50 Fun Facts About Narnia

How many books make up The Chronicles of Narnia?

They were published between 1950 and 1956, and Aslan is the only character to appear in all of them.

Who illustrated the original Narnia books in the 1950s?

Her pen-and-ink drawings have appeared in every edition since the 1950s.

Which is the only Narnia book whose protagonists are not children from our world?

Shasta and the talking horse Bree begin as captives in Calormen during the Pevensies' reign.

Which book was published first, in 1950?

Geoffrey Bles released it in London on 16 October 1950; the prequel The Magician's Nephew was the last written.

Which book, the last one Lewis wrote, tells the story of Narnia's creation?

Completed in 1954 and published in 1955, it has been placed first in chronological-order editions since 1994; whether it belongs first or sixth is a long-running fan argument.

For which Narnia book did Lewis win the 1956 Carnegie Medal?

It was the final book, chronicling the end of Narnia and the passage to Aslan's country.

Who first called the series 'The Chronicles of Narnia', in 1951?

The fellow children's author coined it after reading The Silver Chair, then titled 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?

They are Lewis's best-selling work and have never been out of print.

What are the four Pevensie children called?

Their surname is not actually revealed until The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

What sweet does the White Witch use to tempt Edmund?

She also promises to make him a prince if he brings his siblings to her.

What are the Pevensies' royal titles once crowned at Cair Paravel?

Peter is High King over the others.

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

She has stopped believing in Narnia, though Lewis wrote to a fan that 'there is plenty of time for her to mend'.

How long has the White Witch's winter lasted when the children arrive?

It is always winter and never Christmas, until Father Christmas himself turns up with gifts.

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?

She invokes the 'Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time' that gives her the right to Edmund's life; Aslan takes his place.

Whose son is Aslan?

Lewis said Aslan was not an allegory but a 'supposition' of how Christ might appear in another world.

What word did Lewis prefer to 'allegory' when describing the Christian element of Narnia?

He also drew on Plato, George MacDonald, Dante and Milton.

Who is the first creature Lucy meets in Narnia?

He invites her to tea intending to hand her over to the Witch, then repents.

Which wolf does Peter kill to save Susan?

The kill earns him his sword's first blood and, later, the title High King.

What summons the Pevensies back to Narnia in Prince Caspian?

Only a year has passed in England, but 1,300 years in Narnia; their castle is in ruins.

Who is the priggish cousin who joins Edmund and Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

He is turned into a dragon, reflects on his behaviour, and comes back a nicer boy.

What is Eustace turned into in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader?

Aslan eventually changes him back; he returns as a hero in The Silver Chair.

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?

They are hunting for Prince Rilian, who vanished ten years earlier.

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

Eustace and his classmate Jill Pole take over; fifty Narnian years have passed and Caspian is an old man.

What is Shasta's true identity, revealed in The Horse and His Boy?

He was kidnapped as an infant, raised by a fisherman in Calormen, and is the elder twin of Prince Corin.

Which honour-obsessed talking mouse sails into Aslan's country at the end of Dawn Treader?

Lewis said he 'specially' embodied the book's theme of the spiritual life.

In the final book, which animal tricks a donkey into impersonating Aslan?

Puzzle the donkey wears a lion skin, setting off the war between Calormen and King Tirian.

The Professor who hosts the Pevensies is revealed in a later book to be which character?

He was 12 in The Magician's Nephew, set in 1900, and hosts the children 40 years later.

Which real event mirrored the Pevensies' stay with the Professor?

Three schoolgirls arrived at The Kilns near Oxford on 2 September 1939; one of the evacuees was named Lucy.

To whom did Lewis dedicate the first Narnia book?

The dedication notes she had grown too old for fairy tales while he wrote it, but might one day be old enough to read them again.

Michael Ward's book Planet Narnia argues that each Narnia book corresponds to what?

The theory ties the books to the Ptolemaic heavens, a lifelong preoccupation of Lewis's scholarship.

What kind of Old Irish tale inspired the Dawn Treader book?

The immrama blend Christianity and Irish myth into island-hopping sea journeys.

What did C. S. Lewis's friends call him?

He adopted the name at four after his dog Jacksie was killed by a carriage, and refused to answer to anything else.

In which city was C. S. Lewis born in 1898?

His large childhood home, Little Lea, had long empty corridors that he and his brother explored inventing imaginary worlds.

Lewis and Tolkien belonged to which informal Oxford literary circle?

Tolkien was among the friends who helped bring Lewis back to Christianity at 32.

On what date did C. S. Lewis die, overshadowed by other news?

He died of kidney failure at 64, the same day President Kennedy was assassinated and Aldous Huxley died.

Whom did Lewis marry in 1956, a story later dramatised as Shadowlands?

The American writer died of cancer four years later at 45.

Who directed the first two Walden Media Narnia films, fresh from an Oscar for Shrek?

He started with a 20-page treatment written from memory of the book; Michael Apted took over for Dawn Treader.

Who voices Aslan in the Walden Media films?

Tilda Swinton played Jadis and James McAvoy Mr Tumnus.

Which Oscar did the 2005 Narnia film win?

Howard Berger's KNB team retooled Weta's digital creature designs into practical animatronics; it also took the BAFTA for makeup and hair.

Roughly how much did the 2005 Narnia film gross worldwide?

It cost $180 million and was the third-highest-grossing film of 2005; the three films together made over $1.5 billion.

Where was the 2005 film mainly shot?

Filming began in June 2004, mostly in chronological order, with extra locations in Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK.

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

Ironically Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019, so it ended up owning all three films anyway.

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

The film was shot almost entirely in Australia and grossed about $415 million.

Which director did Netflix confirm in 2023 to make its first Narnia film?

Walden's own plans for a fourth film were dropped when Netflix announced new adaptations in 2018; Gerwig's film, based on The Magician's Nephew, was slated for 2026-27.

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?

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe appeared on 16 October 1950; the final two books came from The Bodley Head.

In The Magician's Nephew, who is Digory Kirke's friend who stumbles into other worlds with him?

The 1955 prequel tells how Aslan created Narnia and how evil first entered it.