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Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Aug 16, 2014 10:10 pm
by The Rose-Tree Dryad
Do you have a favorite title out of the seven Chronicles of Narnia? What about a least favorite title?

Personally, I love the cadence of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It rolls off the tongue easily and almost sounds like music or poetry. I also really like The Magician's Nephew—it's simple, yet the words look wonderful together, and it makes you start wondering immediately about who this magician is and how the nephew figures into the story. My favorite, though, is probably The Silver Chair. With just three simple words, you can't help being struck with questions about the argent artifact. It's a very elegant and mysterious title.

My least favorite title is probably Prince Caspian. It's not that I don't like it, it's just not as exciting or interesting as all of the others. When the sequel to LWW was first published, it was originally called Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. I like that a bit better.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Aug 17, 2014 9:32 am
by PhelanVelvel
This is a hard question. D: I guess I'd be stuck between The Magician's Nephew and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The Magician's Nephew reminds me of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and I think from the title alone you know there's going to be some shenanigans involving a boy playing with someone else's magic. You just don't know yet that the apprentice is more competent and wise than the sorcerer, in this case!

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader just sounds so...enchanting. I love how it lets you know that yes, this is going to be an adventure story at sea, but it's Narnia, so you know it's going to be more than just swashbuckling and treasure. When Caspian talks about the title of "Dawn Treader" and how all the sailors will bear that title, it gives me flashbacks to my WoW days, wherein players were rewarded titles for completing certain raid tasks, like "The Immortal", "Champion of Ulduar", etc. I want the title "Dawn Treader" in real life, lol. ALYSSA, THE DAWN TREADER. Yes please. So there's just something amazing about it.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Aug 17, 2014 12:37 pm
by DiGoRyKiRkE
All of the titles are great. . . but my favourite has to be "The Horse and His Boy." I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned in here yet ;)) I think that the title really sets the relationship between Bree and Shasta.

I also like it, because the title ties in with the book very quickly (like, you meet Bree and Shasta in chapter one). I was very confused with The Silver Chair's name, and I still think that of all the chronicles, it has the worst name. The entire book is named after a magical object that is in one scene, and that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Aug 17, 2014 1:32 pm
by PhelanVelvel
DiGoRyKiRkE wrote:All of the titles are great. . . but my favourite has to be "The Horse and His Boy." I'm surprised that it hasn't been mentioned in here yet ;)) I think that the title really sets the relationship between Bree and Shasta.

I also like it, because the title ties in with the book very quickly (like, you meet Bree and Shasta in chapter one). I was very confused with The Silver Chair's name, and I still think that of all the chronicles, it has the worst name. The entire book is named after a magical object that is in one scene, and that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.


The Horse and His Boy is really great, too. At first glance, your mind might change the words around, but when you realise what it's actually saying, you become inquisitive.

I still really like The Silver Chair as a title. If you've never read it before, you'll be reading the book and waiting to know why this chair is so important and when it's going to appear. I think it adds more suspense. I can see why it would seem underwhelming (it is a chair, after all), but to me it comes off as kind of weird or eerie, and I like that about it.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Sep 09, 2014 11:47 am
by Lilygloves
I really like HHb. I think it's a fun play on the traditional owner-pet relationship, which is necessary because a Narnian animal is DEFINITELY NOT a pet. The title reminds me of when Bree says about Shasta, "you might as well say I stole him". I agree that the title reflects their relationship.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: May 21, 2015 2:07 am
by DamselJillPole
I love the title The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I was actually going to read the books in order before first reading them but that title made me just want to read it first before all of the others. Something very adventurous about it and I was right. :)

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: May 22, 2015 5:14 am
by King_Erlian
My favourite title is The Horse And His Boy. Not only is it a clever twist of convention, it also marks the book out as different from the others. In all the other books, the principal heroes are children from our world and any Talking Beasts or other creatures such as Mr. Tumnus are their helpers. Even Aslan, it could be argued, falls into that category. The title "The Horse And His Boy" establishes Bree as one of the central protagonists, equal to Shasta. Even though it's Shasta who has the big destiny thing of saving Archenland, the book is as much about the development of Bree's character as it is about Shasta's.

My least favourite is The Last Battle. It seems rather dull in comparison to most of the other titles, and it also gives away (or at least strongly implies) that this book is about the end of Narnia.

As for the longer title for Prince Caspian, I'm not so keen. Again, it gives away something of the plot. Lewis went to quite a bit of trouble at the beginning of the story to create some sense of mystery as to where the children were, right up to the point where they rediscover their Christmas gifts. The Professor had told them that other worlds - plural - may exist, just around the corner. So they could have been in a completely new world this time, and met Aslan as quite a different animal/person/entity. But "The Return To Narnia" squashes that possibility.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Jul 04, 2015 11:56 am
by narnia fan 7
My favorite is The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe because it's vary unique(which also can be said for meany of the titles) also its the first thing that pops in my head when I think of Narnia

My least favourite is The Last Battle it's the least interesting of the titles and it gives to much away for new readers.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Sep 22, 2015 10:01 am
by jayce76
The Rose-Tree Dryad wrote:Do you have a favorite title out of the seven Chronicles of Narnia? What about a least favorite title?



Oh gosh, I love all the titles really. I think my fave is Silver Chair too Rose. Just something about it stands out and is the most gripping and mysterious.

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Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Oct 21, 2015 10:12 pm
by SilverSea
For the reasons PhelanVelvel mentioned, The Silver Chair. I first read the series in a box set my sister had and I was excited to read SC the most because having a chair be the subject of a story was interesting to me.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Oct 28, 2015 2:54 pm
by The Rose-Tree Dryad
I added a poll to this thread for ease of tallying everyone's opinions. :)

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Oct 30, 2015 2:46 am
by wild rose
I had a real tough time deciding between The Horse and his Boy and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, because those are my two favorite titles, business end I went with The Lion the Withch and the Wardrobe, I think the title is so mysterious, because the three things seem so wholly unconnected and far apart from each other.

The Horse and his Boy takes a very close second, I love the whole relationship between Shasta (Cor) and Bree and the title really gets that across.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Oct 30, 2015 11:37 am
by Anfinwen
So Hard! They are all brilliant titles! I really do like "The Magician's Nephew." It's mysterious and fits the book so perfectly. "The Horse and His Boy" is a favorite as well because it's so different. Most of the titles are magically Narnia-ish, but "The Horse and His Boy" sounds unique.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Jul 23, 2016 3:54 pm
by Pretzel
I like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If I didn't already know the story I'd really wonder what those three things have got to do with each other.

The Last Battle is another one I like. As a kid, before I had gotten to that book, I'd wonder why it was The LAST Battle. What made it the last... How did they know it would be the last...

My absolute favorite though is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It sounds so grand and beautiful.

Re: Do you have a favorite title?

PostPosted: Sep 03, 2016 8:47 pm
by wolfloversk
*attempts to order:

1) The Horse and His Boy - not "The boy and his horse," but "the horse and his boy"... this really puts the relationship between Shasta and Bree into perspective and also makes people curious if they're paying attention.

2) The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe - very close to number three here, but alliteration helps it out :P

3) The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - largely due to the name of the ship itself - there's an essence of beauty and adventure in this title.

4) The Last Battle - when I first read the series (which was in neither order, but at least I saved this one for close to the end if not the very end) I remember being very curious about this title... It's so foreboding... Why is it the last? What happens after? It really draws in the potential reader.

5) The Silver Chair - I mean where else have you heard of a silver chair :P Not as memorable as the former few to me, though (based purely on title, I remind you).

6) The Magician's Nephew - semi-interesting in you are made to wonder about what kind of magician he is, and what makes his nephew so interesting, but lacks the comedy, poetry and draw in ability of the front runners.

7) Prince Caspian/Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia: Just not much to note with this title... it gives you the main character (which is rather interesting and unique) and that's it... it's kind of like how I feel about a self titled album when a musician releases their first album, not enough to draw me in or trigger my curiosity. The old title was a little better here, but I think shortening it was the right move, when more books were added to the series, or the whole thing would have been a mouthful... and it still doesn't compare to my front runners.