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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: Title The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

     Author    C. S. Lewis
   Illustrator Pauline Baynes
     Country   United Kingdom
    Language   English
     Series    The Chronicles of Narnia
    Genre(s)   Fantasy novel
    Publisher  Geoffrey Bles
    Released   1950
   Media type  Print ( Hardcover & Paperback)
      Pages    208 (modern hardcover)
      ISBN     ISBN 0-06-023481-4 (modern hardcover)
   Followed by Prince Caspian

   The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy novel for children by
   C. S. Lewis. Written in 1950, it is the first book of The Chronicles of
   Narnia and is the best known book of the series. (Though written and
   published first, it is second in the series' internal chronological
   order, and its prequel " The Magician's Nephew" is currently marketed
   as Book 1 due to a decision by the publisher to renumber the books
   according to internal chronology rather than publication date.)

   The book is dedicated to Lewis's God-daughter, Lucy Barfield.

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   Four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, are evacuated
   from London during World War II, and settled with an elderly Professor
   in a large country-house.

   The children explore, and Lucy, the youngest of the children, climbs
   into a wardrobe and finds it leads to a snow-covered land. She meets a
   faun, Tumnus, who tells her that the land is called Narnia, and that it
   is ruled over by the ruthless White Witch, who ensures that it is
   always winter, but never Christmas.

   Lucy goes back through the wardrobe, which returns to normal, and is
   unable to convince the other children about her adventure.

   Several weeks later, she re-enters Narnia, and Edmund follows. He fails
   to catch up with Lucy, and instead comes across the witch, who seduces
   him with magical sweets and promises of power. She persuades him to try
   to bring the other children to her castle.

   The witch departs, Lucy arrives, and both Lucy and Edmund return
   together through the wardrobe. Out of cruelty, Edmund will not admit to
   the others that Narnia is real.

   Finally, circumstances lead all four children to hide in the wardrobe,
   and they soon find themselves In Narnia. They discover that Tumnus has
   been captured, and the children are sheltered by a pair of talking
   beavers named Mr. Beaver and Mrs. Beaver.

   They recount an ancient prophecy that when two Sons of Adam and two
   Daughters of Eve fill the four thrones at Cair Paravel, the witch's
   power will fail. The beavers tell of the true king of Narnia—a great
   lion called Aslan—who has been absent for many years, but is now "On
   the move again."

   Edmund, still in the thrall of the witch, runs away to find her. His
   absence is not noticed until it is too late. Realising that they have
   been betrayed, the others set off to meet with Aslan.

   Edmund, meanwhile, reaches the castle of the witch. She treats him
   harshly and, taking him with her, sets off to catch the other children.

   However, her power is failing and a thaw strands her sleigh. The other
   children reach Aslan, and a penitent Edmund is rescued just as the
   witch is about to kill him.

   Calling for a truce, the witch demands that Edmund be returned to her,
   as an ancient law gives her possession of all traitors. Aslan,
   acknowledging the law, offers himself in Edmund's place and the witch
   accepts.

   Aslan is sacrificed by the witch, but comes back to life, and, during a
   final battle, the witch is defeated and killed.

   The children become kings and queens, and spend many years in Narnia,
   growing to maturity, before returning to our world, where they find
   themselves children again.

Character list

     * Peter Pevensie is the oldest of the Pevensie siblings that left
       London during WWII. At first, he disbelieves Lucy's stories about
       Narnia, but changes his mind when he sees it for himself. Peter is
       hailed as a hero for his part in the overthrow of the White Witch.
       He is eventually crowned the High King of Narnia, King Peter the
       Magnificent.
     * Susan Pevensie is the second oldest of the Pevensie children. She
       also does not believe in Narnia until she is actually there. She
       seems to exhibit very little personality. Along with her siblings,
       she is crowned at Cair Paravel, and is referred to as Queen Susan,
       the Gentle.
     * Edmund Pevensie is the third Pevensie child. He also does not
       believe Lucy's stories about Narnia and makes fun of Lucy for
       telling them. When he is in Narnia, he meets the White Witch who
       plies him with enchanted Turkish Delight. Tempted by the White
       Witch's promise of power and seemingly unending supplies of Turkish
       Delight, Edmund betrays his siblings, but eventually regrets his
       actions and repents. After he helps Aslan and the citizens of
       Narnia defeat the White Witch, he is crowned King Edmund, the Just.
     * Lucy Pevensie is the youngest Pevensie child. She discovered the
       land of Narnia in the back of Professor Kirke's wardrobe. When Lucy
       told her siblings, they refused to believe her, particularly
       Edmund, who teased her mercilessly. After the restoration of
       Narnia, Lucy is crowned Queen Lucy, the Valiant.
     * Mr. Tumnus is a faun and the first person that Lucy meets in
       Narnia. Tumnus befriends her, despite being hired by the White
       Witch as a kidnapper. After getting to know Lucy, he changes his
       mind about handing her over to the witch. This gets him in trouble
       and he is eveutally arrested and turned into stone. He is later
       restored by Aslan and becomes a close friend of the Pevensies.
     * Jadis, The White Witch is the self-proclaimed Queen of Narnia.
       Ruling with an iron fist, she had placed a spell on Narnia so that
       it is forever winter and never Christmas. She has the right to kill
       anyone she believes to be a traitor to Narnia, which happens often.
       Her magic wand can turn people and animals to stone. The White
       Witch's only fear is of the prophecy that tells of "two sons of
       Adam" and "two daughters of Eve" who will come to Narnia and ally
       with Aslan to overthrow her.
     * Aslan is the lion, and keeps everything on a balance in Narnia. He
       sacrifices himself to spare Edmund, and is resurrected in time to
       aid the citizens of Narnia and the Pevensie children in their
       battle against the White Witch and her minions.
     * Professor Kirke is a professor that is given custody of the
       Pevensies when they evacuate London. He is the only one who
       believes that Lucy did indeed visit Narnia and tries to convince
       the other Pevensie children of this.
     * Mr. Beaver is friends with Tumnus, and he attempts to dethrone the
       White Witch and find Tumnus with Lucy, Susan, and Peter.
     * Mrs. Beaver is Mr. Beaver's wife. She helps the Pevensies by
       feeding them a good meal, and she is very optimistic.
     * Dwarf. The dwarf is the White Witch's right hand man.
     * Maugrim (or Feris Ulf) is a wolf pressed into service by the White
       Witch to hunt down and destroy the Pevensie children. He is the
       police commissioner of Narnia, their subordinates constitute the
       White Witch's police service. He is killed by Peter in the chapter
       "Peter's First Battle".
     * Father Christmas (Santa Claus) arrives when the Witch's spell of
       having no Christmas is broken. He gives each of the Pevensie
       children present a gift (Edmund was with the White Witch), which
       ultimately will help them defeat the White Witch.

Commentary

   The story takes inspiration from the Gospel themes of betrayal, death,
   resurrection and redemption. The "Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time,"
   and "Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time" can be seen as similar
   to the Old and New Covenants of Christianity, respectively. In the
   subsequent books, there is a nod in the direction of the Trinity
   concept, with Aslan in the Christ-role and a passing reference to the
   "Emperor over the Sea" as God the Father. The children form a
   disciple-group around Aslan, with Edmund as Judas and Peter the High
   King as St Peter. The two girls also follow Biblical precedent, as Mary
   Magdalene and the other Mary, through being first to see the
   resurrected Aslan. In addition, there are various allusions to Christ's
   execution, including the humiliation prior to his death and the
   splitting of the curtain in the Temple, represented by the cracking of
   the stone table. The book is not intended to be a retelling of Biblical
   stories in another form; it simply borrows ideas from them so as to
   illustrate basic conceptions of Christianity (and some other ideas as
   well — Platonic philosophy among them). Additionally, the White Witch
   is said to be descended from Lilith, who some religious texts say was
   Adam's first wife.

   It should be noted that Edmund seems the character most close to the
   New Testament's Judas - but that unlike the original Judas, Edmund does
   not die or get consigned to eternal damnation, but is completely
   redeemed by Jesus/Aslan - a variation having enormous theological
   implications. Edmund also seems to contain elements of the Apostle
   Paul.

   J. R. R. Tolkien was a close friend of Lewis', a fellow member of the
   Inklings, and an early reader of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
   However, despite his sharing Lewis' Christian faith, Tolkien was rather
   dismissive of the book. He considered its theology to be both blatant
   and naive, and the mixture of different mythic elements very
   inconsistent. He specifically objected to the curious presence of
   Father Christmas, and the mixture of both Norse and Greek mythologies.
   In addition, he came to dislike the avuncular manner of story-telling
   for children — which can also be found at points in The Hobbit (Being
   something of a perfectionist, he later had to stop himself from
   rewriting that book, as told in Humphrey Carpenter's biography).

   When he wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis did not
   intend for it to be part of a larger work; this may account for several
   inconsistencies in the series. For example, The Horse and His Boy
   establishes that humans live in both Archenland and Calormen during the
   reign of the witch, which makes the reliance on the presence of the
   children to break the witch's spell somewhat confusing when other
   humans could have been brought in from those nearer locations. Nor is
   there any explanation as to what has become of the descendants of the
   original (human) rulers of Narnia, whose dynasty was ordained by Aslan
   in The Magician's Nephew.

   Although not specific to this book (and therefore dealt with in more
   detail in The Chronicles of Narnia entry), some controversy exists
   regarding the acceptability of the Chronicles.

Influences

   Professor Kirke is based on W.T. Kirkpatrick, who tutored a 16-year-old
   Lewis. "Kirk," as he was sometimes called, taught the young Lewis much
   about thinking and communicating clearly, skills that would be
   invaluable to him later

   Narnia is caught in endless winter when the children first enter. Norse
   mythology also has a "great winter", known as the Fimbulwinter that is
   said to precede Ragnarok.

   The dwarves and giants are from Norse mythology. Fauns, centaurs,
   minotaurs, dryads, etc. are all from Greek mythology. Father Christmas,
   of course, was part of popular English folk lore.

   The main story is an allegory of Christ's crucifixion. Aslan sacrifices
   himself for Edmund, a traitor who deserved death, in the same way that
   Christ sacrificed Himself for sinners. The cross is replaced by the
   Stone Table (which were used in Celtic religion). Additionally, the
   splitting of the Stone Table reflects the veil of the temple splitting
   at the point of Christ's death. As with the Christian Passion, it is
   women (Susan and Lucy) who tend Aslan's body after he dies and are the
   first to see him after his resurrection.(BBC News 2006) The
   significance of the death contains elements of both the ransom theory
   of atonement and the satisfaction theory: Aslan suffers Edmund's
   penalty (satisfaction), and buys him back from the White Witch, who was
   entitled to him by reason of his treachery (ransom).

   The freeing of Aslan's body from the stone table by field mice is
   reminiscent of Aesop's Fable of "The Lion and the Mouse." In the fable,
   a lion catches a mouse, but lets him go free. The mouse promises to
   return the favour and does so when he gnaws through the lion's bonds
   after he has been captured by hunters

Differences between the British and American editions

   Prior to the publication of the first American edition of Lion, Lewis
   made the following changes.
     * In chapter one of the American edition, the animals that Edmund and
       Susan express interest in are "snakes" and "foxes" rather than the
       "foxes" and "rabbits" of the British edition.
     * In chapter six of the American edition the name of the White
       Witch's chief of police is changed to "Fenris Ulf" from "Maugrim"
       in the British.
     * In chapter thirteen "the roots of the World Ash Tree" takes the
       place of "the fire-stones of the Secret Hill".

   When HarperCollins took over publication of the series in 1994, they
   decided to use the British edition as the standard for all subsequent
   editions worldwide. (Ford 2005)

Film, television, and theatrical adaptations

   The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has been adapted for television,
   stage, radio and cinema, including the BBC serial The Chronicles of
   Narnia. A Walt Disney Pictures film, entitled The Chronicles of Narnia:
   The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was released in December 2005 and
   has grossed over $740 million worldwide.

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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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