Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by hobbit_of_narnia » Fri Jul 28, 2017 10:04 am

@Nia: :lol: I guess! But in later books Lewis seems to be against the idea of modern things in Narnia...*siiigh* I love these books so much but sometimes they're just not consistent with each other!

@Ajjie: ...I just assumed that fauns lived much longer than humans. Unicorns and centaurs do, after all. Does it ever specify Tumnus' age, aside from the comment at the end of LWW?
Also I thought the same thing about extended thaws, but these would have to be very extended indeed for the trees to go through the full cycle of buds and then flowers and then leaves. So unless they were "sleeping"...... (Can sentient trees last longer without seasons than "regular" trees, I wonder?)
(I love bunkbeds. I sleep in a loft bed, even though the ceilings here are so low I can't sit up in it without knocking my head...which I still manage to do almost every morning and night.)

I myself was more interested in the marmalade roll than in the fish. :lol: It didn't help that I was hungry when I was reading the chapter... :P


There were a couple of things that stood out to me from today's chapters.

First is the dragon statue in the Witch's courtyard. I mean, I've noticed it pretty much every time I read the book, but it's always just as surprising as it was the first time. There...were...good...dragons...in Narnia. At least that's my interpretation, since why else would she have turned it into stone?
So what happened to the dragons? They're only mentioned a couple of other places in the whole series.
(Also it shows the difference between Edmund and Eustace that although they were both selfish brats at first, Edmund knew what a dragon was before he came to Narnia, but Eustace didn't.)

Second is the stuff that Mrs Beaver gave everyone out of the flask. It sounds suspiciously like the orc-draught Merry and Pippin got... :lol: :lol:
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Swanwhite » Fri Jul 28, 2017 9:27 pm

Chapter 7. A Day with the Beavers

Aslan is on the Move

The Lion is coming.
P’raps already here,
and He’ll bring down the witch,
and he’ll drive out the fear.
I give you my word,
and my token to prove,
but the best word I have
is that He’s on the move.

I love the homeness of the Beaver’s house, and how distinct and suited the their inhabitants all the homes in Narnia are.

Chapter 8. What Happened after Dinner


I like how there’s kind of these parallel layers of doubt where you have humans who are skeptical about the Narnia, and Narnians who are skeptical about the humans, and some of each are skeptical about Aslan. Discovering each other kind of leads them all to Aslan. Tumnus’s home of cautious skepticism leads them to the beavers who have more faith (though perhaps a few mixed up ideas), which leads them to Aslan’s own camp.


Chapter 9. In the Witch’s House
I think his leaving his coat behind is significant. The coats were described earlier as looking like “royal robes”, and he’s walking away from that.

I feel like the cold and the snow and even the stone lion are warnings for Edmund to turn back.

The stone lion is also a kind of a “straw man” in Edmund’s reasoning. Aslan is a Lion. This statue is a lion. Therefore Aslan is of no threat or concern to me.

This business with Jadis is not all it was cracked up to be. Join the dark side we have Turkish Delight! Just kidding! Have some really really stale bread and water.
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Ajnos » Fri Jul 28, 2017 9:36 pm

Day 5 Chapters 9&10

I didn't have time to write a proper reflection today, so just some random comments:

Maybe I've lived in the subtropics for too much of my life, but I felt so sorry for Edmund walking in that cold weather without his coat and wondered how he ever made it to the witch's house alive. I mean, it was summer back home; he was probably wearing shorts.

I always forget that Ed starts out as such a bad character (maybe it's been too long since I last read LWW). I was thinking how in some ways he's as bad, if not worse, than Eustace, just in a less obviously bratty way. The bit where he thinks about building roads for cars and railways and a cinema makes him sound very Eustace-like. But, as Hobbit says, at least he knows his mythologies.

Which brings me to the dragon, as Hobbit mentioned. I had forgotten about it so it really struck me. But we don't read of Aslan unpetrifying him? Maybe he decides it's best to wait till after the battle? Also it is possible that some of the creatures Jadis turned to stone were there because they failed to cooperate with her, or displeased her for a moment and she got angry with them. I can imagine a dragon being bad but still refusing to work for Jadis.

“Make ready our sledge," ordered the Witch, "and use the harness without bells.” -- I like the hint Lewis gives here!!!

Mrs Beaver: She is such a dear but so exasperating. She reminds me a lot here of Martha in in the bible (Mary and Lazarus' sister) in the story where she is fussing about doing housework while Mary is sitting listening to Jesus.

Father Christmas!!! One of the best scenes for all the best reasons. It's kinda imteresting that despite the seemingly random changes Lewis makes in the American edition, he doesn't change him to Santa Claus. I guess the children are still English. :p (I wish I could remember what name he has in the Afrikaans translation).

Finally, I made this a while ago on the new Character Builder, but it seems appropriate to share:
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Ariel.of.Narnia » Fri Jul 28, 2017 11:17 pm

Just me responding to a couple of the ideas in here; I'll be back later once I've read today's chapters.

I'd never really thought about the thaws or that it could still be winter without it always being forever blanketed in snow. As much as the snow likes to stick around where I live, we still see a good deal of melting snow. I just... I dunno, I never really applied that to Narnia, haha.

Tumnus' age really bothers me. Funny enough, not because of his description of pre-Jadis Narnia, but because of the movie. When I first read the book, I had assumed that Tumnus had a lifespan approximately like a human's (ie: 100 years, give or take) and he just seemed decently young (at any rate, not as old as the professor, though perhaps older than Mr Pevensie); plus, he's "middle-aged" at the end of the book, which, according to Lewis' timeline, is only fifteen years after the Battle of Beruna. With that kind of age, he would have been born during the 100-year winter and thus telling Lucy the same stories his parents had told him. However, the 2005 movie specified that Tumnus Sr "went away to war too... before this dreadful winter", indicating that Tumnus was around before Jadis' conquest, though perhaps young enough to have not joined the war himself. That, and he told Lucy later, "You've made me feel warmer than I've felt in 100 years," which could have been hyperbolic, but considering that bit about his dad, there's no way it's anything but literal. At that point, I began to question the aging of fauns and honestly, I still haven't come to a conclusion. Even my fics are inconsistent! I went with Lewis' middle-aged Tumnus for "Golden Autumn" (first post on this page: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=43&start=10), but "Rolling Sea, Endless Sunrise" (linkage not on TLC) and the piece I wrote for the writing contest (http://www.thelionscall.com/2017/07/17/ ... ontest-90/) definitely has him around pre-Jadis.

... That turned out much longer than I intended. :P
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Lily of Archenland » Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:27 am

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[Might or might not wind up doing some inking on the outlines later - recommendations welcome]
(3-4)
Something I think I noticed for the first time this time was the emphasis on - loneliness? Ed`s in the still and quiet and empty landscape and he`s calling to Lucy and Lucy isn`t coming and he doesn't want to admit he`s wrong but he`s trying to swallow his pride and do that just to get her to return to him,and then he`s beginning to think he should just turn around and come home - and then up comes this strange and grand Lady,a person to talk to at last!, and she is confident and has Authority and wants to make nice to the scared child and give him gifts. It`s not just “don`t talk to strangers”, it`s - “where is everybody,oh good,finally somebody who knows what they`re doing!”

Also - the red sunrise and the red of her reindeer`s harness and the red of her dwarf`s hood - I thought for a moment of the dying sun of Charn,and then of blood on the snow.

But then when she conjured the poisonous sweets, and the ribbon on the box was GREEN - always Winter and never Christmas,and the lady comes in a sledge with red trappings and green gifts - is she stealing Father Christmas`s gig? Like - “I am the only one allowed to bring gifts here,I am your only permitted hope and good cheer in the harsh winter land I have made.”
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Ariel.of.Narnia » Sat Jul 29, 2017 7:33 am

@Swan: Forgot to compliment you on the "Aslan is on the move" poem. I love it!
@Lily: *whistles* I like the colours you chose!


Chapter 7:
Wowee. Edmund sure pushes through a lot to get to the White Witch. Freezing cold, snow, wetness, wind, climbing over rocks, ducking under branches, darkness, even a castle that strikes fear into him. All for what? Promised sweets and royal status (and, by extension, revenge on his siblings). And yet, not really so different from real life. When we set our minds to do something we oughtn't, we'll do any number of inconvenient, even hard, things in order to reach that forbidden fruit, especially when it comes to hiding what it is we're doing from others, like Edmund is doing here.
Interesting thing to note: Edmund mocks the stone lion (and, in his heart, Aslan himself) and seems to think little of the other creatures, but he regards the sad-looking faun differently: there's nothing haughty in his observation of the latter, just a wondering if it might by Lucy's friend. Perhaps he even feels sorry for the faun?


Chapter 8:
I'm sorry, I have to say it. My suspension of disbelief cracks when Father Christmas whips out a tea set, complete with sugar, cream, and hot tea. (Wonder what they did with the set afterward?)

As aggravating as Mrs Beaver is at the beginning of the chapter, she really does have some serious foresight. She knows that the best course of action is to spend some of their precious time to prepare for the journey ahead. No doubt Father Christmas could have provided them breakfast to go with the tea, but no one knew they were going to run into him. So while, yes, I could see perhaps a bit of Martha in her veins, my mind really went here:
"She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her." Proverbs 31:27-28
Lewis doesn't mention it, but I'm pretty sure that the children blessed her and her husband praised her. ;)
(Also, in looking at Proverbs 31, I'm remembering someone having brought up a possible use for her sewing machine. "She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant." Proverbs 31:24 :) )
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by hobbit_of_narnia » Sat Jul 29, 2017 2:49 pm

@Ajjie: If the creatures were evil, did Aslan leave them as stone when he restored the others, I wonder?

@Lily: That is such an incredible picture. Her eyes!!! Her eyes, though!!!!!! Oh my worrrrrrrrrrd...they're incredible!!!!! :o :o (Recommendations on...what?)


(This is from yesterday, but I forgot to mention it before. I actually don't have a lot of thoughts from today's chapters.)
Lewis' opinion on women in the military almost seems to change a bit over the books. Father Christmas says, "Battles are ugly when women fight" when he gives Lucy the dagger (seriously?? Battles are always ugly, friend. And a dagger wouldn't be a good choice of weapon in an all-out battle when there are minotaurs and giants on the other team, anyway. I'm sure Lucy knows this); but then Lucy herself is at the battle in HHB, and Jill is fighting like a pro in LB...

Anyhow, I did do drawings for yesterday and today, but I did them both late at night (and forgot to scan the one from yesterday this morning), so I guess I'll have to post them tomorrow. :roll:
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Ajnos » Sat Jul 29, 2017 4:27 pm

@Ariel: Yeah, I had a problem with Tumnus age in his encounter with the Beavers I wrote the other day because I needed a term of endearment for Mr Beaver to use. "Deary" woks for Mrs Beaver but not so much for Mr Beaver so I went with "young faun," because it sounded right but I was thinking "is he really that young?" I think of him as a young adult here to make him middle aged in HHB.

@Lily: Excellent work! Though I'm finding it slightly disturbing that her face reminds me (I shouldnt say this aloud) of Kristi :?

@Ariel: I actually had less of a problem with Father Christmas producing a tea set than some of the stuff in the Beaver's house. Father Christmas is magical and breaks all the normal rules by definition.

@Ariel: "Maketh fine linen!” Hah! I figured out that one of the things Mrs Beaver must have made on her machine was the curtain over the door that Edmund pushed aside to get to the door. Actually, I suppose in some ways Martha, like Mrs Beaver would have made a goof Proverbs 31 woman. Martha wasn't wrong, she just had her priorities in the wrong order.
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Thank you for the set Happy!!

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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Ajnos » Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:48 pm

Day 6

Sorry for double posting. I'll post a proper reflection tomorrow (yay for a catchup day!) but in meantime I made this with a picture I took in Oxford in March 2013 (it doesn't usually snow in March in England hence the snow and daffodills together).
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Re: Summer Challenge Sharing Thread 2017

Post by Swanwhite » Sun Jul 30, 2017 2:16 am

Beautiful stuff guys :)

Chapter 10: The Spell is Beginning to Break
In at last
the worst is past.
The spell is beginning to break.
Serious joy
Tools not toys
The world is beginning to wake.
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