Narnia! Just the word evokes a sense of longing in me. This world, created by the brilliant C.S. Lewis, is a land where fauns dance in the moonlight, giants dwell in the north, magical creatures inhabit it- and, you can get there from Earth. If you're like me, you've tried every wardrobe, and every forest path to see if you could get to Narnia. But I guess Narnia doesn't need me just yet, or I'll find it when I'm not looking, because I have yet to arrive.
Rumor has it that Narnia's landscape was inspired by Ireland's rolling green hills- The same ones that C.S. Lewis grew up around. Interestingly, C.S. Lewis is not from England. He is actually Irish. I'll elaborate on that when I do a bio on him.
What is the geography of Narnia like? On the west, you have three main lands: Narnia, Archenland, and Calormen. If you want to learn more about the other two, read The Horse and His Boy. On the east is the great Eastern Ocean, a vast sea of mystery. (Well, until the Dawn Treader, where it's all discovered...) There are six other little lands: Up to the North, The Wild Lands of The North and Ettinsmoor, To the West, Western Wild and Telmar, and down underneath mountains, and valleys lies Underland and Bism. Underland and Bism are featured in The Silver Chair.
(Telmarine Coat of Arms)
The farthest east one can go, to the edge of the world, where the sun touches the earth, where the mountains are thousands of feet high, but without snow or ice, where the sky is continuously blue, where birds sing to their hearts content, is to the majestic Aslan's Country. Aslan's Country is a parallel to Heaven, in that it is perfect, and inhabited by Aslan, the parallel to Jesus in the books.
The inhabitants of Narnia are just as vast as it's geography. You can separate them into two main groups, one being humans that have come from our world (For example, the Telmarines, who were pirates in our world but stumbled across a door to Narnia, much like Lucy.) and creatures that Aslan created at the dawn of time, in The Magicians Nephew. The creatures range from fawns (half human, half goat.) to dwarves. Here is an extensive list of creatures that live in Narnia: Dwarves, witches, Boggles, Centaurs, Cruels, Dragons, Dryads, Earthmen (the Narnian version of gnomes), Efreets, Ettins, Fauns, Giants, Ghouls, Griffins, Hags, Hamadryads, Horrors, Incubi, Maenads, Merpeople, Minotaurs, Monopods, Naiads, Ogres, Orknies Winged Horses, People of the Toadstools, Phoenix, Satyrs, Sea Peoples (a version of the merpeople), Sea serpents, Sylvans, Spectres, Sprites, Star People, Trolls, Unicorns, Werewolves, Wooses, and Wraiths.
Other exotic creatures are marsh wiggles, (The Silver Chair) dufflepuds, (Voyage of The Dawn Treader) and stars, for example, Ramandu, and his daughter.
There are also single creatures that inhabit Narnia, like the river god, father time, and others.
To learn more about the land of Narnia, and it's history and citizens, read the brilliant Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis.
What do you like best about Narnia? What's your favorite book? Do you have any interesting facts?
Tell me in the comments!
