The Lamp post

[Maenad]

If this isn't the best place for this topic, feel free to move it. But I thought folks here might be interested in seeing this.

I'm currently studying abroad in Worcester, England. We took a hike through the Malvern Hills today, and down in the town is a church. Outside this church is a lamp post. According to our professor and local talk, one winter day, C.S. Lewis left the church and saw this lamp post surrounded by falling snow.

We all know the rest.




I had to be Lucy-like for a moment...
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e316/miss_rowan/Malvern%20Hike/Malvernhike076.jpg

It was a very cool thing to think about.

[MountainFireflower]

Wow...this is so amazing. It looks almost exactly like the lamppost in the movie. I wonder if that is a coincidence, or if they did that on purpose?

It's so neat to think about what it must have looked like all snowy and magical... and how that one object supposedly sparked one of the most meaningful books of all time.

These are very cool pictures. Thank you so much for sharing!

[DiGoRyKiRkE]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that that particular lamppost sparked one of the most meaningful books of our time. Jack was inspired to write LWW from a dream that he'd had since he was a teenager. It was an image of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood, and he first had the dream when he was 16. When he was forty, he decided to turn it into a story, but didn't quite know how to turn it into one, but then Aslan came bounding in, although he was never sure why. Once that happened, the story sort of flowed out of him, with the inspiration to write more books coming later.

Now perhaps this inspired the idea for him to place a lamppost in the middle of a wood, although I have always thought of it's presence as more of a symbolic structure. That even in the darkness of the forrest (as it's always dark in the woods), and even in the deepest pit of an enchanted winter, there's always a light. There's always a ray of hope, even in the darkest of times. This theme is reiterated throughout the Chronicles, and illustrates Jack's deep personal faith in his God.

[DamselJillPole]

Those are beautiful pictures! No wonder why CS Lewis got very inspired by this lamppost.

[sandyentersNarnia]

Wow! Unbelievable! I am now jealous of you seeing the lamp post.

[Liberty Hoffman]

oh wow! that's so cool! I wish I could see it in person!

[sandyentersNarnia]

me too Libb! Just because of that lamp post CS Lewis created a masterpiece!!!

[Aravis Narnia]

Very pretty!

I miss the lamp posts in my old complex- they kind of looked like the Narnia one. The ones in my current complex have round covers- they are nice and work well with the complex's architecture, but do not look like THE Lamp Post at all.

[Boy Scout]

That is a nice lamp post. We just bought a lamp post from my nieghbor who had an estae sale. We still need to put up... I always played Narnia with it when I first read the books!

[Pyxis]

Wow, that's a nice lamppost. I especially like the gold bits. Speaking of lampposts, I'd always wanted one in the front yard of my house, so that when the snow fell I could pretend to be Lucy.
When I first read LWW, I really liked the idea of something as ordinary as a lamppost standing in the middle of a forest. I just thought it was cool. And I liked the backstory behind why it was there, after reading MN.

[Katana]

On of the great symbols of Narnia

-Katana

[coracle]

Old style British gas lampposts were fairly standard.

Being an English colony my city has one that stands outside a Gentlemens's Club, and after the city's piped gas supply was closed down about 30 years ago, this club arranged to supply gas to the lamp. (This is New Zealand, not Britain)
I took a photo of it while looking around the city 2 weeks after the earthquake.

P9180971.JPG (153.59 KiB) Viewed 9825 times