99 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 got the job because Lewis admired her drawings for his friend Tolkien's Farmer Giles of Ham; she went on to illustrate every one of the Narnia books.

Which Narnia book is set entirely during the Pevensies' reign as kings and queens, with heroes born in that world?

The Horse and His Boy follows the runaway Shasta and the talking horse Bree north out of Calormen; the Pevensies appear only as the grown-up rulers of Narnia.

Which Narnia book was published first, in 1950?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe came out in London on 16 October 1950; by then Lewis had already finished writing three of its sequels.

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 won the Carnegie Medal for 1956; Lewis wrote to his illustrator, 'is it not rather our medal?', sure that her drawings had counted as much as his text.

What are Prince Caspian's people, the descendants of pirates from our world who conquered Narnia, called?

Telmarines trace their line to shipwrecked pirates who blundered through a cave into another world; Aslan tells Caspian the story and offers his people the way back.

What picture did Lewis say his first Narnia story grew from?

A faun carrying parcels in the snow, umbrella in hand, had been in his head since he was about sixteen; he was about forty before he tried to make a story of it.

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.

Why are the Pevensie children sent to stay at the Professor's country house?

To escape air raids on London during the war; Lewis began the tale in 1939, weeks after three evacuee schoolgirls came to stay in his own house near Oxford.

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.

By what title is King Edmund known after the Pevensies are crowned at Cair Paravel?

The Just: the boy who had sold out his family for sweets grows into the grave, quiet king 'great in council and judgement'.

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

Susan is missing because, as Peter puts it, she is 'no longer a friend of Narnia': she has come to treat it all as a game they played as children.

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 own name, the one she gives when Digory wakes her from an enchanted sleep?

Jadis is the last queen of Charn, a world she emptied herself by speaking the Deplorable Word, which destroyed every living thing in it except the speaker.

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, and it is the Emperor's own law, the Deep Magic, that the Witch invokes to claim the traitor Edmund's life.

What is the name of the school that Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole attend?

Experiment House is the permissive co-educational school where Eustace and Jill are bullied; its Head is eventually made an Inspector and then shunted off into Parliament.

Which Scottish actor plays the faun Mr Tumnus in the 2005 Narnia film?

James McAvoy was known mainly for television when he played the faun; within months of the film's release he won the first BAFTA Rising Star award.

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, left behind when she returned to England, and it pulls the four Pevensies off a railway platform into a Narnia where 1,300 years have passed.

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 seven lords banished by Miraz were friends of Caspian's father, sent to explore the Eastern Seas so that they would never return; Caspian swore at his coronation to find them.

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

Puddleglum breaks the Witch's spell underground by stamping out her enchanted fire with his bare webbed foot, though he knows how badly it will burn.

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

The Silver Chair (1953) hands the story to Eustace and Jill; decades have passed in Narnia though under a year in England, so Caspian, a young king last time, is now an old man.

What is the true identity of Shasta, the runaway raised by a Calormene fisherman?

Cor, heir to Archenland, was stolen as a baby because of a prophecy that he would save the kingdom from its deadliest danger, and grew up in Calormen knowing none of it.

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 Narnia 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?

Digory Kirke grew a tree from a Narnian apple, and when a storm blew it down he had its wood made into a wardrobe, which is why that wardrobe opens into Narnia.

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.

How does Aslan bring Narnia into being at the dawn of its history?

By singing: stars, sun, grass and trees appear as the Lion's song changes, while the children look on and the Witch, who hates the sound, wants only to get away.

What is the capital city of Calormen, the empire to the south of Narnia?

Tashbaan covers an island hill in a river; hiding behind a sofa in its palace, Aravis overhears Prince Rabadash win leave to raid Archenland.

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 married Lewis in a register office so that she could stay in Britain; only after she was found to have cancer did they marry again, in church rites at her hospital bedside.

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

Andrew Adamson came from animation, where his Shrek had won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature; he handed Narnia on to Michael Apted for the third film.

Who voices Aslan in the Walden Media films?

Liam Neeson was a late change: Brian Cox had been cast as the lion's voice, but the director thought again and Neeson, who had sought the part, was announced months before release.

Which Oscar did the 2005 Narnia film win for the prosthetics that turned actors into fauns and minotaurs?

Best Makeup was its only win: its other two nominations, for sound mixing and visual effects, both went to King Kong.

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 Narnia film mainly shot?

New Zealand hosted most of the shoot from June 2004; scenes were filmed largely in story order so that the child actors would visibly grow up as the tale went on.

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

Disney walked away after Prince Caspian earned less than hoped and the budget was disputed; Fox stepped in, and when Disney later bought Fox it ended up owning all three films.

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

Will Poulter was 16 when he played Eustace Scrubb on the film's Queensland sets; the part made his name, and in 2014 he won BAFTA's Rising Star award.

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

Greta Gerwig signed on after Barbie to write and direct at least two Narnia films for Netflix, which had struck its deal for the screen rights to the series in 2018.

Which British broadcaster filmed four of the Narnia books as television serials between 1988 and 1990?

BBC serials covered the first four books to be published and stopped in 1990, so the other three stories were left without a television version.

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'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.

The name Narnia comes from the ancient name of Narni, a hill town in which country?

Italy still has the town: Narni stands in Umbria, halfway between Rome and Assisi. Lewis underlined its old name in a classical atlas simply because he liked the sound of it.

Whose arrival shows the Pevensies that the White Witch's long winter is finally breaking?

Father Christmas had been kept out of Narnia by the Witch's magic, so his return is the first proof that her power is failing. He hands the children weapons rather than toys.

What hanging in a spare bedroom pulls Edmund and Lucy into Narnia in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

A painting of a ship at sea draws them in. It hung neglected in the guest bedroom because it had been an unwanted present to their aunt and uncle.

Which actress, the filmmakers' first choice for the part, played the White Witch in the 2005 Narnia film?

Tilda Swinton was the one piece of casting settled early, while the search for the four children dragged on. She returned in Prince Caspian, where she and her two children also cameo as centaurs.

In The Magician's Nephew, what grows from an iron bar the Witch hurls at Aslan in the newborn Narnia?

A lamp-post sprouts because the bar was torn from a London street lamp and the soil of the new world makes anything grow. It is the light Lucy later finds shining in the snow.

Which married pair of talking animals shelter the Pevensies and lead them towards Aslan's camp?

The Beavers tell the children the prophecy that four humans will end the Witch's rule, then work out where Edmund has slipped off to and hurry the other three away.

Which animals pull the White Witch's sledge, partly played by animatronics in the 2005 Narnia film?

Reindeer could not be imported for the shoot because of fears they carried Q fever, so a creature-effects firm built four animatronic ones with swappable skins.

Which fantasy series by an outspoken atheist critic of C. S. Lewis is widely read as a reply to Narnia?

His Dark Materials rejects Narnia's faith yet mirrors it: Philip Pullman's first volume, like Lewis's, puts a young girl inside a wardrobe in its opening chapter.

What do the initials C. S. stand for in the name of Narnia author C. S. Lewis?

Clive Staples Lewis hid his first two books, both poetry, behind the pen name Clive Hamilton, so he was a published poet long before he wrote for children.

When the grown-up Pevensie monarchs tumble back through the wardrobe, how long have they been away by English clocks?

Not a moment has gone by: the four are children again as they fall out of the wardrobe, though they had grown up during a long reign. The Professor believes their story at once.

What was the trade of Frank, the Londoner crowned the first King of Narnia in The Magician's Nephew?

Cab driver Frank is swept into the newborn world by accident along with his horse Strawberry, and Aslan later turns that horse into a winged steed.

In The Magician's Nephew, which yellow and green objects carry two children out of our world and back?

Rings do the travelling: a yellow one whisks its wearer out of our world and a green one brings them home. The first victim is tricked into touching hers.

In The Magician's Nephew, which quiet forest full of pools do the two children reach after vanishing from London?

The Wood between the Worlds is a sleepy in-between place; the children liken it to the attic passage linking their houses, which belongs to no single home.

As adult monarchs, the Pevensies stumble back to England while hunting which wish-granting animal?

The White Stag draws the hunt to the edge of Narnia, where the four have forgotten what lies beyond the trees and blunder out through the wardrobe.

Where are the four Pevensies waiting when magic whisks them back to Narnia in Prince Caspian?

A railway station is also where the story drops them afterwards. One year had passed in England since their first visit, but 1,300 years had gone by in Narnia.

In The Silver Chair, which talking birds summon the two children to a meeting they call a parliament?

Owls make the meeting a pun, since a parliament is also the word for a flock of them. The owl Glimfeather warns the children to keep their quest secret.

In The Silver Chair, what fate do the so-called Gentle Giants of Harfang secretly plan for their three guests?

Served at a feast is the plan: a cookbook in the castle kitchen lists the visitors as the main course for the Autumn Feast, and they flee Harfang in a hurry.

Into which creature does the Lady of the Green Kirtle transform before she is killed in The Silver Chair?

A serpent, and a green one: once she takes that shape the prince realises she is the very creature that killed his mother years before.

Which Calormene prince's rejected courtship of Queen Susan drives the plot of The Horse and His Boy?

Rabadash plans a surprise attack to seize her after she slips away by ship, and Aslan finally turns him into a donkey for a time when he refuses to accept defeat.

What kind of creature is Jewel, the friend who fights beside King Tirian in The Last Battle?

A unicorn in Narnia is a fighter: Jewel and the king kill two Calormenes in a rage after finding them abusing a Talking Horse, then give themselves up in shame.

In which direction does King Caspian swear to sail for a year and a day aboard the Dawn Treader?

East is where Aslan's country is said to lie, and the voyage ends in a sweet-water sea of lilies before a wall of water that climbs into the sky.

On Deathwater Island in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a pool turns whatever is dipped in it into what?

Gold is what one long-missing Narnian nobleman has become at the bottom of the pool, which is how the island earns its grim name.

Ben Barnes modelled Prince Caspian's Spanish accent in the 2008 film on a swordsman from which movie?

The Princess Bride gave him Inigo Montoya, as played by Mandy Patinkin, to copy. A dialect coach helped too, since the filmmakers wanted Caspian's people to sound Spanish.

Which Saturday Night Live rap video follows two comedians to a matinee of the 2005 Narnia film?

Lazy Sunday spread overnight through bootleg uploads and helped turn the then-fledgling YouTube into a household name.

The 1979 TV cartoon of the first Narnia book was directed by the animator of which comic strip's specials?

Peanuts director Bill Melendez made the two-part cartoon for CBS, and it won the first Emmy ever awarded for Outstanding Animated Program.

Which talking stallion persuades the boy Shasta to run away north in The Horse and His Boy?

Bree was captured as a foal after wandering out of Narnia and had become a Calormene nobleman's war-horse, so the escape is his plan rather than the boy's.

In The Last Battle, what accident back on Earth brings the Friends of Narnia into Aslan's country for good?

A train crash has killed them, as Aslan reveals only near the end. Two of them had felt a sudden jolt in their carriage and found themselves in Narnia.

Which god from classical myth does Aslan summon to wake the trees and rout the Telmarines in Prince Caspian?

Bacchus arrives with Silenus, and it is the wine god who destroys the crossing at the Great River, trapping the fleeing army into surrender.

The wardrobe that opens onto Narnia was built with timber grown from which Narnian fruit?

An apple core, planted in a London garden after the fruit was carried home from Narnia, grew into a tree. When a storm felled it years later, its owner had the timber made into a wardrobe.

What is the name of the trusting donkey dressed in a lion's skin in The Last Battle?

Puzzle is too meek to refuse, and the disguise borrows from Aesop's fable of the ass in the lion's skin. He later sees his folly and joins King Tirian's side.

In the Narnia stories, what is the power of the cordial that Lucy carries in a small bottle?

It heals any injury, and Lucy uses it on the wounded Edmund after the battle with the Witch. On the children's next visit the bottle is still lying in their old castle's treasure vault.

C. S. Lewis said Aslan was his answer to how which religious figure might appear in another world?

Jesus imagined in another reality was Lewis's own description of the lion. At the world's end Aslan tells the children that he exists in their world too, under another name.

Which actor sat through three hours of prosthetics to play the dwarf Trumpkin in the 2008 film Prince Caspian?

Peter Dinklage was the filmmakers' first pick, though the prosthetics left him acting largely with his eyes. Warwick Davis is in the film too, as the black dwarf Nikabrik.

Skandar Keynes, who played Edmund in the Narnia films, is a direct descendant of which famous scientist?

Charles Darwin was his great-great-great-grandfather. Keynes later retired from acting and went to work in Parliament as a political adviser.

After three decades at Oxford, C. S. Lewis took a chair at which university as the final Narnia books appeared?

Cambridge had newly founded its chair of Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature, and Lewis held it at Magdalene College for the rest of his career.

C. S. Lewis said his first Narnia story followed the tradition of which Edwardian children's author?

E. Nesbit left a clear mark on The Magician's Nephew: her novel The Story of the Amulet also has children who bring an ancient queen to London and cause a riot.

Which Greek philosopher is named at the end of The Last Battle to explain the newly revealed true Narnia?

Plato taught that the visible world is a shadow of a truer one, and the old Narnia turns out to be exactly such a shadow. The witch of The Silver Chair argues the reverse, echoing his cave.

Who urged HarperCollins to renumber the Narnia books in story order and later co-produced the Walden films?

Douglas Gresham is Lewis's stepson, and he slips into the 2005 film himself in a cameo as a radio newscaster.

At the world's end in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan first appears to the children as which animal?

A lamb meets them on the shore and then turns into the lion, who tells Edmund and Lucy that they will not come back to Narnia.

The Telmarines who conquer Narnia before Prince Caspian descend from which outlaws of our own world?

Pirates stumbled through a magical cave into the land of Telmar, and their descendants invaded Narnia many generations later, suppressing its native creatures.

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which invisible islanders ask Lucy to lift the spell that hides them?

Dufflepuds is the name the Duffers end up with, and Lucy goes on to befriend Coriakin, the magician who had cast the spell on them.

What kind of being is Ramandu, who lives with his daughter on an island near the world's end in Narnia?

A fallen star at rest, Ramandu tells the voyagers that three enchanted sleepers on his island will wake only if one of the crew stays behind at the edge of the world.

In The Horse and His Boy, what title is borne by the ruler of Calormen, said to descend from a god?

Tisroc is the title, and the one in this story quietly lets his son raid the north while promising to disown him if the plan fails.

In The Magician's Nephew, what does the Witch call the spell she spoke to kill every living thing in her world?

The Deplorable Word won her a war she was losing, at the price of ruling over nobody. She then slept under enchantment until a bell was struck.

Which title did C. S. Lewis consider for The Silver Chair before publication, with its long journey beneath the earth?

Night under Narnia was one of several titles weighed before The Silver Chair was chosen. The Wild Waste Lands and Gnomes under Narnia were others.

As boys, C. S. Lewis and his brother invented which imaginary world run by animals, long before Narnia?

Boxen grew out of his own Animal-Land merged with his brother's stories about India, and the tales were finally published in 1985.

Which tutor secretly schools the young Prince Caspian in the lore of Old Narnia and helps him flee the castle?

Doctor Cornelius also hands Caspian the ancient treasure that later brings help from another world, then turns up at a midnight council to warn of the usurper's advancing army.

In Prince Caspian, which talking badger's den does the runaway prince wake up in after his horse bolts?

Trufflehunter shares the den with two dwarfs, and all three accept the boy as their king before taking him to meet the creatures of Old Narnia.

Which young Calormene noblewoman runs away from an arranged marriage in The Horse and His Boy?

Aravis flees with the talking mare Hwin, overhears the invasion plot inside the ruler's own palace, and later marries the boy she at first disliked.

Which children's novel unknowingly borrowed the name of its two friends' imaginary kingdom from a Narnian island?

Bridge to Terabithia echoes the island of Terebinthia, as its author later realised. In the story Leslie lends Jess the Narnia books so he can learn how a king behaves.