The White Stag

[kirke]

At the end they are hunting the white stag... can anyone give me any information about the white stag??? i dont want any sort of spoilers, but is it mentioned in a later book or what?

[Gondor Knight of Narnia]

I don't recall it being mentioned in any of the other books :D

[Corin Thunder-Fist]

Seems I was mistaken, the bit about the hunting of the stag was described in the end of LWW (the book). I didn't remember it being in that book, I thought it was described later.

There is a bit about a stag in Silver Chair, though I won't describe it as you may not have read it yet.

[i love skandar]

It's in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Mr. Tumnus tells Lucy stories about having fun before the White Witch took over (dancing, hunting the white stag, etc.). He tells her about the story that if you catch it, it will grant you wishes. :D

Andrea

[Deeper_Wonderment]

Also, white stags are relatively rare, and in our past, were game preserved for the lord of whatever land they were found on.

Here's a link that has more of the mythology behind white stags: http://www.geocities.com/branwaedd/whitestag.html

[onlymystory]

as far as narnia goes, iloveskandar got it right. The stag supposedly grants you wishes if you can catch it and the pevensies received word it was back in narnia so they went after it.

[EveningStar]

This may not be canon, but I believe, absolutely, that Aslan had something to do with the appearance of the White Stag because it was time to lead the Pevensies back to their former world for a bit.

Some folks may wonder why this happened, why Aslan didn't just let them grow old and die there.

First off, they would be needed later in Narnian history. The only way to get them there was to take advantage of the time difference.

Second, lest we forget, their mother missed them TERRIBLY and their father was out there getting shot at for God and Country, saying the occasional prayer that the wife and kids were OK.

Maybe Aslan did this for them.

[Rachi]

^I like your theory A LOT. :D I had never really thought of it that way before but now that I think about it, it really does make sense.

[i love skandar]

^I like your theory A LOT. :D I had never really thought of it that way before but now that I think about it, it really does make sense.

Yeah it goes. I think it's weird how anyone who goes there over and ever again could grow to be decades older and then leave and come back and do that again about 50 more times.

Andrea

[EveningStar]

One itsy-bitsy problem with that. If you would call Aslan itsy-bitsy. One does not travel between the worlds unbidden.

Then again, for me at least, there is the mortality problem. In the natural order of things, by the time we die we tend to see at least as many old friends on the other side of the door as we leave behind. At 46 I already have a number of people waiting for me. To postpone that indefinitely would make their loss truly tragic. I live in a wonderful equilibrium where I am happy to be where I am and doing what I am doing, neither clinging to the past nor running blindly to the future, but just walking along at a steady pace and enjoying the sights along the way.

As Tolkein so kindly put it, God gave elves the gift of immortality and gave humans the gift of mortality. Bear it well sons of Adam, bear it well daughters of Eve.

[Orrius]

White Stags are old in myth as the geocities link states.

Pity the stag didn't fight its enemy, a snake :(

[lionessofgod]

What the heck is a white stag? I am very confused.

[TolkienGoddess]

The myth is if you catch a White Stag that you will get wishes. A stag is like a deer, I think.

So how come the stag in the army (I think w/ Caspian) was not being chased all the time?? :confused:

[EveningStar]

A stag is an adult male deer. Stag is another word for "buck". A "doe" or "hind" is an adult female deer. A fawn is young deer, as compared to faun with a "U" that is a goat-legged pastoral rustic such as Tumnus.

Does that make the opposite of "donate" to be "stagnate"?

[inkspot]

Deeper Wonderment, thank you for that interesting link. In part, it said:

"To Christians, the white stag came to symbolize Christ, perhaps in part inspired by the St. Eustace legend, wherein the Roman soldier Eustace is hunting, and happens upon a deer with a cross between his antlers. Eustace converts on the spot, and is put through numerous tragedies, persecutions, etc., including the death of his family, until being miraculously reunited with them. However, it is clear that this pious legend has pagan predecessors.

"It is also worth noting that in Christian iconography, the unicorn is a symbol for Christ. There is a close identification between the white stag and the unicorn, and it can be reasoned that the white stag is the equivalent of the unicorn in these northern cultures, which do not record the existence of unicorns."

So if the stag was recognized by Lewis as a symbol of Christ, then it makes sense that it was Aslan/in stag form who was leading the children back to their world. Interesting that in the legend of the Roman soldier and the stag, the soldier's name is Eustace. Where will we encounter than name again?

[TolkienGoddess]

:confused: Wait, wait...so the "stag" at the end of LWW is really Aslan in stag form??

[EveningStar]

I don't think it was Aslan in stag form. I do think Aslan wanted them to follow the stag back to their world.

C.S. Lewis used some forms of symbolism found elsewhere but reinterpreted them to suit his own universe. After all, there is actually a point in one story where he refers to the "goat gods" (lower case "g") that make vines spring up for a celebration. But obviously he does not intend them to be seen as "G" gods. Same thing about using creatures found in Greek Mythology without attempting to legitimize Greek Mythology. Or a flat earth, or stars who are actually shining spirits a.k.a. "Great Kings of the Past" if you are a Lion King fan. He even has Father Time in there.

[inkspot]

Yeah, I was only supposing about Aslan in stag form because of the link that said in Christian symbolism the stag sometimes represents Christ, and wondering if Lewis was relying on that with the white stag leading the children back to their world. It could be ...?

[Orrius]

Why would Aslan become a stag?

Isn't it Narnia tradition to hunt a white stag when one see's one?

[inkspot]

Why would Aslan become a stag?

Isn't it Narnia tradition to hunt a white stag when one see's one?
The tradition is, if you catch the stag, he will make your wishes come true. So I don't think you are supposed to kill him. The reason I thought it might be Aslan is simply that according to Christian legend in our world, the stag can be a symbol for Christ, as CS Lewis must have known, and the stag is helping the children to do Aslan's will and return to their own world.

Aslan does change forms in the stories -- remember he is a lamb at the end of VDT.

This stag as a symbol of Christ is an interesting tidbit for Harry Potter fans, too, because his patronus (which protects him from the dementors) is a stag. What if JKR is setting up the HP series to be symbolic Christian literature? I think that would be very cool, with the Christ-symbol patronus protecting Harry ...

[Orrius]

Well 'patronus' is Latin for 'protector'. But in HP, it's a stag because Harry's father could assume the form of one.

[pavender]

Why would Aslan become a stag?

Isn't it Narnia tradition to hunt a white stag when one see's one?

I don't see why the stag couldn't have been Aslan. Apart from inkspot's point, Aslan is all-knowing and so would have known the Pevensie's wouldn't have caught him but would have been distracted by the lampost instead. So changing into a white stag wouldn't have bothered him too much.

I'm on the fence as to whether or not it was actually him though - quite possibly it was. But if it wasn't then he definitely used the white stag to lead the Pevensie's back to our world.

[TimmyofOz]

Deeper Wonderment, thank you for that interesting link. In part, it said:

"To Christians, the white stag came to symbolize Christ, perhaps in part inspired by the St. Eustace legend, wherein the Roman soldier Eustace is hunting, and happens upon a deer with a cross between his antlers. Eustace converts on the spot, and is put through numerous tragedies, persecutions, etc., including the death of his family, until being miraculously reunited with them. However, it is clear that this pious legend has pagan predecessors.

"It is also worth noting that in Christian iconography, the unicorn is a symbol for Christ. There is a close identification between the white stag and the unicorn, and it can be reasoned that the white stag is the equivalent of the unicorn in these northern cultures, which do not record the existence of unicorns."

So if the stag was recognized by Lewis as a symbol of Christ, then it makes sense that it was Aslan/in stag form who was leading the children back to their world. Interesting that in the legend of the Roman soldier and the stag, the soldier's name is Eustace. Where will we encounter than name again?

Wow, that's a neat legend. Here is a nice engraving of St. Eustace. Kind of Narnian.

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/imgs_En/08/hm88_5_0_18_1_big.jpg

[TimmyofOz]

http://e3.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/SpinningWeb/eustacevision.jpg

Here is another St. Eustace painting. :)