The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - The Lion's Call Forum

Why did Coriakin turn the Duffers into Monopods?

Morph — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 22:17:50 +0000

One thing I've been really curious about when I've read Dawn Treader is what was Coriakin's motivation to cast such a bizarre spell on Duffers? In the book he never elaborates on that, he just says that it's because they were disobedient and did stupid things like trudging up to the spring to take water.

So, was it a kind of punishment to make them obey, or some sort of joke on his part?

Literary inspirations for the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Swanwhite — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 11:34:04 +0000

I'm listening to the VDT audiobook and thinking about how each island is almost a different genre as well as a different adventure and that's got me thinking about what stories may have influenced Lewis as he was writing VDT. Primarily I'm getting Greek mythology vibes, though I don't know enough Greek mythology to mark many specific similarities. I think there are a lot of Greek stories (like the Odyssey?) that include a long sea voyage with various challenges to overcome. And isn't there a story where sailors land on an island and get turned into pigs by a sorceress? So I'm curious if you've noticed any possible literary influences on the Voyage of the Dawn Treader whether from Greek mythology or other sources.

Peter's education in historical context

Ariel_of_Narnia — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 14:02:18 +0000

In the event anybody is curious (or is able to expand on and/or correct anything I say here), I learned some history today.

We all know that during VDT, Peter went to Professor Kirke's cottage for tutoring so he could prep for entrance exams. During my first read through the Chronicles, I decided Peter was 14/15 in LWW. Thus, he was (in my mind) 16/17 in VDT. Made sense to me because I naturally am familiar with the schooling system of my present day and country, and entrance exams for post-secondary education at that age is normal for me. (When I later found out that Peter is canonically 12 in LWW, I willfully ignored it. I’m the type of reader who requires information like age and appearance early, and once I have a mental image firmly set in my head, I can be pretty inflexible about correcting said notion. I saw no reason why LWW Peter and Susan shouldn’t be in the 13-15 range, so that is how I perceived them, and anyway, I don’t think that perceiving them as a couple years older is really an issue… until something like WWII British education becomes a topic of interest.)

Somewhat to my surprise, though it really shouldn’t have been because of course Lewis knew what he was writing about, I found my long-time willful assumption of Peter’s age to be truly wrong. From what I can see from a not-super-in-depth look at pre-1944 British education (because VDT is in 1942, and 1944 saw some changes made to the system after the war), compulsory education covered ages 5-14. Peter, canonically, is exactly at the end of this range. Society deemed him mature enough to enter the world, at least to the extent of being employed full-time.

However, I can’t seem to find anything about post-secondary education from that time, at least, not anything pertaining to things like entrance exams or accepted ages or whether one had to go to a different type of post-secondary school before university. Does anyone know anything about that side of Peter's entrance exams?

Removing dragon skins

marmota-b — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 10:43:48 +0000

In the LotGK thread in the Silver Chair section, hansgeorg alerted me to the possible influence of Andrew Lang's fairy tale books on Narnia, and I think I found one possible instance. In the Swedish tale "King Lindorm" in the Pink Book, the eponymous lindorm (= wingless dragon) has to remove several of his skins (seven in the tale) to become human. Also, it's prefaced by a matter-of-fact request that no one had thought of before, which also sort of evokes the way it comes across in VDT...

(It's available online, but I'm refraining from linking - you can find it in several places, anyway.)

Coriakin & Magic

Lily of Archenland — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 11:28:23 +0000

OK. So when we first meet Coriakin it is under the assumption that he is a "magician," thus explaining his book of Aslan's-laws-abiding spells, and his collection of mysterious objects. But then we find that he is a Star who has been grounded. So what I'm wondering is this: do the two go together? Was the magic something he learned or collected after landing, or does magical ability come inherently with being a Star--with the intimate knowledge of the laws of the world learned in the Great Dance? Would other Stars, or even part-Stars, have abilities which would look like magic to normal mortals aside from their dancing, glowing, and singing?

Something to think about, anyway. :)

The Story of Refreshment

Eriathwen — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:10:20 +0000

"It was about a cup and a sword and a tree and a green hill " Lucy VDT

This line from the VDT as well as the Story of Refreshment intrigue me. I believe that this spell (well more like a story) of refreshment for the spirit is the story of Christ's Death and Resurrection; the cup to me symbolizes the cup that Jesus shared with his disciples at the last supper symbolizing His blood, the tree I believe to be His cross, and the green hill His tomb from which He rose to life again.

The only part of the story that I do not know what it could/does symbolize is the sword; does anyone have any ideas as to what part of the story this could be a part of? From what I do think I believe it happens after the Last Supper and before his Crucifixion but I can't put my finger to what it is since there is a good amount that does happen between these two parts in the Story of Refreshment.

I was also wondering why couldn't Lucy remember the story? Lewis doesn't explain that she could or couldn't remember the spell of 'eavesdropping' but it does say she couldn't remember the Spell of Refreshment for the Spirit. And if it only applied to this story, the story Lucy claimed to be the loveliest story she had ever read, I wonder why. Although it could just be that you were not allowed to remember the spells because they belonged to Coriakin.

Why was this 'story' called a spell? Well it could be that she felt so much nicer after reading it and that she never had wanted to stop. But was it a spell any one have any ideas?

This was first time reading VDT and I so thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about the Spell or Story of Refreshment for the Spirit please post ^.^