Editing The Chronicles of Narnia (section)

==Background and conception==
Although Lewis originally conceived what would become ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' in 1939{{sfn|Green|Hooper|2002|pages=302–307}} (the picture of a Faun with parcels in a snowy wood has a history dating to 1914),<ref name="OS53">{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=C. S.|title=On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature|year=1982|page=[https://archive.org/details/onstoriesotheres0000lewi/page/53 53]|publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |isbn=0-15-668788-7|url=https://archive.org/details/onstoriesotheres0000lewi/page/53}}</ref> he did not finish writing the first book ''[[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'' until 1949. ''[[The Magician's Nephew]]'', the penultimate book to be published, but the last to be written, was completed in 1954. Lewis did not write the books in the order in which they were originally published, nor were they published in their current chronological order of presentation.{{sfn|Ford|2005|page=24}} The original illustrator, Pauline Baynes, created pen and ink drawings for the ''Narnia'' books that are still used in the editions published today. Lewis was awarded the 1956 [[Carnegie Medal (literary award)|Carnegie Medal]] for ''The Last Battle'', the final book in the saga. The series was first referred to as ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' by fellow children's author [[Roger Lancelyn Green]] in March 1951, after he had read and discussed with Lewis his recently completed fourth book ''[[The Silver Chair]]'', originally entitled ''Night under Narnia''.{{sfn|Green|Hooper|2002|page=311}}

Lewis described the origin of ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' in an essay entitled "It All Began with a Picture":
{{blockquote|The ''Lion'' all began with a picture of a [[Faun]] carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: "Let's try to make a story about it."<ref name="OS53" />}}

Shortly before the start of World War II, [[Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II|many children were evacuated]] to the English countryside in anticipation of attacks on London and other major urban areas by Nazi Germany. As a result, on 2 September 1939, three school girls named Margaret, Mary and Katherine{{sfn|Ford|2005|page=106}} came to live at [[The Kilns]] in [[Risinghurst]], Lewis's home three miles east of [[Oxford]] city centre. Lewis later suggested that the experience gave him a new appreciation of children and in late September<ref>{{cite book|last=Edwards|first=Owen Dudley|title=British Children's Fiction in the Second World War|url=https://archive.org/details/britishchildrens00edwa_469|url-access=limited|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7486-1650-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/britishchildrens00edwa_469/page/n137 129]}}</ref> he began a children's story on an odd sheet of paper which has survived as part of another manuscript:
{{blockquote|<!--The following paragraph is from an early draft of the Narnia books, when the characters' names were different. Please do not "correct" it to the corresponding paragraph or names in the published work.-->
This book is about four children whose names were Ann, Martin, Rose and Peter. But it is most about Peter who was the youngest. They all had to go away from London suddenly because of Air Raids, and because Father, who was in the Army, had gone off to the War and Mother was doing some kind of war work. They were sent to stay with a kind of relation of Mother's who was a very old professor who lived all by himself in the country.{{sfn|Green|Hooper|2002|page=303}}}}

In "It All Began with a Picture" C. S. Lewis continues:
{{blockquote|At first, I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him.<ref name="OS53" />}}

Although Lewis pleaded ignorance about the source of his inspiration for Aslan, [[Jared Lobdell]], digging into Lewis's history to explore the making of the series, suggests [[Charles Williams (British writer)|Charles Williams]]'s 1931 novel ''[[The Place of the Lion]]'' as a likely influence.<ref name="Lobdell, 2016">{{cite book |last=Lobdell |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Lobdell |title=Eight Children in Narnia: The Making of a Children's Story |date=2016 |publisher=Open Court |location=Chicago, IL |isbn=978-0-8126-9901-2 |page=63}}</ref>

The manuscript for ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' was complete by the end of March 1949.

===Name===
The name ''Narnia'' is based on [[Narni]], Italy, written in [[Latin]] as ''Narnia''. Green wrote:
{{blockquote|When [[Walter Hooper]] asked where he found the word 'Narnia', Lewis showed him ''Murray's Small Classical Atlas'', ed. [[George Beardoe Grundy|G.B. Grundy]] (1904), which he acquired when he was reading [[Classics|the classics]] with [[William T. Kirkpatrick|Mr [William T.] Kirkpatrick]] at [[Great Bookham]] [1914–1917]. On plate 8 of the Atlas is a map of ancient Italy. Lewis had underscored the name of a little town called Narnia, simply because he liked the sound of it. Narnia{{snds}}or '[[Narni]]' in Italian{{snds}}is in [[Umbria]], halfway between [[Rome]] and [[Assisi]].{{sfn|Green|Hooper|2002|page=306}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grundy |first1=G. B. |title=Murray's small classical atlas |date=1904 |publisher=J. Murray |location=London |chapter=Plate 8 |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=gri.ark:/13960/t5r80qb1d&view=2up&seq=58 |access-date=20 November 2019}}</ref>}}