Splendid stuff guys!

@Tooky Yeah! I love the fairytale simplicity of it with the "Why not go to a stranger's place for tea?"

@Ariel Love the fic! The part where she gave him the red scarf hit me in the feels.

I was just thinking, you know what makes it kind of more understandable for Tumnus to be in the Witch's pay? The books on his shelves. He wasn't even certain that humans were real. He was on the payroll to potentially catch a mythical creature if he happened to find one. And he wouldn't have really realized that humans were "human" in our sense of the word. Humans were like an alien creature to him and he didn't expect one to be so personable.

""The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world." ~ Dr John Piper" Ariel, I love this quote!

To begin with I love how Lewis further shows us the relationships between the siblings. Susan is the "(s)mothering" one who dismisses Lucy's story, Peter is the big brother who at first gently teases, but truly tries to listen and understand, and later to encourage her to admit she's just pretending, but is still supportive. I always wanted a big brother growing up, a protector and one who would at least try to understand me. Ed on the other hand was, as Lewis puts it, disagreeable! The only reason he went into the wardrobe room was to keep teasing and taunting Lucy. Of course /he/ shuts the door all the way. When he can't find his way through the wardrobe at first he becomes upset and flails about, unlike Lucy who simply enters Narnia.

Now comes the real start of Edmund's story. At first he is wary of the Witch, confused and unsure, but as soon as she offers him sweets and something to drink his wariness melts away. Sin and darkness are like that. Piper is right, if sin looked like sin nobody would want it, but wrapped up in a warm goblet of drink and a plate of enchanted candy, which, like sin leaves you always wanting more and never satisfied, Edmund is taken in. He is more interested in the Witch's castle and more candy than in hearing her demands, and not the least curious about why she wants them there, he wants to be the foucs and if they are there he can't be. When he meets up with Lucy again and hears her tell of her time with Tumnus and the White Witch, Ed, as Lewis says, is already more than half on the Witch's side. One small thing I noticed, or maybe I missed, is the fact that they came right out of the wardrobe, even though Edmund had locked it, how'd that happen? As for Ed, he is beginning his descent into seeing all that happens when you lsten to the lies. Soon he will reach the bottom, but redemption is in store. This is so true, it is not until we are truly desparate, at the end of ourselves that we can truly see our need for God and receive his gift of love and grace.

@Niffum (about the animals): I read the American version for years before I found out that it wasn't the original. In that one it's Susan who says "Foxes!", while Ed says "Snakes:

I have a funny story about this. I've always wanted to see the US editions because we only have the UK ones in SA. I'm using audiobooks for the Summer Challenge so I can listen to the day's chapters on my drive to uni each day (it's almost exactly the right length). For some reason I noticed how enthusiastically the reader has Lucy shout "rabbits!" I had also downloaded the ebook from Project Gutenberg Canada so I could check up quotes for my reflections (they have the Narnia books there because they are out of copyright in Canada and South Africa). And I noticed that in the ebook there were no rabbits. I thought it might be a typo, but wondered if maybe it was based on the US edition. So then I checked to see if it has Maugrim or Fenris and it has Fenris. I was wierdly excited about finally having a US edition even if only as an ebook.

I love your story, Ariel. Not directly relevant or important, but I was actually wondering yesterday whether Tumnus' mother would have been a naiad/dryad or if Lewis imagines female fauns. As far as I know, you only get male fauns in Greco-Roman mythology but I don't know what later medieval type portrayals were like and I can't remember whether Lewis makes mention of female fauns at all. Random, I know. An unfortunate side-effect of being a Classicist.

I also wondered about the Men, Monks and Gamekeepers. Monks and Gamekeepers are both things you expect from men in our world, but not Narnia. I suppose it's possible that Lewis hadn't yet conceived of men having lived in Narnia in the past and that it really does refer to myths about these mysterious beings from another (i.e. our) world? Though you are right that the Hermit could be seen as a kind of monk. And gamekeepers could refer to men who had tried to tame wild animals in Narnia's past. I think Silenus' dress is meant to be Greek rather thsn monk-like and he's a bit to pagan/pre-Christian to pass a monk.

Amazing pictures, as always, Hobbit. The way you capture Tumnus' motion and expression is great.

@ Hobbit I forgot to mention how much I like your drawings. Tumnus's reaction is perfect! And I like the detail of the snow falling of his umbrella. Also the way Edmund is sitting captures his attitude very well.

Ch 3. Edmund and the Wardrobe

Publisher: I like it, but I’m worried that children might shut themselves up in wardrobes by trying to get to this Narnia place.

Lewis: I can fix that.

Pg 7 “...leaving the door open of course because she knew that it was very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe.”

Pg 8-9 “She had, of course, left the door open, for she knew that it is a very silly thing to shut oneself into a wardrobe.”

Pg 27 “She did not shut it properly because she knew that it is very silly to shut oneself into a wardrobe even if it is not a magic one.”

Pg 28 “He jumped in and shut the door, forgetting what a very foolish thing this is to do.”

Pg 53 “Peter held the door closed, but did not shut it; for, of course, he remembered, as every sensible person does that you should never shut yourself up in a wardrobe.”

Apparently Ariel and I are on the same wave-length. We were both struck by the details yesterday and both thought similar thing's about Lucy and her siblings today. I promise I wrote the first bit before I read what Ariel wrote :p

Day 2

Chapter 3: Lucy's Witness
You can't help but feel sorry for Lucy. She's had the most amazing experience but when she tells her siblings, instead of being excited with her, they assume she's just playing or pulling a prank. It gets worse when she tries to prove to them the truth of her story, and the evidence makes it look like she really is lying. As sorry as you feel for Lucy, you can also understand why the siblings find it so hard to accept something they can't see for themselves. This is why Peter and Su hurt her without meaning it (though Edmund, we are told, is more intentionally cruel).

I was thinking that we sometimes go through the same thing when we want to share our faith with others. We have had an experience that was so real to us, but because it doesn't fit with people's understanding of the world (the same way finding a snowy wood in a wardrobe didn't fit with Peter, Susan and Edmund's understanding of the world) it's so very hard to convince them. In time, we might even start to doubt ourselves ("for by this time she was beginning to wonder herself whether Narnia and the Faun had not been a dream").

But we can learn from Lucy's perseverance and the way she stuck to repeating what she knew what to be true even when she was teased for it. ("She could have made it up with the others quite easily at any moment if she could have brought herself to say that the whole thing was only a story made up for fun. But Lucy was a truthful girl and he knew that she was really in the right".)

That's not to say that there aren't times when we do have to be quiet and keep our thoughts to ourselves for the sake of peace (we are not little children playing with our siblings and the real word relationships are more complex). But in the end we must realise that it is only when other people experience the truth for themselves that they will come to believe and accept our story. And even then there reaction might not be what we expect (as happens when Edmund does have an experience of his own).

In some ways this episode is repeated in Prince Caspian when Lucy see's Aslan and the others can't. It must have been somethinh Lewis felt quite strongly about.

Chapter 4 (and 2): Ed and Lu

(This is intended to be hypothetical musings, I wasn't trying to draw out any spiritual significance in this bit)

I was struck by the similarities and differennces between Lucy and Edmund’s first encounters of Narnia. They both meet a potentially dangerous stranger who does not have their best interests at heart. They both accept food from the stranger and are enchanted by magic (music in Lucy’s case, food in Edmund’s). In some ways Lucy is lucky that her would-be captor has a change of heart before he hands her over to the witch. And that made me wonder what would have happened if Edmund had met Tumnus and Lucy had met Jadis on their first trips. I don’t think their roles would have been straighfowardly reversed, however. And the clue to this comes in the difference between their characters.

Lucy is portrayed as innocent and perhaps overly trusting but her heart is pure and she is a “truthful girl”. I think that although she trusted Tumnus more than she should have, she would not have been so easily taken in by Jadis. I think she trusted Tumnus because she saw the potential for goodness in him even before he did. But she would have been sensitive to the Jadis’ true evil nature. The food Tumnus offered her was natural and wholesome, but I imagine she would have been more sceptical of the food Jadis created out of thin air. And even if she had accepted the food and drink I feel like it would not neccesarily have had so powerful an effect on her as it did on Ed. Even if she had eaten enchanted food, I don’t think that would be enough for her to follow Jadis’ instructions to bring her siblings back to Narnia without telling them about her whole encounter.

Conversely, Edmund has a bad nature (at this point of the story). He is “spiteful”, eager to tease Lucy and make her miserable. He’s also less excited by the idea of being in a strange new world than Lucy (“And though he did not like to admit that he had been wrong, he also did not much like being alone in this strange, cold, quiet place.) ”I think that if Edmund had met Tumnus first he would not have done as well as Lucy. For starters, I don’t think he would have been as friendly towards Tumnus as Lucy was. He is polite to Jadis when he learns she is a queen but I can imagine him making fun of Tumnus or being downright rude (think of how he draws on the stone lion in Jadis’ palace). But even if his interaction had been friendly and he had accepted Tumnus’ invitation, Tumnus might not have been as touched as he was by Lucy and might still have handed him over to Jadis. And if Tumnus had still repented and confessed his plans, I can’t imagine Edmund being as forgiving as Lucy was.

So although it seems that Lucy was lucky and Edmund unlucky in who they first met in Narnia, from what we know about their characters, we can’t blame what happens later purely on what happened or didn’t happen during their first visit. They both choose how to respond to their circumstances and that’s what makes the diffetence between them.

This year I am reading LWW aloud together with my daughter Eden each day and she will draw as she listens. Here are the pix she did yesterday:
• Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy and the Wardrobe
• Lucy meeting Tumnus for the first time in Narnia at the lamp post (I especially love the way Tumnus' face is drawn), with his parcels scattered all around him in his shock of meeting Lucy
• Tea in the faun's cave: with bookshelves, a photo of Tumnus' father on the right and, in a thought bubble above Tumnus' chair is the White Witch telling him to be a kidnapper; whereas in the roaring of the fire Aslan is telling Tumnus to tell the Truth.

*digs out some old tinfoil hats from the back of the closet for Ajjie and Ariel* 😉

Those are amazing Benisse! Tell Eden I loved them 🙂

Ch 4. Turkish Delight

Some things I noticed in this chapter:
Sin can appear beautiful
Sin is unfulfilling
Sin is isolating
Sin is deadly

@Swan: Am I being accused of being a conspiracy theorist now? 😉

@Ajjie: I'm assuming Lewis stuck close to his mythology (ie: female fauns are not a thing), but I prefer the idea of having male and female of everything. Fauns and dryads/naiads are just too different in my mind to have families together and anyway, there are male dryads too.

@Ariel It's this old old TLC joke where tinfoil hats are supposed to protect you from brain sharing ie saying the same thing or having the same idea at the same time as someone else. Sometimes we'd say *Tinfoil* as a way to acknowledge that we'd had the same idea.

I was busy today, so I'm winding down tonight with my chapters and just typing some stuff as it comes to mind.

@Benisse Those are adorable.

Chapter 3

Peter's actually a really good brother here. He's humoring Lucy at first, but (In a non-fairy tale) setting he understands that at Lucy's age there's only so far you can go without alienating the other siblings.

The descriptions of what the 4 were doing in their free time makes me want to take a vacation to the Professor's house.

The thought of reindeer the size of shetland ponies. That's a delightful thought. Too bad the movie couldn't go to quite that level of whimsy. Also, the description here really is quite Santa-like. And I feel like there's some symbolism there with the witch bringing Winter but never Christmas.

Chapter 4

I love the illustrations, but I never understood why this particular picture of Edmund makes him look like he has male pattern baldness. Is this an issue with 10 year olds in England?

OK, Tumnus was nice and all so I get why Lucy was on fairy tale mode and went with him for tea. But Edmund. Did you never learn to not take candy for strangers who are mumbling about "It's only one, easy enough to deal with"?

Well, I guess creepy stranger /is/ giving out lattes.

I've actually had Turkish Delight from a gourmet sweets shop in a little village in England and it is....just like the description that Lewis gives here. I've tried to make Turkish delight and failed miserably and I've heard people on here talk about making it and it being just "OK' but seriously, when it's made fresh by someone who knows what they're doing it is just lovely and I split a bag with my sister in an hour. Like we're not talking "Would sell out my family" good here, but lets just say if I was 10 and on bad terms with my family and the Turkish Delight was enchanted...well it would be tempting.

I still have some Turkish Delight left over from Harrod's in a drawer somewhere. I should have some, but I just brushed my teeth for the night.

Pro Tip Eddy. If someone looks like a vampire, don't trust them if they talk about what happens to you when they die. They're probably not dying a natural death. Also, I just realized that the description of the White Witch /is/ very vampire like. Huh. Don't go near vampires, kids.

Lucy accepts that Edmund knows what everyone says about fauns. Either she's humoring him, or she gets that Edmund happens to be smart and just knows these things. After all, later Edmund is a rather clever character. Even if he doesn't understand the whole "Don't accept candy from vampire witches" thing, it's not like he just went from being stupid and traterous to shrewd and loyal? Right? Aslan redeemed Edmund's soul/life. He didn't make him smarter.

I know it's probably the after effects of dark magic and the deep pit in your soul that you're doing something wrong, but my stomach kinda hurt after eating half a bag od Turkish Delight too, Ed. I feel you.

"Tumnus' Thaw"
(1-2)
(Yes... I realize this puts me three days behind. :p)

@Tooky - I think the chances are really, really good that The White Witch as such was influenced by George MacDonald's Lilith, who was a vampire, so... probably not coincidence?

@Lily "Tumnus Thaw" - that's a great concept; and beautifully drawn.

@Benisse: I love Eden's drawings; especially the details she includes

@Tooky: Turkish Delight is quite common in SA, though more so at Christmas time. I didn't really like it as a child, but I discovered that of the two common flavours we get, rose and lemon, I quite like the lemon. Rose is kinda the standard, though, which is why I thought I didn't like it. My family has been trying different brands, but we definitely like the Beacon one best, even more than the imported Turkish ones - though perhaps the really expensive Turkish ones that we haven't tried are better. (Beacon is probably the biggest sweet and chocolate brand in SA). I can't really eat more than one at a time but my mom could probably eat half a box. If you visit The Kilns, they usually have some in little bowls around the house (that's how I first discovered I liked tge lemon flavour).

Also, Tooky, I laughted at your reference to Ed's drink as "latte" because it remimded me that in the performance of LWW at a local church that I saw a couple months ago the WW offered Edmund Milo (it's a cocoa and malt drink that's sorta like hot chocolate, but a little different; it's made by Nestle but only made in certain countries). I was worried for a second that Edmund would ask for some kind of South African sweet instead of Turkish Delight (Miss Tumnus had given Lucy some South African things with her tea) but I think they knew how iconic the Turkish Delight is so they kept it (plus we're all familiar with it).

@Ariel: That wasn't a typo above. The play I saw did have a Miss Instead of Mr Tumnus, which made me realise that that's what first got me wondering if there were female fauns. They weren't trying to make as statement, I think they were just using the actors they had available and she played the role so spectacularly you could see why they'd given it to her.

@Swanwhite (last page): Thanks!
I've thought the same thing about the constant references to not-shutting-oneself-in-a-wardrobe. Years ago we got a wardrobe for our house, and I was young enough that the only time I'd heard of wardrobes was in the Narnia books. So as soon as the wardrobe was set up I went inside at once (of course!) but was terrified of the door shutting itself on me by accident because I had no idea what would happen, probably something terrible, C.S. Lewis made that very clear!! 😆
(Also I love your artwork. They look a lot more like the illustrations than my dorky little sketches do, so I'm very impressed. 😛 I have no idea why I can't get Ed to stay blonde in my drawings...he was in the original light sketch but then I started darkening the lines and suddenly he had his movie hair. 🙄 )

@Benisse: Those are adorable! 😀 It made my day when I saw them.

@Ariel: I'm in favor of having female fauns in Narnia, too. The male dryads and naiads are described in MN as wood-gods and river-gods; maybe there are female fauns after all, they're just not called "fauns".

@Tooky: I was hesitant to try Turkish Delight the first time, too, because I'd actually heard it described as "disgusting" before. But I ended up loving it. (Except the rose-water flavor, which was good but not amazing.) I tried one piece and before I knew what was happening I'd eaten half a dozen. 😆 😆

@Lily: Your...artwork...is...just...incredible. 😮 I think I've said that before, but I needed to say it again.

I'm seriously curious about the Professor's house, though...the line "all manner of stories were told about it, some of them even stranger than the one I am telling you now" is very tantalizing. I mean, it could just be the events from MN, but I like to think that there were other epic (even other magical) things that happened there. 😛
I just remembered that we have the BBC LWW among our DVD collection. I'm trying to decide whether to watch it or not...unfortunately I don't have the nostalgia factor going for me here: the one I saw when I was little was the cartoon (the one that has Ed wearing glasses ans Jadis with a buzz cut), and then I saw the Walden Media one years later, and last of all I saw the BBC one.
I did do a drawing for today, but I'll have to put up tomorrow. I waited until this evening to read today's chapters, so it's be too late to scan the drawing. (The scanner is in my parent's bedroom, and it's extremely loud. So I don't want to bother them. 😛 )

Guys! All the art in this thread is awesome! And also some really cool observations and ideas and things. 😛

... I do have a project I’m working on to go with the challenge, but it died halfway through, sooo. 😕 I started over. Hopefully I can finish it before we’re done with the book!

First thing: how does Jadis know where the Wardrobe is?

“Do you see that lamp?” She pointed with her wand and Edmund turned
and saw the same lamp-post under which Lucy had met the Faun.
“Straight on, beyond that, is the way to the World of men.”

Second thing. The Professor is Digory. He’s been to Narnia before. Lucy’s story would be strange, but definitely not impossible or unheard of, given his experience in Narnia and the apparent weirdness of his own house. So maybe it’s not all logic that’s pushing him (to push them) to believe that Narnia is real. Maybe it’s not all “goodness, why don’t they teach logic in these schools!?” and a bit more of “Hey kids, you should really check this out. Narnia is totally possible and you’re upsetting your sister. Byeeeeeeee!”

Soooo hopefully that made a bit of sense. Those are just a couple ideas I had that seemed share-worthy. Also mentionable, I didn't realize how much I missed Narnia. I haven't read all the books in a while, and reading LWW again just feels like being home again, in a way. It's nice. 🙂

@Hobbit: You're one of the best artists on the site; your pics are not "dorky little sketches". 😉 I also wondered about all those exciting tales about the house. I think the stranger tale must be something other than the events of MN because the wardrobe room isn't normally part of the tour and I feel like the story referred to is one of the things even the Professor didn't know about the house.

Day 3
Chapter 5: Quotable Lewis

Chapter 5 is so full of brilliant Lewis quotes, sometimes its better to just let him say things in his own words.

Up to that moment Edmund had been feeling sick, and sulky, and annoyed with Lucy for being right, but he hadn't made up his mind what to do. When Peter suddenly asked him the question he decided all at once to do the meanest and most spiteful thing he could think of. He decided to let Lucy down.

It’s interesting that Edmund makes up his mind on the spot. Bad (even evil) choices aren’t necessarily planned well in advance. Sometimes we waver about whether to give into tempation or to do a bad deed and when we do it, it is impulsive and unplanned. But that doesn’t make the consequences any less severe. This is a warning to check ourselves and think before we act.

***

Look here," said Peter turning on him savagely, "shut up! You've been perfectly beastly to Lu ever since she started this nonsense about the wardrobe and now you go playing games with her about it and setting her off again. I believe you did it simply out of spite.

Peter is just great! Standing up to bullying!!

The result was that next morning they decided that they really would go and tell the whole thing to the Professor. "He'll write to Father if he thinks there is really something wrong with Lu," said Peter; "it's getting beyond us.

I love that Peter and Su take their story to an adult. Adults are often poorly represented in children’s stories and sometimes shown as stupid or undeserving of respect. While Lewis does have silly adults in later books (Gumpas and Uncle A), in the Professor we have a wise man the children can confide in and respect.

**

The professor’s whole speech is one of my favourite Lewis passages of all time (second to Puddleglum's "Live Like a Narnian" speech). I really love how Lewis works so many truths about life and sticks them into that little speech. The part I like best is the application of Lewis’ own argument about Jesus being either a lunatic, liar or Lord (called the “trilemma” by theologians).

You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth.

I also love the bit where he points out that Lucy was unlikely to have stayed in the wardrobe for such a short time and then pretended she’s been away for hours. (Logic!)

And then there's this bit:

My dear young lady," said the Professor, suddenly looking up with a very sharp expression at both of them, "there is one plan which no one has yet suggested and which is well worth trying." "What's that?" said Susan. "We might all try minding our own business," said he. And that was the end of that conversation.

*****

Finally, this really belongs to chapter 4 but it fits with Ed's behaviour in this chapter. I'm sharing this picture, even though its not particularly good, because I found it yesterday and it has an interesting history. I made it back in 2006 not long after the movie first came out. We didn't have internet back then (well that was the year we got our first dialup connection but we only used it for emails and important homework). So the only access I had to pictures of the film were in the insert that came with my brother's copy of "Songs inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia". I scanned them all and made a series of little graphics with a bible verse captioning each picture. I don't even know what graphics programme I used but I know I used "clone" to extend the blue background and was so proud of myself 😛 I might share a few others as appropriate.