Wording on the Pillar

[Laura E. A.]

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but in two or three of the new pics (Sep. 21) from Kerrie Gurney, it shows a closeup of a pillar-like thing on the Dawn Treader, and I can make out the words 'Grateful Hearts May' and then I think the next word is 'Be'. Does anyone know what the whole thing says?

[JadistarkilleR]

i believe the writings graces the bottom of the mast, furthering its significance. its been tough trying to decipher it, since the calligraphy isnt exactly the easiest type to read at a great distance. (in fact its a credit to our intrepid spy reporters that they are able to capture such details)

i'm only able to post one photo at this time, but there are other photos where it shows more of the mast, even the other side.



i think this side says: "..... with grateful hearts may we give thanks...."

there also seems to be other writings/ designs decorating the bottom of the mast.

[icarus]

The most of it i've been able to decipher is "... with grateful hearts may we give thanks to the crew of the mighty...." (see Dawn Treader Ship Thread).

Doubt we will get to see any more of it, unless they flip the ship around (or we get some spy photos taken from the water. lol).

[Bother Eustace]

Hm... "crew of the mighty" what? It can't be talking about the Dawn Treader, they wouldn't be thanking themselves. Maybe they gave a name to the Galmian ship that the Lost Lords took on their expedition?

[Movie Aristotle]

They could be thanking the crew of the Dawn Treader. Perhaps Caspian wrote it for the crew, using the Royal "we" of course.

[Laura E. A.]

I wish it said something more like: With Grateful Hearts We Thank Aslan, or something like that, but, oh well. Thanks, ya'll!

[Lava]

Perhaps it is a thanks to the crew who liberated Narnia from the oppressing rule of the Usurper. Or the first crew graduating from Narnia's navigating school.

[Bother Eustace]

They could be thanking the crew of the Dawn Treader. Perhaps Caspian wrote it for the crew, using the Royal "we" of course.

The Royal "we" makes sense, but it also says 'grateful hearts', plural. That seems awkward, unless its speaking of more than one person. Or maybe not. Who knows?

[LimeWarrior]

This was probably written by the shipbuilders of Galma. The ship was commissioned by Caspian but not built by Narnians. This is probably the people of Galma expressing their gratitude to Caspian for freeing them from Miraz.

[Deadman]

In the Roman Catholic Mass of olden days we find a response:

Exultandi et letandi tempus est; pascha nostrum immolatus agnus est; qui nostras miserias expurgavit: illi demus gratias.
[It is time to exult and be glad; the Lamb our
Passover is slain, who purged away our miseries; to Him may we give thanks.]

There is a Latin hymn, from the middle ages, which includes the words:

... tibi demus gratias
cum beatis perpetuas.
[... to thee may we give thanks
with everlasting happiness.]

Modern Roman Catholics, too, have a response in services:

“We give thanks with grateful hearts.”

There may also be an echo of famous verses by the popular puritan preacher, the “silver-tongued” Henry Smith (1560-1609?):

Give thanks with a grateful heart,
Give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because he’s given
Jesus Christ, His Son.

Those words of grateful thanks have been paraphrased often over the years in prayers of thanksgiving, and, in the US, by Puritans and their spiritual descendants, at Thanksgiving.
There may, then, be a deliberate, latitudinarian allusion to Christian prayers in the prayer on the pillar.

Male male male male male.
[I should rather be unlucky in an apple tree than an evil man on a mast.]

[Glenstorm the Great]

oh I never noticed that- cool

[Deadman]

LimeWarrior says:

[the words on the pillar] was probably written by the shipbuilders of Galma. The ship was commissioned by Caspian but not built by Narnians.

In Chapter Two of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we have:

When his uncle, Miraz the usurper, had sent the seven lords to sea, they had had to buy a Galmian ship and man it with hired Galmian sailors. But now Caspian had begun to teach the Narnians to be sea-faring folk once more, and the Dawn Treader was the finest ship he had built yet.

I interpret this to mean that it was wholly built by Narnians. This is reinforced, for me, by Lucy’s original assessment of the ship (in Chapter One) of the ship in the painting:

... she is such a very Narnian ship.

(It could be argued, of course, that Lucy’s use of ‘Narnian’ here refers to the entire Narnian world which would include Galmia.)

Talking of the painting of the Dawn Treader, it will be interesting to see how the film depicts the painting, whether as an oil painting or a watercolour. in the book, we are told that Eustace found himself standing on the frame of the picture:

... in front of him was not glass but real sea and wind and waves rushing up to the frame as they might to a rock.

Oil paintings need no glass in the frames, and rarely had glass in the ’fifties. It seems to me that the picture of the Dawn Treader must be a watercolour or, perhaps, considering the gilding on the ship’s prow and other rich details, a bodycolour painting.

[Liberty Hoffman]

I wonder if it's suposed to be something Aslan said?
I honestly don't know what to make of it! but I think it's cool that there are words engraved on the mast! but if the mast is broken off in the storm, the words will be lost!
I'm sure the words have some sort of meaning that will tie in from the book or something to do with Narnia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bother Eustace]

Well, the speculation in this thread is now answered. According to the first production blog, by Ernie Malik, the inscription on the mast states: “All Narnians, with grateful hearts may we give thanks to the crew of the mighty Dawn Treader for their strong minds and artisan hands.”