Summer Challenge Sharing Thread - 2022 'Prince Caspian'

[Lily of Archenland]

Did poems for today.

Chapter 3

"You don't feel like ghosts!"
But in a sense, they were.
Ghosts of half-forgotten history
Sprung up out of legends,
Before a practical, unprepared Dwarf.
Old Narnia is not in the grave,
But only slumbering.
Children summoned are the stirrings
Of the lost Golden Age,
Just as Narnia stirs again within them.

…

Chapter 4

Child so full of wonder,
Do you understand?
Your fathers built your world
On murdered bones.
Seek justice, mercy,
With your frightening power.
The world's ruins whisper
Of a brighter day.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

I was too busy last night to get to chapters one and two, so I'm doubling up today.


Chapter 1:
Two things stood out to me on this reading. The first is the silence. There are no birds except the occasional gull (and you'd expect to at least see gulls around the shore, but there weren't many, and the kids didn't remember seeing any nests about), and not even insect life in the woods (where there absolutely should be (but at least they don't have to deal with any mosquitoes!)). The kids don't even say very much while they're playing in the water or walking down the beach -- not for any particular reason, like being too tired or feeling too thirsty for it. It's a sleepy, dead silence that blankets everything. (Add to that the quiet, sleepy country station....)
The second is that there's actually some foreshadowing with Lucy here: she's the one who sees new developments first -- the stream, the apple trees, the castle wall. She has her eyes peeled, or at any rate, is alert and observant. She will continue to demonstrate this as the book goes on.

Chapter 2:
Ruins and history and pretty things to look at. Sign me up! I could spend a week down there.
That brooch has a story, surely.
And I love Peter's, "I suppose there isn't a door." It's a bit sarcastic, a bit of a challenge, and also a bit playful or joking.

Chapter 3:
You really gotta give Susan props here. She's frightened, but she took the initiative to string her bow and take the shot. And, given her reasoning for saying she was not shooting to kill... I think she actually was. I'm not sure that's ever really clicked with me before.
Curious that Trumpkin, a Narnian among Narnians, has grown up with the tales of "ghosts" in the eastern woods. There's a lot to unpack there, potentially. But not now. That requires more rumination on my part.

Chapter 4:
Another instance of something explicit that seems to have not quite connected is how young Caspian is when he first meets Doctor Cornelius. He's described as a "very little boy" when he accidentally spills the beans to Miraz, and it's only about a week later that Doctor Cornelius arrives. Now, I'm not sure what Lewis considers "a very little boy", but he's thirteen by the time he runs away, so he's got a few years' education from Doctor Cornelius for sure.
(And I seem to have goofed on a couple of other details in a fanfic I wrote about young Caspian a couple of years ago. Oops.)
On this reading, Doctor Cornelius reminds me vaguely of a couple of professors I had in college. Namely, the one that taught World History so engagingly, the one that had a dry and deadpan sense of humour (different from the grave voice and merry eyes, but he did trip up people and make them wonder if he was serious or joking), and the one who taught astronomy.

[Ajnos]

Ran out of time to post tonight but I got the reading done. The terror of Caspian's midnight escape was kinda heightened as a result of a sudden change of circumstances by the fact I just finished watching the last (S7) of the animated Clone Wars and was already emotionally wound up from that.

[renegadeoftheshire]

Ugh! I don't know why my drawings have to take forever now. But it's better late than never, right?
For these chapters, I really needed to draw Caspian running away. This was really hard because I've never drawn anyone on a horse before, so this was quite the challenge. There was a point where I thought that I should draw Trufflehunter giving Caspian a cup of tea or something because I think that would be easier (but because I'm crazy, I decided to go with something challenging )
Enjoy

[Lily of Archenland]

Chapter 5

I would dearly love to get more detail on Dr. Cornelius' quest for the Horn.

All the same, I'm not sure I'm not a little on the side of the Dwarves about it being odd for Caspian to have the right to kingship - I think it's a wise political move to make allies with the nearest Human heir of the dominant culture who might be sympathetic, but as far as they know at this point he's an invader and an alien.

…

Chapter 6

Wait a second. The People Who Lived In Hiding's territory was *in* Archenland, at least partly? And yet Caspian never even bothers to check out an alliance with the Archen King as suggested by Dr. Cornelius? Maybe that was impossible to do with Old Narnians in tow, maybe not, but it certainly seems like a missed opportunity.

Also… I feel kinda weird that whole species can be ruled out as Automatically Evil when looking for allies, although I guess it might be more of an ancestral loyalties thing than an Attaint of Blood thing.

…I wanna paint a Glenstorm. Although I don't think I can do it off the cuff.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

Chapter 5:
I completely forgot that Caspian learned music! The recorder is easy enough, but the therobo (a lute-like instrument) would take dedication.
Kind of random, especially since there's no reason to think it, but Cornelius taking Caspian from his room reminds me of the apostle Peter walking out of prison with the angel: those who should have wakened upon his leaving slept right on through.
Miraz has racked up quite the body count... how many Telmarine nobles are there?!
"I can tell you the whole story." I wonder how Cornelius is privy to the information on Caspian IX's death....
Further to Lily's observation about the lack of an alliance with King Nain, what was the relationship with Archenland like? What assurance did Cornelius have that Nain would be good to Caspian?
*happy sigh* I love Trufflehunter. "I'm a Beast, I am, and a Badger what's more. We hold on." Such a simple statement, but his faith is solid. There's no shaking him from it. The older I get, the more I love him.
As for their accepting Caspian, Trufflehunter seems to have found that Caspian is of "a different sort" of Human, one who loves Old Narnia and wants to see her restored, one that wants to embody the kingly charges first laid on Frank. Trumpkin, I think, may be more interested in the reclaiming of Narnia than in Caspian's heritage -- a mentality based more on the fact that a chance to do that has come than on the question of rightful heirs or who is uniting them. (This obviously changes, since he was ardent in declaring his loyalty to Caspian when he met the Four.) Nikabrik is the skeptic (and I can't say I blame him for not wanting more of the same stock (ie: Telmarine)), and we know from later that he's ready for whatever help they can get and that he's going along with the current plan of action because he's outnumbered and overruled.

That's as far as I got for now, so I'll catch up chapter 6 later.

[Lily of Archenland]

Personally I would place good odds on Cornelius' political knowledge coming at least partly through his former friendship with Caspian's mother.

[jasmine_tarkheena]

My thoughts:

What stood out to me is where Caspian had to leave all that was familiar to him when Doctor Cornelius told him he must flee the castle. It meant he had to leave the life of a prince and live as a refugee in Archenland in the courts of King Nain. Little did he know he would encounter talking beasts from the stories he heard. They had been living in hiding all this time.

[Lily of Archenland]

...I'm going to skip out on my reading this evening to focus on working on a fanart. Hopefully it will be ready to show tomorrow and I can get back on track.

[The Happy Islander]

Catching up on yesterday and today:

My tune for chapter 5.

Tune for chapter 6.

Tune for chapter 7.

Tune for chapter 8.