Myths of Our Times

By Andrea D. Hicks
Associate Producer

CBN.com –

My Dear Lucy,

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again…

More than 50 years have passed since C.S. Lewis wrote this letter to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield. The message, which precedes the first chapter of his classic story, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” gives valuable insight into why fairy tales survive: they transcend age and time.

Lewis’ craftsmanship and ability to find the best outlet to tell his story, explains why readers from different generations still cherish this fairy tale about a magical wardrobe and the interesting world within.

“All throughout western civilization there have been stories that everybody knows and shares, that are passed on from generation to generation, which tell us who we are, why we are here, and what values are important,” said Professor Devin Brown, author of “Inside Narnia: A Guide to Exploring the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

Brown, who teaches an English class at Asbury College in Kentucky called “C.S. Lewis and his Circle,” said his students show up the first day of class already finished with the Narnia books. Based on the popularity of class discussions and the upcoming film version, Brown wrote a running commentary called “Inside Narnia: An Insider’s Guide to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”

Brown believes the fairy tale, mythic format has kept this series a favorite for many people over the years.

“Lewis was too modest to suggest that these stories are myths, our culture’s myths. But these stories, in many cases, have been read by grandparents to parents to their children, passed on for several generations,” Brown said.

But readers have no problem calling them “the myths for our times,” Brown said.

“And why is that? It has universality,” he said. “People who go to the movies will see all kinds of people there, and people who buy these books at the bookstore will see old people and young people enjoying them the same; Christians and non-Christians; academics, non-academics, even Christians from various denominations.”

Part of this universality stems from Lewis’ vivid imagination, where seemingly unrelated characters such as Mr. Tumnus, the White Witch, Father Christmas, and Aslan exist in Narnia.

Lewis himself said, “It began with a picture.” Since Lewis was 16, he had an image in his mind of a faun, and one day he decided to follow that thought.

“Here’s a faun that Lewis would have known from Greek and Roman mythology, from around the Mediterranean, that’s been transported in this strange land where there’s snow. And he has Christmas packages wrapped in an umbrella; in a way Narnia is like this, this mixing of strange events,” Brown said.

When Lucy first enters Narnia, readers see a black and white picture of Mr. Tumnus carrying his packages through the snow. His entrance will also be a great moment on the screen, as viewers are introduced to Narnia along side Lucy, Brown said.

To those familiar with Lewis and his personal life and interests, many of the characters appear to come from children in his life or other works of art. To some extent, Brown said, all authors take “things that are part of your life, whether you’ve read about them, dreamt about them, met in real life, saw them in a painting, and somehow make them your own.”

Sometimes that works, sometimes it does not. “Lewis said this: when you’re writing a story and your reader is using their imagination and following you, you have to be careful not to disrupt this imaginative story with a bump that doesn’t fit there,” Brown said.

For some literary scholars, Father Christmas is that bump because Father Christmas is associated with the birth of Jesus Christ in our world, and Christ is not born on Dec. 25 in a manger in Narnia, Brown explained. And, he added, Father Christmas is somewhat based on St. Nicholas from Turkey.

“Now to me,” Brown said, “ he’s no more out of place than a Greek faun, no more out of place than a Germanic dwarf or other characters from European roots. Here’s the line: ‘Always winter, never Christmas.’ Well, if you’re going to have Christmas come back, you’re going to have to bring Father Christmas back. If you throw out Father Christmas then you have to throw out Christmas. Then it would be ‘It was always winter, and it was always winter.”

For those unfamiliar with the story, Father Christmas’s arrival is an indication to Jadis, the self-proclaimed queen of Narnia, that she is losing her authority over Narnia.

However, unlike Father Christmas, Mr.Tumnus, and Lucy, Brown asserts that “Aslan is ‘awfully original.’ Lewis once said, “I’ve been dreaming of lions and all of the sudden Aslan comes bounding in.”

Whether Lewis intended for him to be an allegory for the story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, or if he was a creation from Lewis’s imagination, is not the point, Brown asserted. “Some people may, some may not [think that Aslan represents Christ], but everyone understands that when you do wrong, there are consequences.”

The story also includes other essential moral lessons, which everyone can comprehend: messages of sacrifice and redemption, duty and loyalty, and joy.

Instead, Brown said, readers should “see Aslan as someone who gives up his life for someone else in a self-sacrificing redemption. Kids can see that evil is not cool.”

“Lewis said ‘most people don’t understand that a thing can be good and terrible at the same time.’ Some people think good always means easy and prosperous…doing what’s right means facing a lot of hardship. Hardship has to be taken seriously.

There’s real pain in doing what’s right. And real sacrifice, it’s not this sugarized idea of good,” Brown said. “It’s the same with evil. Not only do we see these people doing bad things, we see why they’re doing them, inside their minds. And to them, they’re not doing anything wrong.”

Edmund’s character represents the descent into evil. His choices lead to a major repercussion.

Brown said, “Everyone understands that when you do things wrong, there are consequences. When Edmund comes back, and he’s been promised to be a prince, he becomes a prisoner…And he’s been promised to be a prince over these people and he’s isolated and alone. I think we’ve all had our Edmund moments, and they’re not fun.”

On the other hand, “as the kids get closer and closer to Aslan, they become more connected, life becomes more rich. There’s duty, but they’re part of something bigger than themselves. And it’s exciting, much better than their old lives,” Brown said.

But the needle that sews the story together is the depiction of free will. The children cannot always enter Narnia through the wardrobe, but once there, they can make the decision to leave at any time.

The White Witch is the opposite. Her desire is to dominate the creatures of Narnia, and she wants nothing more than to make everyone do things against their will, Brown said.
“The frozen statues are the perfect epitome for her because they are living creatures totally under her will,” he explained.

“But in the end,” Brown said, “Lewis wants to suggest that we’re human beings. Our defining element is our free will. We’re not puppets. We’re not robots. We’re not animals. We’re rational creatures who decide every day to make choices.”

Order your copy of Inside Narnia

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Special Feature

Watch video from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe