Report on the Narnia Exhibition in Huntsville, AL

Here’s a report on Narnia: The Exhibition, which I received from Anna Pendleton.  I hope that you enjoy it, and if you have a chance to go, do so!

I recently went to the Narnia Exhibition in Huntsville, Al. I live about five hours away and we did it in a day. So, with traffic and all we spent about 12-14 hours in the car. But, let me tell you…it was well worth it!!!

When you first arrive you walk down a ramp and directly in front of you is a replica of the wardrobe. It is perfect. Every detail in the wood is magnificent. The trees are whispey and so Narnia-like.

To the right is a display with a few of C.S. Lewis’ own things. His actual wardrobe that was in his room when he first penned the Chronicles of Narnia was there. It was a light wood (kinda looked like light oak to me, but I may be wrong) with a full length mirror in the middle of the door. There was a large map of Narnia just like the one in the book. I believe it belonged to Lewis, but I am not 100%. In that display was also a case that that a few things including Edmund’s torch from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader film from 2010. It’s the first of four items from the VDT film in the exhibition.

To the left of the replica wardrobe is a desk with a pipe, glass mug and a handwritten letter, all belonging to Lewis himself. In a glass display case there are copies of different books from the Chronicles in several languages. They are some of the earliest copies. On the wall above the display case was my favorite item of the whole exhibition. It was the painting of the Dawn Treader that was used in the 2010 VDT film. It was not extremely large, but the colors were brilliant. The blues were as blue as they come and those mixed with the deep green made the water look extremely real. If I may borrow Lucy’s words, “The water looks as if it’s actually moving”. And it almost did! The frame was wood, but painted in white cracked paint. The Dawn Treader was just a small purple dot, almost, in the right hand corner. You could almost imagine it moving towards you!

When you are through looking at all this amazing stuff, which in and of itself could take 45 min. to take in, you go through the replica wardrobe. When the doors open the first thing you see is a blue light, like moonlight, with snow falling all around the lamp post (the lamp post was not the actual). You could hear in your head the wardrobe music playing and it just seems like you are all alone and walking right into Narnia. The effect could not be more incredible. Then you notice that inside the wardrobe are fur coats all along the side and parcels and hat boxes and things that you would find in an old wardrobe along the top on some shelves. When you get through the wardrobe there is snow falling and snow on the ground. Of course it is not real snow. Styrofoam or something.

When you turn to the right and walk straight, to the left and against a wall are the real costumes that William Mosley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley were wearing when they first went into Narnia together in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. They were all set up on manikins with two little beaver statues set up next to them on the right side.

When you walk around the wall, on the opposite side you are met with a large frozen waterfall that you can touch. It is real ice and very much like the one on the movie. Continue walking straight and in a large glass display case is Tilda Swinton’s dress that she wore as the white witch. It was very ornate. Not exactly what you may have imagined up close, but incredible just the same. The manikin is holding the icy scepter that she had and her ice crown is on a stand in front of the dress. In the same case, to the left of the dress, was Ginibrik’s costume complete with knitted hat and stone knife. In front of Ginibrik’s costume was the Turkish delight box and the goblet that the White Witch gave to Edmund when he met her in Narnia for the first time. The box was amazing!!! It was beautiful and detailed. Turn to the left again and there is a replica of the Witch’s throne and when you sit on it it actually gets really cold!

Continue straight and the Prince Caspian display begins. The first things are the costumes that the children wore when they went back to Narnia from the train station. They are on manikins as well, and the display is made really neat by the sand on the ground. Susan’s skirt and Lucy’s dress looked like it was made of a thick wool, but I could not touch it so I can’t be sure.

Turn around and there in front of you is Susan’s golden chest and statue from the treasure chamber. Scattered all around it are many things from the treasure chamber and there is also the “Gold Chess Piece” that Susan found and that belonged to Edmund. There was also Edmund’s torch that they used in PC. Also, they had displayed here, Susan’s magical bow. There were so many things that I could not possibly recount them all with complete accuracy.

Turn to the left and walk straight and there is a replica of the wheel that Peter, Susan and Caspian used to open the portcullis at Miraz’s castle. You can touch the wheel. Behind that is a screen with a really cool, short documentary of the scenes and set of Miraz’s castle.

Turn around and you find a display case with Lucy’s dress that she wore after they had been in the treasure chamber. Around the dress is her “diamond” bottle with the cordial made from the juice of the fire berry. And below that is Eustace’s journal (from VDT) and next to Lucy’s dress was Edmund’s armor. In the front of the case was the Book of Incantations (from VDT).

When you continue straight there are about four Centaurs above you holding their massive swords out over you. The Centaurs themselves were made of plastic, but the armor and swords were from the PC movie.

Directly across from them is a little display with swords that look just like Peter’s that you can pick up. There is also a documentary on the armor of the films.

Keep walking straight and you will find yourself looking at the costume that Caspian wore at the end of PC when the four children went back to England. Next to Caspian’s costume, to the left of it, was Susan’s magical horn. It looked like it was made of ivory, but I have no way of knowing that for sure. Directly across from Caspian’s costume was Susan’s Chain Mail dress that she wore when they attacked Miraz’s castle and in the battle at Aslan’s How. In the same display case was her quiver full of arrows and on a little table with velvet over it was her crown from LWW. It was beautiful. The crown was made of gold and the flowers, which looked to be daffodils, were made of a goldish colored pearl.

Turn around and walk a bit then to the left is a trebuchet replica that they load with Styrofoam rocks and let you shoot.

Opposite to the trebuchet is one of the lord’s Chairs from PC. And next to that on the left and in a glass display case was Miraz’s suit of armor with his mask and shield. On the shield, all around the edge, were things engraved so that only the cast and crew could see them and they would not show up on camera. The engravings were all scenes from the book and looked allot, to me, like they resembled Pauline Banes own artwork from the original book. In this case is also Miraz’s sword.

Turn completely around and go past the Lord’s chair and you will see a model of Reepicheep wearing armor and a little gold band over one er and under the other, with a little crimson feather projecting from the gold band. He had his little rapier in his hand. Continue straight and there is a large log with a “go green” sign in the background explaining about forests and such.

Straight ahead from that is a glass case with Caspian’s Telmarine Armor that he wore all through PC. There is also his sword in this case. I spent a good amount of time examining these pieces and was amazed by the accuracy of it all. To the left of this is a replica of Mr. Tumnus’s little door way into his cave house. There is a yellow light, like that of fire, coming through the door’s window. Next to that on the left is one of the neatest displays. It is all of Tumnus’s things. There is his umbrella, his parcels that Lucy helped him carry. There is a magnificent wax bust of Jame’s MacAvoy as Tumnus with the actual red knitted scarf around his neck. One of the things that I was thrilled to see was the book from Tumnus’s shelf titles, “Is Man a Myth?”. I remember seeing that one in the LWW film and liking the way it looked. In the display case was also the teacup and saucer that Lucy drank out of in Mr. Tumnus’s cave and the flute that Tumnus played.

Turn a little bit to the left and walk a few steps and there is the table and map that Peter and Ontorius the Centaur used to plot the battle against the White Witch in LWW. On the map are the little markers that look like shields. Next to that table is an amazing wax figure of a centaur.

Turn again to the left and walk a few more steps. You are now looking at a screen that is talking about the battles (if I remember correctly) in the films. There are also some large blocks with pictures on each side that you can turn different ways to make different fauns.

If you walk a few more steps to the left you will be back at the statue of Reepicheep. You have made a complete circle and in the middle of all this is a minotaur costume. It was about six and a half feet tall, maybe taller, and looked incredibly real! Next to that was an ogres head. It was perfectly gross. Just the way it should be.

Turn the the left and walk, then take a right and you will go back past the lord’s chair and Miraz’s armor and you will go out the exit. The exhibition it over.

There is also a gift shop with a few things. They have Narnia Exhibition T-shirts that are really neat. I got one of these. The Narnia souvenirs are very reasonably priced too.

It was one of the most incredible things that I have ever been to. If it comes your way at all, I very, very highly recommend that you make the trip to see it.

Thanks for reading!
Anna L. Pendleton

Learn More about the Exhibition in Huntsville

Narnia: The Exhibition Website