Influences on Narnia

sun-star · 04-10-2007, 12:32 PM

One of the reasons I've always loved the Chronicles of Narnia is that they feel a bit like composites of the best things in literature, as if Lewis took bits he loved from other works and used them to enrich his stories. A particular example struck me when I was reading the Prose Edda for the first time (maybe you all know this, but it was new to me): after Ragnarok, when Baldr and some of the other gods return to the earth, they find the playing-pieces of the Æsir in the grass at Valhalla and talk about the past. Lewis 'borrows' this when the children in Prince Caspian find the chess pieces!

I found that exciting

. As I'm reading Ivanhoe at the moment I've been thinking that the medievalism of Prince Caspian owes a lot to this kind of 19th century historical fiction about the Middle Ages - especially in the combat between Peter and Miraz. Perhaps Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites were influences too, as well as the almost certain influence of Malory's Morte d'Arthur? Any thoughts?

Anyway, I'd be interested to know if anyone has spotted parallels with Narnia in other books (including the Bible

) which Lewis might have read, especially from those of you more well-versed in George MacDonald or E. Nesbit than I am...

How about later works which were influenced by Narnia, too?

04-10-2007, 12:32 PM	#1
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	Influences on Narnia One of the reasons I've always loved the Chronicles of Narnia is that they feel a bit like composites of the best things in literature, as if Lewis took bits he loved from other works and used them to enrich his stories. A particular example struck me when I was reading the Prose Edda for the first time (maybe you all know this, but it was new to me): after Ragnarok, when Baldr and some of the other gods return to the earth, they find the playing-pieces of the Æsir in the grass at Valhalla and talk about the past. Lewis 'borrows' this when the children in Prince Caspian find the chess pieces! I found that exciting . As I'm reading Ivanhoe at the moment I've been thinking that the medievalism of Prince Caspian owes a lot to this kind of 19th century historical fiction about the Middle Ages - especially in the combat between Peter and Miraz. Perhaps Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites were influences too, as well as the almost certain influence of Malory's Morte d'Arthur? Any thoughts? Anyway, I'd be interested to know if anyone has spotted parallels with Narnia in other books (including the Bible ) which Lewis might have read, especially from those of you more well-versed in George MacDonald or E. Nesbit than I am... How about later works which were influenced by Narnia, too? __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool. Last edited by sun-star : 04-10-2007 at 12:55 PM.

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