Narnia is a fantasy world created by C. S. Lewis as the primary location for his series of seven fantasy novels for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. The world is so called after the country of Narnia, in which much of the action of the Chronicles takes place.
In Narnia, some animals can talk, mythical beasts abound, and magic is common. The series tracks the story of Narnia when humans, usually children, enter the Narnian world from 'our world', or Earth.
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The country of Narnia is where most of the action of the series is set. According to the mythology of the series, Narnia was created by the great lion, Aslan, and is filled with talking animals and mythical creatures. C. S. Lewis may have taken the name from the Italian town of Narni, whose Latin name was in fact Narnia. Narnia features rolling hills rising into low mountains to the south, and is predominantly forested except for marshlands in the north. The region is bordered on the east by the Eastern Ocean, on the west by a great mountain range, on the north by the River Shribble, and on the south by Archenland.
The Great River of Narnia enters the country from the northwest and flows to the Eastern Ocean. At its mouth lies Cair Paravel, the seat of High King Peter and his siblings. Other communities along the river include, from east to west, Beruna, Beaversdam, and Chippingford.
Archenland is a mountainous country south of Narnia. It is bordered on the north by Narnia and on the south by the Winding Arrow river. The seat of government is at Anvard, in the heart of the country. No other towns or villages are mentioned in the Chronicles. It is described as being somewhat open parkland, with many different varieties of trees scattered far enough apart so as to not constitute a forest - but it is mostly a mountainous country. Despite a large desert lying immediately to the south of the Winding Arrow River, Archenland mysteriously does not have an arid climate. Archenland is allied with Narnia, as is shown in The Horse and His Boy. Unlike Narnia, Archenland is inhabited by humans and is governed by Men. The second son of King Frank of Narnia became the first King of Archenland. For reasons not explained in the Chronicles, the line of King Frank survived here (at least until the time of High King Peter) but failed in Narnia itself.
Calormen is a semi-arid empire in the south of the world of Narnia. Notable geographic features include the Flaming Mountain of Lagour (a volcano) and the Great Desert. The Great Desert is in the northern part of the country, and the difficulty of crossing it discouraged the Calormenes from invading Archenland and Narnia.
The capital of Calormen is Tashbaan, located on an island near the mouth of the River of Calormen,[1] which flows from west to east in the north of Calormen, just south of the Great Desert. Gardens and pleasure houses line the river valley for several miles above the city. North of the river, on the margins of the desert, lie the royal tombs.
The city of Azim Balda, to the south of Tashbaan, is a hub where many roads meet; it hosts the government's postal system.[2]
Numerous islands and archipelagoes dot the Eastern Ocean. Most notable among these are Galma, the Seven Isles, and The Lone Islands; all subjects of the Narnian crown, and Terebinthia, an independent island. At the far end of the Eastern Ocean the geography becomes completely fantastic (as a result of the Narnian world being flat) where the sky meets the surface of the earth; in addition, it is implied that a passage to Aslan's Country is located there. The Easternmost Ocean is described as having "sweet" water, capable of sating both hunger and thirst, and is completely covered by large lilies. The sea becomes progressively more shallow the further East one travels, eventually terminating in a gigantic standing wave. Beyond the wave can be seen the "impossibly tall" mountains of Aslan's Country.
To the north of Narnia lie Ettinsmoor and the Wild Lands of the North, both inhabited by giants. The most prominent settlement is the House of Harfang, a community of giants that is apparently the remnant of a much larger city which was abandoned generations ago and fell into ruin. The land west of Narnia is an uninhabited region of rugged mountains known as the Western Wild. The land of Telmar lies somewhere beyond this region, but its exact location was never documented, and beyond it are the western islands. Underland is located in great caverns deep beneath the ground of Narnia. The land of Bism lies far below Underland.
The landscape of Lewis' native Northern Ireland played a large part in the creation of the Narnian landscape. In his essay On Stories, Lewis wrote "I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge". In a letter to his brother, Lewis would later confide "that part of Rostrevor which overlooks Carlingford Lough is my idea of Narnia". Although in adult life Lewis lived in England, he returned to Northern Ireland often and retained fond memories of the Irish scenery, saying "I yearn to see County Down in the snow; one almost expects to see a march of dwarfs dashing past. How I long to break into a world where such things were true."
A total of eleven named humans from Earth have entered Narnia, four boys, two men, four girls, and a woman.
The four Pevensie children are the best known: Peter Pevensie – The High King Peter the Magnificent; Susan Pevensie – Queen Susan the Gentle; Edmund Pevensie – King Edmund the Just; and Lucy Pevensie – Queen Lucy the Valiant. All of them appear in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and in Prince Caspian. Edmund and Lucy appear in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and all of them appear (but Peter, who is out fighting giants on the northern frontier) as adults in The Horse and his Boy.
Others from our world include King Frank (who had been a cabman in London) and his wife Queen Helen, who were the first king and queen of Narnia and whose descendants lived in Narnia for many generations. They, together with Uncle Andrew Ketterley, Digory Kirke, and Polly Plummer appear in The Magician's Nephew. Eustace Scrubb, a cousin of the Pevensies, appears in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair, and Jill Pole, a schoolmate of Scrubb's, also appears in The Silver Chair. All of these except for Susan Pevensie and Uncle Andrew appear in The Last Battle.
There were also about a dozen unnamed humans from our world (six pirates and their women) who repopulated the unpeopled land of Telmar and founded the race of the Telmarines. As Aslan says in Prince Caspian, they accidentally found in a cave "one of the chinks or chasms between that world and this" (i.e. between our world and Narnia), and he adds, "There were many chinks or chasms between worlds in old times, but they have grown rarer. This was one of the last: I do not say the last." So quite possibly others came to Narnia from our world as well, but Lewis did not record their histories for us.
Although he is not a human, Strawberry, the cabman's horse, also entered Narnia from our world and there was chosen to be a talking beast and transformed into the winged horse Fledge.
Dwarfs are native to Narnia. They are called Sons of Earth by Aslan, as opposed to humans, who are called Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve. Dwarfs exist in at least two varieties: Black Dwarfs and Red Dwarfs, distinguished by the colour of their hair. While many Red Dwarfs are kind and loyal to Aslan, Black Dwarfs appear to be more selfish and hostile. Dwarfs appearing in the books are male and live together in communities, although they are known to mingle with and reproduce with humans. For example, Prince Caspian's Tutor Cornelius is a half-dwarf, and Caspian's former nurse is described as "a little old woman who looked as if she had dwarf blood in her".
Dwarfs, like fauns, satyrs, the river god and his Naiad daughters and the tree people (deities of the woods) stepped forth when Aslan (in The Magician's Nephew) called for Narnia to "Awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters." The dwarfs were presumably born of the earth, as the Dryads were of the trees and the Naiads of the waters. Dwarfs appear as the King's train-bearers at the coronation of King Frank. (Naiads — river nymphs — held Queen Helen's robes; ibid. ch. 14.) In keeping with their character as sons of Earth, the dwarfs are skilled and prolific smiths, miners, and carpenters. In battle they are renowned as deadly archers. According to Prince Caspian, chapter 8, a Dwarf can walk all day and night.
Many of the animals found in our world can also be found in Narnia. In addition, there are talking versions of most of these animals. When Aslan breathed upon the first animal pairs, some not only gained thought and speech, but changed in size as well. Smaller animals (rodents, birds and small mammals) are larger than their non-talking relatives and larger animals are slightly smaller. Talking Beasts can be divided into four main categories: Avian, Hoofed, Mammal, and Reptile. There are no talking fish or insects, though there are aquatic Beasts.
Two witches are mentioned by name in the Narnian books, the White Witch (Jadis, empress of Charn, or the "White Lady") and the Lady of the Green Kirtle (or "the Green Lady"). Long after Lewis's death, character sketches appeared in later editions of the books that seem to indicate that these two witches are the same, but these notes are not due to Lewis.
Jadis is the last scion of the royal house of Charn, though in Narnian rumor she is said to be descended from Adam's first wife, Lilith, and to have both Jinn and Giant blood in her veins. According to the Beavers, she has no human blood at all, although she has the appearance of a very tall human woman. When Jadis first entered Narnia at its creation she fled to the north, where she spent nine hundred years gathering strength to invade and conquer Narnia. She was killed by Aslan in the First Battle of Beruna.
The Green Lady is able to transform herself into a snake, and does so twice in The Silver Chair: once when she kills Rilian's mother, and once when she tries to kill Rilian himself and his companions. Most of her other powers seem to be related to seduction and enslavement; she has bewitched and enslaved Rilian and an army of underground gnomes, and almost succeeds in bewitching Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum.
Lesser characters that might qualify as witches include the hags that appear in Jadis's army and the hag brought to Aslan's How in Prince Caspian.
Other inhabitants of the Narnian world based on known mythological or folkloric creatures include Boggles, Centaurs, Cruels, Dragons, Dryads, Earthmen or gnomes, Efreets, Ettins, Fauns, Giants, Ghouls,Griffins, Hags, Hamadryads, Horrors, Incubi, Maenads, Minotaurs, Monopods, Naiads, Ogres, Orknies (perhaps from Old English orcneas "walking dead"),[3] Winged Horses, People of the Toadstools, Phoenix, Satyrs, Sea People (mermen), Sea Serpents, Silvans, Spectres, Sprites, Star People, Unicorns, Werewolves, Wooses, and Wraiths. These are a free mix of creatures from Greco-Roman sources and others from native British tradition.[4]
One passage in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe declines to describe the evil creatures, saying the book must remain suitable for children.
Narnia is inhabited by Marsh-wiggles (creatures of Lewis' own invention), and Dufflepuds (adapted from Pliny's Monopods) live on a distant island. And there are singular personages who frequent or inhabit Narnia and its surrounding countries including: the River god, Bacchus, Father Christmas, Father Time, Pomona, Silenus, and Tash. It should also be noted that the Stars themselves are sentient beings within Narnia. Coriakin, the Magician, who rules over the Dufflepuds/Monopods, and Ramandu, whose daughter marries Caspian X, are both stars who, for various reasons, are earth-bound. Both of these individuals were encountered in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
The world of Narnia is a flat world in a geocentric universe. Its sky is a dome that mortal creatures cannot penetrate.
Narnia's stars are burning humanoid beings. Its constellations are the result of a mystical dance upon the sky, performed by the stars to announce the works and comings of Aslan, Narnia's creator. The stars also arrange themselves to allow seers to foretell certain future events.
The Narnian sun is a flaming disc that revolves around the world once daily. The sun has its own ecosystem, and is thought to be inhabited by great white birds, which appear in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Some of the vegetation on the sun is known to contain healing properties. For example, the extract of a certain fire-flower found in the mountains can heal any wound or sickness, and a fire-berry that grows in its valleys, when eaten by a fallen star named Ramandu, works to reverse the effects of age.
Suggested by several of the books, the ground of Narnia may be a living organism. In The Silver Chair, the main characters find a land named Bism many miles below Narnia, in which diamonds and other jewels provide juice when crushed or squeezed. They find the idea unbelievable until a gnome explains that the precious stones found in Bism are real, not dead like the ones found in the "shallow" mines made by dwarfs and others who live on the surface.
The Narnian world is part of a multiverse of many worlds including Earth and the world of Charn. These are connected by a meta-world or linking room known as the Wood between the Worlds. This space takes the form of a dense forest with many pools of water. With appropriate magic (or a device such as rings made from the soil), each pool leads to a different world. The Wood between the Worlds seems to affect the magic and strength of the White Witch, who becomes weak and ill when taken there.
The Narnia book The Magician's Nephew in its second paragraph says "In those days Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road." This shows that the Earth end of the Narnia stories, and the Sherlock Holmes stories, and The Story of the Treasure Seekers, happen in the same fictional universe.
Earth visitors to Narnia typically find that a visit to Narnia lasts longer in Narnia (sometimes much longer) than the corresponding period of their absence from Earth. How much longer appears to be arbitrary — for example, in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Lucy's first visit to Narnia lasts hours and the four children's main adventure there lasts fifteen years; but each time, they are gone from Earth for at most a few seconds. Temporal order, however, seems to be preserved: a person crossing between the worlds arrives after people who have crossed previously, and before people who cross later.
The Telmarines, who are descended from pirates from our world, may provide a counter-example. The pirates crossed from "an island in the South Seas" through a portal to Telmar in the Narnian world, and later migrated to Narnia itself. They must have arrived in the Narnian world after the first Earth visitors, who left Earth at the end of the 19th century and witnessed the creation of Narnia. So if temporal order is preserved, the pirates can have left Earth no earlier than the late 19th century. But some think Lewis intended the South Sea pirates to be men involved in the Mutiny on the Bounty, which occurred in the South Pacific in the 18th century.
The Creation of Narnia was witnessed by six creatures: Jadis, Empress of Charn; Digory Kirke; Polly Plummer; Andrew Ketterley; Frank the cabman; and Strawberry, his cabhorse. During a failed attempt by Digory to transfer Jadis from London in our world back to her own world of Charn, the group arrived in the Unmade darkness of Narnia just prior to Aslan calling it into being. (The cabby's wife Nellie, who was to become Queen Helen, was called into Narnia by Aslan soon afterwards.)
Aslan began the creation soon after they arrived, and with his song called forth the stars, sun, and eventually all landforms, plants, and animals as well. When he was finished, Aslan selected certain animals from these to be Talking Animals, giving to them, and all other magical creatures, Narnia as their new home, to own and rule it with wisdom and caring.
Aslan next appointed its first rulers, the cabby and his wife (the latter having been called to Narnia by Aslan), as King Frank I and Queen Helen, and commanded them to rule peacefully over the talking beasts. Aware that the evil Witch-Queen Jadis had entered his new land, Aslan sent Digory to retrieve a magic apple from a garden in the Western Wild beyond Narnia. When Digory returned, the apple was planted by the river where it immediately grew into a tree which, as Aslan explained, would protect Narnia from Jadis for many years.
Aslan allowed Digory to take an apple from the new tree back to our world for his ill mother. After she had eaten it, Digory planted the core in his garden where it grew into a great apple tree. Many years later the tree was blown down in a storm and Digory, now Professor Kirke, had its wood made into the wardrobe that figures in the title of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe — for this wardrobe became the entrance through which the Pevensies would discover Narnia.
Narnia remained at peace for hundreds of years after its creation, until Jadis the Witch-Queen returned as the White Witch. She conquered Narnia and reigned as a tyrant, using her wand to turn anyone who crossed her into stone. With her magic she covered the land in perpetual ice and snow, making it "always winter and never Christmas." Though she claimed to be Queen of Narnia and Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Jadis ruled from her own fortress in the north, where her halls were lined with Narnians she had turned to stone.
By this time humans had died out in Narnia, or had been driven out; though humans remained in Archenland and Calormen. Jadis feared a prophecy that "when Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sit at Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done." Her spies were thus always watching for human intruders. A hundred years into the endless winter, Lucy Pevensie entered Narnia and was befriended by Tumnus the faun, and Lucy and her siblings managed to reach Aslan before Jadis could kill them. Under Aslan's influence the Witch's spells were broken and the winter came to an end. Aslan restored the Narnians the Witch had turned into stone, and killed the Witch herself at the Battle of Beruna.
After the defeat of the Witch, Aslan fulfilled the ancient Narnian prophecy and made the four Pevensie children — Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy — Kings and Queens of Narnia. The ensuing prosperity inaugurated Narnia's Golden Age. Other countries had feared Jadis, but after her death the new Kings and Queens had to contend with them. The Pevensies drove back the northern giants and defeated an invading army from Calormen. But the two Kings and two Queens were always triumphant, and during the fifteen years of their reign Narnia was a safe and happy land.
A hundred years after the Pevensies returned to our world, Narnia was invaded by a people from the West called the Telmarines, descendants of pirates from our world. They left their land in the West to escape a great famine, and reached Narnia by crossing a pass in the mountains. After years of Telmarine rule, the native "Old Narnians" decreased in number and went into hiding. Humans became the dominant species. By the time of the birth of Caspian the Tenth, the old days of Narnia were widely regarded as legendary — and knowledge of the Old Narnians was actually suppressed by Telmarine kings. People began to fear the woods and the sea, and to forget that the old creatures had once lived there.
Peter Pevensie, the High King, and his siblings were recalled to Narnia 1300 Narnian years after their departure. Narnia was then ruled by the Telmarine King Miraz, who had murdered his brother and usurped the throne, and who planned to murder the true heir, his nephew Prince Caspian. Caspian had learned of Old Narnia and its creatures, and had become sympathetic to their plight. The four Pevensies helped Caspian defeat Miraz at the second Battle of Beruna, and Caspian recovered the throne.
Lucy and Edmund came to Narnia once again three years later with their cousin Eustace, and sailed with Caspian aboard the ship Dawn Treader. Caspian undertook this journey to find the The Seven Great Lords of Narnia who had been banished by Miraz to the far Eastern Seas beyond the Lone Islands. Caspian restored Narnian control over the Lone Islands (which had lapsed under Telmarine rule) and explored the unknown eastern islands to the very edge of the world. The explorers had many adventures, including fighting a sea serpent, encountering a wizard and his invisible subjects, and Eustace being turned briefly into a dragon.
Caspian married the daughter of a star named Ramandu. After the birth of their son Rilian, the Queen was killed by a witch in the form of a serpent, and Rilian, by then a young man, disappeared while searching for her. Eustace was drawn back to Narnia along with a school friend, Jill Pole, to find that the passage of time had left Caspian an old man. As Caspian embarked on one final voyage in search of Rilian, the children, with Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle, began their own search. This took them to the Wild Lands of the North, inhabited by giants, and to the underworld, where they found Rilian and the Lady of the Green Kirtle, who had bewitched him. They freed Rilian, who in turn killed the witch. They returned to Narnia to find Caspian dying as he returned from his voyage.
The world of Narnia was finally destroyed some two hundred years later during the reign of King Tirian, son of King Erlian and seventh in descent from Rilian.
A talking ape named Shift constructed an elaborate conspiracy in a selfish attempt to change Narnia to his liking. By dressing a donkey named Puzzle in a lion's skin and claiming him to be Aslan, Shift began surreptitiously to gain control of the country, forcing inhabitants to do his bidding in the lion's name. He then made contact with the rulers of Calormen, inviting them to conquer Narnia for their mutual advantage. Calormene soldiers under Captain Rishda Tarkaan soon arrived, and by the time King Tirian learned of the ape's treasonous plans, they were well on the way to completion.
With the help of Eustace and Jill (who arrived in time to rescue the king from capture), Tirian attempted to rally Narnia and drive out the invaders, but the divisive effect of the false Aslan and the capture of Cair Paravel by a Calormene fleet rendered his efforts unsuccessful. Tirian and his remaining supporters came to a last stand against Rishda's army at the Battle of Stable Hill, where Tirian was defeated. But in the course of this final stand, the defenders were forced back into the stable, and found inside, to their surprise, Aslan's country: all that the real Narnia ever had that was good, a Narnia-within-Narnia. Aslan was waiting for them, and told them that this final defeat signified the End.
Opening the Stable door, the children and other survivors witnessed the end of Narnia, the inrushing of the sea, the destruction of sun and moon, the coming home of the stars, and ultimately the end of all that existed in the world. Aslan called all of its inhabitants to him. Those who had been faithful were taken with him into his own land where they met people who had died previously in Narnia. Those who had been unfaithful were turned away at the entrance to the new land. Aslan's land was bigger and better than the old Narnia, those who had died were found alive in it, because it was the "real" one, whereas the old Narnia had been just a copy of Aslan's land. "That was the dream, this is reality." It is also indicated that Aslan's country connected "further up and further in" to the "real" England, where Lucy Pevensie was able to see her parents, who died in a train wreck that killed all the other Pevensie siblings (except Susan) as well as Digory, Polly, Eustace, and Jill.
There are seven documented events of contact between the world of men and the world of Narnia. Dates are taken from a timeline provided in the book Past Watchful Dragons by Walter Hooper (ISBN 0-02-051970-2).
It is possible that there were other visits. Given that the darker-skinned Calormenes differed in appearance from northern peoples (like Telmarines and Archenlanders), it is possible that they are descended from another group from the world of men; however, this is not stated in the books.
In The Last Battle, Jewel the Unicorn discusses Narnian history with Jill Pole, explaining that while she (and the readers) imagine it to have been excessively turbulent ("It's a pity there's always so much happening in Narnia") that is only because humans have been sent to aid Narnia at its worst times.
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While only some kings and queens are named in the book, the custom of Narnians to name sons after fathers, as well as a timeline that Lewis wrote outside of the series proper, helps create a fairly complete list of monarchs in the world of Narnia. This table gives the regnal years of the monarchs, as determined by the timeline and clues in the books themselves.
| Regnal Years | Monarch | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1–? | Frank I and Helen | |
| Before 180 | Five descendents of Frank and Helen | All named Frank. Their second son was the first King of Archenland. |
| Before 302 | Gale | First Emperor of the Lone Islands |
| Before 900 | Swanwhite | Date mentioned in The Last Battle. Contradicts Lewis' timeline, which says 1502. |
| 900–1000 | Jadis (the White Witch) | Ruled during the Hundred-Year Winter. |
| 1000–1015 | Peter the Magnificent (High King) Susan the Gentle Edmund the Just Lucy the Valiant |
Ruled concurrently as siblings until they left Narnia. |
| 1998–? | Caspian I the Conqueror | First King after Telmarine invasion. |
| ?–2290 | Eight descendents of Caspian | All named Caspian. |
| 2290–2303 | Miraz the Usurper and Prunaprismia | Son of Caspian VIII; stole the throne from Caspian IX. |
| 2303–2356 | Caspian X the Seafarer, the Navigator, and Ramandu's daughter | |
| 2356–? | Rilian the Disenchanted | First descendent in the line of Caspians not to be named Caspian. |
| ? | Four descendents of Rilian | |
| ? | Erlian | Father of Tirian; last year of rule was Tirian's first. |
| ?–2555 | Tirian | Last King of Narnia before its destruction. |
When a monarch is installed in the throne of Narnia, they receive the following titles:
At one point Caspian X is referred to as Caspian, Son of Caspian IX, King of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Lord of Cair Paravel, Lord of Telmar, Baron of Ettinsmoor, King of Archenland, Duke of Lantern Waste, Duke of the Seven Isles, Duke of Galma, Count of the Western March, Emperor of Dragon Island and King of Terebinthia.
They may also receive the following titles:
The rulers of other surrounding countries have different titles:
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