彩蛋四 关于《纳尼亚传奇》的10个Magic Facts

10 Interesting Facts About The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

1. The story was inspired by an image of a faun.

From age 16 onward, Lewis often found himself imagining “a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood.” According to his short essay It All Began With A Picture, the image continued to come to him until, at age 40, he said to himself, “Let's try to make a story about it.”

2. The book was also inspired by three girls who lived with Lewis during World War II.

In 1939, three girls, Margaret, Mary, and Katherine, were evacuated from London because of anticipated bombings and sent to live with Lewis in the countryside for a short time. This situation seems to be the inspiration for the four children—Susan, Peter, Edmund, and Lucy—being sent to live with the old Professor in the book.

3. Lucy is a real person.

Lucy is based on Lucy Barfield, Lewis’s goddaughter, and the daughter of Owen Barfield. She was 4 years old when he started the book and14 when he finished it.

In the dedication to Lucy, he said, “Someday you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it.”

4. No Lion? You’re Lyin’!

Theonly character to appear in all seven books of the series is Aslan the lion.However, he didn’t actually appear in the first draft of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In fact, Lewis was struggling with the story until “Aslancame bounding into it.” Try to imagine this series without Aslan in it!

5. Lewis destroyed the first version of the book because his friends didn’t like it.

Before 1947, Lewis wrote a draft of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with four children named Ann, Martin, Rose, and Peter. The reaction of his friends to the story was discouraging, to say the least. He said in a letter, “It was, by the unanimous verdict of my friends, so bad that I destroyed it.”

6. Tolkien didn’t likeThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

In 1949, Lewis read a completed manuscript of the book toTolkien and was surprised by his negative reaction. There’s much speculation as to why he disliked the book so much. Some say it’s because Tolkien didn’t like how Lewis mixed different mythologies together. Another theory is that Tolkien was threatened by the speed with which Lewis assembled his world, when Tolkien was so meticulous in his invention of Middle-earth.

The truth is, we may never know the details.

7. TheLion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is chronologically the second book in the Narnia series. 

While The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was written first,The Magician’s Nephewis chronologically where the story starts. Many people read The Magician’s Nephew first so they can go from the earliest to the latest point in the series.

8. Professor Kirke was based on Lewis’s high school tutor.

The Professor, whose name is Digory Kirke, is based onWilliam T. Kirkpatrick, who tutored Lewis when he was a teenager. Along with appearing in the first book, the Professor is the protagonist of The Magician’s Nephew and also appears in The Last Battle.

9. It's one of the best-selling books of all time.

It’s difficult to rank all-time best-selling books, but when people try,The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is usually on the list. It has been translated to 47 languages and adapted for TV, stage,radio, and the silver screen. In 2005, it was made into a big-budget movie.

10. Time’s arrow marches on

One element which has always marked the Narniabooksis the way it deals with parallel timelines. A whole lifetime could be spent in Narnia, while mere minutes would pass by in our world. Based on the timelines in Prince Caspian, a year in our world equals to about 1,300 years inNarnia!