49 Fun Facts About Narnia

How many books make up The Chronicles of Narnia?

Seven books make up the Chronicles, published between 1950 and 1956; Aslan is the only character who appears in all seven.

Who illustrated the original Narnia books in the 1950s?

Pauline Baynes drew the pen-and-ink illustrations for all seven original Narnia books, having earlier illustrated Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham.

Which is the only Narnia book whose protagonists are not children from our world?

The Horse and His Boy follows Shasta and the talking horse Bree fleeing Calormen during the Pevensies' reign; none of its heroes come from our world.

Which book was published first, in 1950?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was published in London on 16 October 1950, the first of the seven Narnia books to appear.

Which book, the last one Lewis wrote, tells the story of Narnia's creation?

The Magician's Nephew, completed in 1954 and published in 1955, tells of Narnia's creation; HarperCollins moved it to first place when it renumbered the series in 1994.

For which Narnia book did Lewis win the 1956 Carnegie Medal?

The Last Battle, the seventh and final Narnia book, won the Carnegie Medal for 1956, the year it was published.

Who first called the series 'The Chronicles of Narnia', in 1951?

Roger Lancelyn Green, a fellow children's author and friend of Lewis, coined the series title in 1951 after reading the draft of The Silver Chair, then called Night under Narnia.

What image did Lewis say the whole series began with?

He said the picture dated back to when he was 16, in 1914; that faun became Mr Tumnus.

Roughly how many copies have the Narnia books sold worldwide?

The seven books have sold roughly 120 million copies in nearly fifty languages, making them by far Lewis's best-selling work.

What are the four Pevensie children called?

The four Pevensies are Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, evacuated from wartime London to the country house where Lucy finds the wardrobe.

What sweet does the White Witch use to tempt Edmund?

The Witch conjures enchanted Turkish delight for Edmund, and promises to make him a prince if he brings his brother and sisters to her.

What are the Pevensies' royal titles once crowned at Cair Paravel?

They are crowned Peter the Magnificent, Susan the Gentle, Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant, with Peter as High King over the others.

Which of the four Pevensies is absent from Aslan's country in the final book?

Susan, 'no longer a friend of Narnia', is the only Pevensie missing; Lewis told a young reader there was 'plenty of time for her to mend'.

How long has the White Witch's winter lasted when the children arrive?

The Witch's winter has lasted a hundred years, always winter and never Christmas, until Father Christmas arrives with gifts as her spell breaks.

What is the White Witch's real name, and where does she come from?

Digory wakes her from a magical sleep in The Magician's Nephew and brings her, disastrously, to Victorian London.

On what does the White Witch kill Aslan?

Aslan is slain on the Stone Table, having offered himself in Edmund's place under the Deep Magic; the Table cracks when he rises.

Whose son is Aslan?

Aslan is the son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea, also rendered Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, the unseen sovereign whose Deep Magic governs Narnia.

What is the name of the school Eustace and Jill attend in The Silver Chair?

Experiment House is the permissive co-educational school where Eustace and Jill are bullied in The Silver Chair; its Head is eventually shunted off into Parliament.

Who is the first creature Lucy meets in Narnia?

Mr Tumnus the Faun, met by the lamp-post, invites Lucy to tea meaning to hand her to the Witch, then repents and sends her home.

Which wolf does Peter kill to save Susan?

Peter kills Maugrim, captain of the Witch's secret police, and Aslan knights him Sir Peter Wolf's-Bane for it.

What summons the Pevensies back to Narnia in Prince Caspian?

Caspian blows Susan's horn, the Queen's ancient gift, pulling the four Pevensies off a railway platform and back to a Narnia 1,300 years on.

Who is the priggish cousin who joins Edmund and Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

Eustace Clarence Scrubb, the Pevensies' self-important cousin, is pulled into Narnia with Edmund and Lucy through a painting of a ship.

What is Eustace turned into in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

Eustace becomes a dragon after sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy thoughts; Aslan later peels away the scales to restore him.

What are the crew of the Dawn Treader searching for?

The ship sails east toward Aslan's country at the edge of the world.

Which gloomy Marsh-wiggle guides Eustace and Jill on their search for Prince Rilian?

Puddleglum, the lugubrious Marsh-wiggle, guides Eustace and Jill north into giant country and Underland to find Rilian, missing for ten years.

Which was the first published Narnia book with none of the Pevensie children in it?

The Silver Chair (1953) is the first published Narnia book without the Pevensies: Eustace and Jill Pole take over, fifty Narnian years after Dawn Treader.

What is Shasta's true identity, revealed in The Horse and His Boy?

Shasta is Prince Cor, elder twin of Corin and heir to King Lune of Archenland, kidnapped as a baby and raised by a Calormene fisherman.

Which honour-obsessed talking mouse sails into Aslan's country at the end of Dawn Treader?

Reepicheep, the chivalrous chief mouse, paddles his coracle over the last wave into Aslan's country; Lewis said the book's theme was 'the spiritual life (specially in Reepicheep)'.

In the final book, which animal tricks a donkey into impersonating Aslan?

Shift the ape dresses the donkey Puzzle in a lion skin and passes him off as Aslan, opening Narnia to the Calormenes in Tirian's reign.

The Professor who hosts the Pevensies is revealed in a later book to be which character?

The Professor is Digory Kirke, the boy of The Magician's Nephew; Lewis's timeline puts him at twelve in 1900 and fifty-two when the Pevensies arrive in 1940.

To whom did Lewis dedicate the first Narnia book?

Lewis dedicated it to his goddaughter Lucy Barfield, noting she had grown too old for fairy tales while he wrote it but might one day read them again.

Michael Ward's book Planet Narnia argues that each Narnia book corresponds to what?

Ward argues each book is keyed to one of the seven medieval planets, from Jupiter for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to Saturn for The Last Battle.

What is the capital city of Calormen in The Horse and His Boy?

Tashbaan, built on an island in its river, is the Calormene capital where Shasta is mistaken for Prince Corin in The Horse and His Boy.

What did C. S. Lewis's friends call him?

Friends and family called him Jack: at four he announced he was 'Jacksie', reportedly after a pet dog of that name, and refused to answer to Clive.

In which city was C. S. Lewis born in 1898?

Lewis was born in Belfast on 29 November 1898; the family's large house there, Little Lea, had the long corridors and attics where he and Warnie invented imaginary worlds.

Lewis and Tolkien belonged to which informal Oxford literary circle?

The Inklings met in Lewis's Magdalen rooms and at the Eagle and Child pub; Tolkien was among the friends who helped bring Lewis back to Christianity in 1931.

On what date did C. S. Lewis die, overshadowed by other news?

Lewis died of kidney failure on 22 November 1963, aged 64, the same day President Kennedy was assassinated and Aldous Huxley died.

Whom did Lewis marry in 1956, a story later dramatised as Shadowlands?

Joy Davidman, an American poet and novelist, married Lewis in a 1956 civil ceremony; she died of cancer in 1960, aged 45.

Who directed the first two Walden Media Narnia films after co-directing Shrek?

Andrew Adamson, co-director of Shrek and Shrek 2, directed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian; Michael Apted took over for Dawn Treader.

Who voices Aslan in the Walden Media films?

Liam Neeson voiced Aslan in all three Walden Media films, alongside Tilda Swinton as Jadis and James McAvoy as Mr Tumnus.

Which Oscar did the 2005 Narnia film win?

It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, for Howard Berger and Tami Lane's prosthetics and creature work; it also took the BAFTA for make-up and hair.

Roughly how much did the 2005 Narnia film gross worldwide?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe grossed about $745 million worldwide on a $180 million budget, the third-biggest film of 2005.

Where was the 2005 film mainly shot?

Principal photography ran mainly in New Zealand from June 2004, shot largely in story order, with additional locations in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Which studio quit before The Voyage of the Dawn Treader over its budget, replaced by Fox?

Disney, co-financier of the first two films, pulled out of Dawn Treader in December 2008 over its budget; 20th Century Fox stepped in for the 2010 release.

Who plays the Pevensies' arrogant cousin in the 2010 film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

Will Poulter plays Eustace Scrubb in Dawn Treader, shot mainly in Queensland, Australia; he later starred in The Revenant and Midsommar.

Which director was announced in 2023 to make Netflix's first Narnia film?

Greta Gerwig was announced in July 2023 as writer-director of Netflix's first Narnia film, an adaptation of The Magician's Nephew.

How many of the seven books did the BBC's 1988-1990 television series adapt?

It adapted the first four in publication order, with a famously wobbly costume Aslan.

Which London publisher issued the first five Narnia books in the United Kingdom?

Geoffrey Bles published the first five, beginning with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on 16 October 1950; The Bodley Head issued the final two.

In The Magician's Nephew, who is Digory Kirke's friend who stumbles into other worlds with him?

Polly Plummer, Digory's next-door neighbour in London, is whisked with him into the Wood between the Worlds by Uncle Andrew's magic rings.