Was Charn a WORLD or a CITY?

Charn

Éowyn Dernhelm said:
i think Charn was maybe in a differnt universe like Narnia is from earth
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Regardless if Charn was a city, a world, or both, it's demise was like the demise of many a world in this universe. The sun was large and red. it was in it's final life stage. (In actuality, the light/heat output of these dying stars is much higher than 'normal'. If you want to see such a world yourself, look at the bright red star Antares in Scorpious. Very visible in the US this time of year.) Some red giant stars will puff off their outer layers and become white dwarfs. (This is what our sun will do after it has gone red giant.) Others explode violently in supernovae. Perhaps, charn was vaporized when it's sun went supernova. Whatever it's end, Charn apparently died quickly.
 
timbalionguy said:
Regardless if Charn was a city, a world, or both, it's demise was like the demise of many a world in this universe. The sun was large and red. it was in it's final life stage. (In actuality, the light/heat output of these dying stars is much higher than 'normal'. If you want to see such a world yourself, look at the bright red star Antares in Scorpious. Very visible in the US this time of year.) Some red giant stars will puff off their outer layers and become white dwarfs. (This is what our sun will do after it has gone red giant.) Others explode violently in supernovae. Perhaps, charn was vaporized when it's sun went supernova. Whatever it's end, Charn apparently died quickly.
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It's said that CS Lewis saw the destruction of Charn as comparable to a nuclear holocaust, as he did live in that day and age when the atomic bomb was being used. Jadis referred to Digory and Polly's world as YOUNG when they told her their sun was yellow, not red. So yes, a red sun would indicate a very old world or planet.
 
Narborg said:
Did lewis acheely say this? I think that it may be the case, but wasrnt shere.
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What's acheely LOL Narborg? You mean actually? :D


Yeah I think he did, but I could be wrong. It may be a theory that the author of the biography of Lewis I am reading came up with though.
 
if Charn was a City, then what world would it be in? not the Narnia one, where like Archenland and such are..or maybe Charn had other countries around it, like Narnia does...ut the world does not exactly have a name. i remmeber Jadis said in MN and mentioned other places that were close by Charn
 
Éowyn Dernhelm said:
if Charn was a City, then what world would it be in? not the Narnia one, where like Archenland and such are..or maybe Charn had other countries around it, like Narnia does...ut the world does not exactly have a name. i remmeber Jadis said in MN and mentioned other places that were close by Charn
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It would be in a world that was never named by CS Lewis in the MN. She mentioned three other worlds she destroyed...but those were not the ones Charn was located on.
 
how would Jadis get to those other worlds then from Charn?

I dont remember her saying that they were actual worlds......I'll have to look that up again in MN
 
*Estel* said:
how would Jadis get to those other worlds then from Charn?

I dont remember her saying that they were actual worlds......I'll have to look that up again in MN
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By magic, that's the only explanation.


But now I just looked at the MN and found this quote When she was talking in the Magician's Nephew, she said, " Scum! You shall pay dearly for this when I have conquered your world. Not one stone of your city will be left. I will make it as Charn, as Felinda, Sorlois, Bramadin."

So those three might have been cities on the same world as Charn.
 
I think it was discussed pretty well earlier in the thread, but here is my 2 cents.

I think Charn is both the name of a planet, and the name of the city / kingdom. This is similar to how Narnia is both a planet and a country.

It would be like a country or a city being called "Earth" here on Earth.
 
I am with those who say Charn was just the name of the city/state kingdom. When Jadis stated that she was the "last queen, but queen of the world", it I took that to mean as the last person alive, she would be queen of the world. Aslan calling it Charn a dead world was simply for to make it easy for Polly and Digory to know what planet he was talking about.

As for Narnia, I wonder what the Calormemes called their world. Did they still call it Narnia, the name of their nemeses?

MrBob
 
MrBob said:
I am with those who say Charn was just the name of the city/state kingdom. When Jadis stated that she was the "last queen, but queen of the world", it I took that to mean as the last person alive, she would be queen of the world. Aslan calling it Charn a dead world was simply for to make it easy for Polly and Digory to know what planet he was talking about.

As for Narnia, I wonder what the Calormemes called their world. Did they still call it Narnia, the name of their nemeses?

MrBob
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I can see that, too. It makes logical sense to me either way. I could explain why it is, and I could explain why it isn't. There are quotes that back up either side of it. In the end, Lewis either did or did not give a name to the world in which the kingdom of Charn existed, and that's okay.

I do wonder what Calormenes called their world as well. You're right, they might not have called it Narnia.
 
Oh, boy! This is a C of N topic that I have been dying to sink my teeth into, as I have come across quite a few interesting theories amongst other fans in the Narnian set about whether Charn was a CITY or a WORLD.

I don't think that Charn (which ALWAYS makes me think of the word "char-broiled") wasn't a city or a world in itself, but a kingdom that grew into an empire.

The area in the very center of the kingdom turned empire, where the Royal family's "House", the towering Great Palace was located was the heartbeat, or the Crown Absolute of Charn.

The immediate area surrounding the Great Palace, with its network of noble manor houses, temples, marketplaces, pyramids, public buildings, seemingly endless winding roads & the serpentine, ever-flowing body of water that ran through it was the CITY.

By the way, the city was where all of the daily happenings took place, which was anything but enjoyable for the commoners but was surely delightful to Queen Jadis as she looked down upon, listened to & breathed in the anguished sights, sounds & the various smells from her regal place on the palace terrace during the days of long ago.

Outside the city proper lay the vast area that was occupied by farms, crop fields & Royal & noble family recreation/vacation dwellings, which were sustained by the same body of water in the city.

Beyond THAT lay the even more vast "boondock" area, peppered here & there with foul slums & destitute places of exile that stretched on to the Egyptian-styled obelisks, etched from top to bottom with the words "Here be the Magnificent Empire of Charn" in the native tongue.

Well, there you have it, fellow Narnian fans! On today's menu, we're serving a main course of Empire of Charn with a side of City Charn & River Charn with wide-open spaces sprinkled with people, buildings, flora, animals, water & fauna as far as the eye can see for dessert. Bon Appétit!

Wow, that's a whole lotta char broiled Charn! I hope you're all hungry 😅😂🤣

The other places (Bramandin, Felinda & Sorlois) that Queen Jadis made mention of during her hilariously futile but determined attempt to conquer our world were kingdoms/empires that were magnificent in their own right at one time but were eventually felled one by one by the Royal Family of Charn, strictly for endless wealth & power.

These defeated Royal Families were allowed to live under Charnish occupation but were forced into an agreement of sorts in exchange from being executed, so by Charnish Royal decree, they were required to pay taxes & tributes, mainly in the form of slaves & riches, which were then delivered back to Charn for the Royal family to use in the temples & in the palace.

In conclusion, these four kingdoms/empires & everything in addition, from the dying red sun, the twin moons & the one single star up in the sky, down to the lowest crawling insects on the ground existed in this WORLD, possibly called "Ki-ertu*", where Jadis ruled as the self-proclaimed Last Queen, until the moment she blotted it all out forever.

*Ki-ertu: term coined by fanfiction.com C of N story author TheophilusG, meaning "The World Beneath the Gods."
 
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I always had the impression that "Charn" meant the planet. But place names in the real world can be subjected to expanding redundancy.

The name "Asia" originally applied only to the land we now call Turkey, and NOT EVEN all of Turkey; but now, it applies to everything from the Ural Mountains to Japan. And in America, the STATE of Iowa contains an Iowa County, an Iowa City, AND an Iowa River.
 
I think Charn was a world. I believe it was figurative language when Jadis called it a city. Or maybe the whole world was one big city, like a medieval type Coruscant! Aslan referred to it as a world. There is no guarantee the civil engineering structure would remain the same from world to world. Cities, states, counties, city-states, towns all.may have had different meanings on Charn. Or no meaning at all.
 
Well since it was The Wood Between The Worlds that allowed access to Charn, I’d say its a world. Jadis clearly did not know Narnia till she invaded it during its creation.
 
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