Amusing aside: in the Kindle version I have, "Doorn" has been misspelled as "Doom". The Island of Doom! I thought they weren't supposed to reach that till much later in the story...
1. What does Lucy's comment about remembering the islands suggest about their years as Kings and Queens?They seem to have retained all of their memories of their time as Kings and Queens, even those of when they were physically older than they are now - or at least, if they had forgotten when they were in England, they remembered again when they returned to Narnia. It must have been very strange to have about 25 years of memories in a 10-year-old body.
As Kings and Queens, they certainly seemed to explore a good deal of the Narnian world (though they were never tempted to go beyond the Lone Islands and find out what was there). Talk about living life to the full!
2. How do you think the Lone Islands became part of Narnia?If Calormen had always had this policy of gobbling up small kingdoms and making them part of its empire, maybe the Lone Islanders in the days before the White Witch (when a descendant of King Frank was on the throne) had approached Narnia for protection.
3. Lewis mentions that Caspian would not have suggested walking across Felimath if he had been more experienced. Why do you think he does this? Why did Edmund and Lucy, who arguably have more experience than Caspian, agree with his plan?They hadn't come up against any danger so far on the voyage, and as far as Caspian, Lucy and Edmund were concerned, they were on friendly (and pretty much uninhabited) territory, so they probably didn't imagine anything bad would happen to them here. Also, when Edmund and Lucy were last there, they were adults and probably better able to defend themselves; maybe, being back in Narnia, they were starting to think of themselves in that way again.
4. Eustace doesn't like the small ship, but do you think he has been on large ones himself?In Chapter One it said he'd only once been on a ship, and only as far as the Isle of Wight, which is only four miles off the mainland of England. Passenger ferries make the journey in about twenty minutes. He must have a particularly delicate stomach to get seasick in that time. Incidentally, the Isle of Wight is a wonderful holiday destination - I've been there quite a few times.
5. Pug was on the Lone Islands when he kidnapped Caspian and co. Why do you think he chose to do this? Was it his practice to kidnap people from the Lone Islands?(a) He was there to sell the slaves he'd captured at the market, and (b) he was hiding out on Felimath where there were no people and no-one could find him. The other people in the ship were Galmians and Terebinthians; I don't expect the Lone Islanders would have been happy to buy their own neighbours as slaves.
6. What are some things that you think Reepicheep said to the slavers?He starts off with "Coward! Poltroon!" This is funny as they're the first two names Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd is called by his ghostly ancestors in Gilbert & Sullivan's opera "Ruddigore". So I can imagine Reepicheep rattling off the entire list:
Coward, poltroon, shaker, squeamer, blockhead, sluggard, dullard, dreamer, shirker, shuffler, crawler, creeper, sniffler, snuffler, wailer, weeper, earthworm, maggot, tadpole, weevil!
As to how a Narnian mouse could know the lyrics to a Victorian English opera: maybe King Frank or Queen Helen was a G&S fan, or maybe Uncle Andrew had a copy of the libretto in his pocket which fell out when the Talking Beasts tried to plant "Brandy"...
7. Why did the Lone Islands use Calormene money?Maybe because Calormen was the biggest empire in that world, and so its currency had the biggest clout. Our equivalent would be the US dollar, though the Chinese yuan may overtake it before too long...
Interesting that Lewis puts in the comment that a Calormene crescent is worth a third of a pound. How could there be an exchange rate for two currencies in different worlds, when you could count on one hand the number of people who have travelled between them? Maybe it was based on buying power (a third of a pound would have been quite a lot in 1952 when the book was published), but even then, it would be difficult to determine for anything apart from basic things like food. I don't imagine there were many television sets on sale in Tashbaan.
8. Bern says he will treat Caspian well (before he knew it was Caspian). What do you think he meant by this?Anyone sold as a slave would be terrified that they would be mistreated by their master, so Bern is reassuring Caspian that he won't do this. Shasta had the same concerns when Arsheesh was discussing terms with Anradin.
9. Bern's relationship with Caspian's father allows him to recognize Caspian for who he really is. How else does that connection show itself in this chapter and affect Bern's relationship with the current Caspian?Caspian shows himself to be a capable and courageous king, and when Bern sees the Dawn Treader and meets Drinian and the crew it confirms that Caspian was telling the truth. He probably had seen the current Caspian when the latter was a little boy. Being reminded of Caspian's father (who presumably had been a good king) most likely galvanized him into action.
10. What do you like most about the description of Lord Berne and his home?Everyone seems happy!
11. Why do you think both Drinian and Caspian wanted to start by freeing their friends by force? If Edmund had either been left on the boat or bought would that have been his idea too or do you think he would have considered other options at once?They were probably thinking that the slave traders would be mistreating them, and possibly even that their lives were in danger.
According to LWW, Edmund was known as King Edmund the Just and was great at counsel, so I think he was more of a stragetist and would have tried to think of a safe plan.
12. Do you think Bern's experience makes up for Caspian's inexperience?He certainly knows the situation in the Lone Islands far better than Caspian, and he knows Pug and Gumpas. He wanted to find a way to rescue the prisoners and overturn the slave market without risking life and limb unnecessarily.
13. What do you think of Bern and Caspian's plan for freeing the other prisoners?It's ingenious, but it could so easily have failed - if one of Gumpas' men had looked in the place where the "fleet" was supposed to be and found it wasn't there, and called Caspian's bluff. They took quite a risk!