The Key to Narnia
Apr. 18th, 2008 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookaddict88I went to a really interesting lecture today! Dr. Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis, came to speak at my school. I'm a fan of The Chronicles of Narnia and Lewis, and so I'd been looking forward to the lecture for a couple of weeks. It did not disappoint!
For many people, The Chronicles of Narnia contains a mish-mash of characters and plots. (Tolkien criticized the books for this very reason.) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, contains characters ranging from English schoolchildren to classical mythical creatures to Father Christmas. And the seven books don't seem to have any sort of coherence between them. Lewis says that they are all centered, on Christ, but only three of the four books seem to focus heavily on an aspect of Christ (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has Aslan as savior, The Magician's Nephew has Aslan as creator, and The Last Battle has Aslan as judge). The other three books have theological elements, yes, but those elements don't seem to be the point of the book as a whole. Lewis' works usually have a high degree of coherence. Where is the coherence in The Chronicles of Narnia?
For many people, The Chronicles of Narnia contains a mish-mash of characters and plots. (Tolkien criticized the books for this very reason.) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, for example, contains characters ranging from English schoolchildren to classical mythical creatures to Father Christmas. And the seven books don't seem to have any sort of coherence between them. Lewis says that they are all centered, on Christ, but only three of the four books seem to focus heavily on an aspect of Christ (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has Aslan as savior, The Magician's Nephew has Aslan as creator, and The Last Battle has Aslan as judge). The other three books have theological elements, yes, but those elements don't seem to be the point of the book as a whole. Lewis' works usually have a high degree of coherence. Where is the coherence in The Chronicles of Narnia?
Various critics have proposed themes to unite The Chronicles of Narnia, such as each book representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins or the book being a miniature version of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene. Dr. Ward argued that none of these arguments have proved persuasive. Instead, he proposes that the real answer is that C.S. Lewis intentionally based The Chronicles of Narnia on the imagery of the seven heavens. Each book represents a different planet in the pre-Copernican view of the universe.
For example, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe embodies the qualities found in Jupiter. In his poem, "The Planets", Lewis writes the following about Jove (Jupiter):
In classical mythology, Jupiter represents kingliness, jolity, and sacrifice. Kingliness is easy to see in LWW. Aslan is first described as the King. The whole story is about Peter and Edmund becoming kings (and a huge reason why Ed listens to the White Witch is that he wants to become a prince, and then a king). Jolity is displayed in Father Christmas. Jove is described somewhere as "loud voiced and red faced", and he's seen as the bringer of Jolity. Who fits that description better than Father Christmas in our culture today? In medieval cosmology, Jupiter is identified with sacrifice (hence the red spot on the planet), and without Aslan's sacrifice in LWW, all would have been lost. Jupiter is also described in places as sort of the "great anti-freeze", which also describes Aslan! At one point in the book, Peter exclaims, "By Jove!". Until Ward came up with his theory, we didn't know the significance of that phrase in this book, just like Peter can't fully understand the divine. But the Pevensies can understand Aslan, just as we can still understand the "Christ-centered" purpose of the books.
Similarly, the other 6 books represent the other planets. For us, Dr. Ward started running out of time, and thus didn't cover The Horse and His Boy (Mercury) and The Magician's Nephew (Venus). He only briefly covered the rest (Prince Caspian as Mars, Voyage of the Dawn Treader as the Sun, The Silver Chair as the Moon, and The Last Battle as Saturn).
Anyway, that's a VERY brief summary of certain parts of the lecture. I probably didn't present it very interestingly, but Dr. Ward definitely did! He pointed out Lewis' great interest in and study of medieval cosmology (Lewis was an academic first, a fiction writer and Christian apologist only secondarily) and the appearance of the motifs of the heavens in some of Lewis' other works (such as the Ransom trilogy). He also showed how his theory would be consistent with Lewis' opinion that the medieval view of the cosmos has great spiritual value, as well as his secretive personality, his theological hiddenness, his interest in epistemology, and his view of stories. If you're interested in reading more of Dr. Ward's theory for yourself, his website is here. It doesn't go into detail, since he wants you to buy his book, but there's enough there for you to figure out what he's arguing.
I don't know enough about Lewis to dispute Dr. Ward's theory, but it does sound pretty convincing! If it's true, it sheds a good deal of light not only on the Chronicles of Narnia, but on Lewis. Even if it's not true, the lecture was still really interesting and I learned a lot about Lewis. I really need to read more of Lewis' works!
For example, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe embodies the qualities found in Jupiter. In his poem, "The Planets", Lewis writes the following about Jove (Jupiter):
...Soft breathes the airHow many elements of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) can you find in that poem alone? In fact, "of winter passed and guilt forgiven" is probably one of the best 5 word summaries of the book you can give!
Mild, and meadowy, as we mount further
Where rippled radiance rolls about us
Moved with music - measureless the waves'
Joy and jubilee. It is Jove's orbit,
Filled and festal, faster turning
With arc ampler. From the Isels of Tin
Tyrian traders, in trouble steering
Came with his cargoes; the Cornish treasure
That his ray ripens. Of wrath ended
And woes mended, of winter passed
And guilt forgiven, and good fortune
Jove is master; and of jocund revel,
Laughter of ladies. The lion-hearted,
The myriad-minded, men like the gods,
Helps and heroes, helms of nations
Just and gentle, are Jove's children,
Work his wonders. On his wide forehead
Calm and kingly, no care darkens
Nor wrath wrinkles: but righteous power
And leisure and largess their loose splendours
Have wrapped around him - a rich mantle
Of ease and empire.
In classical mythology, Jupiter represents kingliness, jolity, and sacrifice. Kingliness is easy to see in LWW. Aslan is first described as the King. The whole story is about Peter and Edmund becoming kings (and a huge reason why Ed listens to the White Witch is that he wants to become a prince, and then a king). Jolity is displayed in Father Christmas. Jove is described somewhere as "loud voiced and red faced", and he's seen as the bringer of Jolity. Who fits that description better than Father Christmas in our culture today? In medieval cosmology, Jupiter is identified with sacrifice (hence the red spot on the planet), and without Aslan's sacrifice in LWW, all would have been lost. Jupiter is also described in places as sort of the "great anti-freeze", which also describes Aslan! At one point in the book, Peter exclaims, "By Jove!". Until Ward came up with his theory, we didn't know the significance of that phrase in this book, just like Peter can't fully understand the divine. But the Pevensies can understand Aslan, just as we can still understand the "Christ-centered" purpose of the books.
Similarly, the other 6 books represent the other planets. For us, Dr. Ward started running out of time, and thus didn't cover The Horse and His Boy (Mercury) and The Magician's Nephew (Venus). He only briefly covered the rest (Prince Caspian as Mars, Voyage of the Dawn Treader as the Sun, The Silver Chair as the Moon, and The Last Battle as Saturn).
Anyway, that's a VERY brief summary of certain parts of the lecture. I probably didn't present it very interestingly, but Dr. Ward definitely did! He pointed out Lewis' great interest in and study of medieval cosmology (Lewis was an academic first, a fiction writer and Christian apologist only secondarily) and the appearance of the motifs of the heavens in some of Lewis' other works (such as the Ransom trilogy). He also showed how his theory would be consistent with Lewis' opinion that the medieval view of the cosmos has great spiritual value, as well as his secretive personality, his theological hiddenness, his interest in epistemology, and his view of stories. If you're interested in reading more of Dr. Ward's theory for yourself, his website is here. It doesn't go into detail, since he wants you to buy his book, but there's enough there for you to figure out what he's arguing.
I don't know enough about Lewis to dispute Dr. Ward's theory, but it does sound pretty convincing! If it's true, it sheds a good deal of light not only on the Chronicles of Narnia, but on Lewis. Even if it's not true, the lecture was still really interesting and I learned a lot about Lewis. I really need to read more of Lewis' works!
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Date: 2008-04-19 01:31 pm (UTC)When I was in college, I did a paper comparing the scenes in The Magician's Nephew where Digory is in the garden, being tempted by Jadis, by the scenes in Paradise Lost where Eve is tempted in the Garden of Eden. Some of the descriptions of the place were very, very similar. Lewis certainly brought a whole lot from **tons** of sources to what he wrote.
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Date: 2008-04-22 07:47 am (UTC)I heard somewhere that Lewis's planet poem mirrored Narnia, and I've been looking for more information on it ever since. Thanks a lot for posting this.
Which of Lewis's books have you read?
Also, I'm adding you to my friends list. I'm not posting much myself at the moment, but hopefully that will change soon.
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Date: 2008-04-22 02:33 pm (UTC)Hooray for a new LJ friend! I've added you back.