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The Chronicles of Narnia: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
{{Multiple Works Need Separate Pages}}
[[File:TheChroniclesOfNarnia.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''"Listen," said the Doctor. "All you have heard about Old Narnia is true. It is not the land of men. It is the country of Aslan, the country of the Waking Trees and Visible Naiads, of Fauns and Satyrs, of Dwarfs and Giants, of the gods and the Centaurs, of Talking Beasts."''
|'''Doctor Cornelius''', ''[[Prince Caspian]]''}}
{{quote|"The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: 'Let's try to make a story about it.'"
|''[[C. S. Lewis]]''}}
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' are a series of seven books by [[C. S. Lewis]], telling the history from its creation to its ending of a land where [[Talking Animal|animals talk]], where a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|varied collection of creatures from European folklore]] lives, and where a number of children have heroic adventures under the guidance of [[Messianic Archetype|the great Lion, Aslan]]. Though "Narnia" is sometimes used to describe the whole world, it is strictly speaking a northern [[The Middle Ages|mediaeval European-style]] kingdom of that world; it is bordered by Archenland on the south (beyond which lies the [[Arabian Nights Days|quasi-Arabian]] empire of Calormen), by Ettinsmoor on the North, by Lantern Waste on the West, and by the Great Eastern Sea on the East, beyond which is Aslan's Country.
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# ''[[The Silver Chair]]'' (1953)
# ''[[The Horse and His Boy]]'' (1954) (written 1953, before the previous book)
# ''[[
# ''[[The Last Battle]]'' (1956)
The first four books are in chronological order, but the fifth takes place [[Interquel|between the last two chapters of the first]], and the sixth is a prequel to the series. ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' were actually not originally intended to be a seven volume series. After the success of the first book, Lewis [[Expansion Pack World|wrote two more]], to complete a trilogy. Thus ''[[Prince Caspian]]'' and ''The [[Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'' form a [[Two-Part Trilogy|natural pair]], telling a single more or less connected story within the larger series. When demand continued, Lewis wrote another two books, then a "prequel" describing Narnia's beginning, and finally ''[[The Last Battle]]'', in which the land of Narnia is brought to its own close, giving the series a definite ending.
Many recent printings number the books in chronological order. For many, however, reading in publication order is more satisfying, as ''[[
C. S. Lewis (re-)converted from atheism to Christianity and wrote many works of apologetics and theology; the ''Narnia'' series, his only work directly targeted at children, is at once a work of creative fiction and applied apologetics, even dealing with atheism. Narnia borrows creatures and myths from many different cultures and ages, from the Edwardian adventure stories of Lewis's youth to the [[Arabian Nights]], from Shakespearean tragedies to the [[The Brothers Grimm (creator)|Grimms]]' fairy-tales, from the Classical and Germanic mythologies that were Lewis's avocation to the
The books display the influence of [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'', not surprisingly since the authors were friends at the time -- indeed, Lewis's ''[[Space Trilogy]]'' was written as a result of a friendly wager with Tolkien. While ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has not had the colossal cultural impact of Tolkien's epic, the series has remained the best-known and most beloved of all of Lewis' works.
[[Television Serial]] adaptations of the first four books have all been televised by the BBC and released on DVD (in some places as [[Compilation Movie|Compilation Movies]]), and the first three (by publication order) have been filmed as the start of a series intended to adapt all seven books. ''Lion'' was also the subject of an earlier TV adaptation on ITV in 1967 (now largely lost) and an [[Animated Adaptation]] in 1979. Unfortunately, the BBC master of ''Lion'' was apparently lost to unknown causes several years ago, so the best quality copies of that series left are the DVDs<ref>there were also VHS tapes</ref>. More recently adapted into movies by Disney (later 20th Century Fox) and Walden Media through the work of [[Perry Moore]] spending several years acquiring the rights for Walden. ''The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe'' came out in late 2005, ''Prince Caspian'' in 2008, and ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' in late 2010.
The books are the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Narnia Time]], in which the relative flow of time between two separate worlds changes according to the needs of the plot.▼
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{{tropenamer}}
▲
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{{franchisetropes}}
* [[The Archer]]: Susan, Lucy, Jill
* [[Author Avatar]]: Professor Kirke, admitted by Lewis himself, although Kirke is also an [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|avatar]] of Lewis's own [[Eccentric Mentor|old tutor]], W. T. Kirkpatrick, (as is MacPhee in ''That Hideous Strength'').
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* [[Curiosity Is a Crapshoot]]: "Make your choice, adventurous stranger; Strike the bell and bide the danger! Or wonder till it drives you mad, what would have followed if you had..."
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Puddleglum, Reepicheep, Edmund and Eustace. Even ''Lucy'' gets to snark at one point.
{{quote|
'''Lucy''': That's because ''our'' heads actually have something in them. }}
* [[Does Not Like Shoes]]: Actually lots of characters, including The Hermit of the Southern March, Coriakin, Ramandu, possibly Ramandu's Daughter , Shasta, Queen Jadis and, at some point, Pevensies themselves (especially Lucy).
** It's a bit subverted with Shasta several times when the burning desert sand or the freezing dew-covered grass makes him wish he had shoes like Aravis.
* [[Draconic Demon]]: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the dragons of Narnia are embodiments of sin, specifically the sin of greed. It's hinted that all dragons were once humans before being transformed into monsters thanks to their greed consuming them, which happens to Eustace when he finds and sleeps in a dragon's hoard while his mind is clouded with thoughts of greed.
* [[Eat Dirt Cheap]]: The Walking Trees. ''Prince Caspian'' even describes [[Food Porn|a tree feast made of different kinds of dirt]].
* [[Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette]]: The White Witch. You could almost make a poster saying, "[[This Is Your Index On Drugs|THIS IS YOUR SKIN ON TURKISH DELIGHT]]".
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* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: "He is not a tame lion... but he's good."
** Aslan is sort of a fascinating example of this. He ranges from a warm, welcoming protector to an aloof, condescending [[Jerkass]] to a figure that is outright threatening to protagonist and antagonist alike -- sometimes all within the same book. As a Biblical allegory, he's spot on in this regard.
* [[Growing Up Sucks]]: A lot of people accuse Lewis of promoting this, partially because the kids can't go back to Narnia when they're older, and partly because of Susan's fate (''see'' [[
* [[Hair of Gold]]: Lucy and Caspian, although you wouldn't know it from many of the ilustrations, and in the movies, they both have brown hair.
* [[Half-Human Hybrid]]: Several cases. A couple decades after Narnia's beginning, the children of King Frank and Queen Helen wedded non-human Narnians. The sons married wood nymphs and river nymphs, and the daughters married wood gods and river gods. The peoples of Archenland and Calormen could count, being that they are descendants of these unions, despite the fact that they physically look completely human. After the Telmarine Conquest in Narnia, some of the dwarfs disguised themselves as humans and married humans and spawned a few half-dwarfs, Dr. Cornelius being one of them. It is debated whether Ramandu's daughter (Named "Lilliandil" in the film) is a full star or only half-star, though her son Rilian and his descendants, like Tirian, at least count as part-star. If you put the beavers' account of the White Witch's origins to her story of being queen of Charn and being brought into Narnia, it can be assumed that the race of Charn are descended from Jinn (demons) Giants.
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* [[Kids Are Cruel]]: Edmund to Lucy in ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''; Eustace to almost everyone, in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', (although he is more of a [[Jerkass]] than a bully); in the [[Backstory]], the bullies in ''The Silver Chair''.
* [[King of Beasts]]: Aslan
* [[Left
* [[Legendary in the Sequel]]: Thanks to [[Narnia Time]], occurs to the main characters in nearly every book.
** See also: [[Title Drop]]
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* [[Sapient Steed]]: Inevitable when you have sentient and [[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]]. Particularly important in ''[[The Horse and His Boy]]''.
** This is lampshaded in the Disney film adaptation of ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' when Edmund is nearly thrown off his horse while he and Peter are practicing their horseback swordfighting.
{{quote|
'''Edmund's horse''': My name is Philip. }}
** Philip is an [[Meaningful Name]] as it means 'someone who likes horses'
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* [[Was Once a Man]]: The dragon Eustace encounters a dragon that might once have been Lord Octesian. Also {{spoiler|the dragon Eustace becomes}}.
** Well, it was never determined if the dragon was actually Lord Octesian. The group theroized that it was possible that Lord Octesian was just killed by the dragon (the movie seemed to support this, given that his sword was found with a skeleton) or that he never was involved with the dragon at all (the only evidence they had of his presence on the island was his bracelet, and it was possible the dragon found that elsewhere). Still, {{spoiler|Eustace definitely still counts}}.
* [[Wish Fulfillment]]: Arguably, the two instances in the entire series when Narnian magic intervenes directly in the real world: In [[The
* [[World Building]]
* [[Youngest Child Wins]]: Lucy Pevensie
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* [[Action Girl]]: Susan. And Lucy.
* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: All of the kings and queens of the series.
* [[Badass]]: Tons of people in ''Prince Caspian''. Notable examples are Miraz, whose duelling skills are shown to be more than a match for Peter's; Susan, whose archery skills have become impeccable; and Edmund, who has more awesome moments than Peter and Caspian combined... and less dialogue than either. It's as if he spent those 1,300 Narnian years [[Took a Level
** All the royals in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''. Caspian and Edmund are both deadly swordsmen, and Lucy wields both a sword and Susan's bow and arrows with a lot of skill.
* [[Badass Adorable]]: Lucy. The entire fleeing Telmarine army stops dead in their tracks when they see a tiny girl, standing alone on their only escape route across the bridge, smiling sweetly at them. And this is ''before'' Aslan joins her.
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** In the same film, as in the corresponding book, the Stone Knife from the first film/book gets a brief appearance and mention. Probably confusing for anyone who hasn't either read the books or got a very good visual memory, since it's never named as such in the first film.
* [[Cool Ship]]: The ''Dawn Treader'', of course.
* [[
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Especially ''Prince Caspian''. This was [[Lampshaded]] in the trailer:
{{quote|
** To sum it up in [[TV Tropes]] style: it's a [[Low Fantasy]].
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Edmund in ''Prince Caspian''. Susan gets a couple in ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''. Edmund and Eustace are both this in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''.
** And Reepicheep.
{{quote|
'''Reepicheep''': Yes, and throw them at the Telmarines. Shut up! }}
** Again:
{{quote|
'''Trumpkin''': You're one to talk.
'''Reepicheep''': Is that supposed to be irony? }}
** Trumpkin too, by way of being the [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]].
** Heck, even Miraz gets in on this:
{{quote|
** In ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', Eustace gets his turn.
{{quote|
'''Magician''': Those are Dufflepods.
'''Eustace''': Oh yes, Dufflepods. Of course, how silly of me. }}
*** He does it a lot as he gets nicer and less petulant.
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* [[Dramatic Curtain Toss]]: Lucy discovering the wardrobe.
* [[Dream Within a Dream]]: Subverted in the first movie- the characters think their memory of a familiar place is from a dream within a dream, but it turns out to be from where they originally came from in the real world. Played straight in the third movie, where Lucy is having a dream, wakes up from it to have Aslan talk to her, then wakes up from this one again into the real world.
* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: The main three actors in the first two films -- William Moseley (Peter), Skandar Keynes (Edmund) and Ben Barnes (Prince Caspian). Keynes in particular [[She
* [[Evil Is Hammy]]: Sergio Castellitto obviously enjoys his role as Miraz. [[Tilda Swinton]] has her moments, too, which doesn't make her acting less awesome.
* [[Expecting Someone Taller]]: Prince Caspian meeting Peter for the first time. [[Year Inside, Hour Outside|Justified, given the time difference]]. Played for laughs by Reepicheep later on.
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* [[Mask Power]]: The Telmarines now sport [[Badass]] baroque metal masks with fearsome visages of bearded Conquistadors on them.
* [[Meaningful Echo]]: The new ''Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' film gives us this line, from {{spoiler|Peter}} to {{spoiler|Edmund}}. Especially heart-warming, as this comes after {{spoiler|Edmund has been healed from near-death due to his breaking the witch's wand}}.
{{quote|
* [[Money, Dear Boy]]: Following the 2010 release of the film version of ''Voyage of the'' Dawn Treader, FOX is planning to film ''The Magician's Nephew'' next instead of ''The Silver Chair'', after noticing that the films have so far grossed back amounts that roughly correspond to the popularity of the book involved - and ''The Magician's Nephew'' is usually considered the second most-popular in the ''Narnia'' series.
* [[Mood Whiplash]]: From ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]'':
{{quote|
'''Edmund''': ...No.
'''White Witch''': And your brother... unintelligent?
'''Edmund''': [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Well, I think so, but Mum says-]]
'''White Witch''': ''Then '''how''' dare you come alone!'' }}
* [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent]]: If Caspian and his sailors are any indication, the whole Telmarine race apparently drops their vaguely-Spanish accents some time between ''Prince Caspian'' and ''The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader''. Perhaps he took on an English accent so the native Narnians were more comfortable with him?
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* [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: Particularly ''Dawn Treader'', which takes an almost completely episodic story and gives it a strong ongoing plot thread in the green mist that has to be stopped.
* [[Promoted to Love Interest]]: Caspian and Susan.
* [[Putting on the Reich]]: [[Word of God]] [
* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: The Pevensie siblings can be differenced by this, with Peter and Lucy represented by Red, due to the fact that they are more intuitive, vibrant, [[Determinator|determined]] and, to an extent, more sensitive than Edmund and Susan, who are more logical, cold and down to earth, inclined towards the Blue part. [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|Even their hair show it, due to the fact that Peter and Lucy have lighter hair, while Edmund and Susan are dark haired]].
* [[Running Gag]]
{{quote|
'''Caspian''': You are a mouse.
'''Reepicheep''': I was hoping for something a little more original. }}
** Later:
{{quote|
'''Reepicheep''': Yes, I'm a mouse. }}
** And again:
{{quote|
'''Reepicheep''': You people have no imagination. }}
* [[Screwed by the Network]]: Disney's marketing of the ''Prince Caspian''. Rather than release it in December as a family film (like ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' was), they decided to spend enormous amounts of money trying to sell it as a teen film and gave it a summer release, about a week apart from both ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' and ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]''. It should have been kept in December, because that's friendlier to this type of movie, but to be fair, May has shown it can expand just fine (see 2003 and 2007). And ''[[Iron Man]]'' was hardly seen as a sure thing at the time. Basing the marketing around Ben Barnes may have been a dumb move, however.
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** Which in itself is quite a nice thing, since Tolkien and Lewis were good friends in real life, and it was in fact the former that helped convert the latter back to Christianity.
*** Sort of. While Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, Lewis (re)converted to Anglicanism. Tolkien was reportedly disappointed.
** The Witch's army in the first film looks like it's composed of the Hordes of Chaos (and Orcs) of [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] fame. Right up to the icons on their banners.
* [[Slash Fic]]: Apart from the [[Strangled by the Red String|Susan/Caspian]] ship, there really are no other usual pairings that do not involve [[Ho Yay|partners of the same sex]], [[Brother-Sister Incest|blood connections]], and [[Squick|sometimes both at the same time]].
* [[Species-Coded for Your Convenience]]: The armies of Aslan and the Witch are pretty much divided among these lines. In the second movie, however, nearly all of the non-humans of Narnia (minus a Hag, Werewolf, and Black Dwarf) fight together, and a minotaur sacrifices himself to save the monarchs.
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=== Older adaptations provide examples of: ===
* [[Actor Allusion]]: In the BBC TV adaptation of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', Professor Kirke is played by Michael Aldridge, who essentially plays a softer version of his character Seymour Utterthwaite from ''[[Last of the Summer Wine]]'', a former headmaster. This is particularly noticeable with his use of Kirke's [[Catch Phrase]]:
{{quote|
* [[Evil Is Hammy]]: The White Witch in both the animated and BBC adaptations. Both have [[No Indoor Voice]], with their lines rarely dropping below a deafening screech, and both are prone to [[Chewing the Scenery]]. Barbara Kellerman's acting in the BBC version is hammy enough that a [[Big No]] serves as an [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HdUtlq_Hno#t=1m04s answer to a simple question]. Probably an example of [[Ham and Cheese]].
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]:
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{{reflist}}
{{The Troper Board on Multiversal Travel}}
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[[Category:The Epic]]
[[Category:Fantasy Films]]
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[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Hugo Award]]
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[[Category:The Great American Read]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Literature]]
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[[Category:British Literature]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chronicles of Narnia, The}}
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