TLC Forum

Several months ago, I wrote a short fanfiction about a letter that Caspian X wrote to Rilian. In the letter, Caspian mentioned that he didn't understand why Aslan would let the Telmarines take over Narnia. Well, I kept thinking about that. And thinking, and thinking. Finally, I started to wonder if it happened in a similar way to what happened to the Israelites when they were conquered in 597 BC by Nebuchadnezzar, and again in A.D. 70 by Titus.

It's an idea that I've been playing around with for some time. I'm working on pulling some of the historical and Biblical evidence from both of these times into the story that I'm writing about the Telmarine Invasion, but I wanted to know your thoughts.

There are some definite parallels. The Narnians seem to be the chosen people of that world in a way. Narnia is the place where everything began and everything ends. I think the conquests (The White Witch and the Telmarines) can certainly be compared to the exiles although the Narnians stay in their own land as slaves or in hiding instead of being taken to a different country. We don't have direct evidence (That I can think of) that these invasions were punishments for the Narnians forsaking Aslan, but that seems very plausible.

That's interesting NG. I think it might be, because Israel was sort of a chosen place and Narnia was too, like Swanwhite said too.
Eva

In other respects Narnia holds many parallels with England and perhaps Ireland.

Can it be argued that Narnia was a Chosen Nation in its world, which Aslan seems to have given special attention and care? Absolutely. But Narnia equaling Israel... I am less comfortable with that. Exact one-to-one allegorical parallels weren't officially Lewis's thing. He made symbols, not precise mirrors. And I'm not sure he would have made a country in Narnia, his Other World, which was meant to BE a country from This World.

Yes, Lily, I was making the point that Narnia was a Chosen Nation, not that it was exactly paralleling Israel because, like you said, Lewis used symbols not mirrors. (Sorry if the title of this thread gave the wrong impression of what I intended...I should change it [from Narnia = Israel to Narnia similar to Israel?]...)

I've given it some thought before, especially as Archenland seems most untouched during the Hundred Year Winter and the Telmarine invasion despite the fact that they were a much smaller land (granted, the Narnians' Dark Age was likely filled with turmoil). I think there may well be similarities, but as others have said, not really any direct parallels.

I like this idea. And remember Israel went through more than just exile. That was the final straw. But during the time of the judges especially (and to a lesser extent some of the kings), Israel was invaded or conquered by neighbouring countries rather than kicked out. Very often this was related to their forsaking God ("everyone did what he thought was good in his own sight"). I think even during the exile there was a small remnant left behind. And there were always small groups of the faithful, both under the ungodly rulers and later in exile.

Narnia does have an Israel-like role in that it is to the Narnians that Aslan reveals himself as the true high king. In this way it parallels Old Testament Israel to whom God revealed himself and his laws and to whom he would speak directly (in visions or through the prophets). Just like Aslan only appeared in person in Narnia. People in the neighbouring nations at the time could only come to know about God through the Israelites, but for the most part ignored him and worshipped their own man-made gods. This is like in Calormen, where only rumours of Alsan exist, and these have been corrupted. If you think about it, Narnia under the Telmarines had become suspicious of Aslan in much the same way that the Calormenes were which bears some parallel to times when Israel drifted from God and started following the practices of the surrounding nations.

Of course, as you've all mentioned, we wouldn't say that Lewis was trying to make Narnia that world's equivalent of Israel. Aslan, despite his intentional parallels with Jesus, wasn't a messiah in quite the same way Jesus was and so we wouldn't expect a parallel Israel to which the promised messiah would come. But I do think considering these similarities helps us understand how Aslan dealt with Narnia, both the special favour shown to it and the way it suffered under oppression from time to time (perhaps as a result of falling away).

Also, a thought just occurred to me. While there isn't any direct evidence that Narnia had fallen away from Aslan in the lead up to the White Witch's or Telmarines takeover, we do have a teeny bit of evidence for the former. The tree that was planted in MN was to protect them from Jadis. Perhaps it was neglect in looking after the tree (which accompanied loss of faith in Aslan and therefore them forgetting the point of the tree) that lead to it's being destroyed and her takeover.

Okay, more thoughts there than I realised.

Well said Ajnos

Ajnos wrote:While there isn't any direct evidence that Narnia had fallen away from Aslan in the lead up to the White Witch's or Telmarines takeover, we do have a teeny bit of evidence for the former. The tree that was planted in MN was to protect them from Jadis. Perhaps it was neglect in looking after the tree (which accompanied loss of faith in Aslan and therefore them forgetting the point of the tree) that lead to it's being destroyed and her takeover.

I agree.

I'm not sure that Narnia is supposed to mirror Israel in the Bible, I mean, any country that forgets about morals and God is going to have more corruption and have a harder time defending itself because the citizens themselves won't get along with each other, so Lewis could just be following this pattern and not meaning for Narnia to mirror Israel.

I think the reason the Telmarines successfully conquered Narnia might be due to the fact that it had no leader. Yes, there were very few men in Narnia, yet maybe one of them was supposed to be brave and lead the country, but did not because he was afraid.