When You're Turned to Stone...

SeaStar

SeaStar

New member
I've been wondering about this...when you get turned to stone in Narnia, are you alive or dead?:p

Is your soul in heaven, or in the statue?

For example, when the Witch turned those gryphons to stone and they shattered, did they remain trapped inside the little bits, or did they officially count as 'dead'?
 
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Whatever world you're in, God is God. As part of the divine breath (Heb: ruach - breath or soul) you are not at the mercy of the physical world. So without a body capable of supporting life, the souls would go to be with God. You will notice that there is a deliberate parallel to Aslan BREATHING on the statues and their returning to life. He was returning their souls.
 
EveningStar said:
Whatever world you're in, God is God. As part of the divine breath (Heb: ruach - breath or soul) you are not at the mercy of the physical world. So without a body capable of supporting life, the souls would go to be with God. You will notice that there is a deliberate parallel to Aslan BREATHING on the statues and their returning to life. He was returning their souls.
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Good point ES.

Another parallel here is that the return of Aslan for the dead lead to a " resurrection" of all who had been to turned to stone. We see Narnia restored to the way it should be. Lewis share know what he was talking about....
 
EveningStar said:
Whatever world you're in, God is God. As part of the divine breath (Heb: ruach - breath or soul) you are not at the mercy of the physical world. So without a body capable of supporting life, the souls would go to be with God. You will notice that there is a deliberate parallel to Aslan BREATHING on the statues and their returning to life. He was returning their souls.
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Oh, okay. I get it now. Thanks!:D
 
For my part, I always figured that the consciousness of each victim was in hibernation. Look at Giant Rumblebuffin: when he was restored to life, he was completely unaware that any substantial amount of time had passed; as far as he knew, this was no more than a minute or so after Jadis had attacked him.
 
Copperfox said:
For my part, I always figured that the consciousness of each victim was in hibernation. Look at Giant Rumblebuffin: when he was restored to life, he was completely unaware that any substantial amount of time had passed; as far as he knew, this was no more than a minute or so after Jadis had attacked him.
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That's pretty much what I had always assumed, although Eveningstar could be right almost as easily. I wondered about the shattering of the stone griffins, too--what that would signify (or not signify) about creatures turned to stone. Shattered as the griffins were, I assume that they, at least, were dead for good.

Of course, anything the shattered griffins signify would apply to the movie only, not necessarily the books.
 
So, do you think they were forever hibernating in the stone bits, or did their souls get to go to...wherever the souls of good Narnian creatures go? (Aslan's Country?)
 
Yeah...but what a long time to wait!:eek:

I remember that when my mom read me LWW, the part where the Witch turned the fox and squirrels to stone disturbed me. I always wondered if they were ever rescued by Aslan.
 
Copperfox said:
If nothing else, the good creatures would have awakened in Aslan's Country as soon as the Narnian world ENDED.
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"Yeah...but what a long time to wait!" -Seastar

Yes, but also if they were hibernating condition then it wouldn't seem very long for them. Not only that but they would be way happier then having to go through the end of the world.:)
 
Glenburne said:
Of course, anything the shattered griffins signify would apply to the movie only, not necessarily the books.
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Except the books do raise the possibility that the statues will crumble over time, with regard to the fox, squirrels, etc that Edmund sees turned to stone. Whether that actually happened in fact is another matter.

The books seem a bit contradictory on this point. My first thought on reading this question was to refer to Giant Rumblebuffin, as CF has already done, to say that they must have been sleeping rather than gone to Aslan's country and come back. If any statues were destroyed and not restored by Aslan then they must have remained asleep forever (unless there comes a point when they are beyond restoration and so go to Aslan's country at that point). I certainly agree with CF that they would be brought back to life at the end of time, because TLB shows that dead creatures such as Jewel did come back.

However, this raises another difficulty. Why did Jewel come back to life in Narnia and then come through the gate rather than being in Aslan's country like Reepicheep and the other generations long dead? Maybe your soul takes some time to get to Aslan's country after you die, but that seems to contradict TSC where Caspian ends up in Aslan's country as soon as he's dead (albeit he is still dead there until Aslan restores him).

Maybe what happens is that their 'soul' (for want of a better word) goes to Aslan's country but is dead there until Aslan revives it. If Aslan knows that they are going to be revived in Narnia then he doesn't revive their soul, but if he knows that they won't be revived in Narnia then he revives their soul in Aslan's country.

Another related question, then. What do you think happens to the bad people in Narnia?

Peeps
 
There's no reason why unrepentant evildoers from the Narnian world should end up in any different place than their counterparts from our world do. After all, Aslan's Country is not really distinct and separate from the Biblical Heaven; just consider its similarity to the description of Heaven in "The Great Divorce." The bad place should be equally unified for its part. (Why give evil more space than necessary?)
 
What I said in my previous was intended in a more general way. Looking specifically at petrified beings, perhaps Aslan would "put on hold" any unrighteous ones among Jadis' victims, planning to give them a chance to repent and believe in Him after they were de-stoned.
 
I would imagine if statues crumbled or even fell apart a little (like a hand falling off), the creature was considered dead and could go to Aslans Country. Maybe all the other statues were just in a hibernation, like was already stated.

"Another related question, then. What do you think happens to the bad people in Narnia?"

Well Peep, in TLB, those who could not stand the sight of Aslan did not enter. However, the unrepentent Calormene Emeth was in Aslan's Country (through the stable door) while still worshipping Tash and finding repulsive the idea of Aslan. So in Narnia, it seems as if the person is given one last time to repent, although Emeth never died, just like Eustace, Jill, and Tirian.

MrBob
 
"So the people who don't go through the door in TLB - is that every single bad person that ever lived come back to life? "

No. The door was from Narnia into Aslan's Country. Those who were already dead were already in Aslans Country if they were accepted.

MrBob
 
Yes, that was a given. What I am asking is what happened to the bad people who hadn't gone to Aslan's country? Had they gone somewhere else, or did they remain dead until the end?

Peeps
 


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