Episode Details

Is Man A Myth? asks a book belonging to Mr. Tumnus, a Faun from C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia series. Yet Christians have our own myths about Narnia. Today we begin to explore a total of seven myths about Lewis’s famed fantasy world.

Myth 7: “The Chronicles show random myths.”

This is a more academic idea, and it goes something like this:

• “C. S. Lewis, unlike Tolkien, was mostly messing around in his world-making.”
• “He throws in all Greek creatures, plus other fantasy elements, at random.”
• “And then, lo, Father Christmas comes bounding in besides.”
• Scholars say: “Yeah, this isn’t like Tolkien. It’s just random. Fun, but random.”

Michael Ward in Planet Narnia engages a lot with this idea.

• Ward has a grand awesome theory about each of the seven Chronicles.
• He believes Lewis, a medieval scholar, was “influenced” by overarching myths.
• These myths were about the seven worlds or spheres of medieval cosmology.
• Each planet (including Sol or sun, and Luna/moon) has ideas, images, and colors.
• Medieval literature and worldview all supported these cosmological associations.
• For instance, The Lion … is very “Jovian,” about joy, kingliness, and summer.
• The Horse and His Boy is very “Mercurian,” with speed and images of silver.
• Lewis wasn’t a random person. Not at all. Not even when he seems to be.
• Ward does a lot of academic wrangling to support his theory (which is plausible).
• Some challenges: “By Jove!” occurs in all Chronicles. Each one influences the other.
• Ward accepts this broad influence, but says each story has its own planetary theme.
• Stephen believes he’s right, because of Lewis’s (as creator’s) own subconscious.
• As a writer, your knowledge will get into your stories before you even know it.
• Later, perhaps, Lewis started to get more organized about developing these themes.
• After all, Lewis did end up with seven books, the exact number of medieval “spheres.”
• The best proof? The Last Battle is “Saturnine.” Draft had Saturn, not Father Time.

Even apart from the Planet Narnia idea, Narnia isn’t just random myths.

• The whole Narnian idea is that all these myths somehow “leaked” into the real world.
• (You have to bend time a bit, though. Greek myths predate Narnia’s creation!)
• But if the big idea is that Aslan is lord of all myths, and all serve him … ?
• Well then, that’s the greatest idea: before Christ, all myths say “hail the King.”
• It seems this may be lost on some scholars who don’t get Aslan’s central role.
• Especially given the stories’ first audience, children, this is a fantastic approach.

Myth 6: “The Chronicles are just children’s stories.”

This myth is more based on the little phrases Christians and other readers say.