]]>
In other respects Narnia holds many parallels with England and perhaps Ireland.
You know that Blake quote or poem in which the question whether Christ ever visited England as a child becomes a kind of quest for making an English Israel?In a way, CSL provided at once "a Mythology for England" and a response to that longing.
It is Israel, the Church and Pagan but still faithful Troy (as dug up by Schliemann) all at once.But Narnia equaling Israel... I am less comfortable with that.
It is in a way Medieval and Chivalrous because Troy was a major inspiration for the Middle Ages and Chivalry and it is also betrayed by a kind of "Trojan Horse".
It very smartly avoids the question which I think CSL found awkward of having to belong to a certain group in order to belong to God.
Archenland is as faithful as Narnia, and yet it is another nation (one can argue Narnia and Archenland are modelled on England and France ... which Bishop Williamson have likened to the North Kingdom and the South Kingdom of Ancient Israel. Note that if in Holy Land the South Kingdom was chosen and in Narnian world the North Kingdom, the Narnian world also has another geographic change, since "the voyage of Brendan" is Eastward instead of Westward.
Statistics: Posted by hansgeorg — Wed Dec 09, 2015 4:52 pm
]]>
While there isn't any direct evidence that Narnia had fallen away from Aslan in the lead up to the White Witch's or Telmarines takeover, we do have a teeny bit of evidence for the former. The tree that was planted in MN was to protect them from Jadis. Perhaps it was neglect in looking after the tree (which accompanied loss of faith in Aslan and therefore them forgetting the point of the tree) that lead to it's being destroyed and her takeover.
I agree.I'm not sure that Narnia is supposed to mirror Israel in the Bible, I mean, any country that forgets about morals and God is going to have more corruption and have a harder time defending itself because the citizens themselves won't get along with each other, so Lewis could just be following this pattern and not meaning for Narnia to mirror Israel.
I think the reason the Telmarines successfully conquered Narnia might be due to the fact that it had no leader. Yes, there were very few men in Narnia, yet maybe one of them was supposed to be brave and lead the country, but did not because he was afraid.
Statistics: Posted by HermitoftheNorthernMarch — Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:23 pm
]]>
Statistics: Posted by Swanwhite — Sun Oct 20, 2013 9:21 pm
]]>
Narnia does have an Israel-like role in that it is to the Narnians that Aslan reveals himself as the true high king. In this way it parallels Old Testament Israel to whom God revealed himself and his laws and to whom he would speak directly (in visions or through the prophets). Just like Aslan only appeared in person in Narnia. People in the neighbouring nations at the time could only come to know about God through the Israelites, but for the most part ignored him and worshipped their own man-made gods. This is like in Calormen, where only rumours of Alsan exist, and these have been corrupted. If you think about it, Narnia under the Telmarines had become suspicious of Aslan in much the same way that the Calormenes were which bears some parallel to times when Israel drifted from God and started following the practices of the surrounding nations.
Of course, as you've all mentioned, we wouldn't say that Lewis was trying to make Narnia that world's equivalent of Israel. Aslan, despite his intentional parallels with Jesus, wasn't a messiah in quite the same way Jesus was and so we wouldn't expect a parallel Israel to which the promised messiah would come. But I do think considering these similarities helps us understand how Aslan dealt with Narnia, both the special favour shown to it and the way it suffered under oppression from time to time (perhaps as a result of falling away).
Also, a thought just occurred to me. While there isn't any direct evidence that Narnia had fallen away from Aslan in the lead up to the White Witch's or Telmarines takeover, we do have a teeny bit of evidence for the former. The tree that was planted in MN was to protect them from Jadis. Perhaps it was neglect in looking after the tree (which accompanied loss of faith in Aslan and therefore them forgetting the point of the tree) that lead to it's being destroyed and her takeover.
Okay, more thoughts there than I realised.
Statistics: Posted by Ajnos — Thu Aug 29, 2013 2:52 pm
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
]]>
Eva
Statistics: Posted by Eva of Cair Paravel — Thu Aug 29, 2013 2:21 pm
]]>
]]>
It's an idea that I've been playing around with for some time. I'm working on pulling some of the historical and Biblical evidence from both of these times into the story that I'm writing about the Telmarine Invasion, but I wanted to know your thoughts.
Statistics: Posted by narniagirl11 — Thu Aug 29, 2013 2:17 pm
]]>