The End of Narnia

World Wanderer

World Wanderer

New member
I've been thinking as to what C.S. Lewis meant the Giant Lizards and things that helped destroy Narnia to be, and I think that they were most likely dinosaurs or dinosaur-esque creatures. One of my reasons for thinking this is he used the description "featherless birds with wings like bats' wings", which makes me think of pteranodons.
 
That also matches his description of dragons, like the sort Eustace became. But "giant lizards" could look like just about anything, including dinosaurs.
 
I know that dinosaurs at the time were thought of as big, dumb animals that brought about their own extinction. Maybe, if the lizards were dinosaurs, Lewis decided to take that a little further and have them cause Narnia's end.
 
I was also watching the Rite of Spring segment from Fantasia, and how they showed the dinosaurs going extinct made me think of the end of Narnia because the Earth became a wasteland and all that was left of the dinosaurs was a bunch of bones before a flood came.
 
I like the dragon motif in both Lewis and Tolkien... the imagery of selfishness and greed and loneliness sitting atop a pile of treasure gradually becoming more and more selfish and greedy and lonely. Smaug is the prototype, and Eustace was rescued by Aslan from this fate.

Isaiah 35 gives a similar picture, as a bleak and barren land is healed: "And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

I don't know if the great lizards fit this motif, if their only usefulness is to consume and destroy a shadow world, but they cannot touch the "real Narnia" but it's what I thought of as I read TLB.
 
Greensawmill said:
Isaiah 35 gives a similar picture, as a bleak and barren land is healed: "And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
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I checked the original Hebrew word in Isaiah 35 Tanniyn which is translated as dragon, or as dinosaur... or as sea serpent... the word is related to the Hebrew word Tan which is defined as: "dragon, maybe the extinct dinosaur the plesiosaurus, whale" This from biblestudytools.com ( I LOVE that website).
 
I like how did Lewis and Tolkien inserted a dragon in their stories and what it's symbolizes. For in the Revelation, dragon is a monster whom the good fought and was put in prison and after 1000 years will be released though in short time only. So, when Eustace was dragonize, he immediately found out what was the reason why he became a dragon and try to find something to do good deeds even if the sailors and his cousins were a bit afraid of him. So, in the end he became a boy again and never do bad things...
 
Yes, I found that part interesting, too. Also, I know the dragons and giant lizards will have a part in the end our own world as well, but not all of them will be evil or tied with destruction. When God creates the new Heaven and new Earth, dragons and man will be united in peaceful cohabitation once again, as they were in the Garden of Eden. . . Oh wow, this is going to be awesome! :)
 
Sir Tom the Dragon Knight said:
Yes, I found that part interesting, too. Also, I know the dragons and giant lizards will have a part in the end our own world as well, but not all of them will be evil or tied with destruction. When God creates the new Heaven and new Earth, dragons and man will be united in peaceful cohabitation once again, as they were in the Garden of Eden. . . Oh wow, this is going to be awesome! :)
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I like that too, the beasts and men will be together in Garden of Eden where peace will reign and no need for food or shelter but we will just praise God for His holiness and greatness among His creations..:D
 
World Wanderer said:
I've been thinking as to what C.S. Lewis meant the Giant Lizards and things that helped destroy Narnia to be, and I think that they were most likely dinosaurs or dinosaur-esque creatures. One of my reasons for thinking this is he used the description "featherless birds with wings like bats' wings", which makes me think of pteranodons.
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You know, I seem to have read somewhere that Godzilla is, among many other things, symbolic of nuclear or atomic warfare. And it's interesting that his movie debut Godzilla was in 1954 and TLB was published in 1956. I have no idea when or even if this connection between the monster Godzilla and nuclear warfare was first made, but could it be possible Lewis was making an obscure prophecy as to the potential cause of the end of the world with his Giant Lizards destroying Narnia? After all, a mere decade had passed since Hiroshima.

I know I am drifting about the fuzzy fringes of heresy, but it's fun to speculate.
 
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Maybe. He might've seen it when the film came out and that could've inspired him with the Giant Lizards destroying Narnia.

They could also be references to the Leviathan and the Behemoth in the Bible.
 
It has more to do with car insurance than revelation. Look closely at this actual photo of a Narnia-destroying lizard, Geiko irritationis.

geico-gecko-with-coffee.jpg
 
EveningStar said:
It has more to do with car insurance than revelation. Look closely at this actual photo of a Narnia-destroying lizard, Geiko irritationis.
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ES, excellent. I love your sense of humor, however I actually like Geiko commercials, how strange is that. I really should see a therapist for this...:)
 
If the GEICO gecko can be talked about here, what I have in mind is not _less_ relevant. I urge new members to go over to Writing Club and read "Emmett and Queenie at Narnia's End." It is my surrealistic speculation about what conditions would have been like in the Narnian world _while_ it was ending.
 
Very good read. I recommend checking out that fanfiction.

Getting back to the End of Narnia, I think it might also have been possible that C.S. Lewis imagined large, mythological reptiles helping out with Narnia's end, like hydras and basilisks.
 
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