Ages & The Stable Door

CyberCat

CyberCat

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1.st Question: By the last battle, how old were Peter, Lucy, Edmund, Jill, and Eustace anyways?

Peter could not return to Narnia after Caspian, and Lucy and Edmund couldn't return after Dawn Treader leaving Jill and Eustace as the youngest...

I'm gussing Peter was 22? Lucy 19, Edmund 20-21, Jill and Eustace between 16 and 17???

I'm soooo confused! :eek: Also, what year did they die in?

2nd Question: Am I the the only one confused with the stable door, thing? How come Jill and Eustace get to help Trinian in Narnia, while the others sit behind a door for nearly the entire book?!
 
According to time lines on Narniafans.com and thelionscall.com, Peter would have been 22 (1927-1949), Edmund 19 (1930-1949), Lucy 17 (1932-1949), Eustace and Jill 16 (1933-1949). Digory would have been 61 (1888-1949) and Polly 60 (1889-1949).

The strange thing about The Last Battle is time. With God time is meaningless to a point. It may not have felt too long to the Pevensies on the other side of the door, compared to how it felt to Jill and Eustace. That doesn't matter too much though. It wouldn't have made sense for the Pevensies to go back to old Narnia. Aslan tends to represent the Christ. The Pevensies were told by Aslan that they wouldn't see Narnia again because they were too old. Digory and Polly were even older so it's easy to see why they stayed behind the door. Eustace and Jill were the only ones allowed to go back to old Narnia. The Pevensies had already "served their time" and ended up on the "heaven" side of the door instantly. Eustace and Jill had more to do. Before that, Aslan had spoken as it pertained to Peter, Ed, and Lucy returning as you noted in Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader. He wasn't going to go back on what he had said before.

The Pevensies were able to describe to Tirian, Eustace, and Jill what happened on that side of the door which helped everything make sense for the book. Things happened the way they were supposed to. Narnia as it had been known was supposed to come to an end then. They all got to see the New Narnia and New Earth and life was good. Lewis tended to write from the Christian point of view. Christians know that God has a plan for the world and for individuals. When God speaks, then that's it. Seeing as how Aslan represents the Christ, it's easy to see that there was an overarching plan and that he wouldn't go back on anything he previously said.

Hope this helps.
 
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You have stimulated me to a thought which never occurred to me before.

Jesus, in His guise of Aslan, seems to me to have created the Narnian world full of embodiments of mythology precisely for the benefit of the humans who would be transported there, so that they could profit by whatever "pre-Christian" or "sub-Christian" truths these beings represented. But except for Frank and Helen in "The Magician's Nephew" (and humans who later entered the Narnian world at points NOT INSIDE Narnia proper), no _adult_ Earthperson was ever brought into Narnia TO BE A LONGTERM RESIDENT.

Here's where the _new_ thought comes in: an insight, I believe, into WHY the child protagonists of the books have an age limit for sojourns in the Narnian world.

Remember in "Prince Caspian" how Susan, Edmund and Lucy all felt a shudder at the thought of what Bacchus would be like if he were NOT under Aslan's control? Well, in our world, adults all through the ages HAVE experienced Bacchus and his kin _outside_ of Aslan's control. Adults from hundreds of different cultures have known what it is like--and have themselves helped make it so!--to see mythical figures as embodiments of depraved adult lusts. By letting only Earth's _children_ (after the exceptionally virtuous couple who became Narnia's first rulers) enter into Narnian history, Aslan was firewalling His creation against such foul things as the extreme human-sacrifice customs of the Aztecs--or the multiple evils of the Canaanites, who were so far gone in evil as a society that God ordered their culture destroyed.
 
Interesting thoughts Copperfox. It seems strange to discuss the philosophy of a fictional children's book, if not irrelevant...but here are my thoughts to mull over.

So, when Narnia was exposed to the Telmarines and Bacchus it would have been exposed past that firewall wouldn't it have been? Granted Aslan did some house cleaning in a manner of speaking...but it wouldn't have been all better. In VODT there are still the pirates and slave trade, there are still deadly battles and other evils. Take Rabadash for example. If these evils along with the normal human condition there, why take the Pevensies out? The damage would have been done wouldn't it?

Could it be that Aslan knew what would happen the whole time and that he wanted to have Caspian's line rule Narnia as stated at the end of PC...and that the people from Earth were never meant to stay permanently...only help out now and then as needed? I think this would have been the easiest. We are not told that the Pevensies got married when they ruled. Sue thought about it...but none ended up doing so. I have a tough time believing that Aslan would have split up a marriage by sending them back to their world if they had chosen to marry. If they were allowed to stay upon their return when Caspian was ruling...it would make things extremely tough to deal with if they had mulitple heirs to the throne eventually fighting for control. Aslan wouldn't want a civil war. He just spelled it out for the kings and queens up front. The children born on earth were meant to live there. I think it just had to do with Aslan's overarching plans and the implementation thereof.
 
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