Tough Questions

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Mudpuddle

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Someone needs to write a Narnia novel which will answer these questions -

What became of the tree which kept the White Witch from entering Narnia?
What became of the human population during the Hundred Year Winter?
Where did all the food come from during the Hundred Year Winter?
What did Mr. Tumnus do for a living so he could buy things wrapped up in paper?
 
the first one .. well, someone cut it down. i know that .. it said so in the later books. =) about the others, though .. i'm not sure. tumnus .. erm .. kidnapped children..? he he he, juuuust kidding. ;) :D
 
Well, the tree was never a living tree and Aslan said it would protect Narnia for many years but not forever. So I'd say it got old and died.
The only humans in Narnia are the King and Queen and their kids. There have never been other humans in Narnia.
Narnians got food from Archenland and other areas.
Mr. Tumnus had other jobs for the White Witch or something to get paid.
Those are my best sense answers. However, if I was writing the story I would say that one of King Frank and Queen Helen's descendants didn't heed the story of the tree and in a moment of anger, had the tree chopped down. It is still not a true tree (dryad) so it is ok if it is chopped down. By doing this, Jadis, who had been watching closely after Narnia, saw her chance. She came in and killed the King and took over Narnia. As the years passed, true Narnians formed an underground network where they traded food and other things. Mr. Tumnus was a part of this network. He simply lost his courage at first when he met Lucy but quickly gained it back.

If anyone likes that idea then maybe I'll develop more of a story and post it as fanfic.
 
I think Tumnus was possibly a musician who seemed to have an intellectual slant by all the books in his cave. I tend to make notice of things of that nature, and thus reach the conclusion that he perhaps had a gift of creativity. Perhaps in Narnia, unlike our world, there is not such an emphasis on jobs and money. Maybe Narnians have a different system of 'supply and demand'.

Those are good questions, and I think we can only assume the answers.
 
Mudpuddle said:
Someone needs to write a Narnia novel which will answer these questions -

What became of the tree which kept the White Witch from entering Narnia?
What became of the human population during the Hundred Year Winter?
Where did all the food come from during the Hundred Year Winter?
What did Mr. Tumnus do for a living so he could buy things wrapped up in paper?
Click to expand...
I don't think you're going to get an answer to some of these questions. This was the sort of storyline sloppiness that so aggravated Tolkien. In reality, of course, a land locked in a permanent winter would be depopulated within about two years, since there would be no source of food. The Protection Tree probably just got old and died. Mr. Tumnus' packages, as well as his umbrella, are inexplicable. Lewis got better at this as he wrote more stories (e.g. the description of the provisioning for the trip through the northlands in Silver Chair), but remember, Lion was his first and, for all he knew, a one-off thing.
 
Jadis was evil but she wasn't stupid

Jadis was evil but she wasn't stupid. As queen of nothingness she not only would not receive tribute but she wouldn't have anyone to defend her borders.

The following seems to be implied, but I have a hard time on this question drawing a line in the sand between my imagination and my observation:

First off, she provided food for the populace from her royal storehouses, something within her powers certainly and something which, to herself, seemed to justify her "right" to rule. Chances are the food was simple and not very appealing. Her approach to the garden party, turning the animals into stone for gluttony and waste as well as claiming to see Father Christmas indicates to me that she controlled Narnia through controlling access to food and drink. A very effective means, by the way, for in the Old Testament we see Pharoah with his storehouses of grain buying up personal soverignty over all the private property in Egypt during the seven years of drought....

Second, why is it always winter and never Christmas? She had the unmitigated gall to try and defeat Aslan but even she knew she couldn't win against the Emperor across the sea. So she took the time to learn the deep magic and try to use it in ways the author never intended, much as the crooked lawyer that insured a set of thousand dollar cigars, smoked them, and then claimed they were destroyed in a series of small fires (he won that one, by the way). In Narnia there is a certain magic associated with the renewal of spring and with Christmas. The only way Jadis could prevent her powers from being destroyed from beneath was to prevent winter from ending and prevent Christmas from coming.

Third, and perhaps most intriguing, is why Jadis and why then? She came in at the beginning and she was, in a sense, the Emperor's hangman. But queen? There has always been a human king of Narnia, methinks. Several things in the book suggest it. In particular I believe that the male heir to the throne was brought someone of Aslan's own choosing. This line of King Frank I, which I call the Angalandrian (Angle-Land) dynasty ended abruptly with the death of the last King without an heir. At the time the distant relatives in Archenland were arguing over who should go be the next King of Narnia, and unfortunately most of them wanted thereby to annex Narnia in an Empire to lay claim to its rich natural resources and open spaces. This foolishness, not typical of them, blinded them long enough to allow Jadis to act. First she pitted the different heirs against one another, and perhaps she caused the friction in the first place. Then she herself grabbed power, claiming to be human when in fact she was Charnian. This happened during the winter, and to prevent the spells she used in her conquest from being broken by the coming of the vernal equinox, she rebuked time and in doing so it was perpetually Hibernis 22nd. That's why it was never Christmas, because the same date kept repeating.

Not all canon, but I hope you found it interesting.
 
Answer to What became of the tree which kept the White Witch from entering Narnia?

In the Magician's Nephew Digory Ketterley and Polly Plummer stumbled upon a throne room filled with a succession of life-like statues. Despite Polly's warnings, Digory rang a small golden bell suspended in the center of the room.

Jadis arose, alive, to lead the children from the collapsing palace.

She demanded to be taken to Earth, where she expected to continue her reign.

The children attempted to escape her but inadvetantly teleported her with them to London.

Loose in London, Jadis looted several stores, stole a cab, and was engaged in a pitched battle with police when Digory and Polly caught up with her.

They tried to send her back to Charn but instead teleported Jadis, themselves and several bystanders to Narnia, a world of talking animals newly created by Aslan, the Great Lion.

To defer the harm he had caused by bringing Jadis to Narnia, Aslan required Digory to retrieve an Apple of Youth from a distant mountain garden.

The tree grown from such a fruit would keep Jadis at bay for hundreds of years.

Digory succeeded in his mission but not before Jadis stole and ate an Apple of Youth.

The fruit made her eternally young and even more powerful than before but unable to bear the smell or sight of the Trees of Youth.

Aslan returned the humans to Earth.

Jadis fled deep into the icy mountains north of Narnia.

Jadis, after centuries of scheming, managed to kill the Tree of Youth by locking Narnia in endless winter.

She returned triumphantly with an army of monsters

And that is how Jadis managed to kill the tree and get into Narnia.
 
Wow Chakal, that's very in-depth - I like the idea of the repeating date. I think if she controlled Narnia in the way she did, her influence would probably have encroached over a period of time from the North (as this is where she came from, where her Castle is and where most of her allies seem to be). She probably came to River and took Narnia during a time of weakness having gained control of the vast area to the North and possibly any tradelinks from the West. What I was wondering is what the people of Archenland were doing during the Hundred Year Winter. Were they happily enjoying their normal annual seasons; feeling the verge of Winter and living in constant fear of the Witch or what? Is it in the Horse and His Boy - I can't remember?
 
the only problem I see jadisicequeen is that the tree protects Narnia from the witch. If the tree is there she couldn't create an endless winter first. Somehow the tree has to come down. otherewise chakal I liked the food idea. It fits the witch too. But there has to be some sort of underground network because mr. beaver recognizes Edmund as having eaten the witch's food. So at some point narnians started rebelling. And elfjad, my thoughts are that those in Archenland didn't care too much about Narnia. It is described in THAHB as being a small insignificant country so I would imagine they weren't too concerned. And the witch hates Narnia not so much for it as a land but because of Aslan. I think somehow in the MN we get a hint of Jadis realizing that Aslan is the one who can destroy her. No one in Charn could because she knew the deplorable word. But I think she realizes she can't fully protect herself against Aslan so she thinks that if she takes over Narnia she can protect herself.
 
The Tree

We have this problem about the Tree of Youth. No, I don't think Mr. Beaver cut it down, nor his Missus. ;)

However someone could have cut it down. Someone, let's say, from Archenland?

Why would they do a thing like that? Let's speculate.

Two princes of Archenland each think they have a shot at grabbing Narnia. They think so because they have a scrying bowl, a bowl of water that in the light of the moon reflects things elsewhere, things long past, and things yet to be. She has seized the power of these objects to maniuplate them to show what she wants them to show. Each of the princes believes that cutting down the tree will free her from an unjust imprisonment. She may have even insinuated that it was planted over her grave to imprison her and that the tree must die so she can escape eternal and unfair banishment.

Let's say she made kissy faces at each of them. Let's say that she implied to them what she did to Edward...I'm looking for a young man. Only this one is not to be a son but a husband....the man brave enough to rescue her.

I can see it now. The lovelorn and ambitious Prince Cedric with his axe and a dream. The winter wind swirls. He begins to chop chop chop. Snow falls from the branches and he wipes his brow. He goes at it again. Down comes the tree. He recites the spell to invoke her. She appears. He runs to her. "Lovely Queen, I have come at last!" She draws near, puts her arms around him. Grabs the handle of his dagger. "And now for love's first kiss!" She stabs him through the heart. He steps back, ashen face and looks into her cold eyes, sees her smile, and collapses, leaving a red smear of blood on the virginal whiteness of the snow.

Anybody want to see a fanfic about this? Hmm?

A shadow falls on Narnia.
 
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Chakal - how gripping! It sounds quite dramatic and yet eeriely romantic at the same time. I was just thinking about what this tree actually did when I thought about what is was - a tree. The tree that grows from the core in Diggory's backgarden is a special tree but it still gets blown over - so, as boring as this may sound, perhaps the tree was blown over during a terrific storm and thus the witch could enter.

The problem I have is that if the tree prevents her coming in to Narnia, I wouldn't have thought she would be able to destroy by her own devices or by her plans with someone else carrying them out.
 
Mudpuddle said:
Someone needs to write a Narnia novel which will answer these questions -

What became of the tree which kept the White Witch from entering Narnia?
What became of the human population during the Hundred Year Winter?
Where did all the food come from during the Hundred Year Winter?
What did Mr. Tumnus do for a living so he could buy things wrapped up in paper?
Click to expand...
Im afraid the last two questions are a tad tricky! I would think that the reason Tumnus had packages was so he had something to drop when he was caught off guard by Lucy, and the food is somewhat explicable.
However my explanation for the ending of the protection of the tree of life is as was mentioned above, that Aslan said that the tree would protect Narnia for many years, but not forever. Nor did he say that the witch would not remain a threat even with the tree in place. I would say that the tree did protect Narnia for a long time, in which Frank and Helen's decendants ruled over Narnia, but eventually, the tree would have grown old and died just as the Kings and Queens did (maybe like the White tree of Gondor in LOTR, it died with the last of the Kings of whom no heir existed?). Jadis herself had already eaten the fruit from inside the golden gates where Digory collected the apple and so she was given her heart's desire - immortality and power. Perhaps when the tree eventually died and its power of protection was ended, Jadis returned to Narnia and claimed by means of magic and force, that she was the rightful Queen of Narnia and that she was Human.
As for the human population over the witch's reign, I would say that when she had claimed the throne, she set about searching all of Narnia for any remaining decendants of Frank and Helen and ending any threats to her power. In this way, there were no more humans in Narnia. Possibly, some exiles settled in Archenland and/or Calormen and began the population there as Aslan never mentions whether he put a King in Archenland at the beginning of the world.

Hope thats a slight help! tnicholls7a@hotmail.com
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'Many who live deserve death and many who die deserve life. Can you give it to them?' Gandalf the Gray, The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien
 
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