Jul 24, 2025
the world of narnia + countries/territories (pt. 1)
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the world of narnia + countries/territories (pt. 1)
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Do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune, but all the dead are dead alike.
C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy
Currently rereading The Horse and His Boy for a project, and I can't help but be fascinated by some of the world-building for Calormen, Telmar, Archenland and Narnia. Because Narnia is not the planet, it's a country on the unnamed world. Which means Aslan is heavily invested in the geopolitical state of one part of his world, not the world itself.
What does it mean to not be God's favorite? Archenland is friendly to Narnia and shown as morally upright, and (seemingly as a consequence) is well-off and thriving, but Telmar and Calormen both tried to conquer Narnia and were rebuffed, and they've been left in the dust. Both have their societal problems, for sure, but I can't help but wonder if they thought it terribly unfair that Aslan was the god of Narnia, and not of them, too.
I also can't help but wonder if Telmar and Calormen ever fought. Telmar conquered Narnia in the 13 centuries after the golden age; did the desert or the Calormenes stop them?
Very curious as to how other Narnia fans are pronouncing Calormen, because I read and say it one way but I’ve often heard another.
Which way do you pronounce Calormen?
Ca-LOR-men
CAL-or-men
something else
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This is the story of an adventure that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, in the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and his two sisters were King and Queens under him.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy" - C. S. Lewis
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I love your post detailing greta gerwig's changes in her adaptation of little women, but isn't Narnia definitely flavored with some universalism? In the Last Battle, a worshipper of Tash ends up in heaven because he's like "truly seeking the face of God" essentially even if he knew Aslan by the wrong name because his culture only exposed him to Tash. Also, I was raised protestant so I don't know if catholics have a different idea about what counts as universalism or not, but basically I'm not so sure if this will get in the way of her working on the films, especially if she does the Magicians Nephew. Unrelated, I wonder how they're going to go about adapting the Horse and his Boy without it being lambasted for racism etc lol
I think "flavored" with Universalism is a good way to describe The Last Battle--and only The Last Battle, and only that bite of the meal that deals with the young Calormene. Because my understanding of Universalism is that they believe all people, regardless of their beliefs contradicting Biblical Christianity, go to heaven and are not condemned for choosing to be god-of-their-own-life.
You can't quite look at C.S. Lewis' entirety of work and believe he was a Universalist in that sense. He certainly believed in the Biblical truth of Hell. Otherwise, specifically in Narnia, there would be no "Darkness on Aslan's Left Side" that all the creatures who fear and hate him disappear into at the end of the world. That seems like a pretty straightforward representation of Judgement.
I think the whole thing with Emeth the Calormene is interesting. From the language Lewis uses, it seems like he's trying to say something about the posture of a heart more than the name one swears by. Emeth is confused that he's been allowed into the True Narnia because "all my life I have served Tash." But Aslan basically looks at the heart; he says if Emeth had been serving Tash, his deeds and his heart would match Tash. It actually seems more like Emeth didn't know who Tash was at all, or he would have been performing vile works to please Tash. Aslan also says Emeth would never have kept "seeking" for so long if his heart had been serving Tash, which implies that Tash is easier to know than Aslan.
All of that is fascinating (I do think it is the theologically weakest, if not worst, part of the Chronicles of Narnia series.) But I don't think it has anything to do with Universalism as we know it today. Unitarian Universalism is just "Believe whatever you want as long as your belief system doesn't judge other people's belief systems, and you'll be fine with 'God.'" Lewis certainly didn't subscribe to that unbiblical worldview, even with the Calormene in the Last Battle.
I don't know what you mean about the Magician's Nephew.
The real problem with Greta Gerwig is not that she claims Unitarian Universalism. It's that she can't tell a story that is faithful to the original books; she has to transpose it into her own values. So, for example in what we're talking about, if she were doing "The Last Battle," she'd certainly cut out The Darkness on Aslan's Left Side scene, and maybe even reduce the whole conversation between Aslan and Emeth to "all are welcome!" But the main thing she'll do is elevate Susan, Lucy, Jill, Aravis, and Polly to a disproportionate degree.
Finally, I would just say, I'd love for somebody to explain to me what makes The Horse and His Boy racist. (With a reminder that nobody on this website knows my race, so nobody can claim that race-based unconscious bias is what's keeping me from seeing it.)
Lewis invented his own race that, yes, is heavily influenced by Western-Arabian-Nights-interpretations of Middle Eastern cultures. But the Calormenes don't serve Allah, they serve Tash and other gods. The Calormene characters are not all ugly. The Calormen food is not all disgusting. Aravis is a Calormene, and she is a heroine and a main character. Not even every Calormene is even evil, or the enemy of Narnia, though the nation is. What, just because a non-white nation is depicted in Narnia and you can see what culture their fantasy culture is based on, that makes it racist? How? Because Lewis doesn't even write all Calormenes as good or evil, he writes them as humans. Explain to me how that's racist.
(I mean, not you, @childlessoldcatlady, I'm enjoying answering this question. I just meant, someone explain it, now that I'm on the subject. Thanks for the question. I'm Protestant, too.)
The way CS Lewis did worldbuilding in Narnia is wild because only four humans could defeat the White Witch so you'd assume "yeah it makes sense that there had to be kids from another universe to save Narnia" but then you read the other books and it turns out that there ARE other humans in the Narnia universe, but they're either
A thinly-veiled metaphor for Scottish people or
A thinly-veiled, very r/acist metaphor for Muslims
so I guess you can only save Narnia if you're English.
Just out of curiosity, If I decided to post my combination of every map of Narnia and Adjoining Lands + the Eastern Sea, how many people would be interested in seeing it, because I would like to share it because I have spent a lot of time on it. It is not yet finished and won’t be for a few months but when it is…