Narniathon: PRINCE CASPIAN

 

When my daughter and I decided to reread The Chronicles of Narnia last year I got as far as Prince Caspian before I crapped out. I think she got through The Voyage of the Dawn Treader before she called it quits. Why did I stop so close to the starting spot, I wonder? I'm hoping that today's review and participation in answering the Narniathon questions will help supply some answers for myself.

1. Tolkien had written of his Middle-earth saga “I wisely started with a map and made the story fit.” Prince Caspian was the first of the Narniad chronicles to include a map by Pauline Baynes showing part of Narnia and the adjoining lands. Does its addition help you orientate yourself more than if it wasn’t included? Or do you agree with Lucy in the following exchange that there are more important things to keep in mind?¹ 

'That’s the worst of girls,’ said Edmund to Peter and the Dwarf. ‘They never carry a map in their heads.’
‘That’s because our heads have something inside them,’ said Lucy.

Ha-ha. I love Lucy's retort. I just had a conversation with my husband this past weekend about maps-in-the-head. I get turned around when I travel unless I can get an adequate aerial view in my head. This is usually accomplished after much repetition, not actually looking at a map. But I digress.

Speaking of looking at a map, I didn't remember seeing the map of Narnia in my edition of Prince Caspian. (Pause, while I get up and go look again...) Nope, I don't have it. The book jacket mentions the medieval pomp and pageantry of Pauline Baynes line drawings, but makes no mention of the map. Can anyone tell me where it is located in your book, page number or end pages? Where have I seen it? Oh, I remember. My daughter had a poster of a Narnia map in her bedroom. Is it still here even though she has moved out? (Pause, while I tromp upstairs...) Nope. No map on the wall, but it looked like the one below, which isn't a very helpful map if one wants to navigate around Narnia.

So, let me investigate a bit online to see if I can find any other Narnia maps. (Pause, while I open up the Internet...) Ah. With a little investigation I found that the above map was drawn and painted by Pauline Baynes in 1972. My book was published in 1951 by Macmillian so that would explain why it is missing. Next I found a map which was said to be the endpapers in Prince Caspian. I wonder if that was only in the British publication or if I just have some cheap publication with no fancy endpapers? See below.

Honestly, I don't think this map is very useful, either, though it is fun to look at it and try to remember what happened where. While searching, I also found this map of Narnia, which is a bit better than the other two, but not much. It, at least, looks old and the lamp post is clearly labeled.

Enough about maps. Now I'm upset that my edition doesn't have it included.

2. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe we had talking animals (such as beavers, and one lion who talked and one who didn’t). In Prince Caspian we have many more fauna which talk, another instance of Lewis’s childhood obsession with animals with the power of speech. Do you find animal characters imbued with human abilities and mannerisms rather endearing, or mildly irritating?

I missed the darling talking animals from the first book, though several made an appearance later in the story. Honestly, I didn't connect with many characters in Prince Caspian, even Caspian himself. I've read a few reviews from others participating in Narniathon who mentioned that the characters seemed flat. I would agree. The whole story just didn't have the punch that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had. It is surprisingly boring in parts, even though this book has another big battle.

3. Prince Caspian comes across as a book explicitly about war, especially interesting given that Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia suggested that this installment — in Lewis’s implicit scheme of a series determined by medieval cosmology — was characterized by Mars.² But is there more to this novel than just martial exploits, bickerings, skirmishes, duels and set battles?

Not being a student of Greek and Roman mythology I did a little research about Mars today to appear that I know what I am talking about. I do think that Lewis was playing around with the gods of the planets. Mars being the god of Mars, the red planet, made me think of red things in the story -- red-haired dwarfs, red apples, red capes, and, of course, the red lion. Mars is also known as the god of the wild and an agricultural guardian. This book, more than any other, feathers the flora and fauna with even the trees coming to the rescue to save Narnia from the humans.

Prince Caspian is my least favorite of all the books in the series but a vital book to help understand the history of the land and its beings. Perhaps this is why I stopped rereading the series after I completed the book. I am committed to proceed this time. If you want to jump in, read it second in the order Lewis published his books, not fourth, like the cover of some book I found online says. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is cued up for March!

-Anne