Untold Stories That Narnia Episodic Series Could Tell

jasmine tarkheena

jasmine tarkheena

Active member
There are so many untold stories that a Narnia episodic series could tell. There are things in the books that leaves you to your own imagination. Here are some ideas-

An episode to fill in the gap between The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe. It can give us a glimpse of Jadis living in the North, growing in her hatred of Aslan, developing in her craft, and even go as far as learning the Deep Magic. We would then see that when the Tree of Protection dies, she would cast the spell of eternal winter to ensure that no new silver apple trees could grow.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is perhaps my favorite in the series. Perhaps an episode that happened between Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader could help us. You might re-call that during Telmarine rule, the Telmarines were afraid of the sea. An episode about Caspian and his crew learning about shipping and navigation could really be useful for us. Then we can see them set sail on the Dawn Treader from Cair Paravel, what they have been doing in Galma, the pandemic in Terenbithia, being attacked by pirates, and what they have been doing in the Seven Isles before the arrival of Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace.

In The Silver Chair, Eustace and Jill aren't motivated by finding a prince they've never met but following the commands of Aslan. A way for us to connect is an episode on what happens to Rilian. He should feel the anger and grief when his mother is killed by the serpent, and goes out to look for it in order to kill it. Then watch the expression of his eyes change when he sees the beautiful woman in green. Then we should feel the sadness with Narnia on that fateful night that he doesn't return home. We will want to cheer on for Eustace and Jill to follow the signs and feel the disappointment that they had forgotten their quest when they're at Harfang.

In The Last Battle, an episode could fill in the gap of "About three weeks later" between the first and second chapters. In Calormen, the Tisroc hears word from Shift to make ready his navy, and the Tisroc sends his Calormene troops to Narnia. Then show Rishda devising a plan that in order to take Narnia was to work by lies and trickery. Then the Tisroc bestows blessings on Rishda and sends him and his 30 soldiers disguised as merchants in Narnia.

Any ideas on what untold stories that a Narnia episodic series could tell?
 
Hello, Jasmine.

You probably don't know Timbalionguy, who like me is an OLD member in both senses of "old." Some years ago, he and I set out to speculate (in The Professor's Writing Club) on the same time period that you mentioned first. Tim's story and mine were intended to form a combined saga, set within the lifetime of King Frank and Queen Helen. Some of our invented characters appear in both fanfic novels.

Tim's novel, "The Lion's Share," begins right where "The Magician's Nephew" leaves off. My novel, "Southward the Tigers," begins around ten years later. Both of us tried filling in the lands which might exist in the Narnian world BESIDES the few places Lewis actually named. I also offered a guess about how the Calormenes could have originated.

Real-life circumstances prevented Timbalionguy from completing "The Lion's Share." But my "Southward the Tigers" DID get completed. And since mine is chronologically after his, the two stories together will make an understandable narrative if you first read what exists of his story. They still exist in the Writing Club, you just have to dig a little.
 
What I want is a story about how Narnia coped with the disappearance of the Four Pevensies. Honestly I couldn't imagine this happening without conspiracy theories, assassination speculations, thoughts of magic, etc. And who would have the moral right to take the helm? I had some definite thoughts on this in my story "The Regent."
 
After The Last Battle, people have written to CS Lewis, asking him if there would be any more Narnia books. He wrote these-
“I’m afraid there will not be any more of them. You see, once a story stops telling itself to me inside my head–like a tap turned off–I can’t go on. And if I tried to, it would only sound forced. Anyway, seven is a good number.”
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“But I’m afraid there will be no more of these stories. But why don’t you try writing some Narnian tales?”
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“I’m afraid I’ve said all I had to say about Narnia, and there will be no more of these stories. But why don’t you try to write one yourself?”
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And why not write stories for yourself to fill up the gaps in Narnian history? I’ve left you plenty of hints—especially where Lucy* and the Unicorn are talking in The Last Battle. I feel I have done all I can!”
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There's a lot a ways to fill in the gaps. And I'm sure there's a lot of Narnia fanfics out there that does that.

But this is for the discussion on what an episodic series could tell us.
 
I would love to see at least ONE lighthearted episode that took place when some human was not arriving through a portal to prevent the end of the world as we know it. The fact that most of Narnian history was like that was openly said in the stories themselves.
 
Definitely DO NOT try "updating" it the way Wizard of Oz was done as THE WIZ. I mean, have the kids run away from a gang war in Soho, being pulled into the elevator with floor "N" that lets them out in Narnia.... ;-) You're welcome.
 
Today's Hollywood FOR SURE would insist on Peter trembling helplessly while Susan slew the wolf captain with her bare hands.
 
Copperfox said:
Today's Hollywood FOR SURE would insist on Peter trembling helplessly while Susan slew the wolf captain with her bare hands.
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Oh, we can't have that. Though I guess it would make sense if Peter is trembling as he is fighting the wolf captain. The book describes him as feeling as he's going to be sick as this went on.
 
Susan didn't choke the wolf captain with her bare hands. She shamed him to death with her awesomeness. Right before telling Aslan that he must try and understand how a High Queen would provide compensation and closure for the spirits of the Suffragettes.
 
Then of course, for an episodic series, they might get some inspiration from the Timeline.

Side note: The Narnia Timeline is a bit controversial. For instance, the last pages of MN said that the second son of Frank became the first King of Archenland. According to the timeline, however, Frank V's youngest son Col became the first king of Archenland. Another is that there Swanwhite was Queen of Narnia before the White Witch and another was she was Queen after the Pevensies. It's possible there may have been two Swanwhites. Another that according to Eustace and Jill, there are still in school in LB. According to the Timeline, they are sixteen. Is it possible that they were still in school or were they attending a different school at the time? You could see where the Timeline gets a bit constroversial.

Now back on topic, the Timeline could be in a way a source of inspiration for a series, and work what happened Narnian time into the narrative.
 
According to the timeline, however, Frank V's youngest son Col became the first king of Archenland.

Well, if the second son was not the youngest, maybe--

The second son served as a leader to the humans & whatever who settled Archenland, but Archenland was not yet well enough established to have its own king. It would have been to Narnia as Canada long was to Britain. The second son died from whatever cause, but Archenland continued developing until it had enough of a distinctive cultural identity to be independent from the Narnian crown. Frank's youngest son then became Archenland's first titled king.
 
The books were protagonist-centric in how you read them. Nothing outside of what they experienced was shown. There could be a lot of parts outside of what was shown in the books.

As for the timeline, Peter was barely an adult according to Tirian when he saw them sitting around the table in TLB. That puts him at most 18. This pushes Susan to about 16, Edmund 15, Lucy 13, Eustace and Jill 12.

As for the first king of Archenland, the second son founded it and then had sons and daughters of his own. His first son then became the second king or the second son founded it and then his first son became its first king. Why would they wait five generations between the founding of Archanland and its first king?

MrBob
 
There's a lot of great material here to pull from.

Sure, there could have been two Swanwhites. I never really thought of it that way before though. Having one's reflection shine from pools of water into the sky like a star for a year and a day is a pretty unique character attribute. Though I read online that fans of the Chronicles suggest that perhaps there was a second Swanwhite simply given the namesake.

It's great really to try and work out a both-and. I'm more inclined to tend toward an either-or, wherein the timeline is subordinate to the books themselves.
 
They would never dare do this, but whereas the Dawn Treader discovered wonders to the UTTER EAST, undertaking a trip to the UTTER WEST where the sun SETS would be quite interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I wrote an extensive story called, "Beyond the Oaken Door" where characters were in search of the sleeping Father Time and the Guardian who watches over him.
 
I don't know if I have actually read that. It sounds interesting, though.

I wonder if a series would incorparate the Golden Age into the narrative. We get an idea in The Horse And His Boy, but I wonder if a series would do more of the Pevensie's reign.
 
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