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"Listen," said the Doc. "All you have heard well-nigh Old Narnia is true. It is not the land of men. It is the country of Aslan, the country of the Waking Trees and Visible Naiads, of Fauns and Satyrs, of Dwarfs and Giants, of the gods and the Centaurs, of Talking Beasts."

The Chronicles of Narnia are a series of seven books by C. Southward. Lewis, telling the history from its creation to its ending of a land where animals talk, where a varied collection of creatures from European sociology lives, and where a number of children take heroic adventures nether the guidance of the great Lion, Aslan. Though "Narnia" is sometimes used to draw the whole world, information technology is strictly speaking a northern mediaeval European-mode kingdom of that world; it is bordered by Archenland on the south (beyond which lies the quasi-Arabian empire of Calormen), past Ettinsmoor on the North, past Lantern Waste on the Westward, and past the Not bad Eastern Sea on the E, across which is Aslan's Country.

In publishing order, the seven books are:

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950)
2. Prince Caspian (1951)
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952)
4. The Argent Chair (1953)
5. The Equus caballus and His Boy (1954) (written 1953, before the previous volume)
6. The Wizard's Nephew (1955)
7. The Last Battle (1956)

The beginning four books are in chronological order, but the fifth takes identify inside the final chapter of the first (as information technology takes place during the Pevensies' reign of Narnia which was originally only touched upon), and the sixth is a prequel to the series. The Chronicles of Narnia were actually not originally intended to be a seven volume series. After the success of the start book, Lewis wrote 2 more, to complete a trilogy. Thus Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader form a natural pair, telling a unmarried more than or less connected story within the larger series. When demand continued, Lewis wrote another two books, then a "prequel" describing Narnia's beginning, and finally The Last Battle, in which the country of Narnia is brought to its own shut, giving the series a definite ending.

Many recent printings number the books in chronological order. For many, however, reading in publication order is more satisfying, every bit The Magician's Nephew has many references that make sense just if you've read the earlier published books, and reading in chronological club can spoil certain elements of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Lewis writes the novels with a rather casual, conversational tone. In a letter to a young reader, Lewis stated that a chronological reading seemed to make more than logical sense but affirmed that he had no particular reading order in mind when he wrote. Furthermore, if he'd actually intended for people to read the books in chronological social club, he could take easily arranged for that in his lifetime.

C.S. Lewis reverted to Christianity from atheism and wrote many works of apologetics and theology; the Narnia series, his only piece of work straight targeted at children, is at once a work of creative fiction and applied apologetics, even dealing with disbelief. Narnia borrows creatures and myths from many unlike cultures and ages, from the Edwardian chance stories of Lewis'south youth to the Arabian Nights, from Shakespearean tragedies to the Grimms' fairy-tales, from the Classical and Germanic mythologies that were Lewis'south avocation to the mediaeval literature that was his professional person study, interwoven with creatures of Lewis'south own imagination (namely, marshwiggles) — a profusion of fantasy highly unorthodox in the prosaic, "realistic" Machine Age, mail-war '40s and '50s — all undergirded with a solid structure of Christian doctrine. Past the third (published) book, it is clear that Aslan is a fictional version of Jesus — yet, every bit Lewis insisted, the works exercise not course an allegory of Christian life, every bit some have assumed, but rather an gamble-tale in which God is a swain-adventurer. He also said that he didn't set out to include any religious elements in the story, it merely ended upwards that fashion.

The books display the influence of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, not surprisingly since the authors were friends at the fourth dimension — indeed, Lewis'due south Infinite Trilogy was written as a result of a friendly wager with Tolkien. While The Chronicles of Narnia has non had the colossal cultural bear upon of Tolkien'south ballsy, the serial has remained the best-known and well-nigh honey of all of Lewis's works.

Television Serial adaptations of the first four books take all been televised by the BBC and released on DVD (in some places as Compilation Movies). Lion was besides the subject of an before Tv adaptation on ITV in 1967 (at present largely lost ^annotation Two of the ten episodes still exist) and an Animated Adaptation in 1979. Unfortunately, the BBC master of Lion was apparently lost to unknown causes several years ago, and so the best quality copies of that series left are the DVDs ^note there were likewise VHS tapes. A radio adaptation by The BBC likewise successfully adapted all seven books, originally circulate between 1988 and 1997.

More than recently, the kickoff three (by publication order) accept been filmed as the start of a series intended to adapt all seven books; First past Disney, afterward 20th Century Fox ^note Which, ironically, would be bought out past Disney in 2019, thus giving them total buying of all three movies, and Walden Media through the work of Perry Moore spending several years acquiring the rights for Walden. The King of beasts, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out in tardily 2005, Prince Caspian in 2008, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in late 2010. Netflix bought the rights to all seven books in 2018 intending to brand their own ready of shows, to be helmed by Coco co-writer Matthew Aldrich.

The books are the Trope Namer for Narnia Time, in which the relative catamenia of time between ii dissever worlds changes according to the needs of the plot.

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The series as a whole provides examples of: ^notation Run across private books' pages for tropes that announced in specific books.

• Anachronic Club: The books are each linear stories (oh, except for Prince Caspian), merely as described in a higher place, they are written in non-chronological society.
• The Anti-God: Tash, as he is literally the antithesis of Aslan. All that is vile and evil is Tash's domain, all that is noble and good is Aslan's. It is explained by Aslan himself that he and Tash are such opposites that anyone who does good in the name of Tash is actually serving Aslan, and anyone who does evil in Aslan's name is really serving Tash.
• "Arabian Nights" Days: The culture of Calormen is clearly inspired by the Arabian Nights version of the Middle East; notably, C. S. Lewis is on tape every bit being a fan of the English translation and even borrowed the proper noun "Aslan" from the footnotes to one edition. It's Turkish for "Lion."
• Arc Words: The phrase: "he'south not a tame panthera leo" (referring to Aslan) is spoken in each of the seven books.
• Archer Classic: Susan is the graceful, ladylike, slightly haughty Queen famous for her archery, though she hates to use information technology in actual combat. Queen Lucy is the tomboy who goes to war with the men and fights alongside the other archers in Narnia's regular army. Jill Pole, past the last book, develops into a scaled-downward version of the Wood Ranger; Male monarch Tirian notes both her accurateness with the bow and her skill at moving silently through the woods, especially at night.
• Ascended Actress: If you read the books in the order they were written, Digory Kirke/the Professor becomes this, as he has just a pocket-sized office in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe simply is the protagonist and title character of The Wizard'due south Nephew. (If yous read the books chronologically, it becomes a instance of Demoted to Extra for the aforementioned reason.)
• Ass in a Lion Skin: Washed literally. In The Last Boxing, Puzzle, a donkey, is, equally a Shout-Out to the Trope Namer, put into a lion skin past Shift the Ape to disguise him as Aslan so that Shift can force the Narnians to practise his bidding under the guise that he'south speaking for Aslan. The costume is so bad that the only reasons why information technology works are that the Narnians haven't seen a lion for ages and because Puzzle is forbidden from braying and brought out only at nighttime.
• Author Avatar: Professor Kirke, admitted past Lewis himself, although Kirke is also an avatar of Lewis's own old tutor, W. T. Kirkpatrick, (as is MacPhee in That Hideous Strength).
• Author Usurpation: Fans of Christian literature might know almost Lewis's other works, but they're not nearly every bit prominent in pop civilization as Narnia.
• Authority Equals Ass Kicking: The kings of Narnia and Archenland consider information technology their duty to be the start in every charge and the last in every desperate retreat, so this would more specifically be "Authority Requires The Ability To Kick Ass". Aslan has demonstrated the ability to crush whatever opponent, as well, and more than one queen has demonstrated skill in gainsay.
• Badass Normal: The air of Narnia is stated to be dissimilar from terrestrial air, and it has a way of turning ordinary children from Globe into these.
• Barefoot Sage: Coriakin, Ramandu, and the Hermit of the Southern March are all wise one-time men with magical powers who never habiliment shoes.

• Boxing Discretion Shot: In the book, the climatic boxing betwixt Peter and the White Witch is not shown; information technology is told second paw. The film actually shows the battle, with the result being a iconic boxing scene and what is generally agreed to exist the most ballsy and memorable scene of the film.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Aslan" and "Tash" mean "lion" and "stone" respectively in Turkish. "Jadis" ways "witch" in Western farsi.
• Bittersweet Ending: Information technology manages to be both happy and depressing. Narnia is destroyed and characters we know and dearest end upwards dying, however the afterlife is a wonderful paradise where they can eternally exist happy.
• Black-and-White Morality: Aslan stands for proficient, those who would oppose him are evil, and it's generally made rapidly obvious to the reader who's on which side. Recurring characters not clearly committed to either cause when introduced will terminate up joining ane side or the other (human protagonists ever catastrophe upwards on Team Good, of course) earlier the end of the volume.
• Blasphemous Praise: Averted. C. S. Lewis in one case received a letter from the mother of a young Christian boy who was concerned that he felt he loved Aslan more than Jesus. Lewis wrote back to reassure him that this did non count as blasphemy since Aslan is a Messianic Archetype, so loving what Aslan did amounts to the same thing equally loving what Jesus did.
• Carnivore Defoliation: In Narnia in that location are both talking animals and regular non-sapient animals. Eating a not-talking animal is no bigger deal than it would be anywhere else, but eating a talking fauna is considered tantamount to cannibalism. This first is raised as an effect in Prince Caspian, where Susan hesitates to shoot an attacking bear considering she is concerned information technology might exist a talking bear (it wasn't, and they cook and eat it). It becomes a serious plot betoken in The Argent Chair, where the "gentle giants" of Harfang are discovered to have killed a talking deer, which our heroes unknowingly ate for dinner. Jill (who is on her commencement adventure in Narnia) is sad every bit she would exist when she thinks about any animal suffering; Eustace who has been friends with talking animals is horrified as though hearing of a murder; only Puddleglum who is a native Narnian is appalled almost to the point of suicide and compares information technology to a human being discovering they had eaten a baby.
• Clever Crows: Corvids are for the most office benevolent or jokers at worst. The wise raven Sallowpad served as a royal advisor for the Pevensies, as shown in The Equus caballus and His Male child, while a pair of jackdaws are comic relief in The Magician'south Nephew.

• Crossover Cosmology: Aslan may be Jesus, but that doesn't finish river-gods existing, and Bacchus popping up in the second volume.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Averted. Aslan literally is Jesus co-ordinate to C.South. Lewis' answer to a fan letter regarding a conversation most the end of Dawn Treader. This in turn means that the so-called "Emperor Beyond the Sea," mentioned as Aslan'southward father, is the Abrahamic God.
• Demoted to Extra: Susan, Edmund, and Lucy all announced in The Equus caballus and His Boy, simply play simply a peripheral part, and fifty-fifty Aslan plays a more pocket-size office than he does in any other volume in the series. In the chronological order of the serial, Digory Kirke ("the Professor") is this also in The King of beasts, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
• Destroyer Deity: The dragons and salamanders, also as the giant Father Fourth dimension, who were all introduced in earlier books, are awakened to destroy Narnia at the end of The Last Boxing.
• Deus ex Machina: Aslan, who is a Jesus/God Captain Ersatz so information technology's not that surprising, spends the entire series behind the scenes, spinning the risk and coming earlier them only when they need him about.
• Distant Sequel:
  • The Magician's Nephew is prepare 1,000 years before The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1,300 years pass between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, a generation or so betwixt Prince Caspian and The Silver Chair, and seven generations betwixt The Argent Chair and The Concluding Battle, which in turn takes place at the terminate of the world. This allows the globe to change, oftentimes significantly, between novels, such every bit Narnia beingness overrun and conquered by the Telmarine people between the first novel and Prince Caspian.
  • Due to time flowing differently in Narnia than in our world, far less fourth dimension passes between sequels for the human protagonists than for the state of Narnia. The Pevensie siblings are children in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and they're just teenagers or young adults by The Last Battle, even though millennia have passed in Narnia. The Magician's Nephew is the simply one that'southward a afar sequel (or rather, prequel) in Globe time every bit well equally in Narnia time — it's set in The Edwardian Era and focuses on Digory Kirke every bit a child, while the side by side book (chronologically) happens during the rush and shows Digory as an erstwhile man.
• Does Non Similar Shoes: Actually lots of characters, the Narnia wiki fifty-fifty has a specific category for them. Namely, this includes the Hermit of the Southern March, Coriakin, Ramandu, possibly Ramandu'southward Daughter, Shasta, Queen Jadis and, at some point, the Pevensies themselves (especially Lucy). It'south a bit subverted with Shasta several times when the called-for desert sand or the freezing dew-covered grass makes him wish he had shoes like Aravis.
• Dragons Are Demonic: Dragons appear to be representative of vice, such as in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustace is turned into one after indulging his greed.
• Eat Clay, Inexpensive: The Walking Copse. Prince Caspian even describes a tree feast fabricated of different kinds of dirt.
• The Empire: Calormen. Charn was an even worse one.
• Indigenous God: Aslan is considered the ultimate king of all Narnians, whereas Tash is the god worshipped by all Calormens. However this is subverted in The Last Boxing, which explains that these 2 are the gods of good and evil respectively, and anyone who adopts these aspects worships their respective being, regardless of the name they use.
• Evil Chancellor: The Space Arabs of Calormen have an Evil Vizier, although the Tisroc himself isn't all that pleasant to brainstorm with.
• Expansion Pack World: The first volume published was focused only on the kingdom of Narnia. The next four books cover central directions — westward in Prince Caspian, east in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (as well every bit some asides well-nigh the inhabitants of Narnia's skies), north in The Silver Chair likewise as two levels of 'underworld', and south in The Equus caballus and His Boy. The last ii books embrace chronal directions, with the farthermost by detailed in The Magician'south Nephew and the finish of fourth dimension featuring in The Final Battle.
• Extremophile Lifeforms: There's a deep subterranean country called Bism, which is very hot and features such wonders as fire salamanders and fresh gems total of delicious juice. When the characters encounter some of Bism's natives in a shallower layer of the underworld, these notice it far too cold, its rocks too expressionless, and the countless abyss of the sky far besides close for condolement.
• Faeries Don't Believe in Humans, Either:
  • Mr. Tumnus has some books on his shelf including Is Human being A Myth?
  • In Prince Caspian, thanks to Narnia Time elapsing, the Pevensies themselves are considered rather like Male monarch Arthur: rulers from the legendary past golden age, possibly mythical.
  • In Dawn Treader it's revealed that Narnia is a apartment earth where one can sail over the edge, and they have fairy tales about round worlds like ours. Caspian asks, "Take y'all ever been to the parts where people walk upside down?" and is a bit disappointed to larn that we consider our round world very commonplace and uninteresting.
• Fairy Tale Motifs: Pervasively in every volume. Narnia is a earth of kings and queens and castles and magicians and evil witches and dwarfs and gnomes and satyrs and talking animals and giants and magic rings and magical doors to other worlds.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Calormen Empire is often compared to the Persians or the Turks.
• Fantastic Religious Weirdness:
  • Narnia has a dominion that when they are nowadays, humans rule over the talking animals as kings and queens. Lewis probably added this because of the Bible poetry giving humanity dominion over animals.
  • At that place are references to other gods existing, though they appear to be all far lesser than Aslan.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Ane of the start examples in literature. Narnia contains a generous mixture of every fantasy trope C.S. Lewis enjoyed: talking animals, clandestine gnomes, mer-folk, magicians, creatures from Fairy Tales (dwarfs, witches, kings and queens in castles, unicorns), Classical Mythology (centaurs, dryads, naiads, fauns, fifty-fifty Bacchus and Silenus show up at one point), "Arabian Nights" Days (the Calormene empire), even Father Christmas!
• Fauns and Satyrs: Lewis describes both Fauns and Satyrs as inhabitants of Narnia. Although he describes fauns as having the hindlegs of goats, long tails, curly hair, and small horns, the simply clarification for the satyrs is that they are red as foxes or ruby-brown in colour. The book illustrations depict fauns and satyrs as basically identical, with the exception of Mr. Tumnus, who is drawn with a long tail. The movies expand the deviation by making fauns caprine animal-legged and human bodied, with regular goat tails instead of long tails, and satyrs as basically human sized goats that walk on their hindlegs.

• Flat World: The globe which contains Narnia is flat, with waterfalls on at least one edge (though they autumn up). This is somewhen Lampshaded in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Caspian is surprised to hear that in that location's such a thing as a circular world, and thinks Eustace and Edmund are kidding.
• Foreign Ruling Class: In between The King of beasts, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian, Narnia is conquered past pirate-descended Telmarines from a mysterious land in the West, who strength the local Talking Animals and supernatural entities into hiding. Prince Caspian himself is a Telmarine Defector from Decadence who sides with the native Narnians, only his descendants remain Narnian kings for the residual of the globe's lifespan.

• Going Catholic: The series has Christian analogy from the get-go, but it becomes more and more heavy-handed with each sequel.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Aslan the lion plays the about prominent role in supernaturally aiding the heroes, while only brief influence is felt from his father, the Emperor-Across-The-Sea. As the books are Christian allegory, it is generally causeless that Aslan represents Jesus Christ (aka God the Son) while the Emperor is God the Father.
• Growing Up Sucks: A lot of people accuse Lewis of promoting this, partially because the kids can't go back to Narnia when they're older, and partly because of Susan'southward fate (see Mis-blamed, in YMMV). Just we see other characters grow upwards without information technology existence a bad thing, about notably Caspian, Cor, and Digory. The Pevensies, in fact, do all grow up for some time, and Aslan makes it clear that outgrowing the need to visit Narnia in favour of living in their own globe is a skilful matter. It seems to be more "Growing up sucks if you forget your childhood in the process," which falls in line with opinions Lewis is known to have expressed about adults who remember beingness "grown upward" means looking downwardly on childhood and "kittenish" enjoyments.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Several cases, even with at to the lowest degree 1 star, of all things. A couple decades later Narnia's outset, the children of King Frank and Queen Helen wedded non-human Narnians. The sons married wood nymphs and river nymphs, and the daughters married wood gods and river gods. The peoples of Archenland and Calormen are descendants of these unions, despite the fact that they physically look completely human. After the Telmarine Conquest in Narnia, some of the dwarfs disguised themselves every bit humans and married humans and spawned a few half-dwarfs, Dr. Cornelius beingness one of them. It is debated whether Ramandu's daughter (Named "Lilliandil" in the picture) is a full star or merely half-star, though her son Rilian and his descendants, like Tirian, at least count as part-star. If yous put the beavers' account of the White Witch's origins to her story of being queen of Charn and existence brought into Narnia, information technology can be assumed that the race of Charn are descended from Jinn (demons) Giants.
• Hard Truth Aesop: The books contain the lesson that the real earth is a harsh and violent place that sometimes takes a off-white amount of violence to survive in. C. S. Lewis was fifty-fifty quoted once as saying that pretending otherwise would do a groovy disservice to children.

• In Information technology for Life: "In one case a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen in Narnia." Important considering it is not unknown for children from Earth to be taken to Narnia, installed equally king or queen, returned to World, and and so be returned to Narnia years, decades, or centuries later at which time a new ruler may be in place.

• Left-Justified Fantasy Map: Inverted and combined with the fact that making East the cardinal direction is a feature of mediæval Christian maps (considering that's the direction Jerusalem is from Europe). Aslan'southward Country is in the distant East (contrast Tolkien'due south Valinor existence "West of West") and he is said to be the "son of the Emperor over the sea." It is likely in this case that Lewis was particularly influenced by the beginning book of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, in which Una's father is King of the East and the evil Duessa (who has some affinities with the White Witch) is associated with the West. (Note that the two are emblematic representations of Protestantism and Catholicism, respectively.)
• Legendary in the Sequel: Thank you to Narnia Time, occurs to the primary characters in virtually every book; they may render to Narnia to find that thousands of years have passed and their adventures from the last time are treated as history or even fable. In Prince Caspian when the Pevensies return to Narnia information technology's treated as more or less equivalent to King Arthur returning to present-mean solar day Britain (many people even believe they are a myth). Taken even further in The Last Battle: Tirian is dumbfounded that Digory and Polly are nevertheless alive in our world, because they are part of Narnia's creation myth, and then it's almost like meeting Adam and Eve.
  • And lest we think Tirian is just a naive native, the awe goes both ways: '"I saw [this world] begin," said the Lord Digory. "I did not remember I would live to see it die."'

• Light Is Good: Played with. Most of the villains are non "dark", and while Aslan arguably fills the "low-cal Large Good" niche the only truly low-cal-oriented creatures, the stars, don't play a large role - nor do they seem any more morally conventional than any other race. The inhabitants of Narnia's underworld are mostly good, and the very start villain is a witch dressed in white (although not explicitly light-related).
• Loads and Loads of Races: Besides numerous species of talking birds and beasts, the earth of Narnia is full of mythological creatures, monsters, and magical beasts. LWW Introduces fauns, dwarfs, dryads, naiads, centaurs, minotaurs, ghouls, werewolves, boggles, hags, ogres, spectres, wooses, cruels, sprites, people of the toadstools, orknies, ettins, efreets, jinn, giants, horrors, incubuses, unicorns, winged horses, and merpeople. PC introduces maenads, male tree and river spirits, half-dwarfs, and telmarines. VDT introduces people of the islands, star people, monopods/duffers/dufflepuds, ocean people, dragons, sea serpents, and birds of the morning time. SC introduces marshwiggles, gnomes/earthmen, and (sleeping) giant lizards.
• Mad Lib Fantasy Title: Most probable the Trope Maker for all the later on fantasy series that include "Chronicles" in their title. The books themselves also count, with their titles' invocations of such stock fantasy elements as "Sorcerer," "Prince," "Battle," "Dawn", and then on.

• Magic Antidote: Lucy's cordial, made from flowers that grow only on the surface of the dominicus, no less. One driblet has the power to heal whatever wound or injury.
• Medieval Stasis: Very strongly. Dwarfish smiths create crowns for the first royalty of Narnia on the get-go day of its beingness, and well-nigh four 1000 years afterwards, the last day of that earth still involves people fighting with sword and bow.
• Mirror Reveal: Eustace showtime discovers his transformation into a dragon upon seeing his reflection in a pool of water.
• The Multiverse: The books mainly feature travel to and from the titular Narnia, just in The Wizard's Nephew it's explained that our globe and Narnia are just two of a Multiverse of worlds. We simply ever see three, though. Four, if you count Heaven, although this it is portrayed as being as clearly and obviously dissimilar from the rest as a cube is from a foursquare.
• Nature Spirit: Narnia is full of these. Wood-Nymphs/Dryads/Hamadryads/Silvans, Naiads, Wood Gods (male person versions of wood nymphs since woods gods have been mentioned equally being husbands and brothers to them), River Gods (same species every bit naiads, since one river god is mentioned ascent out of a river with a group of naiads who are described as beingness his daughters), Bacchus, Maenads, and Silenus. The stars and sea people may possibly count also.

• Nice Mice: Mice are the only race of Talking Animals that gets a racial storyline of their own.
• 1-Gender Race: Although Narnia has races from Classical Mythology that are depicted as 1 gender merely (male centaurs, male fauns, male satyrs, male person dwarfs, female dryads, female person naiads, etc.), Lewis is rather cryptic about these races equally being either one-gendered or not. Lewis mentions male tree and river gods that are implied to exist the male versions of the tree and water nymphs of Narnia. And Lewis never states that female fauns, centaurs, satyrs, and dwarfs do not exist, yet some centaurs have centaur sons. Why, when the children of King Frank and Queen Helen go out and ally, the sons marry dryads and naiads, and daughter marry male person tree and river spirits instead of any of the dwarfs, centaurs, satyrs, or fauns. Lewis does however mention races with both males and females such as giants and giantesses, and mermen and mermaids. In the films, they exercise depict female dwarfs and centaurs forth with the males, the large river god is depicted, but without naiad daughters, and in a deleted scene, when the Pevensies and Trumpkin see a damsel dice because its tree was cut down, when it screams, information technology has a man'southward voice. All the on-page Dufflepuds are male but ane mentions his daughter.
• 1 Steve Limit: Averted with Queen Helen and Helen Pevensie, although Helen Pevensie is not named in the books.
• Our Centaurs Are Different: These are actually good guys, and quite heroic, as well.
• Our Dragons Are Dissimilar: They don't testify upwards all that often compared to other species, just they're among the creatures nowadays in the earth of Narnia, generally existence found in its more than remote corners. Physically they're the giant, fire-breathing, bat-winged reptiles of Western myth, although their elbows are noted to rising above their backs like a spider's. They're immensely greedy, and often amass immense hoards of treasure. Sleeping on a dragon'south hoard risks transforming the sleeper into a dragon themselves, and dragons alive aslope Fiery Salamanders in the land of Bism Beneath the Earth, sleeping until the end times when they volition rise to the surface and burn away the world.
• Our Dwarves Are Even so: Grumpy and aggressive metalworkers and miners. Subverted in one detail: the weapon of pick for Narnian dwarfs is not the axe or hammer, but the bow.
• Our Gnomes Are Weirder: Instead of dwarfish sprites, they look similar bizarre human being-creature mixtures, but mostly humanoid, and no two are alike.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Narnia has two varieties of merfolk. The ones that live in the coast of Narnia are the traditional merfolk with the heads, arms, and torsos of human men and women and long fish tails below the waist. They are friendly, can breathe the air of the surface, can leave the water, and have beautiful, sireneqsue/angelic singing voices. The other kind that dwell in the oceans at the world'south finish are completely humanoid in appearance with regular human legs, have ivory white skin, night purple hair, article of clothing no clothing except for royalty, who wear cloaks and coronets, and ride of the backs of spiny ocean horses (that's gotta be painful if you are riding butt naked.). They are manifestly unable to leave the water (either they are unable to breathe air, or they don't know what might happen to them if they exercise), and are very trigger-happy and hostile to the Dawn Treader crew, except for ane fish shepherdess girl who waved to Lucy when she saw her. In the film version of VDT, the Bounding main People are replaced by Naiads, who weren't featured in the starting time two films (Unless you count the River God), and they are depicted every bit basically mermaids fabricated out of liquid...
• Our Nymphs Are Dissimilar: Dryads are among the numerous fantastical creatures native to Narnia, and Lewis describes them in some item. Birch dryads look similar slender girls with showery hair, dressed in silver and fond of dancing, beech dryads look like gracious, queenly goddesses dressed in fresh transparent green, and oak dryads await similar wizened one-time men with warts, gnarled fingers, and hair growing out of the warts.
• Pals with Jesus: Quite literally, our heroes are pals with Aslan who basically is Jesus in a king of beasts form.

• Recursive Reality: All universes are continued to the Wood Between The Worlds, a forest dotted past puddles. Each puddle is a portal to a universe.
• Cerise Is Heroic: All adept dwarfs take cherry-red hair and all evil dwarfs have black hair.
• Royal Cruiser: During the Golden Age of the Narnian kingdom, under High Male monarch Peter, the rulers would travel aboard a galleon carved to resemble a giant swan, named the Splendor Hyaline.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • The rulers of Narnia and Archenland are expected to be "first in every charge and concluding in every retreat" as well as have lean tables during famines. One gets the impression that descent is an unimportant part of being royalty: Aslan appoints a random cab driver from London the first King of Narnia. When the cabbie objects, Aslan asks him if he would remember that the Talking Animals of Narnia are costless subjects, avoid holding favourites, bring up his children to do the aforementioned, et cetera. His answers are between "yeah" and "A chap can't know that, but I hope I'd try," and Aslan tells him "Y'all volition have done all that a Rex should practice."
  • The Calormen royalty every bit well; whatever other faults you can lay at their door, are also directly involved in politics and battles. When the Jerkass prince (unable to exit his urban center because of a curse) becomes Tisroc (king), he makes peace with his neighbors, because he knows improve than to permit his lords win celebrity in boxing while he's stuck in the palace - "for that is the way Tisrocs become overthrown".
• Sapient Steed: Inevitable when you accept sentient and Talking Animals, and peculiarly important in The Horse and His Boy, where ii of the protagonists are horses. However, information technology'south noted that this is something not done except in times of demand.

• Sequel Number Snarl: The series started out in chronological gild only the fifth and sixth books were, respectively, a interquel and a prequel. Later on editions of the series number the books in chronological lodge, only many fans maintain that reading them in publication order is more rewarding because the prequel contains references that but brand sense if you've read the other books beginning. Every bit for C. South. Lewis himself, he never really cared most the lodge in which people read his books.
• Sliding Calibration of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Fallen right off the Idealistic stop.
• Smurfette Principle: Averted. Every single one of the seven books features at least ane female in a prominent role. Most, if not all, feature more than one.
• Talking Animal: Narnia is full of them and some like the Beavers human action like Civilized Animals. It'southward important to note however that there are ordinary "dumb" animals which can be used for labour and be butchered for meat; merely killing and eat a talking beast is a grave offence, then is mistreating them — King Tirian kills a Calormene soldier who dared to whip a talking horse. Aslan was the ane who created the Talking Beasts; they were originally ordinary animals that he granted the gifts of oral communication and intelligence and he still does so centuries subsequently Narnia'south cosmos - Reepicheep and his followers are descended from the mice that freed Aslan from the White Witch'south ropes, and were given the gift of speech communication in gratitude. Withal, Aslan can also take the gift of speech away; In "The Last Battle" those talking animals that reject him or betrayed Narnia to Calormen become dumb beasts.
• Tokyo Is The Centre Of The Universe: Aside from Dawn Treader, all the books' antagonists' plans involve Narnia in one form or some other. Justified, in that Narnia was the first state fabricated in the other globe, and therefore the one most special to Aslan.
• Trapped in Another World: With the slight twist that characters who stay in Narnia age normally— quite considerably in the Pevensies' case— but Snap Dorsum to their original ages when they return to Earth. Also, finding a way back dwelling is never a goal of anyone's quest in Narnia.
• Unanthropomorphic Transformation: At the cosmos of Narnia, shown in The Magician's Nephew, Aslan grants the gift of speech and intelligence to some of the animals, only he warns them they may lose this gift and become ordinary animals again if they indulge their baser instincts too much. This threat really happens in The Last Battle. Ginger the true cat joins a grouping of tyrants as The Quisling, which ultimately results in him seeing the God of Evil Tash face-to-face. The sight is so terrifying, Ginger reverts to a dumb animate being and never speaks again.
• Waterfall into the Abyss: The world has this characteristic described in some detail in Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Continually sailing to the due east doesn't bring yous around to the westward again, but to The Cease of the Earth. If you get over the edge, you lot finish up in Aslan's Land - i of the few ways to get there without dying first.
• Wish Fulfilment: Arguably, the 2 instances in the unabridged series when Narnian magic intervenes direct in the real globe: in The Magician'due south Nephew, when Aslan gives Digory the means to save his female parent, and in The Silver Chair, when Aslan, Caspian, and the children teach the bullies at the boarding school a lesson. This becomes clear when 1 reads Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy, and sees that he lost his own mother at a young age, similarly to Digory, and that he had attended a realistic Boarding School of Horrors, where he experienced bullying.
  • Moreover, the entire series (or at to the lowest degree its earlier instalments) may count as Wish Fulfilment: in his essay "On Three Ways of Writing for Children", Lewis says that he never set out to write a children's book on the principle of writing what one supposes children like, just that he simply wrote the sort of book he himself would have liked to read.

• Writers Cannot Practise Math: Averted in discussing how loftier Aslan'south country is. If you take Lewis' clues as to its height literally, in both The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair, they add up to the same figure: approximately 1,500,000 feet above sea level.
• Year Within, Hour Outside: Narnia's time moves far more than chop-chop than our universe'southward. Characters spend years in Narnia just then return to notice information technology is the aforementioned day as when they entered. They revisit Narnia a year later, and notice that centuries have since passed. That said, it's somewhat inconsistent, as Prince Caspian, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silvery Chair, all happen inside Prince Caspian's lifetime, despite taking place months apart in the real world, with The Terminal Battle happening later those books, yet 200 years have passed.

Older adaptations provide examples of:

• Cutting Short: Neither the BBC adaptation nor the Walden Media films were able to adapt all the books. The Walden media films but managed to adapt three books, stopping at The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the tertiary published book, whereas the BBC version was at least able to go upwards to The Silverish Chair before stopping. Still, neither version managed to adapt all 7 novels. Time will tell if the upcoming Netflix shows will avoid this or not.
• Evil Is Hammy: The White Witch in both the animated and BBC adaptations. Both have No Indoor Vocalism, with their lines rarely dropping beneath a deafening screech, and both are prone to Chewing the Scenery. Barbara Kellerman'due south acting in the BBC version is such that fifty-fifty the most innoculous lines are hammed upwards to the farthermost, such as the White Witch screaming "Adjacent TIIIIIME!" as her sleigh slowly pulls away. Probably an example of Ham and Cheese. Averted in the picture show version, where Tilda Swinton gives a much more than restrained performance.
  • Brainwashed Prince Rillian qualifies too.

    "WHAT?! Is our little maiden A DEEP Political leader?!?"

• Loads and Loads of Sidequests: The showtime Nintendo DS entry has around 70 sidequests. The creatures of Narnia will enquire the player to do things for them in exchange for new skills. Most are fairly simple, and can be ignored without a hassle... At least until the very stop of the game, where it turns out that to confront to White Witch one has to consummate ALL of them.
• Mood Whiplash: In the animated film, after Aslan's murder and subsequent resurrection, he spends near half a minute but jumping around playing with Susan and Lucy. Granted, it happened in the book too (over the course of a sentence or two), but the way information technology'south presented hither is only startling.
  • Episode 5 of the BBC series plays the rather uplifting theme music at the finish seconds after Aslan's horrific murder.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: In the before instalments of the BBC series, a lot of the magical creatures that couldn't be played past people in costumes are animated.

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Alternative Title(s): Narnia

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