XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   XPost: rec.arts.books, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Fri, 16 Dec 2005 17:44:37 GMT, sbjensen@midway.uchicago.edu (Steuard   
   Jensen) wrote:   
      
   >Quoth hayesstw@yahoo.com in article   
   >:   
   >> Now that prompts a question, which I might need to re-read the whole   
   >> series to answer. At the beginning the faun asks if Lucy is a   
   >> daughter of Eve, but presumably all humans in Narnia were sons of   
   >> Adam and daughters of Eve (as opposed to the talking animals). It   
   >> suggests that either there were no humans in Narnia at the time, or   
   >> at least that the faun was unfamiliar with them.   
   >   
   >That's one of the things that always feels like an inconsistency in   
   >Narnia to me.  In LWW, as you point out, Tumnus seems entirely   
   >unfamiliar with human beings: there are clearly none in Narnia at the   
   >time, and Tumnus's bookshelf includes titles like "Is Man a Myth?".   
   >(I belive that Tumnus even comments on how no humans have been seen   
   >there in ages, if at all.)  The presence of /any/ humans in Narnia is   
   >a cause of concern for the Witch.  And there are /four/ empty thrones   
   >in Cair Paravel: those are clearly waiting for the Pevensies, not   
   >remnants of some earlier human monarchy.  As far as we can tell, the   
   >four children are the only humans in that world at the time, and   
   >perhaps the only humans there ever.   
      
      
      
   >I've never been clear on how to reconcile all this.  But it's another   
   >reason that I suggest reading the Narnia books in publication order:   
   >the contradictions are less glaring if you ease into them as Lewis   
   >apparently did. :)   
      
   Thanks for the very useful sumnmary.   
      
   And I wholeheartedly agree with that as another rweason for reading them in   
   publication order.   
      
   If you start with "The magician's nephew", you'll be wonderwig what happened   
   to the descendants of Frank, and hoping for an explanation that will never   
   come, because Frank hadn't been thought of then.   
      
   The relatives of Prince Caspian who married stars are reminiscent of some of   
   the mixed marriages in Tolkien, of men with elves or Maiar, and, of course,   
   Genesis 6.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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