The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Written in 1950 and set in approximately 1940, it is the first book of The Chronicles of Narnia and is the best known book of the series. Although it was written and published first, it is second in the series' internal chronological order, after The Magician's Nephew. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1]
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[edit] Specifications
- Author = C. S. Lewis
- Illustrator = Pauline Baynes
- Series = The Chronicles of Narnia
- Genre = Fantasy, children's literature
- Publisher = Geoffrey Bles
- Country = United Kingdom
- Publication Date = 1950
- Nature of Rarity =
- Number in Existence =
- Estimated Value =
[edit] Plot summary
The Second World War has just begun and four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, are evacuated from London in 1940 to escape the Blitz. They are sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke, who lives in a country house in the English countryside with his housekeeper, Mrs MacReady, as well as three servants called Ivy, Margaret, and Betty.
One rainy day shortly after the children arrive, they decide to explore the big house. Lucy, the youngest of the children, is curious about the wardrobe in an empty room, but discovers that the door to it is a portal to a snow-covered forest with a gaslight post in the centre. There she meets a faun, who introduces himself as Tumnus and invites her home for tea. He tells her that the land is called Narnia and it is ruled by the ruthless White Witch, who ensures that it is always Winter but never Christmas.
Lucy returns through the wardrobe, having spent hours in Narnia, only to find that just a few seconds have passed in England. She is unable to convince the other children about her adventure, as the wardrobe is now just a wardrobe. Edmund, the next youngest of the four siblings, is particularly spiteful towards Lucy.
Several weeks later, having forgotten about Narnia, Lucy and Edmund hide in the wardrobe while playing hide-and-seek. He fails to catch up with Lucy, and is approached by an extremely pale lady on a sledge pulled by a white reindeer, who introduces herself as the Queen of Narnia, and provides him with some magical Turkish delight. She promises to make him a Prince and eventually King of Narnia, and persuades him to bring the other children to her house.
Lucy and Edmund meet in the woods and return together through the wardrobe. During their conversation, Lucy mentions the White Witch and Edmund realises that she is none other than the lady who has befriended him. When they arrive back in England, Edmund lies to Peter and Susan, claiming that he and Lucy were just playing and that the wardrobe is no more than an ordinary one, leaving Lucy very upset.
Shortly thereafter, all four children hide in the wardrobe to avoid Mrs McReady and find themselves in Narnia. Lucy guides them to Tumnus's cave, only to discover that Tumnus has been captured just as the White Witch had threatened and his cave ransacked by Maugrim, chief of the White Witch's secret police. The children are sheltered by a pair of talking beavers named Mr. Beaver and Mrs. Beaver, who recount an ancient prophecy that when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve fill the four thrones at Cair Paravel, the witch's power will fail. The beavers tell of the true king of Narnia — a great lion called Aslan — who has been absent for many years, but is now "On the move again."
Edmund, still in the thrall of the witch, runs off to the White Witch's castle and the others do not notice his departure until it is too late to recall him. Realising that they have been betrayed, the others set off to find Aslan. When Edmund reaches the White Witch, she treats him harshly and, taking him with her, sets off to catch the other children.
However, her power is failing and a thaw strands her sleigh. The other children reach Aslan, and a penitent Edmund is rescued just as the witch is about to kill him.
Calling for a truce, the witch demands that Edmund be returned to her, as an ancient law gives her possession of all traitors. Aslan, acknowledging the law, offers himself in Edmund's place and the witch accepts.
Aslan is sacrificed by the witch, but comes back to life due to the "Deeper magic", which holds that when someone who has committed no treachery willingly sacrifices himself for a traitor, death is reversed, and the martyr returns to life.
During a final battle, the witch is defeated and killed by Aslan.
The children become kings and queens, and spend many years in Narnia, growing to maturity, before returning to our world, where they find themselves children again, at the moment at which they originally left.
[edit] Background
The story takes inspiration from the Gospel themes of betrayal, death, resurrection, and redemption. In the subsequent books, there is a nod in the direction of the Trinity concept, with Aslan in the Christ-role and a passing reference to the "Emperor over the Sea" as God the Father. In addition, there are various allusions to Christ's execution, including the humiliation prior to his death and the splitting of the curtain in the Temple, represented by the cracking of the stone table. The cracking of the stone table, probably more accurately reflects the abolishment of the Old Law or commandments. The book is not intended to be a retelling of Biblical stories in another form; it simply borrows ideas from them so as to illustrate basic conceptions of Christianity (and some other ideas as well — Platonic philosophy among them). Additionally, the White Witch is said to be descended from Lilith, who some religious texts say was Adam's first wife.
Lewis similarly borrowed Biblical ideas (Old Testament in this case) in his Space Trilogy: for example, in That Hideous Strength the Tower of Babel and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are re-enacted in modern England, while in Perelandra the events of Paradise and the temptation of Adam and Eve are renacted on Venus and a Cambridge don in effect becomes a prophet in the Biblical sense - i.e. a person to whom God directly speaks.
J. R. R. Tolkien was a close friend of Lewis', a fellow member of the Inklings, and an early reader of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. However, despite his sharing Lewis' Christian faith, Tolkien was rather dismissive of the book. He considered its theology to be both blatant and naive, and the mixture of different mythic elements very inconsistent. He specifically objected to the curious presence of Father Christmas, and the mixture of both Norse and Greek mythologies. In addition, he came to dislike the avuncular manner of story-telling for children.
When he wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis did not intend for it to be part of a larger work. This may account for several inconsistencies in the series. For example, The Horse and His Boy establishes that humans live in both Archenland and Archenland during the reign of the witch, which calls into question the reliance on the four children to break the witch's spell, as other humans could have been brought in from those nearer locations. Nor is there any explanation as to what has become of the descendants of the original (human) rulers of Narnia, whose dynasty was ordained by Aslan in The Magician's Nephew.
[edit] Differences between the British and American editions
Prior to the publication of the first American edition of Lion, Lewis made the following changes.
- In chapter one of the American edition, the animals that Edmund and Susan express interest in are snakes and foxes rather than the foxes and rabbits of the British edition.
- In chapter six of the American edition, the name of the White Witch's chief of police is changed to "Fenris Ulf" from " Maugrim" in the British.
- In chapter thirteen, "the roots of the World Ash Tree" takes the place of "the fire-stones of the Secret Hill".
When HarperCollins took over publication of the series in 1994, they used the British edition for all subsequent editions worldwide.
[edit] Film, television, and theatrical adaptations
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been adapted for television, stage, radio and cinema, including the BBC serial The Chronicles of Narnia. A Walt Disney Pictures film, entitled The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released in December 2005 and has grossed over $740 million worldwide.
[edit] References
- Ford, Paul (2005). Companion to Narnia, Revised Edition. San Francisco, CA: Harper. ISBN 0-06-079127-6.
- "CS Lewis letter tells tales of Narnia", BBC News, 2006-06-19.
- Wheat, Leonard F. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - A Multiple Allegory: Attacking Religious Superstition in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Paradise Lost (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2007)
[edit] Further reading
- Ryken, Leland; and Mead, Marjorie Lamp (2005). A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewis's Classic Story. London: nterVarsity Press. ISBN 0-8308-3289-0.
