Comments on: NarniaFans Mailbag #40: Douglas Gresham on Lewis’ inspiration for Lucy Pevensie; Film Scores

By: J. G. Heck

J. G. Heck — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:02:43 +0000

My older brother saw it opening night and july 3 he said it was really good and I want to see it. But I bet Narnia the voyage of the dawn treader is going to be better.

By: glumPuddle

glumPuddle — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:17:34 +0000

Gresham talks a lot about Jill Flewett in his book, “Jack’s Life.” She went on to study drama and become an actress, and remained friends with Lewis for the rest of his life.

By: Mark Sommer

Mark Sommer — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:53:04 +0000

Lucy Barfield was the adopted daughter of Owen Barfield, who was one of the “Inklings”–a writers’ group that included Lewis and JRR Tolkien. It appears to me that the inspiration for Lucy had more than one source. There was June Flewett, an evacuee like the Lucy in the book; and the daughter of Lewis’s friend, Lucy Barfield, to whom the book is dedicated and who obviously shares the same first name. (See the NarniaFans archive: http://www.narniafans.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5624 ) Another possible source of inspiration that has been mentioned is Lucia Brocadeli of Narni, Italy, who was a 15th century Catholic mystic. The town of Narni used to be called Narnia, and may be the source of the name of the land of Narnia in the books.

Good writers tend to create characters based on multiple sources, and this seems to be the case with Lucy.

By: Genna

Genna — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:12:00 +0000

I had heard about June Flewett being the inspiration for Lucy and thought it very interesting; in fact I have a Narnia magazine with a photo of June Flewett!
I’m sorry to hear about your sister; I’ll keep her in my prayers.

By: Karine

Karine — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:18:59 +0000

That’s very interesting. In my copy of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is dedicated to Lucy Barfield so I always figured she must have been the inspiration of Lucy.. I don’t understand now, who is Lucy Barfield then?

By: Jonathan Fletcher

Jonathan Fletcher — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:06:52 +0000

Praying for your sister! And I really enjoyed that mailbag. Keep up the good work!

By: Mark Sommer

Mark Sommer — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:42:04 +0000

Thanks for an excellent discussion on music in films, Paul. Your broad knowledge of so many topics in the movie industry just simply amazes me.

IMDb.com actually has a filmography for June Freud. She used the stage name of “Jill Raymond.” Her “Mini Biography” mentions the connection with C S Lewis and Narnia. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0713298/

Sorry to hear about your sister. My prayers are with her.