The world of Narnia is one of the best written fantasy stories. With its huge world and wondrous creatures it is truly worth experiencing. You easily can get lost in all of those beautiful stories. But each one of the stories of Narnia holds a lesson, an ethical question or just a resemblance to the real world or the christian faith. No wounder if you hear that the author C.S Lewis was a theologian himself. You can learn so much about life and consequences by reading his novels about Narnia. The Story of Narnia and its Citizens and Rulers is originally told in seven books. There also have been made movies, that are very close to the original story and very well made with the acting and quality, but those movies only cover the second, fourth and fifth novel of the book series. I would absolutely give those movies a chance, because I love them very much, but if you want to have the real Narnia experience with all its stories and lessons you should start with the books. Please watch out because I will talk about the plots and endings of the books. So if you don’t want to get spoilers read the books first before continuing with this article.
Book Number One: The magicians nephew
In this book we literary witness the creation of the world of Narnia. Alone in this single book we get shown how actions and decisions influence the future and can lead into good but also bad things that you didn’t want to happen but happened because of the most selfish actions and decisions of humankind. Aslan, a big powerful lion is treated as the god and creator of this story. In this novel he creates Narnia with all of his wonders and magical creatures. He wanted to create a world without evil or bad emotions, but because of the actions of a reckless human kind his creation gets polluted. Aslan, the creator should be angry at the human boy and punish him, but instead he makes the humans kings and queens of his world. He punishes them with responsibility to work against their reckless behavior but also gives them the chance to do much good as rulers. This plot has very much resemblance to the original bible story of the garden Eden. Everything was pure and without evil, until the humans decided to act against creation for their own greed. As result they get kicked out of Eden, but instead of damming them gods gives the humans the ability to rule over everything he has created. How we humans fulfill this task is worth a complete different article. As we follow through this story of Narnia we will see how the decision of one reckless boy influences the fate of a whole world, in good and bad ways.
Book Number Two: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe
The story of this book is the immediate reaction to the actions of the first novel. The world of Narnia, left by his creator Aslan to its own devices to give it freedom to develop is ruled by an ice cold queen that was brought to this magical world by the reckless boy of the first novel. It is now the destiny of four children that travel to this magical world through a wardrobe to endure every hardship and defeat the evil ice cold queen to free Narnia from its endless winter. On this journey the children face death, betrayal and redemption. In this book Aslan returns and sacrifices himself for the sins of another, to take away the debt. Just as everything seems lost to the evil and is hopeless Aslan returns and leads the hereon and people of Narnia to victory against the cold queen. The sacrifice of Aslan is similar to the sacrifice of Jesus in the bible, to take away the debt of humankind. We learn from this book that it is nether to late to ask for forgiveness and to regret your actions. Also we learn that from one good deed like the sacrifice of Aslan their can come back so much more.
Book Number Three: The boy and his horse
The story plays right after the second novel but in a total different country. In this story a slave boy travels with a speaking horse to find the magical land of Narnia. On his journey he stumbles into a war and gets risen to a prince and builds up a wonderful friendship with a speaking horse and a foreign princess. You learn that where you are born must not decide what and where you want to be. It also shows the worth of fighting against inequality and your own freedom. This book doesn’t hold so many heavy lessons for life but is a beautiful story and definitely worth reading.
Book Number 4: Prince Caspian: The return to Narnia
In this story Narnia is occupied by a foreign country and the original narnian people are hunted and killed. A young prince of the occupiers swaps sides and fights for the narnian people. His name is Caspian and with blowing in a magical horn he brings back the four children of the second novel, former kings and queens of Narnia. Together they fight a harsh and terrible war but win in the end with the help of Aslan that responds and is summoned through their faith in him. The lessons of this book are that nothing happens twice in the same way as Aslan explains as he talks about why he didn’t just come and fight for his people like in the war against in the cold war. It is an indirect explanation and equivalent for why Jesus hasn’t returned to the world like he said before he died and helped humankind to cure all evil and wars like the christian bible says. The book also shows us how easily we can loose faith in something and that the magic is mostly reserved for children, because in the world of Narnia you can only travel to Narnia if you are young. If you are older you loose faith in Narnia through living in a hard and harsh reality, so you are unable to travel back. This happens to two of our heroes of the second book and so they cant come back to Narnia and wont be in the adventure of the next novel. It shoes how easy it is for children to believe in magic and wonders and how adults loose this ability with growing up and facing reality.
Book Number 5: The Voyagers of the Dawn
In this book Prince Caspian is an adut king of Narnia that is searching for love and for the legacy of his father. On his journey Caspian learns about the greed and vileness of humans but also of the wounder of creation and the consequences of your actions. In the end of the journey our heroes come to the border of Aslan’s land. There they meet the god again and he shows them their mistakes and forgives them. One of the journeyman decides to enter Aslan’s land with the knowledge that he will never return. It is the land where everyone that has faith in Aslan will travel to when they die. In this journey a new hero changes and becomes a better human being. It shows us that we always can change no matter how many layers we need to rip off. He also becomes very good friends with a speaking, sword fighting rat that he hated completely in the beginning of the story. But with both getting to know each other better and changing and improving as persons both develop a strong bond. In the end the evil is defeated and our heroes even face their greatest fears and rise above them. Caspian finds his true love and can lay the legacy of his father to rest and rule as a fair and just king.
Book Number 6: The silver chair
This book does also not hold many lessons or explanations of ethical question or resemblances to the christian bible but it is a wonderful story that is used to set up the last and final story of the world of Narnia book 7. In this book our hero from book 5 that has redeemed himself is traveling to Narnia ones more, joined by a new girl. Together and with the help of a very special creature of Narnia they venture out to rescue the lost Prince of Narnia, Caspian’s great great grandson. On their journey they discover that nothing ever stays the same and how it used to be as the world is constantly changing. On this journey the two children find their Bravery and fight against the evil. After their adventure as they get back home again they use their new Bravery to stand for them self’s in their school against bullies and the hard life. Both being loners in the beginning are close friends in the end.
Book 7: The last battle
With being the last book it is also the heaviest book of all seven. In this book the world of Narnia is ending. The sun is getting bigger and crimson red and greedy, hateful humans are attacking and destroying the land of Narnia while forgetting that they also destroy the world in which they are living in. As the world of Narnia ends the greedy humans get punished by their own god for the evil deeds they have done. A giant is blowing in a horn, which starts the ending of the world. Aslan joins the last stand of narnians and leads them into his own kingdom, away from all the destruction and pain, where they can meet their lost people again and live in happiness and peace, while the world collapses around the greedy humans that have slaughtered so many innocent persons. The author paints a picture in this book how the return of Jesus could be in the christian faith, as Jesus says he comes back when the world ends to judge all and lead the worthy in his kingdom just as Aslan did. In this book with it’s terrible battles and deeds it is shown, that no evil deeds stay without consequences and that people who have faith are rescued in the end.
After all this book series is no instruction that tells you how you should live your life and if you should believe in a god. It is just very interesting how you can combine the christian faith and a world of magic and fantasy together to create such a beautiful, impressive, sad and shaking story about the rise and fall of a world. It is not intended to judge or give any opinion about faith or no faith in god or religion. The story alone is worth reading and seeing the resemblances to the christian mythology can be interesting and fascinating for everyone.
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Image 1:
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Image 2:
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Image 3:
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