C.S. Lewis : The Early Narnia

I found this really interesting! I'm reading a book called 'A Field Guide to Narnia', by Colin Duriez, and I found some pretty interesting stuff about C.S. Lewis and how the Narnian chronicles came to be. Here are some facts I found interesting...


* C.S. Lewis was part of a group called 'The Inklings'. I had been aware that G.K. Chesterton (one of my other favorites) and J.R.R. Tolkien (another favorite) had been members of this group, but The Inklings consisted of Lewis, Tolkien, Chesterton, John Bunyan, Saint Augustine, George Herbert, Arthur Balfour and John Henry Newman. Other key members were Owen Barfield, Hugo Dyson, Lewis's brother Warren, and others.


* When war broke out and children were sent out into the countryside, some children were assigned to stay at The Kilns, a house shared by C.S. Lewis, Warren Lewis, and Mrs. Moore and her daughter Maureen. This is part of what inspired Lewis to being The Lion, The Witch and The Wardobe.


* Something I found especially interesting what that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were not the original names for the four children. In fact, Peter was only name that stuck. Here is his first attempt at writing the book:


"This book is about four children whose names were Ann, Martin, Rose and Peter. But it is most about Peter who was the youngest. They all had to go away from London suddenly because of Air Raids, and because Father, who was in the Army, had gone off to the War and Mother was doing some kind of war work. They were sent to stay with a kind of relation of Mother's who was a very old Professor who lived all by himself in the country."


However, C.S. Lewis abandoned the story and didn't come back to it until nearly ten years later, in 1949.

* Tolkien was not a fan of Lewis's creation of Narnia. At one point he said, "It really won't do, you know! I mean to say: "Nymphs and their Ways, The Love-Life of a Faun." Does he know what he's talking about?"


I am willing to post more about C.S. Lewis on this blog if it interests anyone, or you can buy the book off of Amazon. It is full of some serious stuff, but if you're willing to take on a challenge it is a pretty good book. Anyways...


Another thing a lady of Narnia must do. "A lady of Narnia must forgive and forget, even if that slice of pie was rightfully hers according to the Deep Magic."

( Below: C.S. Lewis doing what he does best: writing!)