Allusions to Narnia

Benisse

Perelandrian
Staff member
Royal Guard
What books have you notice have made allusions to Narnia?
Share those references here, numbering them so we can keep a running tally :)

1. In Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, Orpheus reads characters out of books while making himself at home in Elinor's library. One of the characters he releases from the book is a very Tumnus-like faun.
 
2. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series could probably be considered one very big, very grumpy allusion to the Chronicles of Narnia. :rolleyes:

3. J.K. Rowling's centaurs could probably be considered an allusion to Lewis's. Centaurs in Greek mythology were known more for their tendency to give rein to the bestial side of their nature, not for their wisdom.
 
I noticed that too, about the Potter books. In the Chronicles, Lewis definitely "rehabilitated" centaurs, and Rowling carried that forward. But I also think she did a good job of letting their wildness show a little better - Lewis' centaurs were almost tame.
 
Something like five years ago, there was a special "Doctor Who" episode called "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe." Events in that story bore an extremely superficial resemblance to Narnian elements; but of course, there was nothing about the script which even remotely acknowledged God.


Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series could probably be considered one very big, very grumpy allusion to the Chronicles of Narnia.

Absolutely. With Lyra Bevacqua (sp?) as a slightly sordid anti-Lucy. It saddened me to learn that Sam Elliot, one of Carol's and my favorite movie actors, consented to be in the "Golden Compass" movie.

Long ago, I read Pullman's hatchet-job essay "The Darker Side of Narnia," in which his juvenile envy of Lewis' fame dripped from every paragraph. He didn't just disagree with Lewis, he told FLAT-OUT LIES about Lewis. For instance, he claimed that, in "The Last Battle," Susan Pevensie was among the lost creatures turned away from the Stable as Narnia was ending. Pullman wanted his readers to see this as proof of how mean and "judgmental" Mister Lewis' Christian faith was; and he counted on his readers NOT to go and read T.L.B. for themselves. As we know, the extent of judgment on Susan was just Aslan STATING that Susan had ceased to be a friend of Narnia, which is not at all the same thing as declaring final and irrevocable eternal damnation upon her.
 
Actually, CF, Aslan said nothing about Susan. ( I just reread the passage myself).

The Last Battle by CS Lewis. Chapter XII. Through The Stable Door.

And the High King raised him and kissed him on both cheeks as a High King should. Then he led him to the eldest of the Queens—but even she was not old, and there were no grey hairs on her head and no wrinkles on her cheek—and said, "Sir, this is that Lady Polly who came into Narnia on the First Day, when Aslan made the trees grow and the Beasts talk." He brought him next to a man whose golden beard flowed over his breast and whose face was full of wisdom. "And this is my brother, king Edmund: and this my sister, the Queen Lucy."

"Sir," said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. "If I have read the chronicles aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?"

"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."

"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"

"Oh Susan!" said Jill, "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up."

"Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can."

"Well, don't let's talk about that now," said Peter.

But notice, that the more harsher condemnation coming from the latter two. Which makes since. Peter is her brother ( and is also quick to cut off the conversation showing it's a sore spot for him) while Eustace is her cousin and probably feels since was such a brat once, bullying his cousins about Narnia that he is in no place to judge. IMHO, Jill probably saw Susan becoming like one of "Them" from the Experiment house, whilst Polly was a woman who grew up in the Victorian era with a strong sense of modesty and propriety to say nothing of how living through two World Wars and a worldwide economic depression would color her outlook on 'lipstick, nylons, and invitations."


To say nothing of the fact that she wasn't even on the rail way accident and Lewis made it clear in letters that she was still alive.

ANd now back to our originally scheduled thread.
 
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Thank you, Sven-El. The correction does not in any way change the fact that Phillip Pullman is a malicious liar.

Moving on, a cinema-satire film called "Epic Movie" had some kind of Narnian reference. I read a review saying that it was a nasty one, so I never watched that film.



You know how the winters arrive and depart;
Each one leaves a bit more old age in my heart.
But rise from your bed, and we'll dance all the same;
The tree of remembrance will tell me your name.
 
"Bridge to Terabithia" by Katherine Paterson. Not only did the Chronicles make an appearance as a book Leslie gave to Jesse to show how be a good fantasy king (IIRC). Also, the title is an accidental reference to Narnia as VotDT gave us the island of Terabinthia. Leslie gets a puppy she names Prince Terrien.

Regarding His Dark Materials, it was written as the anti-Narnia and has many allusions to many different characters, scenes, and ideas.

MrBob
 
The early CCM group Second Chapter of Acts had an entire album called Roar of love that told the whole story of LWW. I've listened to it, some of it musically, feels a bit dated, clearly 70's music.

In the late 80's Early 90s when fantasy was basically forgotten by the mass of Christian publishers and book sellers, and fantasy confined to the kids section, writer Gilbert Morris had a fantasy/sci-fi series called The Seven Sleepers. It's set in a post apocalyptic world where the whole world was vastly changed by a nuclear war. Seven teenagers awaken in this world.
Any rate in one book, the heroes go to Atlantis and there is the Plains of Jadis nearby, fitting when Diggory and Polly first discovered both Jadis and Narnia through rings forged by Atlantean dust.
Then in another book as another Inlkings reference they travel to the Land of Mordor. Only this ones filled with Dinosaurs.
Morris was an English teacher and is versed not only in classical legends like Atlantis, but in The Inklings.
 
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I bought "The Roar of Love" when it was new. I love it to pieces! But there's no way NOT to notice that it was composed BY a woman, and AT a time when pop culture had not yet made a sacred dogma of the proposition that every female human being is an invincible war-goddess. Annie Herring completely eliminated anything warlike. Peter Pevensie did not even exist for her, nor Edward except to sin and be redeemed; they might as well have been asleep through the entire battle with Jadis' army.
 
The Oh Hellos have also produced a song called "The Lament of Eustace Clarence Scrubb" on their album Through the Deep, Dark Valley. The CD is about sin and repentence, so the song about Eustace (still in his dragon's skin, I believe) fits in well.
 
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