2. How do you feel about Glimfeather often ending sentences with “ooo”? Funny? Cheesy?It could become cheesy, but how well does anyone expect an animal or a bird to speak? In accents more suitable for Hollywood or BBC commentary? I know parrots and cockatoos mimic humans quite well. Especially swear words.
Lyre birds and mockingbirds do a fantastic mimicry job of a range of sounds, but lyre birds, at any rate, are wild creatures in what is left of the Bush. But Brownies and guides aside, owls toowit towhoo, and that is their means of communication. And if it is tooowhooo much, then that is what owls doooo. Poor Trumpkin.
3. What do you think of Trumpkin? Has he changed from Prince Caspian? Yes, Trumpkin really has changed from PC. In that book, he was quite the athletic young dwarf, not easily taken in by "old wives' tales", but as true as steel once he committed himself. He had none of the cantankerousness of Nikabrik, and he has been for many years Caspian's right-hand man (oops, dwarf). Trumpkin was a generous character, taking on the mission of going to Cair Paravel, where he met the Pevensies, knowing when to take orders and doing his best to be useful.
Rose-tree Dryad wrote:I wonder how the Pevensies would have felt meeting Trumpkin again, compared to Eustace's reaction to old King Caspian? I feel sure it would have been a merrier reunion, but I think it would still have been something of a shock to them.
It must have been quite a shock to the Pevensies to have found their old friends had long gone, that centuries had passed and that they were, themselves, ancient history in PC. Somehow I think that they would be more prepared to accept that Trumpkin would not get any younger if they got to meet him again. Because time only goes forward. But the deafness might spoil the occasion somewhat, especially if his memory was going as well.
For here, in this chapter, Trumpkin has indeed become old, deaf and crotchety. The trouble is with losing one's hearing, that those who do, often don't have any insight into their condition, and blame everyone else's mumbling for what is a failure of their own body. Get their hearing tested and hearing aids installed? Forget it. They are having too much fun not hearing. Of course if anyone yells at them, they immediately tell those who do, not to yell.
All this becomes rather tiresome after a while. Especially for those of the Narnians who can hear quite well, but have their own peculiarities of speaking to overcome when communicating. Even humans have problems with talking, such as with stuttering, lisping etc, even when they have breath enough to talk at all.
Yes, meeting Trumpkin again - or for the first time in Jill and Eustace's case - is a bit of fun, but underneath the fun, there is at least one serious issue involved in his being deaf. It slows down communication whilst information is repeated ad nauseam. Although Trumpkin may still be 100% reliable, he might not really be the best person to run Narnia, whilst Caspian has sailed off to the Lone Islands. It also seems that Trumpkin has become somewhat immobile. The donkey cart is a good idea for him, but there is a Lewis story lurking about a donkey in another Narnia book or two.
It really looks like at this stage, that both Jill and Eustace have missed the boat in more than one sense. And that their mission might be more urgent than appears at first.
4. Why doesn’t Glimfeather introduce himself to the children?Maybe Glimfeather might not see the need to introduce himself. He seems the sort of outgoing owl who knows everyone, who is known to everyone, and he also seems to be a bit of a leader, the sort who is more like to openly challenge strangers than to wait until they challenge him. Being an owl, he doesn't draw attention to himself, and knows the benefit of concealment and not being too open about who he is. Perhaps he is the animal version of a private eye.
He probably noticed (and heard) the children long before they landed, and was clearly listening into their conversation. Did I mention that owls have such good hearing that they can hear a mouse's heartbeat from a distance?
5. Jill’s Narnian clothes “were the kind that not only felt nice, but looked nice and smelled nice and made nice sounds when you moved as well.” Can you relate to how awesome that is?Wouldn't that be nice? I expect they are also the sort of comfortable clothes that don't trip one up, which have pockets to keep things in (eg keys, torch etc), and include shoes that it is possible to work and walk long distances in comfortably without breaking one's ankles, and still look absolutely gorgeous to wear.
6. Scrubb says finding Caspian in his eighties is “worse than coming back and finding him dead.” Do you think this is how you would feel?Not really how I'd feel, since I'm a decade closer to my eighties, myself, and I am quite used to "old" friends, being, well, old. But time can be relative, even in one's senior years. What is shocking for Eustace is that he hasn't aged himself at anything like the same rate, nor is he in a good position yet to understand that it is more than time, itself, that has caused Caspian to look so old and frail. I expect when I meet someone I've known that they will merely look their age, or younger. But sometimes people I've known, if affected by tragedy, illness or sadness could look far worse than is indicated by the mere number of years they have been alive, even if they are actually younger than myself.
Poor Scrubb thinks he has lost the valued friend he used to know, and we have to wait yet to find out the truth of the matter. Yes, Scrubb was to greet an old friend but he wasn't expecting that the friend would be so elderly. And now he has also lost the only chance he will have to talk to Caspian the Seafarer about their adventures aboard the Dawn Treader. For Scrubb, it is like getting something back he treasured that is now broken.
A question: Is Caspian really in his eighties? Or does he just look like it? For example, in PC, wasn't Trumpkin an adult whilst Prince Caspian was the same age as Peter Pevensie? And yet here in this chapter, when I reread the book, Trumpkin was supposed to be the same age as Prince Caspian, but looks more hale and hearty.
7. Why does it never occur to Jill to simply write down the signs?Mostly because she doesn't carry paper and pen around which might have helped. She tries to memorize the signs, but keeps forgetting them, and I wonder why. It seems every time Eustace asks her what they are, she gets a mental block. Or is that just his impatience with her? But why not Eustace writing them down, himself? What happened to Eustace's journal that he used to keep on board the Dawn Treader?
8. Why does Lewis bother to describe the story Jill and Scrubb hear over dinner? Is it anything more than a fun tease for The Horse and His Boy?Yes it could be a "fun tease for the
Horse and his Boy", but it might be a bit more. For one thing, the story harks back to a time when the Pevensies were there in Narnia, and it might be nice for Jill and Eustace to know about that particular adventure, especially if they ever get to meet these Pevensies. They might like to know that they weren't the only ones in Narnia to have travelled long distances on a quest to save the day.