Hare’s featured in The Chronicles of Narnia

The only hare mentioned of a Hare in The Chronicles of Narnia is a mention of Moonwood, a talking hare that lived in the sixth century of Narnia. The mention of Moonwood was made during a conversation between the unicorn Jewel and his friends before the “last battle”. Moonwood’s hearing was said to be so good that he could hear a whispered conversation in Cair Paravel.

It is a wonder that Lewis makes a mention of Moonwood at all because there is no other mention of him elsewhere within the volumes of Narnia.

Further Up and Further In

“And the sea in the mirror or the valley mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones, yet at the same time they were somewhat different-deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much want to know.”

Further Up and Further In, The Last Battle, The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Mice of Narnia

Mice in Narnia did not always speak. Aslan gave speech to the mice after they had loosened the cords that the White Witch used to bind Aslan. There are only two notable mice mentioned in any detail in the Chronicles of Narnia.

Reepicheep is the Chief mouse and was knighted for his brave and dedicated service. Reepicheep one the most beloved characters in the Chronicles of Narnia was featured in the following volumes of the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Last Battle.

Reepicheep has dark (almost black) fur. He stands about two feet tall, and walks on his hind legs. While voyaging to the end of the world on the Dawn Treader, Reepicheep decided to stay behind in Aslan’s country.

Peepiceek is the other notable mouse in Narnia, and was second in command of the Narnian mice. Later because of the absence of Reepicheep, Peepiceek became the leader of the Narnian mice.

The Wrap-up of Narnia

Now that Aslan is wrapping up Narnia and the story is coming to a close I am feeling a bit sad about its coming to an end. I feel as if I have been on a very journey with a group of friends. Friends that have grown close through many adventures and experiences we have shared.

When returning from a long journey you do feel glad about getting home and getting caught up with friends and family, but there is a part of you that doesn’t come home. You have changed. You have been through the thick and thin. You see everything through a new set of eyes. The old has past and a new world has dawned for you. The Chronicles of Narnia is like that.

The seven books (novelettes) that make up the Chronicles of Narnia is an adventure that is seen through the eyes of the participating children from this world and the Narnian animals. Each novelette builds upon the last. The story and its adventures feature many aspects of Narnia and its creator Aslan. Aslan was the king of kings and always made things right. Whom more than Aslan has the right to bring Narnia to a close?

“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Farewell to Shadowlands, The Last Battle, The Chronicle of Narnia.

A Riddle from the Silver Chair

“Though under Earth and throne less now I be, yet while I lived, all Earth was under me.”

The Chronicles of Narnia

A Meal Ate under the Earth

It seems that I have neglected to mention the meals our characters have eaten while on their travels. Pity me. This luncheon was set before the Prince (Knight), and his guests, of Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum. The meal consisted of:

Pigeon pie
Cold ham
Salad
And cakes; one of these cakes was reported as being a honey cake.

The Silver Chair, The Chronicles of Narnia.

I haven’t had pigeon pie or honey cake, but the menu is enticing just the same.

Jill’s Quest

Upon entering Narnia for the first time, Jill meets Aslan while she is refreshing herself at a stream. Since she had pushed Eustace off the cliff in fear of falling herself, she is given a task by Aslan for Eustace and she to complete. The quest was be guided by Aslan who gave Jill the following four steps in which they must proceed.

“These are the signs by which I will guide you in your quest. First; as soon as the boy Eustace sets foot in Narnia, he will meet an old and dear friend. He must greet the friend at once; if he does, you will both have good help. Second; you must journey out of Narnia to the north till you come to a ruined city of the ancient giants. Third; you shall find writing on a stone in that ruined city, and you must do what the writing tells you. Forth; you will know the lost prince( if you find him) by this, that he will be the first person you have met in your travels who will ask you to do something in my name, in the name of Aslan.”

The Silver Chair, Jill’s is Given a Task, The Chronicles of Narnia.

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If it had not been for some quick acting on the parts of Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum, the trio would had failed to achieve the task set before them by Aslan. They had missed opportunities with the first three signs and had suffered many hardships and delays because of their obstinacy. This was more so with the children than Puddleglum.

The Ecstatic Reepicheep Speaks

With only two volumes left to my reading of the Chronicles of Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is so far the best volume in this collection. With its adventures, King Caspian and his crew went looking for the lost Lords and encountered new lands, peoples and creatures.

“Yes, yes”, cried Reepicheep, clapping his paws together. “That’s how I’ve always imagined it-the World like a great round table and the waters of all the oceans endlessly pouring over the edge. The ship will tip up and stand on her head-for one moment we shall see over the edge-and then down, down, the rush, the speed.”

“And what do you think will be waiting for use at the bottom, eh?” said Drinian.

“Aslen’s country perhaps.” said the Mouse, his eyes shining. “Or perhaps there isn’t any bottom. Perhaps it goes down for ever and ever. But whatever it is, won’t it be worth anything just to have looked for one moment beyond the edge of the world?”

The Wonders of the Last Sea, The Dawn Treader, The Chronicles of Narina.

Dragons and Sea Serpents

Not since reading Vern’s A Journey to the Center of the Earth, have I encountered a monster either on land or at sea. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a volume within The Chronicles of Narnia, makes mention of a dragon.

In this chapter the crew of the Dawn Treader arrives at yet a non-named island. Eustace the priggish cousin of Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, decides to make himself scarce and gets himself helplessly lost. Being thirsty and seeing a pool up a head Eustace heads toward the pool for a drink. As he finishes refreshing himself he becomes horrified as he notices, what looks like a dragon heading toward the same pool he had just taken a drink from. Too scared to run Eustace steps back into the shadows and keeps a keen watch on the dragon.

The dragon moves very slowly toward the pool. The dragon takes a couple of laps from the pool and then becomes very still. After what seems like a life time Eustace waits to see what is to become of the dragon. The dragon seems to go to sleep, but after a while Eustace notices that the dragon seems to have stopped breathing. The dragon had dragged itself out to pool to give itself a drink and to die.

Eustace was ecstatic, of course he would be, but all that excitement made him very sleepy. Eustace wanders over to the dragon’s lair and notices gems and articles of gold upon the floor of the cave. He stuffs his pockets with the gems and slides a golden bracelet on his arm and lays down to sleep.

When Eustace awakes he perceives that he had taken up residence with the dragons mate for he perceives steam coming from her nostrils. There was no other dragon, however during the night Eustace had become a dragon. So the dragon in which he sensed was actually Eustace.

In the chapter that follows “How the Adventure Ended” the crew and passengers of the Dawn Treader had left the island, which King Caspian aptly names the, Dragon Island, and were on their way to find the lost lords. They weren’t too far out from Dragon Island when a look-out noticed what looked like a set of rocks a way in the distance. It wasn’t too long afterward when it was noticed that these semi-submersion objects were seemingly following them and were getting closer all the time. The lumps that had been mistaken as rocks were the fins or the humps of a large sea serpent.

The sea serpent coiled itself around the ship. The ship’s crew and passengers worked diligently to remove the serpent from the ship by sliding its body off the ship. They were successful, however the decorative ships stern, which was fashioned after a tail of a sea serpent was lost to this monster of the deep.

A Prophet Word Spoken over Reepicheep

When asked whether sailing to Aslan’s country was even possible, Reepicheep answered “I don’t know Madam, but there is this. When I was still in my cradle a wood woman, a Dryad spoke this verse over me:

‘Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not Reepicheep,
To find what you seek,
Look to the utter east’ “

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Chronicles of Narnia

Reepicheep, another Creature of Narnia

Reepicheep had won recognition and “undying glory” in the Battle of Beruna. Reepicheep was the chief mouse and the most valiant of all the talking creatures of Narnia. The mice of Narnia hadn’t always talked. The mice had been given speech by Alsen when they help him break his bounds that had been imposed on him by the white witch Jadis. Mice also, before receiving speech, did not they have the same stature as Reepicheep. Reepicheep stood on his hind legs and was about two feet tall. His fur was very dark and almost black. Around his waist, he wore a sword that just about touched the ground.

The Creatures from the Chronicles of Narnia

Although I have heard mention of a few of these beings before, I never took the time to look-up find their particular attributes and characteristics. Here is another quote from “Prince Caspian, The Chronicles of Narnia", by C. S. Lewis, with the three creatures in question hyperlinked.

“I wish Aslan had turned up before it came to this,” said Trumkin.
“So do I,” said Truffelhunter. “But look behind you.”
“Crows and crockery!”, muttered the Dwarf as soon as he had done so.
“What are they? Huge people-beautiful people-like gods and goddesses and giants. Hundreds and thousands of them, closing in behind us. What are they?
“It’s the Dryads and Hamadryads and Silvans,” said Trufflehunter. “Aslan has wakened them”.

The Exclamations of Trumpkin

Trumpkin was a Red Dwarf, an old Narnian, who is featured in Prince Caspian, The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis. Trumpkin had a tendency use odd phrases when he was surprised. Some the phrases that I have encountered, in my reading, so far are: “Weights and water bottles”, “Bottles and battledores”, “Whistles and whirligigs”, “Bulbs and bolsters”, “Horns and halibuts”, “Crows and crockery”, “Wraiths and wreckage”, “Coddles and kettledrums!” It might be an interesting to analyze these exclamations for their consequence.

The Hidden Hand of Fate

Shasta had ran toward the castle of King Lune and had given the King the news of the upcoming attack and was now riding the horse that had been given him my one of lords that was with the king. Shasta not really knowing how to ride a horse properly had been left behind by the King and his company.

Shasta first sensed the presence of someone walking aside his horse while he rode through a grove of trees. Shasta asked who was there riding next to him. The lion, Aslan answered Shasta and told him what he was and began to explain how he, Aslan had been there at different points in Shasta’s life to help him.

After conserving thusly for a while Shasta slipped out of his saddle and fell at the feet of Aslen…

”The High King above all kings stooped towards him. Some strange and solemn perfume that hung about its mane, was all around him. It touched his forehead with its tongue. He lifted his face, and their eyes met. Then instantly, the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the Loin rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and disappeared.

Shasta was alone again and he was on a grassy hillside, under a blue sky and there were birds singing.”

The Horse and His Boy, Chapter Eleven, The Unwelcome Fellow Traveler, The Chronicles of Narnia.

By the Twos

I don’t know if you have noticed, but there are a lot of twos’ in this month’s posts. I didn’t plan it that way, it just sort of happened, at least at first. Once I noticed the pattern I went with it. Where it went from happenchance to the planned I will not say, but we have the following posts that came in twos’:

Jules Verne and in his Airships
Harry Collingwood and his Airships

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The Proverbial Fishermen 1
The Proverbial Fishermen 2

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Kriegsmarine 1/4800 Scale Miniatures Group 2
Royal Navy 1/4800 Scale Miniatures Group 1

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Bree the Horse and Shasta Escape and Head North

Shasta had heard the Tarkaan and Arsheesh haggling over a fair price for him. Although Shasta knew that his father would probably not get his asking price, he knew that he would be the property of the Tarkaan in the morning.

This got Shasta thinking, would the Tarkaan be a good master or would he worse than his father? He was at this time stroking the horse and was thinking out load. How can I know? If only the horse could talk. This is when he found out that the horse could speak and had understood all Shasta had said.

The horse was a Narnian and of cause he could speak. Bree, as the horse was called, told Shasta that the Tarkaan was very bad and that Shasta would not fare well with the Tarkaan. It was agreed upon that Shasta and the horse would run away to Narnia as soon as Tarkaan and Arsheesh were asleep.

The Proverbial Fishermen 2

A warrior Tarkaan stops at the hut of Arsheesh and demands hospitality for the night. While dining the Tarkaan speaks his mind about buying the boy, Shasta. Here again we find the hypocrite, Arsheesh quoting the poets. “’ Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles’”. The haggling over a fair price for the boy goes on through the night.

The Horse in his Boy, How Shasta Set Out on his Travels, Chronicles of Narnia.

The Proverbial Fishermen 1

Arsheesh lived by the shore and made his living as a fisherman. Arsheesh lived in his hovel with his son named Shasta. Shasta was not really his son; Arsheesh had come upon then a small boy when a row boat washed ashore with another occupant who had presumably just died (The body was still warm when it was found).

Arsheesh was often cruel to the boy, but the boy respected Arsheesh, as a boy should is father. Arsheesh was fond of quoting proverbs. It is ironic that Arsheesh seemed to know the letter of the law, but often did not practice it.

Shasta was a Narnian, but of cause did not realize this, but often gazed to the North. When he asked his father what laid to the North, his father, when in a foul mood would box Shasta ears, but when in a good mood Arsheesh would say to his son, “ ‘O my son, do not allow your mind to be distracted by idle questions’. He went on to quote the poet: ‘Application to business is the root of prosperity, but those who ask questions that do not concern them are steering the ship of folly towards the rock of indigence.’”

The Horse in his Boy, How Shasta Set Out on his Travels, The Chronicles of Narnia.

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis is actually a compilation of several of Lewis’s works. They include the following novelettes:

• The Magicians Nephew
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
• The Horse and his Boy
• Prince Caspian
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Silver Chair
• The Last Battle

The stories have been arranged in somewhat of a chronological fashion by the publisher of this edition, Harper Collins. Each section consists of roughly one hundred pages. There are black and white illustrations throughout the book and several maps that depict places mentioned in the book.

I have just completed the second section of Lewis’s work and I am taking a short break here so that I can pick-up on some other readings. I will be getting back to The Chronicles of Narnia in a short while.

The Spell Begins to Break

Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, the white witch Jadis put a spell over all the land so it was always winter and never Christmas, but as Aslen drew closer the spell over the land was starting to thaw. It was becoming spring again.

With the thaw Father Christmas was finely able to make a visit to Narnia, and he has gifts for all the occupants of Narnia. Jadis had kept him away long enough.

“I’ve come at last”, Father Christmas said. “She has kept me out for long time, but I have got in at last”.

Father Christmas did not bring toys for the children, but tools. Father Christmas handed Peter a shield and a sword. He gave Susan a bow and a quiver of arrows. And Lucy received a small dagger and a decorative bottle that contain a sweet cordial that was to be given to those who get injured during the upcoming battle with the white witch and all those that were with her.