Things you'd never noticed

I don't know if it's been said before, but I always stumble about Mr Tumnus being black, because I always imagine him being brown. I also imagine him having more rough, not "glossy" fur. And there is another thing I notice about him that often confuses me: He has the lower body of a goat - and a long tail! But goats have short tails I guess it's because a long tail appears more animal-like. Like - woah, he has a TAIL! Still, I mostly (not always) imagine him having a short tail, simply because I imagine his full lower body to be that of a goat. Sheep have long tails, though

I think what many people don't notice are two things about Lucy: 1. She is a blonde. People always draw her as brunette (even non-Disney fanart) and she is always considered a brunette. But she has blonde hair in the book. 2. She is 17 years old in TLB. *sigh* Our little child grew up... She's still always the little girl, even though she is older than Susan in the beginning who has always been considered a big (as in mature) girl.

Good observations. I hadn't noticed anything about the colour of Tumnus's fur. Where does it say that? And I hadn't really imagined him with a tail at all.

As for Lucy, I had in my mind that it said she was blonde somewhere, but now I can't find where. Where does it say that? Does it specify her age in TLB, or just that she had left school? Actually, I discussed the children's ages in the thread Chronology Questions, giving my estimate of her age in TLB as 15-16 (see post #28 of that thread).

Peeps

It is mentioned when Lucy first meets Tumnus His hair is "glossy black" and he has his tail wrapped over his arm.

I'm not sure, where it's mentioned, but Lewis definitely described her hair as "golden" at least once if not several times.

The age is only guessed, but she is definitely a teenager in TLB.

It's at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the last chapter. Lucy is described as golden-haired.

A, thank you, I've completely forgotten when it was mentioned ;D

4) Bree and Hwin were married, but not to each other. I always had in mind that they had got married to each other.

Peeps

Wow, I totally had the same thing in mind! But they might have liked each other to much ;D

Tmn

1) The courtyards at Charn had no roof (at least the first few they walked through), and the sky was very dark blue, almost black.

Wow, you're making progress! You must be a fast reader.

I've been wanting to comment more on Lion, Witch, Wardrobe. I've been reading it. I like all the detail it gives about the rooms around the wardrobe. There is green colored room with a harp I hadn't noticed before. Nor had I remembered the balcony attached to one of the rooms (I like how the balcony is portrayed on the radio drama, because the children open the door to it and you hear rain falling). I want to also go back and look at the BBC version movie, because I remember how it has five steps up, and three down in one of the passage ways (or something like that...I can't remember the exact numbering). These small details in the book really help me place myself in the setting.

Wow, that's a whole load of things I hadn't even noticed at all! Thanks for pointing those out - I'll have to go back and have another look.

Peeps

2) The door from the tunnel into Uncle Andrew's study must have been half-height and/or raised above the floor. In ch 6 it says that Polly "crawled through the little door into the tunnel". In contrast, however, the description in ch 1 says that Polly "stepped" into Uncle Andrew's study. I am therefore imagining it as a little half-height door raised to about waist-height off the floor of the room. Therefore, by crouching down in the tunnel, one can step through the door into the room, whereas one has to crawl back out again into the tunnel. This would also fit the description of how to get into the tunnel from Polly's house, which involves "a little careful climbing", which suggests that the level of the tunnel is higher than the level of the floor of the attic rooms in the row of houses.

Peeps

I'm still on LWW here. It had been years since I last picked it up. The lion in the Witch's courtyard struck me more clearly this time in the chapter "What Happened About the Statues?" In fact it's a beautiful segue connecting Aslan to him. The first creature he changes from stone to living is another lion! Here the reader is offered a mirror into the mind of Aslan as he breathes life into his species. This regeneration of life is an extension of what he just did moments ago: took death upon himself to break the stone table.

Tlb

Onto the last of the Chronicles... here is something else interesting I found.

1) The far West of the Narnian world has islands, and therefore, presumably, an ocean. (The exact line is that there came into Narnia "strange uneartly things from the remote islands of the unknown Western lands.")

Peeps

I'd missed that. I've wondered before what was beyond the Western Wild, though. (And the far south...does Narnia have an Antarctica? Does that even make sense in a flat world?)

I know this has been discussed before, but does Caspian's belief that Narnia is flat...make it flat?

On earth, people believed for centuries that the world was flat. But that does not make it flat. So...Caspian says that Narnia is flat. Does that automatically mean that Narnia is flat? I don't think so personally.

But surely the world having an edge means that it's flat?

Peeps

Unless it's a cube. Or something even worse.

Vdt

Ok, so I'm currently reading VDT, and noticed a few interesting things. Most fall into the category of 'mistakes and blunders', and some are questions rather than observations, but rather than start a new thread, I thought this one was a suitable place.

The first few are in illustrations.
1) In ch 2, in the picture in the cabin, next to Drinian there is a globe on the table.
2) In ch 4, in the picture of the procession, Lucy, Edmund and Eustace are in the procession, just behind Caspian, but this was at the time that they were still slaves of Pug.
3) Also in ch 4, the illustration shows Caspian and Drinian overturning Gumpas' table, while the text says it was Bern and Drinian who did this.

Now some questions about flat-earth physics.
4) It is noted that the sun gets larger as they move Eastwards. But surely, assuming it is getting larger because it is closer and not due to some optical illusion, it should only be larger in the mornings, and correspondingly smaller in the evenings.
5) If the water is puring off the edge of the earth, how is is replenished? (Otherwise the sea level would drop.) Also, why is the current only in one narrow channel, and why does it only begin close to the edge of the earth?
6) It is noted that islands disapper below the horizon, but this implies a round earth. On a flat one, you should be able to see, in principle, all the way to the end, although the distant objects would be very small and eventually lost in haze, probably. (On the same theme, why is Aslan's country not visible from further West, at least in the afternoons? - in the morning it is obscured by the sun which rises in front of it.)

And finally, some questions about people's actions.
7) How did Restimar end up being left on an island that was only 20 acres in size? I can't imagine him deciding that it was a good place to be abandoned, probably never to see another ship again. But if he died before the others had left the island, why did they leave his armour behind, which would presumably have been pretty obvious to them after a search, even if they weren't with him when he dived.
8) If Reepicheep and the others were so concerned for Lucy's safety on the island with the voices, why didn't they go up with her to the Magician's Book. No-one said she had to go alone; in fact, the Dufflepuds explicitly said that there had been several of them when they went before.
9) If the Duffers' weapons were invisible when they held them but became visible when they left their body, why is the same not true of the plates and dishes that they served at dinner, which could be seen jumping around the room?
10) How did Rhoop come to learn that the Dark Island was a land where dreams come true? (He says that it was that kind of talk that brought him there.) And, if the others knew that, why did they not go with him? If they thought it was a trick or a lie, they presumably told him so, so why did Rhoop disagree strongly enough that he was willing to go off on his own?

Peeps

I look at book illustrations similar to book cover art. It is an artistic interpretation of the general scene, not as an accurate depiction of any scene.

4) To be fair, stars in the Narnian universe are beings. Their sun may also be one that moves through the sky in a definitive manner.

%) we can't know flat earth physics. It would be similar to why Narnia didn't flood after the thaw in LWW. The rivers should have risen by a large portion, destroying the Beavers' dan at the least.

6) I don't remember that statement, but you are right that nothing would disappear below a horizon on a flat world. However, the large cliff to Aslan Country should be visible.

8) Lucy was adamant about going up there and stated that the duffers were not exactly clever or brave so their opinion of this magician couldn't be accepted. It also seemed implicit that she wanted to do it alone and even Reep stated that it was her right to do as they asked if it meant to save them all.

MrBob