The Silver Chair

Nigel Price · 27 Jul 2000, 19:11 · from whorl-v0011.mbox · original

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From: Nigel Price <NigelPrice1 at compuserve.com>
Subject: (whorl) The Silver Chair
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 19:11:15
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Currently reading the Narnia books to my younger daughter as bedtime
stories, I've been struck several times by vaguely Lupine echoes or, at
least, "prefigurings" in Lewis' narratives. A while back I read "Prince
Caspian" while rereading OBW, and wondered whether the account of the
children's rediscovery of the ivy covered ruins of Cair Paravel on the
mysterious island contributed to GW's account of the ruined buildings of
the Neighbours which Horn explores on the island where he falls in the pit,
or in the forest near Gaon.

No, far too vague and general a parallel, I concluded, for all that GW
openly acknowledges his admiration for Lewis' books.

But in "The Silver Chair" this evening, the following line particularly
caught my eye. Puddleglum is speaking...

        "Now a job like this -  a journey up north just as winter's
beginning, looking for  a Prince that probably isn't there, by way of a
ruined city that no one have ever seen - will be just the thing." (The
Silver Chair, ch 5, p70 in the Puffin edition).

Of course, the lost city here is called Harfang rather than Pajarocu, and
the journey to Pajarocu takes Horn west rather than north...

Yes, well, all right, it's not a close parallel, I agree, but it made me
smile.

Does anyone agree with me that the tame lion in GW's "Operation Ares" is a
deliberate parody of cum homage to Lewis' Aslan?

Nigel

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