Editing The Chronicles of Narnia (section)

==Influences==

===Lewis's life===
Lewis's early life has parallels with ''The Chronicles of Narnia''. At the age of seven, he moved with his family to a large house on the edge of [[Belfast]]. Its long hallways and empty rooms inspired Lewis and his brother to invent make-believe worlds whilst exploring their home, an activity reflected in Lucy's discovery of Narnia in ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=C. S. |title=Surprised by Joy |publisher=Fount Paperbacks |year=1990 |isbn=0-00-623815-7 |page=14 }}</ref>  Like Caspian and Rilian, Lewis lost his mother at an early age, spending much of his youth in English boarding schools similar to those attended by the Pevensie children, Eustace Scrubb, and Jill Pole. During World War II many children were evacuated from London and other urban areas because of German air raids. Some of these children, including one named Lucy (Lewis's goddaughter) stayed with him at his home The Kilns near Oxford, just as the Pevensies stayed with [[Digory Kirke|The Professor]] in ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Wilson |first=Tracy V. |title=How Narnia Works |work=[[HowStuffWorks]] |date=7 December 2005|access-date=28 October 2008|url=http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/narnia.htm }}</ref>

===Influences from mythology and cosmology===
Drew Trotter, president of the Center for Christian Study, noted that the producers of the film ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe]]'' felt that the books' plots adhere to the archetypal "[[monomyth]]" pattern as detailed in [[Joseph Campbell]]'s ''[[The Hero with a Thousand Faces]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Trotter |first=Drew |title=What Did C. S. Lewis Mean, and Does It Matter? |url=http://www.leaderu.com/popculture/meaningandlewis-lwwpreview.html |date=11 November 2005|access-date=28 October 2008|publisher=Leadership U }}</ref>

Lewis was widely read in [[British literature#Early Celtic literature|medieval Celtic literature]], an influence reflected throughout the books, and most strongly in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.'' The entire book imitates one of the [[immram]]a, a type of traditional [[Old Irish]] tale that combines elements of Christianity and [[Irish mythology]] to tell the story of a hero's sea journey to the [[Celtic Otherworld|Otherworld]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Huttar |first=Charles A. |author-link=Charles A. Huttar |title="Deep lies the sea-longing": inklings of home (1)|journal=[[Mythlore]] |date=22 September 2007 |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Deep+lies+the+sea-longing%22%3A+inklings+of+home+(1).-a0171579955}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Duriez|first=Colin|title=A Field Guide to Narnia|year=2004|publisher=InterVarsity Press|pages=80, 95}}</ref>

====''Planet Narnia''====

[[Michael Ward (scholar)|Michael Ward]]'s 2008 book ''Planet Narnia''{{sfn|Ward|2008}} proposes that each of the seven books related to one of the [[Classical planet|seven moving heavenly bodies or "planets"]] known in the Middle Ages according to the [[Ptolemaic system|Ptolemaic geocentric model]] of [[cosmology]] (a theme to which Lewis returned habitually throughout his work). At that time, each of these heavenly bodies was believed to have certain attributes, and Ward contends that these attributes were deliberately but subtly used by Lewis to furnish elements of the stories of each book:
:In ''The Lion'' [the child protagonists] become monarchs under sovereign [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jove]]; in ''Prince Caspian'' they harden under strong [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]]; in ''The "Dawn Treader"'' they drink light under searching [[Sol (Roman mythology)|Sol]]; in ''The Silver Chair'' they learn obedience under subordinate [[Luna (mythology)|Luna]]; in ''The Horse and His Boy'' they come to love poetry under eloquent [[Mercury (mythology)|Mercury]]; in ''The Magician's Nephew'' they gain life-giving fruit under fertile [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]]; and in ''The Last Battle'' they suffer and die under chilling [[Saturn (mythology)|Saturn]].{{sfn|Ward|2008|page=237}}

Lewis's interest in the literary symbolism of medieval and Renaissance astrology is more overtly referenced in other works such as his study of medieval cosmology ''[[The Discarded Image]]'', and in his early poetry as well as in ''[[The Space Trilogy|Space Trilogy]]''. Narnia scholar Paul F. Ford finds Ward's assertion that Lewis intended ''The Chronicles'' to be an embodiment of medieval astrology implausible,{{sfn|Ford|2005|page=16}} though Ford addresses an earlier (2003) version of Ward's thesis (also called ''Planet Narnia'', published in the ''Times Literary Supplement'').  Ford argues that Lewis did not start with a coherent plan for the books, but Ward's book answers this by arguing that the astrological associations grew in the writing:
:Jupiter was... [Lewis's] favourite planet, part of the "habitual furniture" of his mind... ''The Lion'' was thus the first example of that "idea that he wanted to try out". ''Prince Caspian'' and ''The "Dawn Treader"'' naturally followed because Mars and Sol were both already connected in his mind with the merits of the [[Samuel Alexander|Alexander]] technique.... at some point after commencing ''The Horse and His Boy'' he resolved to treat all seven planets, for seven such treatments of his idea would mean that he had "worked it out to the full".{{sfn|Ward|2008|page=222}}

A quantitative analysis on the imagery in the different books of ''The Chronicles'' gives mixed support to Ward's thesis: ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', ''The Silver Chair'', ''The Horse and His Boy'', and ''The Magician's Nephew'' do indeed employ concepts associated with, respectively, Sol, Luna, Mercury, and Venus, far more often than chance would predict, but ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'', ''Prince Caspian'', and ''The Last Battle'' fall short of statistical correlation with their proposed planets.<ref>{{cite web |last=Barrett |first=Justin L. |title=Some Planets in Narnia: a quantitative investigation of the ''Planet Narnia'' thesis |url=https://www.wheaton.edu/media/migrated-images-amp-files/media/files/centers-and-institutes/wade-center/Barrett_Narnia_web.pdf |year=2010|access-date=28 April 2018|publisher=Seven: an Anglo-American literary review (Wheaton College)}}</ref>

===Influences from literature===
George MacDonald's ''[[Phantastes]]'' (1858) influenced the structure and setting of "The Chronicles".{{clarify|date=April 2018}} It was a work that was " a great balm to the soul".<ref>{{cite book|last=Downing|first=David C.|title=Into The Wardrobe: C.S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles|year=2005|publisher=Jossey Bass|isbn=978-0-7879-7890-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/intowardrobecsle00down/page/12 12–13]|url=https://archive.org/details/intowardrobecsle00down/page/12}}</ref>

[[Plato]] was an undeniable influence on Lewis's writing of ''The Chronicles''. Most clearly, Digory explicitly invokes Plato's name at the end of ''The Last Battle'', to explain how the old version of Narnia is but a shadow of the newly revealed "true" Narnia. Plato's influence is also apparent in ''The Silver Chair'' when the Queen of the Underland attempts to convince the protagonists that the surface world is not real. She echoes the logic of [[Allegory of the Cave|Plato's Cave]] by comparing the sun to a nearby lamp, arguing that reality is only that which is perceived in the immediate physical vicinity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=William C. |last2=Houtman |first2=Marcia K. |title=Platonic Shadows in C. S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles |journal=Modern Fiction Studies |year=1986 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=75–87 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/article/244283 |access-date=1 October 2018 |doi=10.1353/mfs.0.1154|s2cid=162284034 | issn=0026-7724 }}</ref>

The White Witch in ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' shares many features, both of appearance and character, with the villainous Duessa of [[Edmund Spenser]]'s ''[[The Faerie Queene|Faerie Queene]]'', a work Lewis studied in detail. Like Duessa, she falsely styles herself Queen; she leads astray the erring Edmund with false temptations; she turns people into stone as Duessa turns them into trees. Both villains wear opulent robes and deck their conveyances out with bells.{{sfn|Hardy|2007|pages=20–25}} In ''The Magician's Nephew'' Jadis takes on echoes of [[Satan#In art and literature|Satan]] from [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]'': she climbs over the wall of the paradisal garden in contempt of the command to enter only by the gate, and proceeds to tempt Digory as Satan tempted [[Eve]], with lies and half-truths.{{sfn|Hardy|2007|pages=30–34}} Similarly, the Lady of the Green Kirtle in ''The Silver Chair'' recalls both the snake-woman Errour in ''The Faerie Queene'' and Satan's transformation into a snake in ''Paradise Lost''.{{sfn|Hardy|2007|pages=38–41}}

Lewis read [[Edith Nesbit]]'s children's books as a child and was greatly fond of them.<ref name="lindskoog">{{cite book | last = Lindskoog | first = Kathryn Ann | title = Journey into Narnia: C. S. Lewis's Tales Explored | page = 87 | publisher = Hope Publishing House | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-932727-89-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/journeyintonarni0000lind/page/87 }}</ref> He described ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' around the time of its completion as "a children's book in the tradition of E. Nesbit".<ref>{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=Chad|title=C. S. Lewis: Apostle to the Skeptics|year=1974|publisher=Norwood Editions|isbn=0-88305-779-4|page=10}}</ref> ''The Magician's Nephew'' in particular bears strong resemblances to Nesbit's ''[[The Story of the Amulet]]'' (1906). This novel focuses on four children living in London who discover a magic amulet. Their father is away and their mother is ill, as is the case with Digory. They manage to transport the queen of [[Babylon|ancient Babylon]] to London and she is the cause of a riot; likewise, Polly and Digory transport Queen Jadis to London, sparking a very similar incident.<ref name="lindskoog" />

Marsha Daigle-Williamson argues that [[Dante Alighieri|Dante's]] ''[[Divine Comedy]]'' had a significant impact on Lewis's writings. In the Narnia series, she identifies this influence as most apparent in ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' and ''The Silver Chair''.{{sfn|Daigle-Williamson|2015|page=5}} Daigle-Williamson identifies the plot of ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' as a Dantean journey with a parallel structure and similar themes.{{sfn|Daigle-Williamson|2015|page=162-170}} She likewise draws numerous connections between ''The Silver Chair'' and the events of Dante's ''[[Inferno (Dante)|Inferno]]''.{{sfn|Daigle-Williamson|2015|page=170-174}}

[[Colin Duriez]], writing on the shared elements found in both Lewis's and [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s works, highlights the thematic similarities between Tolkien's poem ''Imram'' and Lewis's ''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader''.<ref name="Duriez, 2015">{{cite book |last=Duriez |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Duriez |title=Bedeviled: Lewis, Tolkien and the Shadow of Evil |date=2015 |publisher=IVP Books |location=Downers Grove, IL |isbn=978-0-8308-3417-4 |pages=180–182}}</ref>