How grateful I am for the recent movie The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe! No, I have not yet seen the movie, but because I had been planning for many years now to revisit the series, some of whose novels I had enjoyed with my son who is now thirty-two years old, I found the Christmas season the appropriate time to do that, as well as introduce my two youngest granddaughters to the masterful art of C. S. Lewis. My Christmas gift to them was a beautiful collector’s item that contained all seven novels: The Magician’s Nephew, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle. My gift to myself was a less expensive version, which I just completed.
You see, great-grandmother that I am, I am just as enamored of fantasy as the many young people today, and like them, I eagerly await J. K. Rowling’s seventh Harry Potter. When J. R. R. Tolkien’sThe Lord of the Rings was re-popularized by the movies, I reread all three of those books. One day I plan to reread The Hobbit.
What is the appeal for The Chronicles of Narnia? For children, of course, it’s pure fantasy! They will simply enjoy the adventures of the children of Adam and Eve in the paradisiacal world of Narnia, that C. S. Lewis so beautifully peopled with talking animals, mythological figures such as satyrs, centaurs, dryads, naiads . . . legendary dwarfs . . . He has masterfully woven religion, legend, mythology into a beautifully written fantasy adventure. For the more sophisticated reader, it is allegory. Each of the characters and each of the events represent (symbolize) a human character and an event in the chronology of our world. Aslan, for example, may be viewed as a Christ figure. Killed by the wicked witch very early in the chronology, like Christ, he is resurrected. No matter your religion, you will see the parallels.
Because reading is so important, I celebrate anything that entices young people to fall in love with books. So if you haven’t discovered The Chronicles of Narnia, do run out and buy the series. You will be richly rewarded while you wait for the nextHarry Potter.
Written by Lee Lemon Peoples
