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 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.

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.