Chronicles of Narnia/Places/Narnia
| Chronicles of Narnia - Place | |
| Narnia | |
|---|---|
| Location | The North |
| Permanent Residents | Narnians |
| First Appearance | The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe |
General Overview
[edit | edit source]Narnia is the land in which our story actually takes place. It is a magical land, occupied by the creatures of our legends and by talking animals.
Extended Description
[edit | edit source]In Narnia's creation story, The Magician's Nephew, we learn that Narnia was created largely by an act of will by Aslan, who is thereafter effectively the God of Narnia. It is at that time that most of the talking animals are created, as are the mythical creatures, such as Fauns, Dryads, and flying horses. At the same time, as it was a person from our world who sang the song that created Narnia, dominion over that world was given to the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.
If one reads the stories in the order in which they were published, one can receive the impression that the entire world is Narnia, at least through the first few books. We do hear that there are fierce Giants in the northern ranges of the land, who must be vanquished when they venture into Narnia, but one does not gather that these northern lands are outside of Narnia until the fourth book, The Silver Chair, when we actually journey through these lands. And it is in the fifth-published book, The Horse and His Boy, that we first learn that there is an entire land, Calormen, separated from Narnia by the Great Desert, and that there is an outlying kingdom, Archenland, standing guard against attack from that quarter. Narnia itself seems to be surrounded by the mountains of the Northern March, Lantern Waste to the west, the mountain range in which Archenland was founded to the south, and the ocean to the east. The talking animals and mythical creatures seem to be restricted to this area, as is the belief in the godhood of Aslan.
In The Magician's Nephew, the entire world is created, though our story involves little other than Narnia; and in The Last Battle, the entire world, including the Northern Marches and Calormen, is ended.