This isn't super related to China (or actually, "in any way"), but I'm READING it in China so that should suffice, MONKEY.
Sooo... in "The Magician's Nephew," Aslan crowns Frank and Helen (the cabbie and his wife) as the King and Queen of Narnia, whose sons inherit Narnia and Archenland. And Trumpkin says in Prince Caspian that as long as humans sit on the throne in Narnia, things generally go best for Narnian subjects (for instance, the talking animals, the dwarves, nymphs, etc.).
Yet in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," Mr. Beaver says that "there's never been any of your [human] race here before." And also, the prophecies and rhymes say that when "Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sits at Cair Paravel, all will be put right."
So what happened in those hundreds of years... did the humans die out? The timeline doesn't seem to make sense if you take his statement literally.
See, so here's the timeline:
Magician's Nephew - Jadis, Queen of Charn, enters Narnia at its birth and hides away for hundreds of years, returning as...
...the White Witch in LWW. In the meantime, Frank and Helen (who are human, or Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve), are king and queen.
LWW - Peter/Susan/Edmund/Lucy come to Narnia, are crowned Kings and Queens at the end of it all. "The Horse and His Boy" takes place while they are still kings and queens during that period. But at the end of LWW, it tells about how the four go back to our world and leave Narnia.
Prince Caspian - the four come back after being gone from Narnia for thousands of years, during which time the kingdom fell to bad men, the pirates who found a portal between our world and Narnia and began calling themselves the Telmarines. So technically speaking, humans still sat on the throne in Narnia, but not the appointed ones. After the battles et al, the four return after setting Caspian on the throne. Peter and Susan never return to Narnia until the last book.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Edmund and Lucy and their cousin Eustace return during Caspian's reign, just a few years later. Edmund and Lucy are told they will never return to Narnia either.
Silver Chair - Eustace returns to Narnia with a classmate, Jill, toward the very end of Caspian's reign (maybe 50 years later?).
Last Battle - Eustace and Jill return to Narnia toward its decline - I believe Tirian is Caspian's great-times-eight-grandson.
So the only time there weren't any humans mentioned was in that period between the Magician's Nephew and LWW. I wish C.S. Lewis were still alive; I'd demand a book. :P I also want to know what happened to Digory's tree that was supposed to protect Narnia.
I really like reading fiction while I'm on trips - it not only gives me something else to do on the more tedious stretches but also gives me a nice overlapping recollection of my vacation whenever I pick that book up in future. Narnia holds good memories for me, and I'm glad it's a companion here. (Well, I first read the books around the time of my surgery in 1993, so I associate these books with being bedridden, too... hahaha)
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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