11 Questions Narnia Left Me With

The world of Narnia is wonderfully magical, and magically…weird. Like most worlds that involve disparate time travel and talking animals, parts of it don’t make sense. While the world remains beloved to children of each generation, it’s fun to speculate over the world’s inner workings. Some questions, like the fate of Susan, have been around for decades.

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1) The Wood Between Worlds

Within the first chronological book, The Magician’s Nephew, the reader is introduced to a multiverse concept, a wood that, through different pools, can transport travelers between different worlds. One pool leads to Earth, and another to Narnia; however, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of pools within the wood. One leads to the world from which the White Witch comes. Within the books, you learn of three worlds: Earth, Jadis’s dying world, and Narnia. Once you’re introduced to the last, the idea is not revisited.

Yet it begs the question. Narnia, however fantastic, is but one world of many. What are the others like? What kind of creatures or people do they sport? Why is it significant for the children to leave Earth for Narnia, but not to learn what’s beyond the other pools?

It’s possible none of the other worlds have been “born” yet. When Diggory arrives in Narnia, it’s new. He watches Aslan create the world and the animals within it. The Pevensie clan also witness Narnia’s end. Jadis’s world is dying when Diggory discovers it; the sun seems on the verge of going out, and everything is in ruins, and yet the world is not dissimilar to Earth or Narnia, sporting a castle and human like people. Shortly after Jadis leaves, the pool leading to her world vanishes—the place she came from is gone.

Perhaps all of the other worlds are on the verge of creation…or destruction. Perhaps only certain worlds are meant to connect. People from world Y can visit world Z, but problems arise if they go “out of bounds,” and traipse through world G. The state of Jadis’s world would seem to imply that most have human-esque cultures, but three worlds can’t be considered indicative of the whole. Whatever the case, the question remains: what’s in those other pools?

2) An Aslan by any Other Name

Though it’s not explicitly stated, it’s heavily implied that Aslan represents God. He mentions that the children need to meet him in Narnia, so that they may know him better in theirs—though they will have to call him by another name. The first book deals with the creation myth, including such motifs as the forbidden apple and the founding of the human race through two people. Serpents appear as villains throughout the novels, and the final volume ends with the children being transported to what is obviously heaven.

In Narnia, God is a lion named Aslan…but how does he appear in the other worlds? What name does he carry in the worlds beyond the ponds? What makes the Aslan version of God more significant? It would seem Narnia has it’s own version of the Devil too, who goes by the name Tash. What name does he bear?

It’s just one more reason those other worlds become more curious.

3) A Succession of Rulers

There’s a metaphorical element in play when Jadis is encountered, sitting with several other richly attired people. It would seem all are monarchs, and yet they are all frozen. On one end, they look benevolent. On the other, they look cruel. Gradually, they shift from one extreme to the other as the children look along the line. Each likely represents a generation, every one a ruling King or Queen of that world. The implication is grim though: as Jadis’s race advanced through the ages, they became more monstrous.

How did they all end up there? Why did they fall into ruin? Were all of the monarchs in possession of magic, or was it magic which corrupted them in the first place? There’s something unearthly about the White Witch. She has unnaturally pale skin and red lips, and she’s taller than your average person. Though she walks on two legs, she can’t exactly be called “human.” Were all of the monarchs another race, perhaps of great power, or did they only look so strange through the onset of their transformation?

Regardless of the lesson—whether that be that power corrupts, or that people can change for the worse over time if they’re not cautious—there’s a history behind the Witch’s world. There were battles, warring peoples, and an abandoned city. Where did it all go wrong? Why? One is left to speculate.

4) From Childhood to Adulthood

When the Pevensies come to Narnia, they are only children. Peter is the oldest, but even he is a fair way away from being an adult. On their first trip, the children spend a significant amount of time there. They spend the remainder of their childhoods, maturing into fair monarchs. They live as adults, which means they would have gone through everything that entails: discovering their capacity for romantic love, growing up, developing new hormones, and expanding their brain sizes to accommodate new ways of thinking and a higher intellect. After years as fully formed adults, they are then transported back to Earth—as children.

What does that do to their minds? There seems to be an implication that they learn to be children again, but that they feel some frustration over facing again the rules of childhood after having fought in wars and governed a country. After attending balls and signing political treaties, who wants to be told that they have to turn in their homework or go to bed on time?

Children and adults think in very different ways. Adults have larger brains; they learn impulse control, acquire discipline, and expand their thought process. Did the children retain their adult minds somehow, coming across as oddly mature or well spoken to their fellow students? With all of their adult hormones suddenly stripped from them, and their bodies again undeveloped, did they feel confused? Presumably they kept their memories.

Yet the transformation back into children must have been disorienting. How would those of us who are adults now feel if that happened? How tiring is it to have to go through the whole (occasionally miserable) process of growing up? These kids had to go through puberty twice; how does that work?

5) Familial Ties

The children, even as adults, never end up married—which is surprising, given that they’re royalty in a feudal world. It’s possible none of them met “the right person,” but it’s hard to believe that they never tried dating. They were also unaware that they would ever have to return to Earth, so any concerns over having to leave family behind would have been brushed aside.

In the event that the children had married, and had children of their own, what would have happened? If they had been forced to return to their own world, what pain would they have suffered at being separated from their loved ones?

Perhaps it’s a mercy that they somehow avoided such ties. If they had returned to Narnia hundreds of years later to find that their children, and most of their descendants, had died of old age, their return would have been that much grimmer. Lucy returning to find a world where Tumnus and the Beavers were dead was bad enough.

6) Mythical Creations

The Magician’s Nephew establishes the concepts of the Talking Animals and the human monarchs who govern them, but what of the other creatures who come into being? Does Aslan add others as he goes along, such as the Centaurs or the Minotaurs? Other human-like beings are also seen in the world; when, and why, does Aslan add these figures? Why aren’t they there from the beginning? Wouldn’t the original residents of Narnia have been startled to encounter new creatures—or is that an easy idea to accept in a world ruled by magic?

Some of the creatures encountered are quite nasty, such as the endlessly hungry werewolves and the conniving hags. Did Aslan create them, or the Witch? Did she corrupt some of these beings, as she corrupted the wolves and the Dwarfs?

It’s another question in a mounting pile. All of these creatures and races must have their own creation stories, though they are glossed over within the texts.

7) Language Barriers

From the moment Narnia is established, everyone speaks English, sounding unusually British as they do so. Narnia’s adoption of the English language could be attributed to the fact that it’s first monarchs are a British cab driver and his wife, but even Jadis adopts the dialect. Is English, for whatever inexplicable reason, the default language of the world…or are there various languages? If so, are they translated through magic, so that others automatically hear their own language?

As a writer, I face a similar challenge in my own works. It’s simply easier not to mention it. In writing different worlds and peoples, it would be difficult to create numerous languages…and even harder to do it well. The realistic explanation is that C. S. Lewis saw what a headache Tolkien was having with his own language creation, and chose to opt out.

The in universe explanation, however, remains elusive.

8) Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve

For Jadis, humans being present in Narnia is significant. Many residents of Narnia believe that men are myths. When presented with the story, it’s implied that the four Pevensies are the only sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. Yet Narnia has Archenland for it’s next door neighbour, which is established in the Horse and His Boy. Was Archenland so far away that none of the human residents there ever visited Narnia, thereby giving the White Witch a false alarm? Why didn’t she attack them? Archenland was rife with humans. It seems the original descendants of the cab driver and his wife would have migrated…but surely some would have stayed? All of the animals did!

It’s not clear why the Archenland humans become none existent. Perhaps Jadis knows that any humans she fears would have to come from another world, just as those who had brought her to Narnia had.

9) More Sons of Adam & Daughters of Eve

The residents of Archenland aren’t the only human race. The Calormen also play a large role throughout the books, usually as the villains. A number of humans would have been descended from the cab driver, but others, like the Telmarines, were pirates from Earth who entered Narnia through a cave.

Did the Calormene people also come from Earth, entering through a random portal—or even from another, as yet unnamed realm? How many of Narnia’s human peoples came from other places? What caused these portals to open in the first place? Was it all an accident, or planned? Where did all of these people come from, and why is nobody shocked when a new people suddenly pop up out of nowhere?

Is it all just…a big accident, humans continually stumbling into Narnia? It creates a mystery, and there are untold stories surrounding those cultures which didn’t descend from Narnia’s version of Adam and Eve.

10) The Return of Susan

Susan’s role towards the end of the books is a large bone of contention for even the most dedicated readers, many of whom feel that Lewis was disapproving of a woman taking pride in her beauty. The activities for which Susan is frowned upon, after all, are fairly benign. She likes to dress up and she enjoys parties; she might be irresponsible, and even vain, but her punishment seems disproportionate. Some argue that she was left out due to a lack of faith in Narnia, dismissing it, rather than for being too frivolous. Some thought Lewis was critiquing the pitfalls of vanity. It’s something readers continue to disagree over.

After the book’s publication, readers wrote to Lewis asking what became of their heroine. Did she ever return?

The author replied that she could, that she might stop being silly and join her siblings in Narnia. However, there was no definitive answer given beyond that. Susan’s absence was a jolting reveal for children, but one that was never elaborated upon. It’s become one of those eternal pop culture questions: what ever happened to Susan?

11) Time Confusion

There are no rules when it comes to the passage of Narnia’s time in relation to Earth’s. A year passed on Earth may mean a year passed in Narnia…or several hundred. Each time the children return, varying months or decades have passed. With the exception of their first return, during which they find a century has passed, the time periods seem shorter. In subsequent trips, they are able to see former friends, such as Reepicheep and Caspian—though Eustace returns to find Caspian in an elderly state.

This discrepancy has no explanation. Does Earth sometimes “freeze” or slow to a crawl in comparison to Narnia? The best analogy seems to be that of a clock shop, all of the clocks being sped up, slowed down, changed, or stopped at random intervals. Eustace and Jill even encounter Father Time. If time is being organized by some snoozing bloke, perhaps it’s not surprising that it’s so disorganized.

With it’s time shifts, alternate realms, and fantastic creatures, it’s not surprising that Narnia would raise it’s share of questions. It’s best enjoyed, like most works of fantasy, with a certain suspension of disbelief.

What are some of your questions surrounding the world (or worlds) of C. S. Lewis? Have some of these questions ever left you scratching your head?