What if Lewis had written one more Narnia book?

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

What if Lewis had penned another Chronicle of Narnia, or even a short story? If the power was in your hands, what would it be about and where would it take place?

Perhaps Peter's adventures north of Narnia, battling the giants? The journey of King Gale to the Lone Islands, where he then delivered the Lone Islanders from a dragon? Or maybe an origins story about the Lady of the Green Kirtle, in a similar fashion to how Jadis's character was expanded in The Magician's Nephew? What about a book that explains how the country of Calormene was established and tells us where its unique culture came from?

Personally, I've always loved the idea of a Chronicle about King Frank and Queen Helen's children. The idea of the first human family in Narnia, living in Cair Paravel when the whole world was so fresh and new and unexplored, is just a really lovely thought. Not to mention it would be very cool to see how Archenland came to be founded by the second son. And who knows what plots Jadis might have dreamt up, beyond the reach of the Tree of Protection's magic?

Very fun stuff to think about.

[coracle]

I was listening to part of HHB the other day, and realised that the Calormenes were already well established in their land by the time of LWW. I felt that I wanted to know about how this happened.

Will have to wait to talk to Jack in heaven!

[Ryadian]

Oooh, what an interesting question! There's so much Narnian lore that could make interesting stories on their own, as well as some unanswered questions.... Personally, the thing I've always wondered about the most are Narnian stars. I've thought they were fascinating since I was little, and I've always wanted to know more about them. I know that half of what makes them interesting is that your imagination gets to fill in most of the blanks, but still, I'm curious! Besides, I'd like to know what Coriakin did to be saddled with the Duffers.

I agree that a story about King Frank and Queen Helen's descendants would be interesting. I've always wondered why Narnia and Archenland are separate countries, despite being such close allies.

[narnia fan 7]

I have always been interested in the period between LWW and PC particularly right after the pevensie's returned to our world I've always wondered how the narniens reacted to their kings and queens disappearing without a trace.

[Ryadian]

That's another good one--there's a lot of unanswered questions from there. There's also the question of why Narnia was in such "disorder" that the Telmarines were able to take over. It would be really interesting to see how the Narnians would react to all their rulers suddenly disappearing and never coming back....

[jewel]

If he was going to, it should have been between LWATW and PC, that's a 1300 year gap.

[DiGoRyKiRkE]

Agreed, Jewel. I would love to see how Narnian society and government structure crumbled in the sudden loss of their leadership (and the best leadership that the country had ever had as far as that goes). I mean, the Pevensie children's reign had been prophesied for over a hundred years; they were established by Aslan himself, and a mere 15 years later they vanished with no explanation whatsoever.

Definitely would be interesting to know what happened.

[Princess Frances]

There's a very funny bit in Doctor Who novel where an Ice Warrior is crowned King of the UKGB&NI and is told he will be ruling with Jesus Christ:

"I agreed to no joint soverignty! I challenge this Jesus Christ to a duel!"

It's a shame Lewis never thought of having a character say that when told he would be ruling with Aslan.

How did non-Narnian rulers of Narnia take to the concept of Aslan, anyway?

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Very interesting ideas, everyone!

In regards to what happened to Narnia after the Pevensies disappeared... aside from the initial concern and shock over the kings and queens disappearing, it may not have been as difficult as you would expect. Archenland was still around, for one thing, so you still had their courts for settling disputes. Also, in the absence of the Pevensie siblings, the monarchy of Archenland had a fairly legitimate claim to the throne of Narnia. The founder of the country and its royal line was the second son of King Frank; they come from essentially the same bloodline that ruled Narnia before the effects of the Tree of Protection wore off and Jadis attacked Narnia. So, it would make sense to me that they might rule in proxy when the Pevensies disappeared.

(I'm guessing that the reason why the Archenlanders couldn't fulfill the prophecy and destroy the hundred year winter is because none of them are technically human. They're all a mix of human blood and dryad, naiad, river god, and wood god blood.)

Still, if Narnia had Archenlander leadership, I can't help but wonder why and how the country was defeated so quickly by the Telmarines when they invaded about a thousand years later. As I think about it, it seems possible that—after the course of so many years—most of the Archenlanders' blood had mixed so much with the previously mentioned nature spirits, they weren't really human at all anymore.

If this was the case and if the Telmarines entered Narnia and began industrializing the country by the way of chopping down trees, damming waterways and building bridges, then I'd say it's logical enough to think that a lot of what was left of the barely-human Archenland bloodline would be trapped, killed, or at least frightened into hiding with everyone else. It's interesting, too, because the trees and waters waking up and taking Narnia back is a major theme in Prince Caspian, so it seems like it could fit well. For all we know, the river god that ended the Second Battle of Beruna could be King Frank and Queen Helen's great-x100-grandson.

Kind of a weird theory, but I'd say it's relatively plausible, too. And sorry, I didn't mean to get so off-topic with this post.

To bring it back full circle... I definitely agree with everyone else; I think it would have been really interesting if Lewis had written a story about this era of Narnian history. Aside from the little bit of information we see on the Timeline that tells us that (the second?) Queen Swanwhite lived in the middle of it, we don't know very much about what happened during those thousand years at all.

[waggawerewolf27]

I'd have liked to see some sort of story about how Jadis did return to Narnia and why she didn't go further south than Narnia.

(I'm guessing that the reason why the Archenlanders couldn't fulfill the prophecy and destroy the hundred year winter is because none of them are technically human. They're all a mix of human blood and dryad, naiad, river god, and wood god blood.)

I suspect that the reason for Jadis' failure to go south of the mountains was due to the Archenlandish monarchy being relatively safe and human. And the mountainous terrain was less attractive to the beasts as well. When one gets to Calormen the place was all-too human - just C.S.Lewis' point in HHB, VDT and LB.

And like everyone else on this thread, I'd wonder about how the Telmarines did get into Narnia, possibly midway in the 1,300 year gap between the disappearance of the Pevensies and the accession of Caspian X. And why, they, too, did not venture further south than the mountains of Archenland

I doubt there would be a problem before that. There was Peridan, who seems to have been Narnian. And there must have been good reason why the capable King Cor and Queen Aravis were so highly regarded, not to mention what happened to Corin, who seems to have had a useful life. And what made Ram the Great, great? Perhaps all of them did a great job for a while in establishing a joint reign of Archenland and Narnia until it got unworkable for some reason or another. It would have helped that Rabadash did not want any more adventures.

[aileth]

It might fall more into the realm of a short story, but I'd love to have heard more about the journey of the seven lords. We're given their story after a fashion, only there are a lot of details that weren't right for VDT. Did they meet the sea serpent? How did Lord Rhoop manage to get left on Dark Island? Was the old dragon Lord Octesian? Did the others ever know what happened to Lord Restimar, or did he just disappear?

Or imagine what an interesting tale Bree could tell of his battles and travels with Anradin. Wouldn't the horse be the best narrator of all?

Part of the charm of Lewis's writing is that he doesn't tell everything, leaving you wanting to hear more, and with plenty of questions.

[Meltintalle]

I think it'd be interesting to have another story with a Marshwiggle. Maybe something simple and rustic, like a Marshwiggle and a Talking Rabbit sharing breakfast.

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Ditto on being curious about Ram the Great, wagga. I also love the idea of Narnian short stories, Mel and aileth. I really wish Lewis had written some!

One thing that occurred to me recently is that there aren't a great deal of female characters from Narnia, even among the Talking Animals. Aside from Aravis and Hwin, all of the major female characters in CoN are either villains or from our world. It would really be interesting to see a book from the perspective of a character like Queen Swanwhite, for instance. (She was a beautiful queen of Narnia mentioned by Jewel in The Last Battle.)

It would also be really neat to have a book that shed some more light on the appearances of characters like Father Christmas, Silenus, Bacchus, Pomona, et cetera. Their cameos in Narnia have always been an intriguing mystery; it would be interesting to learn more about people going back and forth between the worlds.

I also find myself wondering if anyone from the universe of Narnia ever came to our world, similar to how the Pevensies stumbled into theirs. That would be a really interesting story.

[Meltintalle]

We know that they knew something of our world, since Caspian wanted to visit. (It certainly seems a logical desire--if they can come here, why not vice versa?)

However for a Narnian to come here for more than the brief glimpse at the end of SC, wouldn't they need to learn something that could only be taught here? There'd have to be some sort of reason under the reason and I can't think of one off the top of my head, rather like how the Chronicles feel complete as they are and all my ideas are like fluffy cotton candy instead of meat and potatoes.

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

That's true, Mel! It makes you wonder what kind of lessons a Narnian could possibly learn in this world.

I remember Aslan telling Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader that the reason she and her siblings were brought into Narnia was so that by knowing him a little in that world, they would come to know him better in their own. It's possible that Narnians might be sent to Earth in order to meet Aslan "by another name" and thus know him better.

With the exception of VDT, it's also known that children were sent to Narnia in times of great peril. (And even in VDT, there was very important work to do, such as waking the sleeping lords and rescuing Rhoop from that dreadful island.) Maybe a Narnian might be sent to our world to help Earthlings with some sort of problem? It would be really cool to write a story with Narnians involved with some famous historical event.

Looots of fan fiction possibilities in this thread, folks.

[Future Narnian]

This wouldn't be a true "Narnia" book but what I would love to read is the Pevensie children adjusting back to regular life, especially the year between LWW and PC.

As far as a technical "Narnian" story, I think it would be interesting to see the first years of the Pevensie children adjusting to ruling Narnia. That couldn't have been easy. Caspian (and subsequent Kings & Queens) were all brought up royal, so they had at least some idea of what to expect. The Pevensies weren't.