Category: Fantasy

Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/14/21: Witches of the North (Narnia XXII)

  “Long, long ago, at the very beginning, a White Witch came out of the North and bound our land in snow and ice for a hundred years. And we think this may be one of the same crew.” This throwaway quote by an anonymous owl in The Silver Chair made me think. Its casual …

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The Curious Lamp-post

Mr. Tumnus pauses near the lamppost in this pen and ink illustration by Masianus Andrzej, which resembles a Victorian engraving.  

Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/7/21: Seals of the Seven Lords (Narnia XXI)

One of the ways The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie differs from the book is the role the Seven Lost Lords play. In the book, the lords, who opposed Miraz the Usurper, are exiled and depart on a sea voyage to explore the east, only to disappear; they are the impetus for Caspian to …

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I am Aslan

Above: Aslan in a 1960s style. Below: Narnia logo in Arabic script, by mohammedanis-dacttw1.  

The Lady of the Green Kirtle (Part I)

  The Lady of the Green Kirtle, sometimes known simply as the Lady, is the second major villain of the Chronicles of Narnia. She plays a star role in The Silver Chair, where she is responsible for killing Caspian’s wife and abducting his teenage son Rilian, using him in her plans for conquest. As I …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/30/21: The Green Witch (Narnia XX)

C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair featured the second most powerful villainess of the Narnia world: The Green Witch, known by her more popular title of The Lady of the Green Kirtle (a Medieval term for a woman’s petticoat/gown.)  She works by subterfuge, can transform into a serpent, has a knowledge of hypnotism and magic …

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Aslan’s Country

Not many artists take on the metaphorical, and metaphysical, aspects of Aslan’s Country, the heavenly paradise where souls go after death, and which surrounds and is also inside all of Aslan’s (God’s) creations. Here are two depictions, most likely by the same artist.

Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/23/21: The Twins of Archenland (Narnia XIX)

  Archenland is a country to the south of Narnia proper (that is, Narnia the nation-state not Narnia the world) and lies between it and Calormen, providing a buffer of sorts. Rather, its mountains provide a buffer. There’s a northern range lying between it and Narnia, and a southern range that provides a barrier to …

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Narnia Nightmare

Not all depictions of Narnia are positive. It is a scary place in a lot of ways — there’s an evil witch who turns innocent creatures to stone, a trusted friend betrays a child, and another child betrays his siblings, out of spite no less. The know-it-all hero — the Gandalf, if you will — …

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The Western Wild

Other posts in this series: The Odd Geography of the Utter East The Wild Lands of the North Calormen and the South So we come to the last unexplored region of Narnia – The Western Wild. It’s an area of rugged wilderness, without law or human rulers, as opposed to the south, which is dominated …

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