peter-pevensie

[peter-pevensie]

things unchronicled

there are things in Narnia I always wonder about so here are some headcanons:

Aslan had told them that there was no need for Peter, Susan and Lucy to speak to Edmund about what he had done, and they didn’t. He hadn’t said that Edmund shouldn’t speak to them about it. It takes him a while to work himself up to it, but he is so glad when he does. 

Lucy’s cordial is a strange thing. It tastes glorious and heals instantly, but it does not remedy shock or clean up all the mess, with its abrupt shove between blinding agony and sudden relief. It’s dangerous too, in the way it leaves no reason not to stand up and carry on fighting with not a moment to recover from the trauma, in the way it makes you reckless, lets you forget that you are mortal. It is kept in their vault not just as a priceless treasure, but as something to be used with caution.

Susan’s hugs were usually on the side of being a little too hard. She often surprised people with her strength.

Peter always considered the reason he was made High King above the others perfectly obvious, and assumed everyone else thought the same: it was only because he was the oldest, and someone had to do it, otherwise running a country with four sovereigns could get a bit messy. His family, his subjects, and anyone else who met him – friend and enemy alike – knew that being the eldest was only one of the reasons that Peter was the High King, and probably the least important reason at that. 

things unchronicled #2  //  things unchronicled #3  //  things unchronicled #4  // things unchronicled #5  //  things unchronicled #6

[peter-pevensie]

#sass

[peter-pevensie]

[peter-pevensie]

on the pevensies’ names

SO there’s something that always bothered me about Susan, and that was: why is she called Susan??? Peter, Edmund and Lucy’s names all have clear significance, but I never could see what about the name ‘Susan’ was important for her character 

UNTIL my last reread of the Chronicles, when I spotted something in VoDT that I couldn’t BELIEVE I’d never noticed before. It’s a HUGE pointer towards what happens with whether Susan eventually returns to her belief or not, and although I’m sure I’m not the first person to have seen it, I can’t remember reading about it in any Susan’s-fate discussions before, so here goes.

Peter, Edmund and Lucy all have names with deep significance. ��Peter’ means ‘rock’, which is clearly well suited to his role as the ‘rock’ of the family, but perhaps more importantly he’s named after Saint Peter, who in the Bible is something like the rock upon which my church is founded. The Pope sits on ‘the throne of Saint Peter’ as God’s representative on earth (for the catholic church at least), and Peter’s throne is that of the High King (CS Lewis did a little power in Narnia flowchart thing and Peter sits right below Aslan on it I think). plus the whole Peter-and-the-gate-of-heaven thing in LB. 

‘Edmund’ is a two-part name, translating to ‘prosperity’ and ‘protector’. Sure, ‘protector’ is applicable because of his actions against the Witch, but his name is mostly significant because of its use in Shakespeare - in King Lear, Edmund is the name of the Duke of Gloucester’s bastard younger son, who betrays his family to gain power. Shakespeare’s Edmund is never completely redeemed, but he is an ambiguous character who can be played as really awful or quite sympathetic or a bit of both, and he’s got lots of parallels to Narnia’s Edmund.

‘Lucy’ means ‘light’ and hers is pretty straightforward - she shines the light onto the path to Narnia and to Aslan for her family.

But Susan? ‘Susan’ means ‘lily’, and for the longest time I could not for the life of me figure out why that was important. CS Lewis wouldn’t give all the others such significant names and then come to Susan and be like oh well I guess that will do, but I couldn’t find what it was. Sure, lilies are flowers traditionally used at funerals, which is a bleak bit of foreshadowing, but it didn’t seem like enough. 

AND THEN

I was reading VoDT and at the end, when they get close to Aslan’s country, what do they find? A SEA OF

LILIES

and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed this - that the flower on the path to Aslan’s country is the flower Susan is named for. which, combined with the foreshadowing in PC about her returning to Aslan, is a pretty strong hint about her eventual path.

If we also take a look at a compass - the sea of lilies is in the utter east. it’s heavily implied in the Narnia books that Susan’s path away from Narnia starts when she goes to America, which - from England - is a journey west, the opposite way. so Lewis is definitely paying attention to direction here. and to the east, on the pathway to Aslan’s country, he filled it with Susan’s flowers.  

my whole standpoint on the problem of Susan is a bit more complicated, but I think this is a lovely whisper from Lewis about her eventually getting to rejoin her family

[peter-pevensie]

Lucy Pevensie can be found dancing in the most strange of ways, using steps nobody has ever been taught. Yet somehow, as her classmates watch, her movements always seem to fit the music, Lucy’s feet never faltering. Her classmates find themselves mesmerised every time, hardly able to figure out what Lucy is truly doing. Lucy stops dancing with giggles, her face too bright in the dimmed light. Her classmates quickly look away. 

Edmund Pevensie can climb into the rafters of the gym hall without breaking a sweat. His classmates stare and Edmund sits among the rafters with a satisfied smirk, his legs swinging high above heads. His teacher scolds him, but his classmates dare him to climb the side of the dorms one night and Edmund indulges himself. There is something in the curve of his smile as he looks down at them that makes their eyes focus on anything but him.

Susan Pevensie excels in her swimming lessons, and her classmates insist that there is something strange about her whenever she is in the water. Some girls whisper about mermaids, while others try to catch her out in cheating somehow. They never manage, and Susan comes out of the water with a sharp smile and never seeming out of breath. Her eyes spark with something unattainable and her classmates don’t look directly at her. 

Peter Pevensie doesn’t follow the fencing rules, and everybody know it’s cheating. The teacher tells him off and Peter smiles unapologetically. His classmates are curious and dare him to fight them behind the gym at night. They watch his movement, his steps, the way his quips seem to sound lower than his voice can possibly be. Peter looks strange in the darkness, larger, broader, and his classmates can’t bring themselves to meet his eyes.

[peter-pevensie]

[peter-pevensie]

uft