Other Worlds

Gee, that's hard to guess - but you could have fun, couldn't you?

One thing that's clear: Aslan was lord of not only the Wood Between the Worlds, but of all worlds accessible from it.
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
Gee, that's hard to guess - but you could have fun, couldn't you?

One thing that's clear: Aslan was lord of not only the Wood Between the Worlds, but of all worlds accessible from it.
Click to expand...

That's what I thought because Aslan was able to get Digory and Polly to there without the aid of the magic rings. I can't help but wonder if Lewis imagined that some other book worlds might have been accessible through the Woods, like Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Probably not though. Like you said, we can only guess at what other worlds lie in those other pools.
 
PrinceOfTheWest said:
Gee, that's hard to guess - but you could have fun, couldn't you?

One thing that's clear: Aslan was lord of not only the Wood Between the Worlds, but of all worlds accessible from it.
Click to expand...

The deplorable word and the tree of youth in Narnia got me thinking about those other worlds. Aslan said everything works according to its nature, but if used the wrong way, the consequences could be bad.

I've often wondered if C.S. Lewis ever comented on his own work like Tolkien, or if there is a forum for people who shared their world view to discuss their works in that context, because it seems that Aslan wanted the rings hidden so no one could use it them after Digory, implying that use of the rings to travel to these other worlds was wrong, or perhaps its wrong only when unauthorized persons are using them for selfish gain?

In the last book they are used again trying to respond to Tirian's distress call. Was Aslan, who in C.S. Lewis's story Lion, Witch & Wardrobe is a Type of Christ forbidding the use or the improper use of the rings?

In Magican's Nephew Aslan said the fruit of youth could either protect Narnia as it was created to be if use of the apples was authorized, or turn it into an evil empire like Charn. So maybe the rings were like that- Aslan only wanted authorized person to use them.

In Magican's Nephew Jadis mentions Charn and several other places she evidently destroyed-possibly other worlds or other kingdoms of her world, and I wonder if the deplorable word was something like stealing an apple thinking to protect Narnia only to have the protection turn ugly?
 
Some of those other worlds were inhabited by strange and mythical creatures such as dragons, centaurs and honest lawyers. One of them had five seasons in the year...winter, spring, summer, fall, and Fred. Had Vivaldi lived there, he would have had to write 25% more music.

Three of the worlds are mentioned in the Chronicles, namely Narnia, Charn and Earth. One of them was a desolate place where hopeless masses slaved away for starvation wages and cried out for freedom. The other two are Charn and Narnia. By the way, I once spent the fall in War Drobe in the bright land of Spare Oom, but left on the first day of Fred.

Wardrobes are not the only way into Narnia, just one of the more pleasant ways. Once I knew someone who found another way into Narnia that was a lot less pleasant. When she couldn't make it through on her own I had to get the plunger.

Ever notice how magical things are either rings or amulets? What is this thing against bracelets??

Enough on this for now. I'm in search of a world with chocolate doughnuts that are GOOD for you.
 
My belief, based on what we know about Aslan is that all worlds, including what we call 'imaginary' places, such as Middle Earth, were accessible from the Wood between the Worlds. According to one of the theories of quantum physics (a subject well beyond my understanding, so please don't ask me to explain it!) there are very many worlds parallel to our own, as well as those that exist in our world, including what we term "the universe". If this is so, then they too would be accessible from the Wood between the Worlds.

elrondaragorn said:
.... it seems that Aslan wanted the rings hidden so no one could use it them after Digory, implying that use of the rings to travel to these other worlds was wrong, or perhaps its wrong only when unauthorized persons are using them for selfish gain?

In the last book they are used again trying to respond to Tirian's distress call. Was Aslan, who in C.S. Lewis's story Lion, Witch & Wardrobe is a Type of Christ forbidding the use or the improper use of the rings?
Click to expand...

My personal opinion, is that using the rings to visit other worlds per se is not bad. However, it is very wrong if done for the wrong motive and / or by evil people such as Jadis. Bearing in mind that the books were set during the second world war, magic rings that transport one to other worlds would most definitely NOT be the kind of thing one would want falling into the hands of Hitler or Stalin and their cronies, or people of similar character, or even someone like Andrew Kettersley does not strike me as a suitable person to possess such powerful artifacts, even though he manufactured them in the first place. Knowing the horrors that were coming in our world, explains why Aslan ordered that the rings should be buried, in order to prevent the ghastly consequences, if they should have fallen into the wrong hands.
 
Yeah, if someone who had a reputation like those dictators found a way into other worlds, the consequences could've been catastrophic. Who knows what sorts of horrors they might've found. They could've discovered a place with monsters only obedient to their masters, or worse. It was probably a good thing the rings were buried (so no one would find them on accident).

I have heard about the theory of alternate dimensions (but I know so little about it), that there could be possibly countless worlds besides our own. I know that has been the topic of many fantasy and science fiction writers. There could be a world that's similar to an ancient past or one that's how many people imagine the future to be. There could even be other versions of ourselves (that I highly doubt), but right now we can't know because we have no way of looking for (or even getting to) these other realities.
 
Dictators from our world probably wouldn't fare well in other worlds. See, there are a lot of evil people like Hitler that live obscure lives loading boxes on trucks or trimming hedge. They only emerge when the right set of circumstances makes them and only them a lightning rod for popular discontent.

The biggest single problem with people crossing from world to world is with the ones that think, "Gee, they're doing it all wrong!" They don't like town criers, they like newspapers. So they fire the town crier and suddenly a whole city of illiterate folks has newspapers to warn them of attack. Ah, the secret is to teach them all to read. What, no public education? Make it compulsory. So the kids are off the farm and there's nobody to milk the cows? Raise taxes to import milk from Outer Insidea.

Any society CHANGES, but what kinds of change work well in one world are not necessarily right for another.
 
"I have heard about the theory of alternate dimensions (but I know so little about it), that there could be possibly countless worlds besides our own."

World Wanderer, there are four levels of alternate dimensions. Level ! deals with infinite space in which an infinite number of universes can exist. In that case, another universe can exist that is an almost exact replica of ours with small changes.

Livel II deals with the idea that the universe is actually attached to a membrane which is floating in a "hyperspace." These universes can have the same or differing physical laws.

Level III deals with the classic "What if" universes. This works by saying that each and every decision is made in some alternate dimension.

Level IV is still not clear enough to me to describe.

Narnia would be one of the first two Levels of parallel universes.

As fir what would happen, well we can see that a cold-blooded mass murderer had a very serious impact on Narnia, but one aspect of that was because she was there at the beginning, found out how to make herself immortal for natural death, and found a way to live with the Deep Magic and eventually rule Narnia for 100 years.

Other people would have much different issues. A stranger in a strange land will take a lot longer to turn or bend others to his will. There is more of a chance of being killed by doing the wrong thing than to take over.

MrBob
 
True. You do make a good point. What's effective in one world may not be effective in another world (in The Magician's Nephew the spells Jadis knew weren't effective at all).
 
It has been alleged that Mister Lewis purposely imagined the Narnian world having an "uttermost EAST" to mirror Mister Tolkien's uttermost WEST; that would imply reaching Heaven from opposite sides. And Merlin in "That Hideous Strength" was supposed to be connected with Numenor.

It follows that the Wood Between Worlds could reasonably contain access to Middle-Earth. It could also contain passages into the stories of George MacDonald, G.K. Chesterton, and Charles WIlliams.
 
My own ongoing serial, "The Search For More Parody," has depicted about thirty diverse worlds so far-- including one where Aslan Himself demonstrated His total superiority over Twilight vampires. There's no limit to the number of worlds that God/Aslan can be sovereign over.
 
I think the further away the pool from our one, the more different the world it leads to. Hence the less likely there is for any travel to take place between the two worlds.

It does seem likely that there will be some logic re the alignment of the pools.

For all we know, in distant parts of the wood the trees and pools may have looked quite different from how they looked in the cross-section of it seen by Digory and Polly.
 
"For all we know, in distant parts of the wood the trees and pools may have looked quite different from how they looked in the cross-section of it seen by Digory and Polly."

Imagine Little_God, there could be a desert between the worlds, a tundra between the worlds, the mountains between the worlds. Those could be interesting places and the worlds they led to could be even more alien or, alternatively, nearly the same.

Bob S.
 
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