Hair colours of Narnian characters
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- narniannetty
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Re: Hair colours of Narnian characters
* me over here taking notes cause I'm an amateur writer*
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Re: Hair colours of Narnian characters
@Hermit: Narnia may have forced me out of my childhood dependency on authors painting pictures for me, or at least it was a major stepping stone in that direction. I grew up with books that pointed out things like hair colour, so when I got to Narnia and Lewis left all kinds of blanks, I had to come up with my own pictures. Which is why it kinda bugs me that he waited till the end of LWW to tell me Lucy was blonde. Either tell me early (like Shasta) or don’t (like Peter).
Is it important? Depends. Maybe the author wants to leave it to interpretation (like Lewis part of the time). Maybe the author wants things just so (like Tolkien all the time). Maybe it’s not a big deal that Caspian’s not blond in the Walden movies because it’s not important to the character or plot or world (unlike Trumpkin the very specifically Red Dwarf, or Shasta, who needs to stick out like a sore thumb in Calormen, or Puddleglum because nobody has ever heard of a Marshwiggle before).
So it just depends on how the author and the audience like things cooked. In other words, it’s very, very subjective.![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
Is it important? Depends. Maybe the author wants to leave it to interpretation (like Lewis part of the time). Maybe the author wants things just so (like Tolkien all the time). Maybe it’s not a big deal that Caspian’s not blond in the Walden movies because it’s not important to the character or plot or world (unlike Trumpkin the very specifically Red Dwarf, or Shasta, who needs to stick out like a sore thumb in Calormen, or Puddleglum because nobody has ever heard of a Marshwiggle before).
So it just depends on how the author and the audience like things cooked. In other words, it’s very, very subjective.
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Re: Hair colours of Narnian characters
This is an interesting topic for me right now because it's one of the topics I've been pondering in an attempt to create some sort of writing advice series for beginning Narnian writers (I have no idea if anything will come of that). I also noticed how little Lewis gives us, but for me it was kind of the default because I was reading Narnia from an early age, and among the other books I was reading were Swallows & Amazons where, if I remember correctly, we're rarely if ever given those sorts of decriptions...
It's interesting what you noted about brown maybe being the default, though, because as I was thinking about the books I was reading in my childhood, I remembered some 19th century ones where the author would go into lots and lots of detail about the characters' appearance... but very often left off the hair colour. And when he didn't, it was usually black or blonde. Or ginger. Or grey.![Smile :-)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
It's interesting what you noted about brown maybe being the default, though, because as I was thinking about the books I was reading in my childhood, I remembered some 19th century ones where the author would go into lots and lots of detail about the characters' appearance... but very often left off the hair colour. And when he didn't, it was usually black or blonde. Or ginger. Or grey.
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Re: Hair colours of Narnian characters
Some characters in Narnia have hair color described and some kind of leaves you to your own imagination.
In many artwork I've seen of Queen Swanwhite, her hair is fair. So it wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
Anradin Tarkaan was described as having his beard dyed crimson, though it's possible he still had dark hair, like Calormenes were known for.
It's possible that Lasaraleen had dark hair as well.
Rabadash could have dark hair as well.
Miraz may have either red or fair hair, like his wife or nephew. It's hard to say.
Tirian would most likely would have fair hair, if it was a gene.
Rishda and Emeth both would have dark hair, since they are Calormenes.
In many artwork I've seen of Queen Swanwhite, her hair is fair. So it wouldn't be out of the ordinary.
Anradin Tarkaan was described as having his beard dyed crimson, though it's possible he still had dark hair, like Calormenes were known for.
It's possible that Lasaraleen had dark hair as well.
Rabadash could have dark hair as well.
Miraz may have either red or fair hair, like his wife or nephew. It's hard to say.
Tirian would most likely would have fair hair, if it was a gene.
Rishda and Emeth both would have dark hair, since they are Calormenes.