CS Lewis, Narnia and Myths

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Irena Gettinger

Period 3

Mrs. Beyer

12/3/06

Myth and the World of C.S. Lewis

        C.S. Lewis and his series The Chronicles of Narnia have long been children’s favorites.  The books envelop children into a world of good and evil, action and adventure, chivalry and honor. Lewis takes his readers on an astonishing trip that embodies his own values, dreams and beliefs.  Fascinated by other myths, Lewis borrows a variety of creatures from different places, constructing an entire world that children delve into and love.  From the Greek and Roman myths he takes creatures such as fauns, nymphs, and dryads, and from the Norse mythology, dwarfs and giants.  His first book, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, was written soon after World War II, in 1950.  He went on to write six more stories in the Chronicles of Narnia series.  Many scholars have thoroughly studied Lewis’s books and great controversy has erupted from different interpretations of the symbolic meanings in his books.  A devout Christian in the latter part of his life, Lewis draws parallels between the world of Narnia and the Bible.  By illustrating the creation of Narnia in his first book, and establishing the laws of Narnia in a subsequent novel, C.S. Lewis creates a compelling myth around the fantasy world of Narnia.  

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        The Chronicles of Narnia begin with The Magician’s Nephew, an ingenious story of a curious young boy and his friend as they stumble upon the creation of another world, Narnia.  This novel serves the purpose of the cosmological function of a myth, in which “myths describe the “shape” of the cosmos, the universe, our total world.”   In The Magician’s Nephew, we first encounter the godlike lion, Aslan.  The creator of Narnia, he also bestows life onto the creatures in it, booming, "Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters" (116).  The ...

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