Narnia (country)
| Land of Narnia | |
|---|---|
| Real-world | |
| Series | The Chronicles of Narnia |
| Creator | C. S. Lewis |
| Genre | Juvenile fantasy |
| Fictional | |
| Capital | Cair Paravel |
| Language(s) | English |
| Ethnic groups | Telmarines, Dwarfs, Giants, Fauns, Centaurs, Nymphs, Marsh-wiggles, etc. |
| Government | Monarchy |
| King | Frank I, Gale, Peter Pevensie, Caspian X, Rilian, Erlian, Tirian etc. |
In C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series of novels, Narnia is the country around which the books revolve. It is one of several lands in the Narnian world.
Geography
Narnia is a land of rolling hills rising to low mountains in the south. It is predominantly forested except for marshlands in the north. The country 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 economic heart of the country centres on the Great River of Narnia, which crosses the country from the northwest on an east-southeasterly course to the Eastern Ocean. The seat of government is Cair Paravel, at the mouth of the Great River. Other communities along the river include (from east to west) Beruna, Beaversdam, and Chippingford.
History
Inhabitants
The Kings and Queens of Narnia
Regnal history
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 | A working class couple from our world. King Frank had previously been a London cab driver. |
| Before 180 | Five descendants of Frank and Helen | 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's timeline, which says 1502. |
| 900–1000 | Jadis, Empress of the Lone Islands (a.k.a. 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 descendants of Caspian I | All named Caspian. |
| 2290–2303 | Miraz the Usurper and Prunaprismia | Son of Caspian VIII; murdered his brother Caspian IX and displaced his nephew (who succeeded him as Caspian X). |
| 2303–2356 | Caspian X the Seafarer (or, the Navigator) and Ramandu's daughter. | Son of Caspian IX. |
| 2356–? | Rilian the Disenchanted | Son of Caspian X. |
| ? | Five descendants of Rilian | |
| ? | Erlian | Father of Tirian. |
| ?–2555 | Tirian | Last King of Narnia before its destruction. |
Titles
When monarchs are installed on the throne of Narnia, they receive the following titles:
- King/Queen of Narnia
- Emperor/Empress of the Lone Islands (first acquired by Gale of Narnia) & Dragon Island
- Lord/Lady of Cair Paravel
- Lord/Lady of Telmar (from Caspian I to Tirian)
They may also receive the following titles:
- Knighthood of the Order of the Lion
- Knighthood of the Order of the Table
- Duke/Duchess of the Lantern Waste
- Duke/Duchess of Galma and the Seven Isles
- Baron/Baroness of Ettinsmoor (acquired by Caspian X)
- Count/Countess of the Western Marches
Narnia and Narni (Italy)
C. S. Lewis took the name from the Italian town of Narni, whose Latin name was in fact Narnia. Concerning Narnia and Narni Roger Lancelyn Green writes about C.S. Lewis and Walter Hooper:
When Walter Hooper asked [C.S. Lewis] where he found the word 'Narnia', Lewis shoved him Murray's Small Classical Atlas, ed.G.B. Grundy (1904), which he acquired when he was reading the classics with Mr Kirkpatrick at Great Bookham [1914-1917]. On plate 8 of the Atlas is a map of ancient Italy. Lewis had underscored the name of a little town called Narnia, simply because he liked the sound of it. Narnia — or 'Narni' in Italian — is in Umbria, halfway beween Rome and Assisi.
Narnia, a small medieval town, is situated at the top of an olive-covered hill. It was already ancient when the Romans defeated it in 299 BC. Its thirteenth-century fortress dominates a deep, narrow gorge of the Nera river which runs below. One of its most important archeological features is a Romanesque cathedral, which contains the relics of a number of Umbrian saints.
