Cair Paravel, Narnia’s royal castle, as depicted in a Pauline Baynes illustration from the original book, and in an artist’s concept for the movie. The movie version is larger and grander but keeps to the same outline.
Category: Fantasy
Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/17/20: Narnia III
Speaking of Prince Caspian, the book contains one of the most memorable of all the series’s peripheral characters: Reepicheep the Mouse, short in stature but long on bravery. To me he was the Narnia equivalent of Scrappy-Doo, Scooby-Doo’s more eloquent little nephew: annoying. He does introduce, however, the Narnian way of naming mice: three-syllable names …
Witch’s League Smackdown
This is hilarious.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/10/20: Narnia II
C. S. Lewis actually wrote Prince Caspian, the second book of The Chronicles of Narnia, hot on the tail of the first. In it, he explored an idea he had been playing around with for a while: What if King Arthur actually returned to England during the Battle of Britain as prophesied (when England was …
Voyage of the Hot Potato
Yes, these are a thing on someone’s Christian website.
Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/3/20: Narnia I
British writer C. S. Lewis’s well-loved children’s fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, began in 1950 with the publication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by publisher Geoffrey Bles (in the U.S. Macmillan was the publisher.) The book was, according to Lewis, inspired by a drawing of a faun — a satyr — …
The White Witch
Of all the depictions of The White Witch, this is the closest that comes to my own vision of the character. Regal, aloof, alien, and seductive.
Summer of Narnia
There’s a lot of upsetting stuff going on in the world right now. COVID-19. Racism. Unemployment. So, to preserve my own sanity, this summer I’m going to go back to where it all began for me, as a writer and a fantasy fan — Narnia. There will be posts on the books, my opinions of …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/27/20:The Best of Twittersnips (Magic Items, Part 2)
It’s pretty hard to find artwork of fantasy characters using magic items, even wands. Most contemporary artists just picture them with blasts of energy flying from their hands, which is visual shorthand for “MAGIC!” Rowena Morrill is one of the rare few who has depicted them. She actually read the books and took notes of …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/20/20:The Best of Twittersnips (Magic Items, Part 1)
There’s a very broad category, in gaming, of magical items that are not scrolls, potions, clothing, or weapons. They range from everyday objects like braziers or books to esoteric ones like church organs and actually body parts (like the hand and eye of Vecna.) These were always the more interesting ones too me. What could …