Tag Archives: the silver chair

Narnia: Explaining the Book Titles

Literature, , , , , , , , , ,

The Chronicles of Narnia is a collection of 7 novels written by C S Lewis, which tells the story of various events that happened in the fictional land of Narnia and beyond. For those who have no idea what the books are about or don’t exactly get the reason behind the titles, here’s a brief explanation and a few relevant quotes. Please note that there are a few spoilers here.


Book 1: The Magician’s Nephew (MN)

666ddda1584a358b467657687d2aa66bThe magician’s nephew refers to Digory, the main character in this book, who will become Professor Kirke in the next book.
Digory is the nephew of Uncle Andrew Ketterley, a minor magician, who was able to make rings that have the power to bring one to the magical world of Atlantis, which was actually the “wood between the worlds.” From this wood, the children – that is, Digory and his neighbor, Polly Plummer – were able to enter the world of Narnia.

[talking to Uncle Andrew] “But there’s one thing I jolly well mean to say first. I didn’t believe in magic till today. I see now it’s real. Well if it is, I suppose all the old fairy tales are more or less true. And you’re simply a wicked, cruel MAGICIAN like the ones in the stories. Well, I’ve never read a story in which people of that sort weren’t paid out in the end, and I bet you will be. And serve you right.” – Digory, from chapter 2 of MN

Book 2: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW)

wardrobe-baynesThe Lion in the title is of course, Aslan, who is the parallel of Jesus in that world. The witch is Jadis (whom we first meet in MN) who used to rule in the dead world of Charn. At the time of this story, Jadis has been known in all Narnia as the white witch, and represents all that is evil in the world. The wardrobe was the way in which the four Pevensies – Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy – were able to enter the world of Narnia.

And now a very curious thing happened… At the name of ASLAN each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer. – from chapter 7 of LWW

“The WHITE WITCH?” said Edmund. “Who’s she?”

“She is a perfectly terrible person,” said Lucy. “She calls herself the queen of Narnia though she has no right to be queen at all… And she can turn people into stone and do all kinds of horrible things. And she has made a magic so that it is always winter in Narnia – always winter, but it never gets to Christmas.” – from chapter 4 of LWW  

For when Digory was quite middle-aged…, there was a great storm all over the south of England which blew the tree down. He couldn’t bear to have it simply chopped up for firewood, so he had part of the timber made into a WARDROBE, which he put in his big house in the country. And though he himself did not discover the magic properties of that wardrobe, someone else did. That was the beginning of all the comings and goings between Narnia and our world, which you can read of in other books. – from chapter 15 of MN

Book 3: The Horse and His Boy (HHB)

71013-_24The horse in the title should get an award for the longest, most interesting name in all Narnia – Breeny-heeny-breeny-hoohy-ha, or Bree for short. He is a Talking Horse who was captured in his youth and was forced to live and work in the distant land of Calormen. Desiring to return to Narnia, he escaped with a boy named Shasta. The reason why the title is “The Horse and His Boy” instead of “The Boy and His Horse” is that Bree pointed out early on to the proud Aravis, the girl who joined them in their escape, that Talking Horses are free Narnians, and so do not belong to anybody.

“Why do you keep talking to my horse instead of to me?” asked the girl.
“Excuse me, tarkheena,” said Bree (with just the slightest backward tilt of his ears), “but that’s Calormene talk. We’re free Narnians, Hwin and I, and I suppose, if you’re running away to Narnia, you want to be one too. In that case Hwin isn’t your horse any longer. One might just as well say you’re her human.” – from chapter 2 of HHB

Book 4: Prince Caspian (PC)

1010860-_7This is the most obvious of all the titles, and needs the least explanation. The book tells of the adventures of Prince Caspian the Tenth, and how he became the rightful king of Narnia against his dangerous Uncle Miraz.

“This is CASPIAN, sir,” he said. And Caspian knelt and kissed the Lion’s paw.
“Welcome, PRINCE,” said Aslan. “Do you feel yourself sufficient to take up the kingship of Narnia?”
“I – I don’t think I do, sir,” said Caspian. “I’m only a kid.”
“Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not. Therefore, under us and under the High King, you shall be king of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands. You and your heirs while your race lasts.” – from chapter 15 of PC

Book 5: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (VDT)

The title pertains to the adventures of the Dawn Treader, which was the name of the ship that King Caspian built in order to find the seven lords (his father’s friends) who sailed off to the east during the time of Miraz. This is a proper adventure story, with exciting things happening in each island.

       “Well,” said Caspian, “that’s rather a long story. Perhaps you remember that when I was a child my usurping Uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my father’s (who might have taken my part) by sending them off to explore the unknown eastern seas beyond the Lone Islands.”
       “Yes,” said Lucy, “and none of them ever came back.”
       “Right. Well, on, my coronation day, with Aslan’s approval, I swore an oath that, if once I established peace in Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and a day to find my father’s friends or to learn of their deaths and avenge them if I could.” – from chapter 2 of VDT

Book 6: The Silver Chair (SC)

Puddleglum-the-MarshwiggleThe silver chair in the title pertains to the magical chair which was used by the Lady of the Green Kirtle, also called the Queen of the Underland or the Emerald Witch. She had the enchanted Prince Rilian, who was the son of King Caspian the Tenth, tied down on this chair during the hour when the enchantment was lifted and he returned to his right mind. This book introduces my all-time favorite literary character – a marshwiggle named Puddleglum.

       “The knight was seated in a curious SILVER CHAIR, to which he was bound by his ankles, his knees, his elbows, his wrists, and his waist. There was sweat on his forehead and his face was filled with anguish.” – from chapter 11 of SC

Book 7: The Last Battle (LB)

71299-_40The title pertains to the final battle in the history of Narnia, which was between the Calormene army and the Narnians who fought on the side of King Tirian. It is the darkest story in the series, but has the most beautiful ending.

There stood his heart’s desire, huge and real, the golden Lion, Aslan himself, and already the others were kneeling in a circle round his forepaws and burying their hands and faces in his mane as he stooped his great head to touch them with his tongue. Then he fixed his eyes upon Tirian, and Tirian came near, trembling, and flung himself at the Lion’s feet, and the Lion kissed him and said, “Well done, last of the kings of Narnia who stood firm at the darkest hour.” – fom chapter 13 of LB

Listening to Narnia (Part 2)

Literature, , , ,

As mentioned in my previous entry, I recently bought The Chronicles of Narnia Unabridged Boxed Audiobook Set of HarperCollins for my birthday through Amazon.com. It’s been over a month since I first started listening to it (while driving alone – which I don’t really do that often, I usually have either my brother or boyfriend with me), and I’m now at the last CD of the last book.

Since I’ve already given my comments on the first four audiobooks, here are my comments on the last three.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – narrated by Derek Jacobi

I have to admit, VDT is my second least favorite of the Narnia books. One reason is that I never really warmed up to the character of Eustace Scrubb. But Derek Jacobi did an amazing job with him. Pre-dragon Eustace was lofty and annoying, but later became actually… likeable. I particularly loved how he read what dragon Eustace was trying to write in the sand and ended with an exasperated “Oh, bother.” I actually had to double check my book to see if it was really there. It was, but I never noticed it before until Derek Jacobi brought it to life. I didn’t really care for his Lucy voice at the beginning, but it grew on me. I actually cried a bit towards the ending of VDT, when Lucy told Aslan, “It isn’t Narnia, you know… It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”

The Silver Chair – narrated by Jeremy Northam

I was worried before listening to this because as I have mentioned before, SC is my favorite of the Narnia books, mainly because of its theme (remembering and following the signs) and its main character, Puddleglum the Marshwiggle. Although Puddleglum’s voice was not how I imagined it to be, and the Lady of the Green Kirtle did not trill her R’s as much as I thought she should have, it was nevertheless very well done. The banter between Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb was always lively.

The Last Battle – narrated by Patrick Stewart

I mentioned in my previous entry that my favorite audiobook was The Magician’s Nephew. After the first chapter of hearing Professor X (Xavier) – er, I mean, Patrick Stewart – reading LB, I knew the people from HarperCollins saved the best for last. Patrick Stewart was amazing. There were particular moments in his reading that really stuck to my mind, such as when the Talking Dogs barked: “Welcome! Welcome! We’ll help, we’ll help, help, help. Show us how to help, show us how, how. How-how-how?” I also loved his voice for Puzzle and Shift and Poggin the Dwarf. He was able to distinguish each voice and give it a character of its own, so you always knew who was talking.

After listening to 30+ hours worth of reading, all I can say is that I can’t wait to start listening all over again!

On BBC’s The Silver Chair (Narnia)

TV & Movies, ,

Narnia_4

I’ve had the complete VCD collection of the BBC adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia for three years now. Someone gave it to me for Christmas during our department’s exchange gift, but I only attempted to watch it once. I started with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but I had to give up after only a few minutes. I was instantly creeped out by the talking beasts – which were people wearing animal costumes, quite unlike the realistic computer-generated animations of the Disney-Walden Media version. Of course, this is quite understandable, since the technology twenty years ago cannot be compared to the technology available today. From what I hear, the BBC adaptation was actually the best in its time. Anyway, I’ve always planned on getting down to the series and watching the entire thing just for the sake of saying that I’ve seen it, but I never got around to it until tonight.

Following the suggestion of my friends at the TLC forum (TLC stands for The Lion’s Call, one of my favorite websites), I now started with The Silver Chair, which they said was the best (being released last in the series – that is, in 1990). Now, The Silver Chair is my favorite book in the Chronicles, and Puddleglum is my favorite character in the entire world, so I was really curious to see it. Besides, the actor playing Puddleglum (Tom Baker) was getting rave reviews in all the Narnia forums I’ve been.

So now that I’ve seen it, what can I say? Minus the distracting special effects, the dreary costumes (especially of the Underlanders) and the scary-looking puppet Aslan, I must say I really liked it!

COMMENTS ON THE CAST

David Thwaites as EUSTACE SCRUBB looked too young and was too short, and he was not irritating enough. Even during his post-dragon period, Eustace still had his moments. But I could live with that, the actor was good enough.

Camilla Power as JILL POLE was amazing. She was pretty and smart and even sassy at times. She was everything I hoped Jill would be.

Tom Baker as PUDDLEGLUM was fantastic! I’ve always imagined Puddleglum to be very, very thin and tall, but what was important is that he captured the Puddleglumy spirit. He was rather funny without trying, his facial expressions were properly gloomy, and he delivered my favorite lines with all the ghastly cheerfulness of a marshwiggle.

Barbara Kellerman as THE LADY OF THE GREEN KIRTLE was a bit too theatrical and overly dramatic for my taste, which is why she couldn’t quite pull of the eerily calm demeanor of the Emerald Witch. But she did trill her R’s nicely.

Richard Henders as PRINCE RILIAN didn’t quite capture the silly spirit from the book during his enchantment, and he was quite theatrical as well especially in the silver chair scene. I also found him weird-looking with a beard. He reminds me of a cartoon character but I can’t remember who.

Ronald Pickup as the voice of ASLAN was a bit too sleepy and slow and unimpressive, but that may be because I’m comparing him to Liam Neeson’s version.

Warwick Davis (who played NIKABRIK in Disney-Walden’s version of Prince Caspian) as GLIMFEATHER got all the tu-who’s right in my opinion.

Big Mick as the hard-of-hearing TRUMPKIN was hilarious, although he had only a short role.

COMMENTS ON THE SCRIPT

I must say that I’m very impressed at how faithful this adaptation was to the book, and how closely the plot and script followed the text. I also particularly like the numerous direct quotes, which the actors were thankfully able to say without sounding weird or unnatural. I’d say the following were relatively the biggest changes, which were all quite minor and understandable:

1) Rilian was wearing a mask when they met him in the Underworld. He had to have a mask so that the viewers won’t connect the dots too soon since they already showed what the prince looks like when Aslan was giving the signs to Jill.

2) The Lady of the Green Kirtle did not use a mandolin-like instrument which she thrummed to complete her enchantment. Instead, there was this weird greenish spray from her fingers.

3) The side-story of the Land of Bism wasn’t dealt with, which was okay because it could deflect from the plot.

4) The children called each other a couple of times by their first names (Eustace and Jill). In the book, they always used their last names (Scrubb and Pole) except for the part where they said goodbye, thinking that they were going to their deaths.

MEMORABLE QUOTES

The following quote was not said by Puddleglum in its entirety in the movie, but since this is my favorite quote in the book, I’m putting it here:

“One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

After a speech like that, I’ll have to agree with Prince Rilian: “The blessing of Aslan upon this honest marshwiggle!”

In the book, the following quote was actually given by Aslan to Edmund and Lucy towards the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, when Lucy told him that it was him they miss when they return to our world. However, since Aslan said it towards the end of BBC’s version of The Silver Chair, I’m putting it here as well:

“There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”

OTHER COMMENTS

I don’t even want to begin talking about the costumes of the Underworld gnomes, which reminds me of the Michelin character that looks like an obese mummy. I’m sure that with their limited budget, that was all they could come up with.

After seeing The Silver Chair, I’ve now decided to watch all the others in the series. It’s funny to be watching the BBC version twenty years after they were made, but I now think that this is a must-see for all hardcore Narnia fans. So thanks BBC for bringing Narnia to life!