TLC Forum

hobbit_of_narnia wrote:Does it ever actually give any description of the Pevensie boys' hair colors? Because for some reason I thought it did at the end of LWW, but I guess not...

Ariel.of.Narnia wrote:Regarding the boys' hair: No, their hair colours are not mentioned. I would have remembered if my mental images were confirmed or denied at any point (despite the illustrations, I've always seen Peter as blonde and Edmund as black-haired; the movies' casting just made me that much happier). (What is it with Lewis taking so long to get to important details like hair colour? I went all of PC thinking Caspian was brown-haired, all of LWW (and, generally, still to this day) thinking Lucy is a brunette, and the whole series thinking Digory also had brown hair. And then, boom, turns out all three of them are blonde?!)

hobbit_of_narnia wrote:@Ariel: Digory was blonde??????????? I knew about Lucy and Caspian, but what on earth, I've always pictured Digory with brown hair too!

Ajnos wrote:Oh, and you won't believe it; I was looking for something else today, and found my spreadsheet with the hair colours. I'll try get it in a form I can share.

Swanwhite wrote:Digory blonde?! what no. I need a page number. I don't believe it. I know about Lucy and Caspian having golden hair, but Digory?

Ariel.of.Narnia wrote:Page 168 of my edition of LB (also known as nearly-the-end-of-chapter-twelve): "[Peter] brought [Tirian] next to a man whose golden beard flowed over his breast and whose face was full of wisdom. 'And this,' he said, 'is the Lord Digory who was with [Lady Polly] on that day."
I mean, technically, he could have had a beard of a different colour, 'cause that can happen, but I've not seen it happen myself.

hobbit_of_narnia wrote:@Ariel (about Digory's hair color): ............... You are completely right. I'd forgotten about that. What. On. Earth. Over a decade of me imagining him as brown-haired needs to be undone now. Come on, Difory. First Faramir, now you??

Ajnos wrote:Here's the list I found. I haven't checked or edited anything so there may be mistakes:

On the beard-colour thing. I know quite a few men with brown hair and red (or redder) beards. There seems to be something that makes the redness show through more in the beards. Never met a man with a golden beard and different coloured hair, though.

Digory: Golden (beard)/White, TLB Ch. 12; LWW Ch. 1
Uncle Andrew: Grey, MN Ch. 1
Lucy: Golden/Fair, LWW Ch. 17; TLB Ch. 4
Susan: Black, LWW Ch. 17 (Shown as light in some pics: eg HHB, pp. 83)
Tumnus: Curly hair, red skin, HHB Ch. 4
Shasta: Fair, HHB Ch. 14
Caspian: Golden, VDT Ch. 1
Trumpkin: Red like a fox, PC Ch. 5
Nikabrik: Black hair & beard, PC Ch. 5
Reep: very dark, almost black, VDT Ch. 1
R.Daughter: Yellow, VDT Ch. 13
Puddleglum: Greeny Grey, SC Ch. 5
Prunaprismia: Red, PC Ch. 4.
Dr. Cornelius Silvery beard, balding in pic PC Ch. 4
Rillian: Fair (my ref. For this is wrong – it says HHB! He must have been blond cause both his parents were and the blond gene is recessive)
Aravis: Dark implied (by “fair barbarians of the North”), HHB Ch. 1
Roonwit: Golden beard, chestnut flanks, TLB Ch. 2
Edmund: In HHB he is described as the “leader of the fair-haired men”, HHB Ch. 4

Swanwhite wrote:gasp.

Well I suppose I must concede.

Of course I imagined him as golden haired in that scene, but I suppose I subconsciously concluded that it was just something that happened to him when he went to Aslan's country. I might continue to hold that as a personal head canon.

Ajnos wrote:I noticed that no one is brown haired in that list (except Roonwit's chestnut flanks). Either Lewis didn't like brown haired characters or thought their hair colour didn't need describing. Although I'm also curious as to whether "fair" always means "blond" as I imagined it or if it can mean light brown (terms liske these are always relative and I imagine can change over time and from place to place). I think I'm going to move the hair colour discussions over to their own thread, but feel free to keep discussing LWW stuff in this thread or sharing any late reflections.