TLC Forum

Swanwhite wrote: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.

Lily of Archenland wrote:But Narnia equaling Israel... I am less comfortable with that.

It is Israel, the Church and Pagan but still faithful Troy (as dug up by Schliemann) all at once.

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.

It is an interesting thought. I think there are many similarities. I do not think we should choose one side or the other, for Narnia is not on this earth, and we only have a fairly large possible knowledge of it. Unlike what is on this earth, Narnia was something totally different from the other countries around it. Ancient Israel was the same, I suppose. Ancient Israel, however, was a moving peoples, not a stationary thing for a while. There is a thought.