Of the artists featured on the official soundtrack from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, perhaps Tim Finn, despite being a lesser-known name, had the most longevity. Hailing from New Zealand, he was heavily influenced by British bands like The Beatles and the Kinks, and was even a founding member of the band Genesis alongside Phil Collins, with songs going back to the 1970s. However, while Collins remained firmly entrenched in rock and has delivered epic drum solo after epic drum solo, Tim Finn focused more on the art rock and new wave music style.
Thus, if Lisbeth Scott could be compared to Enya with “May it be” from The Fellowship of the Ring, and Imogen Heap to Emiliana Torini with Gollum’s song from the The Two Towers, perhaps Finn could be compared to Annie Lennox with Into the West for The Return of the King. This was a certifiable music legend, sharing their talents with the fantasy realm, one with whom the parents who grew up with the stories may have been familiar. In fact, Tim Finn even contributed the song “Growing Pains” to the soundtrack for the John Hughes film, Sixteen Candles.
Moreover, music, appears to be for Tim Finn a family affair. With his brother Neil Finn they formed the duo “”The Finn Brothers”, releasing at least two albums together and even contributed the song “Won’t Give In “for the movie Because of Winn-Dixie. Further, Neil has a musical connection to another prolific Inkling. While Tim contributed a song to The Chronicles of Narnia, Neil would go on to record “The Song of the Lonely Mountain” for the soundtrack for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Just as Tim captures the wonder and enchantment of Narnia, Neil perfectly captured the rough rugged quality of Thorin Oakenshield and the dwarves, complete with well-timed anvil strikes.
Perhaps then it stands to reason that someone with a backing in the art style of pop music would contribute a song for the soundtrack that in many ways captures the character of Mr. Tumnus the faun. After all winter, especially the kind we see in Narnia isn’t always known for light. If anything during that time, as the song hauntingly reminds us, is cold. Nothing can appear to grow and even water, necessary for life, is frozen solid. This gives you an idea just how terrible Jadis’ reign was through mere subtext. Yes, it looks like a winter wonderland, but it’s lasted for a hundred years.
But where this song finds it’s light is how it captures Tumnus’ meeting with Lucy Pevensie. This ordinary little girl, one who he never knew until that moment treated him with such kindness and compassion and genuinely trusted him and thought he was her friend. As they spend that time together, she is clearly enchanted by this place and asks him question after question about Narnia. For someone who has lived his whole life in this world, her own sense of wonder brings about a phantasmagorical sense of wonder and enchantment he was missing.
At the same time, he was supposed to trap her and deliver her to the witch. Later when he realizes the error of his ways, she forgives him and as he most likely went on to learn was determined to save him. What becomes key is that in seeing “her” beneath that winter light of the lamppost isn’t just how her arrival is the beginning of the end for Jadis’ reign. In spending that time with Lucy she brings a greater thaw into the life of Tumnus’ life. Up until that moment his own heart is just as cold as winter, but her innocence and her trust in him is perhaps what breaks his heart. leading him to true repentance and with it, a new life.
But more importantly, Lucy causes him to care about someone other than himself and his own self-preservation. He even tells her before she returns to Spare Oom after her first visit to Narnia in the Walden media adaptation, “You’ve made me feel warmer than I have in a long time.” And with that warmth he was saved from the witch by Aslan himself. The friendship between Tumnus and Lucy is perhaps one of the most compelling in the series, more than the White Rabbit to her Alice, or the Scarecrow to her Dorothy, these two experienced the sort of friendship that truly changes someone. And not just Lucy who went on to become a queen, but Tumnus, who in that “Winter Light” felt a profound change of heart that warmed his soul in a way he never imagined.
RETRO NARNIA ROCKS PLAYLIST
Side A: “Winter Light”
“Growing Pains”
Side B:-“Don’t Give in.” ( Featuring Neil Finn)
“Song of the Lonely Mountain”( Performed by Neil Finn.)
I love finding music like this. I like Finn’s sound.