8 Mar 2013

Prince Caspian | C. S. Lewis | Harper Collins

Prince Caspian, to be read in chronological order as the fourth story in The Chronicles of Narnia, was published in 1951 shot as a disappointing film in 2008.

After a break from the Pevensie siblings in The Horse and His Boy, the Pevensies were summoned to back to Narnia, on a beach near their castle at Cair Paravel by the rightful heir of the Telmarines Prince Caspian. 

Despite his ursurper of an uncle King Miraz forbidding him from learning anything about Narnia, Prince Caspian's tutor, the half-dwarf Doctor Cornelius had schooled him on tales about Narnia and its golden age when all was at peace under the Pevensie rule.  In the course of raising an army to fight King Miraz, a Hag and a Were-wolf, loyal to the White Witch, had tried by treachery to trick Prince Caspian into resurrecting her without success.  Nevertheless, with Aslan's magic, the Narnians defeated the Telmarines, who were offered new lives in another world by Aslan. 

This story also marks the last appearance of the two older Pevensie children Peter and Susan, who would not return to Narnia as they were "getting too old".

I still think that so far, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the most exciting story, in terms of the fleshing out of the characters of the Pevensie children, and the theme about belief in Aslan.  In Prince Caspian, the theme about belief was repeated, with Lucy being the first to see Aslan as she believed in him.  The older children, who perhaps had slightly lost their faith, could not see Aslan despite him being in front of him in the forest.

Accordingly, the Telmarine invasion of Narnia has its basis on the Norman Conquest of England.  I haven't gone back far in history to read about the Saxons and Normans becoming English, but that's potential reading material for sure.

The movie adaptation portrayed Prince Caspian and Susan in a kind of budding romance, with Susan quite reluctant to return to England without Prince Caspian.  I was rather surprised by the portrayal in the movie, not remembering having read about any sort of romance since The Magician's Nephew, and had to re-read Prince Caspian again after the movie to be certain.

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