Planet Narnia
A year ago, one of the gems which iPlayer yielded was a documentary entitled “The Narnia Code”. Needing to do work, I, of course, capitulated to procrastination - I was doing English at the time, so technically watching it counted as literary revision, anyway. What I watched was highly intriguing, particularly as I love the Narnia books so much, but then I had no time for further investigation into the mysteries allegedly expounded within the subject matter of the documentary - “Planet Narnia” by Michael Ward.
Happily, I came across the book a few weeks ago and found it to be really interesting. I’m not certain that it is 100% correct - how can we ever be sure of the true interpretation of something? - but the theory within it does help to make sense of some of the stranger elements of the books.
Basically, the author claims to have discovered a “code” behind each of the 7 Narnia books (written, of course, by CS Lewis). If you haven’t read them, none of the following shall make sense, so go and read them then come back when you have. (Watching the films definitely does not count in this case.)
Ward says that the secret lies in the mediaeval view of the “seven” planets - Jupiter, Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn - a subject about which Lewis wrote a poem, and other extensive commentaries. The book itself is very interesting and detailed as to exactly what sorts of evidence there is for this in Lewis’ other writings, but essentially, the theory goes:
- The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - Jupiter
- ‘King’ planet
- Explains: red motifs (inc. Santa), presence of another lion (the only time in the series where there is a lion other than Aslan, as far as I can remember), royalist tendencies (hereditary Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve favoured over usurping witch), emphasis on the redness of Aslan’s blood
- Prince Caspian* - Mars
- War, plus original connotations of fertility and vegetation (as in March)
- Explains: male-dominated plot, war-centric plot, the fact that the skills tests demonstrated by the Pevensies are archery and swordplay, and the importance of the trees and vegetation to the plot.
- Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Sol / The Sun
- Title - journey towards the rising sun
- Many mentions of the sun’s light and brightness
- Pool that turns things into gold**
- Symbols of Aslan are gold rather than the red emblem found in other Chronicles
- The dragons - the sun in the guise of sun-‘god’ Apollo was renowned for slaying dragons, plus dragons themselves are creatures of fire
- Caspian’s comments on a possible future wife - ugly girl, “squints and has freckles” [ie sun-kisses]
- The Silver Chair - Luna / The Moon
- Lunatics/ Madness
- Presence of the moon within the story and its transformative powers
- Instability - water, wandering, mental
- Lots of silver
- Horse and His Boy - Mercury
- Fluid / quicksilver - temporary fusion (separation and union)
- Also has a kleptic (thievery) association
- Explains: reunion of twins and recurring two-fold imagery; speed being so essential (see Mercury as Hermes, messenger of the gods); Shasta’s many “raiding” expeditions for food; division in unity of Aslan (as God/Trinity) - he is a lion, a cat, a voice…
- The Magician’s Nephew - Venus
- Maternal, divine, love, angelic, laughter
- Explains: comedic elements (eg comment on “everyone had a lot of servants in those days [inc., presumably, the servants]) + mention of laughter and jokes; beauty of Jadis; healing of Digory’s Mother being so important
- Last Battle - Saturn
- “infortuna major” - sickness, old age, death, sorrow
- Explains: imagery of bleakness and death - by the end, all opening characters have died; older age of protagonist (Eustace and Jane help the older Narnian rather than being helped by him as they were by Puddleglum in the Silver Chair); coldness; Father Time as a representation of Saturn.
So, that was just a brief overview of the theory - Ward writes much more about the subject in the book, which is definitely worth a read if you’re interested in Narnia at all. As I said, I thought it explained a few niggles and randomness of the Chronicles, and the theory does seem to fit well with each of the books. Any thoughts?
* I digress, but was anyone else so disappointed by the film? Poor Peter… complete role reversal from the book with his OTT arrogance - cf “I haven’t come to take your place, you know, but to put you into it” - and then the love interest between Susan and Caspian… Bah!
**Aurification, apparently - there’s a new word for you! (well, it was for me, anyway, and I do like to think of myself as fairly vocabularyious. Maybe you knew it already, in which case you are a genius and I shall humble myself before your awesome knowledge. Let me know in the comments…)
