The Chronicles of Narnia, the fantasy novel series inspired by an image
What if, someday, you find the doorway to a magical land where animals talk and there’s always snow? Well, the chances of finding such a door in real life are slim, which is why there are books! Take The Chronicles of Narnia for example. This series, authored by none other than C.S. Lewis (the creator of Alice in Wonderland) and published between 1950 and 1960, will transport you to the surreal, magical and fictional realm named Narnia through seven fantasy novels. These are: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950); Prince Caspian (1951); The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952); The Silver Chair (1953); The Horse and His Boy (1954); The Magician’s Nephew (1955); and The Last Battle (1956).
Narnia opens the magical doorway to a fantasy world of mythical beasts and talking animals and becomes a refuge for its protagonists who escape their realities. All the seven novels except The Horse and His Boy, have children from the real world as their protagonists. The books will take you through the adventures of these kids who are sometimes called to save Narnia from evil while narrating the history of the inception of this fantasy realm to its destruction. Here are some fun facts about this series that you didn’t know.
Ten long years to pen the first book
Did you know that the first book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, took a whole decade to complete? C. S Lewis started writing the book in 1939 and finished it only in 1949! The stories became so famous that the series is considered a classic in the fantasy literature genre. The first book is about young Lucy, who enters the magical realm of Narnia while scourging the back of her wardrobe. She and her three siblings, Peter, Edmund and Susan, embark on the adventurous journey of freeing the land from the rule of the evil queen, the White Witch!
Inspired by an image
What if we told you that the Narnia series is inspired from an image? Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. When Lewis was around 16 years old, he often imagined the picture of ‘a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in snowy woods.’ This image continued to come to his mind until he turned 40 and he finally decided to write a story around it. Writers have often used imagery as an inspiration. But an image that will inspire a story so great that it will resonate with readers for decades is so rare!
The characters are influenced by real children
In the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, four children, Peter, Edmund, Lucy, and Susan, live with an old professor. This seems to be inspired from Lewis’s real life. During World War II, three girls named Margaret, Mary, and Katherine used to live with Lewis. In 1939, these girls were evacuated with many others from London because of anticipated attacks and bombings. They lived in the countryside for a brief period of time with Lewis. Who knows, maybe these are the four children he spoke about!
So, are you ready to leave the real world and enter the magical land of Narnia?