williams?
Wikipedia says, without citation, that C. S. Lewis's novel That Hideous Strength was "heavily influenced by the writing of Lewis's friend and fellow Inkling Charles Williams". I did notice that this ...
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Why did the N.I.C.E. want Mark Studdock at Belbury?
Near the middle of That Hideous Strength, Wither says to the Fairy:
If a mere arrest could have secured the — er — good will and
collaboration of Mrs. Studdock, we should hardly have embarrassed
...
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Was Edmund in the Narnia series loosely inspired by Edmund in King Lear?
In King Lear, Edmund, resentful of his inferior status to his older brother, betrays his family and frames his brother as a traitor. This strikes me as being quite a bit like what Edmund does in The ...
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Was the N.I.C.E. director modelled on H. G. Wells?
Wikipedia claims that the character of Horace Jules in C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength - ostensibly the Director and boss of the N.I.C.E. organisation, in reality a figurehead manipulated by those ...
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Why did the N.I.C.E. bother with Dr. Filostrato?
Dr. Filostrato believed (incorrectly, as it turns out) that he had preserved the head of François Alcasan. Towards the end of the book, it's revealed that the Macrobes didn't really need Filostrato's ...
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Why did the Macrobes demand another head at the end of That Hideous Strength?
Towards the end of the book, following Merlin bringing about the destruction of much of the N.I.C.E., Dr. Filostrato, John Withers, and Reverend Straik go to see the Head. The Macrobes promptly demand ...
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Why was Andrew MacPhee at St. Anne's?
In That Hideous Strength, Andrew MacPhee was an old friend of Dr. Ransom's that appeared as the "resident skeptic" at St. Anne's. Beyond that, he's never shown actually doing anything. A lot of the ...
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Was Rowling inspired by the railway station scene in Prince Caspian?
I was rereading Prince Caspian and noticed that in the start of the story they're in
an empty, sleepy country station, and there was hardly anyone on the platform but themselves
and then they're ...
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Is there any significance in King Lune's name?
The king of Archenland during the time of The Horse and His Boy, father of the Archenland princes who play a more major role in the story, is called Lune. Is there any significance to this name? ...
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Did any of the Pevensie kings and queens find romance while in Narnia?
Something that always struck me about The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is how the four Pevensie children not only spend years in Narnia but grow up and become adults there, before having to ...
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Son of Adam but not Eve? Daughter of Eve but not Adam?
Throughout The Chronicles of Narnia the humans are referred to as "Son of Adam" for a male, and "Daughter of Eve" for a female. I'm assuming that the characters in Narnia don't think that females only ...
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What's the name of that short story written by C.S. Lewis about female vanity?
There's a short story written by the Christian author C.S. Lewis concerning the vanity and solipsism of women, but, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name, and a Google search proved fruitless....
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Where does this quotation by C. S. Lewis come from?
On the internet I found this beautiful quotation by C .S. Lewis:
"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind".
Now, I'd like to find the exact book where he wrote it.
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Religious symbolism of the Telmarines?
The religious symbolism in C.S. Lewis's Narnia books is well known and, in many cases, very clear: Aslan is Jesus, the Calormenes are a very stereotypical portrayal of Muslims, the Dwarfs may ...
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Does the description of Eustace's parents fit some known stereotype?
In the opening paragraph of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis introduces us to the (at this point in the story) singularly unlikeable character of Eustace Clarence Scrubb. About his parents, ...
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Does The Chronicles of Narnia promote deism?
Very related: Why does the Emperor-Over-the-Sea play such a small role in the Chronicles of Narnia?
Also related: Why is the Emperor Beyond the Sea named that?
The Chronicles of Narnia refer to Aslan'...
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Is there any direct evidence tying the D&D Underdark to Narnia?
I was re-reading The Silver Chair recently, the 6th book in the Narnia series. Towards the end of the novel,
he says,
"he had always reached these outlets by going in a ship
across the Sunless ...
user72
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What is the symbolism of Eustace's arm ring?
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Eustace put a cursed arm ring on, which resulted in him becoming a dragon.
Does the arm-ring itself have any special symbolism (e.g. he was entrapped by his own ...
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Do the Round Table crew in "That Hideous Strength" actually contribute anything to events?
I recently finished reading That Hideous Strength, and despite my great enjoyment of most of the story, I felt let down by the ending. It was so ... unsatisfying ... to resolve all the conflict by
In ...
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