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The Magician's Nephew
The first in my series of posts about the Chronicles of Narnia and already faced with a dilemma. Which order to write them in? The official reading order (MN, LWW, HB, PC, VDT, SC and LB - The Magician's Nephew, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and his Boy, Prince Caspian, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the Silver Chair and the Last Battle), the order in which I read them or the order in which they were published? I think I shall go with the reading order, that should make more sense so here goes.
The Magician's Nephew is the story of the creation of Narnia. There is the simplest of the themes of Christianity in it. We see Diggory Kirk and Polly Plummer becoming friends in a London which seems Edwardian and dark. Together they embark on an adventure that takes them to a couple of different worlds using magic rings invented by Diggory's uncle Andrew (the Magician of the title). On one of these journeys they awake a mighty queen of a country called Charn. She travels with the children to London and they eventually manage to trick her into a dark place where there is nothing but the solid ground upon which they stand. Slowly light appears, then a magnificent lion and then plants and animals and everything a young world needs. The Lion is Aslan and he is a creature of majesty and power. He calls animals forth from the ground and he causes trees and flowers and all sorts of plants into existence. He breathes and gives life. The queen is an evil presence and this new world of Narnia needs protecting. Diggory and Polly are given a mission and they follow it as well as they can. Eventually they give Aslan the item he wanted (an apple of all things) and Narnia is protected. Diggory goes home and is able to save his dying mother.
It's probably not the greatest summary of the book in existence but I think that it suffices.
There are lots of Christian themes in this book. Yes there is creation but if we look at it closely we see that right at the heart of creation is Aslan. The Son of the Emperor Overseas. This is a wonderful echo of the opening of John's Gospel. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. At the start of Genesis it says in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. This message which is backed up and expanded upon by John is at the heart of the Narnian creation too.
More than creation though, we see that through the selfish acts of one man evil enters the world. Diggory didn't have to ring the bell in Charn, he could have walked away and Narnia may have been the perfect world that Aslan intended it to be. Sadly it was not. Jadis is an evil presence who casts a shadow over the books that will follow. From her comes all of the evil that we see later in the chronicles. Yet, even here there is hope. Aslan protects the country from her for as long as is possible with a tree that she cannot go near and this is a wonderful example of the loving protection that God offers us. But, there is even more. In the next book (LWW) we see that there was a deeper magic from before time began. Before Aslan called Narnia into being he knew that there would be a problem. He foresaw that someone who was innocent (and as we learn only He is innocent) would have to die in the place of someone else. There was no Plan B. This was Plan A. Aslan created the world of Narnia knowing that one day He would have to die to save it. Is there a more Christian theme than this?
I hesitate to use the word finally as I am sure there are lots more themes to chose from but the last meta-narrative that is established here is the fact that although the creatures can think and talk and do all the things we can, Man must have dominion. It is not good for the country to be ruled by any other than a Son of Adam and a Daughter of Eve. This is a direct retelling of the Genesis commission. We are responsible and we have duties to fulfill. We cannot exploit the resources of this world without going against the wishes of our creator.
For each of the reviews I am going to include one of the wonderful illustrations done for the books by Pauline Baynes. I find these pictures to be sublime and no reading of a Narnia book would be complete without them.
The Magician's Nephew is the story of the creation of Narnia. There is the simplest of the themes of Christianity in it. We see Diggory Kirk and Polly Plummer becoming friends in a London which seems Edwardian and dark. Together they embark on an adventure that takes them to a couple of different worlds using magic rings invented by Diggory's uncle Andrew (the Magician of the title). On one of these journeys they awake a mighty queen of a country called Charn. She travels with the children to London and they eventually manage to trick her into a dark place where there is nothing but the solid ground upon which they stand. Slowly light appears, then a magnificent lion and then plants and animals and everything a young world needs. The Lion is Aslan and he is a creature of majesty and power. He calls animals forth from the ground and he causes trees and flowers and all sorts of plants into existence. He breathes and gives life. The queen is an evil presence and this new world of Narnia needs protecting. Diggory and Polly are given a mission and they follow it as well as they can. Eventually they give Aslan the item he wanted (an apple of all things) and Narnia is protected. Diggory goes home and is able to save his dying mother.
It's probably not the greatest summary of the book in existence but I think that it suffices.
There are lots of Christian themes in this book. Yes there is creation but if we look at it closely we see that right at the heart of creation is Aslan. The Son of the Emperor Overseas. This is a wonderful echo of the opening of John's Gospel. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. At the start of Genesis it says in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. This message which is backed up and expanded upon by John is at the heart of the Narnian creation too.
More than creation though, we see that through the selfish acts of one man evil enters the world. Diggory didn't have to ring the bell in Charn, he could have walked away and Narnia may have been the perfect world that Aslan intended it to be. Sadly it was not. Jadis is an evil presence who casts a shadow over the books that will follow. From her comes all of the evil that we see later in the chronicles. Yet, even here there is hope. Aslan protects the country from her for as long as is possible with a tree that she cannot go near and this is a wonderful example of the loving protection that God offers us. But, there is even more. In the next book (LWW) we see that there was a deeper magic from before time began. Before Aslan called Narnia into being he knew that there would be a problem. He foresaw that someone who was innocent (and as we learn only He is innocent) would have to die in the place of someone else. There was no Plan B. This was Plan A. Aslan created the world of Narnia knowing that one day He would have to die to save it. Is there a more Christian theme than this?
I hesitate to use the word finally as I am sure there are lots more themes to chose from but the last meta-narrative that is established here is the fact that although the creatures can think and talk and do all the things we can, Man must have dominion. It is not good for the country to be ruled by any other than a Son of Adam and a Daughter of Eve. This is a direct retelling of the Genesis commission. We are responsible and we have duties to fulfill. We cannot exploit the resources of this world without going against the wishes of our creator.
For each of the reviews I am going to include one of the wonderful illustrations done for the books by Pauline Baynes. I find these pictures to be sublime and no reading of a Narnia book would be complete without them.
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