The Narnia books

[Deathstroke]

Okay, I only read TLTW&TW when I was a kid and never read the others as far as I can remember.

Now that I've had the pleasure of seeing the movie, can fans of the books clue me into the final resolution of the series on a book by book basis?

I'd love to read the books myself, but I've got over 100 books waiting to be read right now as it is, so it's just not going to happen.

[Jonathan Bogart]

There is no "final resolution," if you mean that the books all tell one story leading up to a climax in the final book. They're all separate books telling separate stories; there's only one character, Aslan, common to them all; even the villains have different origins, goals, and motives. The sixth one describes the creation of Narnia and the seventh one describes its destruction.

If you just want a recap of the entire series, dude, they're like eighty pages each.

[Hiromi]

No, they're all over 200 pages, and the Pevensies play a part in all but two of them.

[Jonathan Bogart]

No, they're all over 200 pages, and the Pevensies play a part in all but two of them.
Page count depends on the edition. We're both right.

And you didn't contradict what I said.

[cactusmaac]

No, they're all over 200 pages, and the Pevensies play a part in all but two of them.

They aren't in A Magician's Nephew.

I think they're in all the rest.

[Hiromi]

They aren't in A Magician's Nephew.

I think they're in all the rest.

None apear in the Silver Chair either. Just Eustace and Jill, but then Eustace appears and plays a central role in 3 of the 7 books himself.

[howyadoin]

I guess it's time I dug these out and started reading them again. We'll most likely be seein' the movie either Christmas Day or Boxing Day.

[Gordon Smith]

I skimmed through the Narnia books many, many years ago and have never revisited them since. They just never appealed to me at any level.

[Sanagi]

Voyage of the Dawn Treader was one of my favorite books in childhood. I can't really remember the plots of any of the other ones, except bits of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I remember most of what happened in Dawn Treader.

[Solaris]

***SPOILERS***

Here's the basics (I may have them slightly out of publishing order; been a while since I read them)

Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe: You've read this one, and seen the movie, so I won't detail it. We just saw the movie today, and I must say that they did a spectacular job sticking to the book storyline. Plus the CG was great. Blue screen was a little fakey, but I can forgive that. :)

Prince Caspian: The 4 Pevensie kids get yanked back to Narnia from the Train platform where they were waiting to head off to their schools, by the sound of Susan's horn (which she lost on that last hunt for the White Stag). They come back to find Cair Paravel in ruins; long story short, they've been gone a thousand years from Narnia, though it was only a year in Earth time. The current ruler of Narnia is a man who murdered his brother-in-law for the throne, and has served as "regent" for the underaged Prince, Caspian... who has just run away from the Castle after realizing that his uncle has plans for his demise. (IIRC, the Uncle is from out of country.) The four have to help Caspian take back the throne and reestablish right as rule, vs. the evil and favoritism that his Uncle has used. At the end of this book, Peter and Susan learn that they may not return to Narnia again, by Aslan himself. In some respects this book is like King Arthur returning to a corrupt present to fix the govt. Heh.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Having gotten Narnia straightened out, Caspian sets out on a quest (on the first Narnian ship built since the old days---his uncle didn't like the sea) on his ship The Dawn Treader. The quest is to determine what became of the group of Lords (was it 12 of them?) who'd left Narnia during his childhood (being disgusted with his uncle's reign and seeking a cure or Aslan, I forget which). However, the book doesn't start out with him---it starts with Lucy and Edmund, who to their utter disgust, are forced to spend the summer with their very weird aunt and uncle (think PETA fanatic, along those lines) and their bratty cousin Eustace (think Frank Burns from MASH, and you're close). The three children end up fighting about a picture in Eustace's room, which he hates, which Lucy had remarked to Edmund was such a "Narnian ship." Eustace had overheard them talking about Narnia before, and never misses a chance to torment them over their "fantasy life." Imagine his surprise when the ship in the picture begins moving over the water, and the frame grows huge, and they end up in the water! Heh. The ship is, of course, the Dawn Treader, and they pull in the Pevensies and Eustace. The latter is a prat, until he endures a humbling experience through greed of being turned briefly into a dragon... then he becomes a decent companion. They have many adventures sailing East after the lost lords, finding out about them (or finding the survivors) mostly one by one. The most memorable being Lord Rhoop, who was stranded on the Isle of Dreams... a place where all your dreams come true. Not a nice place, because it includes nightmares. They manage to escape and rescue the poor man, too. They visited several strange islands as they journeyed further East, finding the last three lords together in a charmed sleep at Aslan's Table, a place where a feast is spread every night for anyone who hungers. However, when the three arrived and sat down, they began arguing whether to go on, stay there, or head home... and one of them grabbed up the Stone Dagger that was lying on the table---the same dagger the White Witch had used to kill Aslan. Immediately all of them fell asleep, and slept for years.

This island is the home of a retired star (as in, a sun, now in human form) and his daughter---whom Caspian takes a great interest in. But they have sworn to sail to the ends of the earth or to Aslan's country, and so they head on. This book's main new character is Reepicheep the Mouse---think D'Artagnan. He has a personal quest to sail to Aslan's country. In the end, they find the beginnings of it, Reepicheep floats off up the wave that separates the two worlds in a tiny coracle, and the three Earth children end up wading along the edge. Aslan told Caspian to head for home, stopping at the star's island along the way (Ramandu?), and told Lucy and Edmund that this was *their* last visit to Narnia. I forget how, but they end up back in Eustace's room.

The Horse and His Boy: A tale from the time when Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy were ruling as adults in Narnia. Long story short, the sons of their neighbor and ally, the King of Archenland, were twins. One of the boys had been kidnapped as an infant, and sold into slavery in Calormen (arabic framework). It seems there's a thriving trade in Narnian slaves there... including his master's new warhorse, who doesn't speak when anyone else is around, but talks to the boy (now called "Shasta"), and talks him into escaping for Narnia. On their journey, they encounter a runaway Calormene princess escaping marriage to an old wart, and her mare, who is also Narnian. They discover that Prince Rabadash the Calormene has been planning to sneak an army up to the border, seize Archenland, and then take over Narnia---all while he's been negotiating for Susan's hand in marriage. They manage to get word to the good guys in time, it's discovered that the boy and the Prince are like two peas in a pod, and that he must be the missing prince (and the elder of the two), prince Cor (brother is Corin). Oh, I forgot: Rabadash gets turned into a donkey by Aslan, and is faced with utter ridicule by his countrymen ever afterwards, even tho' he got turned human again once he was taken into the Temple of Tash in the crown city of Calormen. He ended up being quite a peaceful neighbor to Archenland and Narnia... out of fear of being turned into an ass permanently.

The Silver Chair: Eustace had indeed improved a great deal after his visit to Narnia (though his parents didn't think so). He'd been a hanger-on with some bullies, now he's being tormented by them, along with a girl named Jill Pole. They hide in some bushes at school, and come out in Narnia, near the northern border. They discover that the Prince, Rilian, Caspian's son, has gone missing, and there's some Green Witch involved. They go through some nasty spots (giants live up north), etc., end up underground, see the sleeping giant who will wake and sound his horn at the end of the world... and find Rilian, who's been enchanted by this silver chair the witch has. They break the chair, defeat the witch, and escape---I don't remember details, but she was another witch trying to take over Narnia. Before they get back to Cair Paravel, they end up back at school.

[Solaris]

The Magician's Nephew: Diggory Kirke's mother is very ill, and his father is off to war, IIRC. They end up living with his eccentric and unsavory uncle, who turns out to be a wizard who qualms at nothing in his pursuit of power. The man fills some rings with a magic dust he creates or obtains (forget which), that are color coded for "go there" and "go home". Diggory and his friend Polly end up using the rings, with Uncle managing to tag along by grabbing their coats (IIRC he captured Polly snooping and held her, and forced Diggory to be his guinea pig in testing the rings the first time). Anyway, it turns out that the "go" ring will take you to a sort of "grand central station" world, where there's many pools that lead like doorways to other worlds... but to leave that world, you have to use the red dust/ring to activate the pools as doorways. Diggory and Polly manage to escape the man and go through another pool... but they end up in a very bad world, where a magical war between ruling sisters killed everyone---except for one sister, who put herself into an enchanted sleep. The world is so old its sun is dying. Anyway, Diggory gets wilful and wakes the enchantress up---and they discover that she's strong as a giant, and quite mean. The Witch forced them to take her to the pool world, where his uncle immediately took a fancy to this tall, handsome woman who was just as cold at heart as he was. I forget how, but she ends up on Earth with all of them, and then eventually the four of them, plus the cab driver and his horse that they'd hired, end up in the Pool world, and then in Narnia.

At first all is dark. Literally, they see the world around them being created by Song: stars, moon, sun, bare land, trees, streams, animals, etc... and eventually, they see the singer: a huge Lion. By this point the Witch has fled... but before that, back on Earth she'd torn off the arm of a lamppost. She threw it at the Lion, but it bounced off and stuck up in the earth. Oddly, the piece grew into a fullsized lamppost (magic accelerated growth in the air for a bit), and eventually became the lantern post that the Pevensie children saw when they emerged from the Wardrobe. Anyway, Aslan made the creatures talking, some of them anyway, and then he spoke to the humans there. Uncle could only hear roars, because that's all he expected. The cabbie's horse grew young, and Aslan gave him wings and speech. Aslan lectured Diggory on bringing an Evil into the world when it's not even one hour old (the Witch, Jadis), and tells him that in order to protect the land of Narnia itself, Diggory must journey to retrieve an apple from the Tree of Life in a special garden. Fledge (the winged horse) carrie the two children on the quest, flying north over Narnia. They find the walled garden on a high hill---and also see the Witch standing there with apple juice on her chin and a terrible expression on her face: both delight, and despair. They retrieve their apple and take it to Aslan (Diggory was tempted by the Witch to take it to his mother instead, because it would heal her).

Aslan tells him "well done!" and plants the apple, which promptly grows into a tree with similar but less power than the parent tree. When the children ask how that will keep the witch out of Narnia, he tells them that the fruit, eaten here, can indeed make one immortal---but if it's stolen, it brings a terrible price and despair with that immortality. Having stolen some and tasted it, the Witch will no longer be able to bear the presence of such a tree... and it will keep her out of Narnia for many centuries. He gives Diggory a fruit from this tree, and tells him to take it home and have his mother eat it. It won't harm her, as a gift, nor will it make her immortal... but it *will* heal her.

Aslan makes the cabbie, a nice young man, into the first King of Narnia... and pops the man's wife over as the new Queen. Their children intermarry with river gods, naiads and the like, and rule Narnia justly and fairly for many centuries... until the Witch finds a way to get rid of the Tree and starts the 100 years of Winter. (Yes, that's how the White Witch got INTO Narnia, and she's of giant blood, not human.)

The rest go home via Aslan. Diggory confiscates the rings from his uncle, who went a bit crazy and lost all his power aspirations, and walked around the house mumbling to himself. His mother is healed by the apple, and life improves. Diggory planted the apple seeds in the garden, and buried the rings in a circle around them---and a tree grew. Many years later, after the uncle had died, Diggory had inherited the house and become Professor Kirke, a storm blew the tree down. Diggory couldn't bear to just throw it away, so he had its wood made into a wardrobe---the same one the Pevensies went through years later.

[Solaris]

The Last Battle: Eustace and Jill make their final trip to Narnia. All the Narnia visitors except Susan felt there was something wrong in the wind, and they'd had a meeting. (Diggory, Polly (both old now), Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, and Jill). The older two were escorting Eustace and Jill to their train back to school. Peter and Edmund, disguised as workmen, were to meet them there after retrieving the Rings from the former townhome of Diggory (still buried there in the back yard). Lucy was also on a train with the Pevensie parents. Susan was the only one not around, and they'd not asked her to the meeting, because she'd gotten all wrapped up in being grown up, boys, lipstick, nylons, and considered Narnia a child's game they'd all made up together.

Anyway, Peter and Edmund were supposed to turn the rings over to Eustace and Jill, since they were the only ones with permission to return to Narnia... when there was a loud bang, and the latter two found themselves in Narnia after all.

And as usual, things were amiss in Narnia.

There was a simple donkey and a clever talking ape living near the border. They found a lion skin that had washed down the stream, apparently having escaped some hunter. The ape decided it would be a fine thing to dress the donkey up in it, pretend he was Aslan, and gull his neighbors. Things got foul after that: the ape had connections with some greedy Calormene commander, who brought troops in and used them to reinforce the idea that the Calormen god, Tash, and Aslan, were one: "Tashlan." They would show the donkey in his skin, then shut him back up in the barn... and procede to tell the terrified animals how Tashlan had come filled with wrath at them, and that they needed to to "_____" to appease him. Any who tried to resist were killed.

The current King of Narnia, Tirian, several times removed descendant of Rilian, was out hunting in that area with his best friend, a unicorn named Jewel. They got wind of this conspiracy and wanted to stop it... but were taken by the Calormenes. Eustace and Jill showed up where Tirian was tied to a tree, and cut him loose (it was night). They escaped (IIRC they got Jewel out as well) and fell back to a wilderness watchtower to plan...but a talking eagle, Farsight, brought them word that other Calormenes had overrun Cair Paravel and the whole country. Long story short, they ended up fighting a battle at the barn.

But in the meantime, odd things had happened back there. It seems the commander's use of Tash had called him up---an evil, vulture-headed god. So when this cat (who was in on the conspiracy) went into the barn to "talk" to Tashlan, and came out after a thunderclap unable to speak... all the animals were terrified, the Calormenes dropped the "Tashlan" and used "Tash," etc. One youth, a brave young man, went in... and found not Tash, but the Calormene the commander had stationed inside to kill those directed to enter. They fought, the youth won, and wandered off into the country inside the barn.

There were also a group of dark dwarves, who'd refused to be taken in by the whole thing on either side: Tash OR Aslan. When the fighting broke out, they fired arrows into whichever side was winning... until they were grabbed by the Calormenes and thrown into the barn. Eventually, all of the remaining good fighters were, too.

However, the good guys (Tirian, Jewel, Jill, Eustace), found that they were in a beautiful country, not a barn... though the barn door was still there standing in the middle of a field, and if they looked through it they could see night and the campfire on the other side (it was day there). Turns out they were now in Aslan's country, and eventually met him, the young brave Calormene, and the others. The dwarves were sitting there in a circle, and to them they were still in the stable... they refused to see what was around them.

The others had come to Narnia after a loud bang as well, and a wrenching feeling... very odd. They find out from Aslan that they were all "killed" in a train accident at the station... and now their *real* lives were to begin. But first, they had to bear witness to the end of Narnia.

The sleeping giant awoke and sounded his horn. (I forgot: Aslan made Tash disappear.) All the creatures in that world came running up to the stable door, which was now huge. They would look Aslan square in the face: some would look delighted, even if they were afraid, and they'd run to his right and off into the sunlight. Others would turn left into his shadow and vanish. When all had come through, dragons appeared and ate all the forests, plants, etc. until the lands were bare. I forget the rest, except that Aslan eventually told the giant "Now make an end," and the giant reached out and grabbed the combined sun and moon and squeezed his hand shut over them... and there was darkness and cold. Then the door slammed shut, and Aslan shouted to them "Come further up! come further in!" and ran off.

The others started by walking, but eventually were running. The old people felt young, and looked young, though a bit older than the rest. They found they could run faster and faster, until they could literally run across water. There were many reunions along the way, but eventually they came to that walled garden where Diggory got the apple. Reepicheep the mouse welcomed them in... and after they entered, they realized that the whole world they'd just passed through *was* Narnia, the real Narnia, and that they one they'd been in before was just a shadow of it. Further that *another* Narnia lay inside the garden, with a garden within *it* "Like layers of an onion" one of them said. Looking farther (and their eyesight was very keen), they could see that Narnia was just one of several offshoots of Aslan's Land... and that across a divide was an offshoot that was the real England... and they could see their parents there, likewise making their way further up and further in, toward Aslan's country.

In this book, at the end, Aslan revealed his true form to them... but Lewis doesn't tell you what it is. However, with all the Jesus allegories throughout the books, and especially in this last one, you don't have to guess what it was. Heh.

So, in the old shadow England, Diggory, Polly, Peter, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, Jill, and the Pevensie parents were all killed in the train crash. One wonders how the (now vain and self-absorbed) Susan fared, being the only survivor in her family...but Lewis doesn't say. As for the rest, they are all delighted in their new home, and the continuing wonders they will find as they explore it.

Whew. That took a while. I think I got most of it straight.

[Erkoban]

I recently started reading the books, and I started with The Magician's Nephew.

I was surpised at how much I liked the novel. It's fast and fun.

As for Jadis and Diggory and Polly...

The ring to go to the Wood has a yellow colour, the ring to get out of the Wood is green. No matter on what world you are, if you so much as touch the yellow ring, you'll get transported to the Wood. The green ring however only works when you are in the Wood, and jump in a puddle.

When Polly and Diggory traveled to the world Jadis came from, they awoke her after ringing a bell, Digory's curiosity was what mmotivated him to ring the bell. They soon discovered that Jadis wasn't a good person, she wanted to take over their world as she assumed that was the reason why the children had come for her, sent by a powerful wizard to fetch her.

When the children fled using the rings, Jadis had taken a hold of the children, she touched them and was transported to the Wood with them.

Jadis couldn't stand the Wood, it made her physically ill, she withered away there, and she came with the children as they reached home, as an act of desperation.

In our world Jadis has no magic she can use. She met with Diggory's Uncle and after a bit of a spectacle on the streets of London, she, the Cabbie, Diggory's Uncle, and the Cabbie's horse were transported away.

Diggory's Uncle in Narnia can't appreciate any of it and is scared constantly of everything he sees, because he sees everything differently. (Much like the dwarves in the barn in the Last Battle)

[Deathstroke]

Thank you very much Solaris, you as you know already I'm sure, ROCK!

Awww.... you're welcome! :) Really, they're a fun read, but I can understand wanting to go ahead and find out the basics, when you've got umpteen other books to read and no time to get to it.

[Turd_Ferguson]

Solaris, you almost got the order right, except that I believe that A Horse and His Boy comes after the Silver Chair.

One thing that really irritates me is how in newer editions of the books, they have changed the order that they are supposed to be read in. I forget the exact order, but it now starts with A Horse and His Boy

EDIT: Oh, and did anyone see the HILARIOUS hip hop "music video" they had on SNL last night?

"It's the Chronic!"
"What?"
"-cles or Narnia!"

[Erkoban]

One thing that really irritates me is how in newer editions of the books, they have changed the order that they are supposed to be read in. I forget the exact order, but it now starts with A Horse and His Boy


Order in which the series was written:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

Order in which it should be read, as based on centent:

The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

[Mr. Bungle]

Oh, and did anyone see the HILARIOUS hip hop "music video" they had on SNL last night?

"It's the Chronic!"
"What?"
"-cles or Narnia!"

http://youtube.com/watch.php?v=IggTu7kV7No&search=lazy%20sunday%20snl

[Turd_Ferguson]

Order in which the series was written:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

Order in which it should be read, as based on centent:

The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

I don't really feel that you can read them in chronological order if reading thme for the first time. Especially since there are references to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in "A Horse and His Boy."

CS Lewis himself said in letters to his kids both that he mildly prefers the chornological order and that it doesn't really matter.

[Solaris]

Solaris, you almost got the order right, except that I believe that A Horse and His Boy comes after the Silver Chair.

One thing that really irritates me is how in newer editions of the books, they have changed the order that they are supposed to be read in. I forget the exact order, but it now starts with A Horse and His Boy

EDIT: Oh, and did anyone see the HILARIOUS hip hop "music video" they had on SNL last night?

"It's the Chronic!"
"What?"
"-cles or Narnia!"


Missed the video. Sounds funny. :) Yeah, I wasn't sure if I had it quite right or not on the order. I was surprised to learn (via a Wikipedia article I read recently on Lewis, IIRC) that he did indeed slightly favor the chronological order vs. the publication order. Apparently, he didn't write them in mind of a series. When he wrote one, he thought that would be it... then he ended up writing the next, then the next... Honestly, I don't know which way would be the better read, since I read them in publish order. Maybe it's because I don't *mind* going back in a later book and finding out details that preceded the first one... in fact, I kind of enjoy it. It's like the first one establishes the framework, and then that later one tells you the significance of some common-place things in the first one that you didn't really think about at all, originally, but turned out to be very important after all. Very fun that way, IMO.

Maybe... maybe, that's why some prefer published order to chronological. After all: you can *get* the chronological order of what happened in the LotR world by reading the Silmarillion first... but most people wouldn't GET to LotR, if they read Silmarillion first! :D

[Paul Newell]

I don't really feel that you can read them in chronological order if reading thme for the first time. Especially since there are references to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in "A Horse and His Boy."

Which follows after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe chronologically. So, what's the problem? :confused:

[Tobias March]

Reports on the film (which I saw last night and was pleasantly surprised by - centaurs wielding double blades...cool) suggest that Disney are planning a franchise based on these books. I can see them adapting Prince Caspian, The Dawn Trader and the Silver Chair, but as for the others...

For one thing don't all the Calormen get cast out by Aslan, unless they convert? Not the most pleasant of messages for a global multi-media company to be putting out in a 'family oriented', film franchise.

[The Dosadi Experiment]

Aren't the Calormen human?