The Nine Names of Aslan

Peepiceek

Well-known member
As Eustace and Jill ride on the centaur's back down to Cair Paravel, he tells them of many things, one of which is the nine names of Aslan. Since Lewis had a great interest in medieval thought, including things such as astrology and numerology, I wondered whether anyone knows if there is some significance in the number nine here, or did he just pick a random number from the air? And did Lewis have nine names in mind?

Alternatively, for those who don't know anything about Lewis's intentions above, your speculation is invited on what the nine names might be.

Peeps
 
Fascinating topic, Mr. Bob...
Thank you so much for the link to this interesting discussion on Aslan's nine names.
I particularly like Spare Oom's 2/4/2006 comment that "What springs to mind is that nine names seems rather apt for a big cat, since cats are said to have nine lives."

This is what Paul Ford says on the subject in Companion to Narnia:

It is the tradition among the Centaurs that Aslan has nine names; but we are given only four and these may not be among the nine the Centaurs know. They are Aslan, the great Lion, the son so the Emperor-beyond- the- Sea, and the King above all High Kings* [*...Aslan is also named "High King above all Kings"; but this name does not differ substantially from "King above all High Kings." ...]

If Jesus Christ is Aslan's name in our world, does this imply there are seven more universes implied where Maleldil the Young (c.f. Out of the Silent Planet) is known?
 
Hmmm, well, Ray Bradbury wrote a short story in which astronauts discovered that Jesus had appeared on other worlds also.

Any such story will attract the infantile scorn of scoffers who don't know what they're talking about. The God-hating fantasy writer Michael Moorcock, whose creativity depended largely on presenting the same old argument that God is CREATED BY people's belief in Him, wanted to believe that he could debunk testimonies of faith by playing word games. So he borrowed the old-fashioned expression "a shaggy dog story," and proclaimed that any story depicting God as alive and real was "a shaggy GOD story."

As if his playing with words scored a brilliant point.
 
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