Title of the work
Country of the First Edition
Country/countries of popularity
Original Language
First Edition Date
First Edition Details
C. S Lewis, Prince Caspian. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1951, 195 pp.
ISBN
Genre
Children’s novel*
Fantasy fiction
Target Audience
Children
Cover
We are still trying to obtain permission for posting the original cover.
Author of the Entry:
Charlotte Farrell, University of New England, charlottefarrell@gmail.com
Peer-reviewer of the Entry:
Elizabeth Hale, University of New England, ehale@une.edu.au
Susan Deacy, University of Roehampton, s.deacy@roehampton.ac.uk
Pauline Baynes
, 1922 - 2008
(Illustrator)
Pauline Baynes, who illustrated many works (over 200, mostly for children), is best known for her illustration of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Born in Sussex, England, UK most of her first five years were spent in India due to her father’s appointment to the Indian Civil Service. As a result of her mother’s illness, Baynes and her sister returned to England and were placed in a convent and then sent to a boarding school in Camberley in Surrey. At the age of fifteen, she studied design at Farnham School of Art and later won a place at the Slade School of Art. When the second World War broke out both sisters joined the Women’s Voluntary Service and were sent to the Camouflage Development Training Centre in Farnham Castle where they were put to work making demonstration models. Later, the sisters worked as mapmakers for the Admiralty’s Hydrographic Department. Powell Perry, whose family owned a company that published picture books for children was one of their colleagues and gave Baynes her first professional commissions.
In 1948 Baynes began to develop her career by writing a book of her own, Victoria and the Golden Bird which was published. Her portfolio was given to J.R.R, Tolkien who was seeking an illustrator for his book Farmer Giles of Ham, a comedy about dragons and knights. Tolkien was delighted with her work and although his The Lord of the Rings was too large a project for her she produced coloured maps of Tolkien’s middle-earth. She also created a triptych of Tolkien’s characters and locales, which became the iconic cover art for a one-volume paperback edition in 1968 and a three-volume version in 1981. In 1967 Baynes illustrated Tolkien’s final piece of fiction Smith of Wooton Major.
Tolkien introduced Baynes to C.S. Lewis. She signed a contract with Lewis’s publisher and in 1949 sent drawings, and cover designs for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.She went on to illustrate the six sequels, Prince Caspian: The return to Narnia ( 1951), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953), The Horse and His Boy (1954), The Magician’s Nephew (1955) and The Last Battle (1956).
After many love affairs, Baynes met and married Fritz Gasch, a German ex-prisoner of war. They moved to Surrey where he worked as a gardener and she continued her drawing. They were a close couple and after Fritz’s sudden death in 1988 Baynes poured her energies into her work producing her most accomplished pieces. Two years after Fritz's death Baynes had a call from his daughter from his first marriage in Germany who was delighted to find the woman who had loved her father. In old age, Baynes found she had a family. Baynes worked up to her death in 2008 illustrating both the Koran and Aesop’s Fables. She remains one of the twentieth century's most influential illustrators.
Bio prepared by Beverley Beddoes-Mills, University of New England bbeddoes@myune.edu.au
Belfast, statue of C. S. Lewis looking into a wardrobe. Entitled The Searcher by Ross Wilson. Retrieved from Wikipedia (accessed: May 4, 2022), CC BY 2.0.
Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis
, 1898 - 1963
(Author)
Clive Staples Lewis was born in 1898 in Belfast, Ireland, the younger son of Albert Lewis, a soliciter, and Florence Lewis, a graduate of the Royal University of Ireland. In the Lewis household reading and education were considered of great importance and Lewis and his older brother Warren ‘Warnie’ (later a historian) were avid readers. Lewis loved tales about animals and was influenced by Beatrix Potter’s books which encouraged him to write and illustrate his own. After his mother’s death in 1908 Lewis attended several different schools in England and Belfast. During this time, Lewis became an atheist, abandoning his Christian faith and pursuing an interest in Norse mythology. As a teenager, became fascinated by ancient Scandinavian songs and legends preserved in the Icelandic sagas. Lewis was also influenced by his father’s old tutor and former headmaster of Lurgan College, William T. Kirkpatrick, who instilled in him a love of Greek literature and mythology.
In 1917 Lewis entered Oxford and studied at University College. That year he joined the Officers’ Training Corps, at the university, and was drafted into a Cadet Battalion for training. He was commissioned into the British Army as a Second Lieutenant and shipped to France where on his19th birthday he fought in the front line, in the trenches at the Somme Valley. Following an incident in April of 1918, which Lewis was wounded, and two of his colleagues were killed by a shell, he was demobilized (in December of that year). He wrote in a letter that the horror of his wartime experiences were the basis of his pessimism and continuing atheism.
In 1920, Lewis returned to his studies at Oxford University, where he studied Greek and Latin Literature, Philosophy and Ancient History, and English. He achieved Firsts in all these subjects, and went on to tutor in Philosophy at University College. In 1925 he was appointed as a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Magdalen College, where he worked until 1954.
At Oxford, Lewis and J.R.R Tolkien, the Anglo-Saxon scholar, and writer of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were close friends. They were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings, a group of scholars and storytellers interested in the writing of fantasy, and which included Roger Lancelyn-Green, the biographer and reteller of mythology for children.
Lewis eventually returned to Christianity due Tolkien’s influence. He describes these changes in his autobiography Surprised by Joy which is an account of his spiritual and intellectual life through the 30s. He became known as one of the foremost British writers of Christian thought which he explored in his scholarship, and fiction. Lewis’s first scholarly book was The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (1936), an exploration of the treatment of love in Medieval and Renaissance English. Later he wrote A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942). Both are still cited today. He was commissioned to write English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Excluding Drama), for the Oxford History of English Literature (1954).
In 1956 he was appointed to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, at Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where he worked until he died in 1963. In 1957, he married his friend Joy Davidson, an American divorcee, in a civil ceremony, in order to help her remain in the United Kingdom. Later, after she was diagnosed with bone cancer, their relationship developed and they had a Christian marriage. Davidson died in 1960 and Lewis wrote about this time of his life in A Grief Observed (1961) which was published under a pseudonym. His final book, Letters to Malcolm, was published in 1963, the same year in which he retired from his position at Cambridge. He died in November of 1963, following a period of ill health.
Lewis’ writing covers many fields: he wrote important literary criticism such as The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964), and The Allegory of Love (1936). He wrote works of personal reflection and novels for adults and children. Among his novels for adults, Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold (1956) recasts the story of Cupid and Psyche from the point of view of her older sister, Orual. In general terms, Lewis’ best known works are the seven children’s books about the fantasy world of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950), Prince Caspian (1951), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1952), The Silver Chair (1953), The Horse and His Boy (1954), The Magician’s Nephew (1955), and The Last Battle (1956). These books reveal a fantasy world and include talking animals, mythical beasts, magic, and epic action as well as children from our (real) world, and cast the main drama of the series as a battle between good and evil in the context of the world of Narnia. Aslan, a noble lion, who can be identified as an allegory for the Son of God, brings unity to Narnia (the exception is The Horse and His Boy, which provides the prehistory of Narnia). The Narnia books have been translated into 47 languages and sold worldwide.
Sources:
Britannica (accessed: May 7, 2021),
Wikipedia (accessed: May 18, 2021).
Bio prepared by Beverley Beddoes-Mills, University of New England, bbeddoes@myune.edu.au
Adaptations
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, film dir. Andrew Adamson, Walt Disney Pictures, Walden Media, Ozumi Films, 2008.
Translation
The Narnia Chronicles have been translated into 47 languages, see: here (accessed: March 31, 2022).
Sequels, Prequels and Spin-offs
There are two different orders that the books can be read: order of publication and order of narrative chronology. Both orders are listed below, with an asterisk next to the present title.
Publication Order
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe;
- Prince Caspian*;
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader;
- The Silver Chair;
- The Horse and His Boy;
- The Magician’s Nephew;
- The Last Battle.
Chronological Order
- The Magician’s Nephew;
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe;
- The Horse and His Boy;
- Prince Caspian*;
- The Voyage of the Dawn Treader;
- The Silver Chair;
- The Last Battle.
Summary
Prince Caspian is the second book published in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. In this sequel to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the Pevensie children – Lucy, Peter, Edmund, and Susan – sit at a railway station waiting to start their new term at boarding school. Suddenly, they are unexpectedly catapulted to a desert island. After some exploration of the island, they discover that they have in fact returned to Narnia – a magical land that they discovered through a wardrobe in the previous book.
They cross paths with a dwarf named Trumpkin who relays the story of what has become of Narnia after the country had fallen into the hands of King Miraz, uncle of Prince Caspian. Miraz had killed Caspian’s father and usurped the King’s throne. Caspian is the rightful heir to the throne which became threatened once Queen Prunaprismia gave birth to a son. At the encouragement of Caspian’s part-human, part-dwarf tutor, Doctor Cornelius, Caspian begins his journey fleeing Miraz and his army who want him dead. On his journey, Caspian encounters many creatures of ‘Old Narnia’, most of whom support Caspian’s right to the throne. They form an army to defeat Miraz.
After Trumpkin relays this lengthy tale, it becomes clear that Caspian’s comrades had blown the enchanted horn – which was originally gifted to Susan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – for help. As a result, Peter, Lucy, Edmund and Susan were summoned to Narnia to help Caspian on his quest. Aslan, the awe-inspiring talking Lion and ancient ruler of Narnia encountered in the previous book, returns. At first, only the youngest of the four children, Lucy, can see him but later he becomes visible to all of them. He helps guide the children on their journey so that they can find and help Caspian.
Peter who is known as the High King in old Narnia challenges Miraz to combat, and Miraz accepts. Both armies converge for the battle. Miraz is ultimately defeated by one of his own treacherous knights, Glozelle, and Caspian is crowned rightful King. The Telmarines – who were the people hailing from Telmar that invaded Narnia and ultimately led to its ruin – were then invited by Aslan to return to their original land. Aslan reveals that the Telmarines are actually human and came from the same world as the children. They were originally descendants of pirates but had arrived in Narnia through a “chink or chasm between that world and this” (185). Aslan advises Peter and Susan that they are now too old to return to Narnia, so this will be their last visit. Lucy and Edmund, however, are fated to return.
Analysis
There is a cornucopia of mythological referents in C. S. Lewis’s work (Costello, 2009) many of which appear in Prince Caspian. From Greek and Roman myth intertwined with European fairy tales, Christian narratives, and Middle Eastern folklore, the Narnia Chronicles “abounds in multifarious intertextual allusions” (Zegarlińska, 2014, 167), many of which are mythological. In Prince Caspian, the second book published in the Narnia Chronicles, there are multiple points in the book where there is explicit reference to Bacchus/Dionysus and Silenus, the gods of wine and drunkenness from Greek and Roman mythology. There is also reference to other mythological figures including maenads, dryads, fauns, giants, dwarfs, and centaurs.
In addition to Lucy’s brief encounter with Faun’s dancing in the woods in Chapter Eight (74–75), the first moment in the book that recalls Dionysian ritual – often marked by those who come into contact with the god Dionysus becoming wild and uninhibited (Seaford, 2006) – occurs in Chapter Eleven. Aslan appears to Lucy and guides her and the other children across the land to the Stone Table, where Aslan was killed and then resurrected in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. In Prince Caspian, Aslan is only visible to Lucy at first, but becomes visible to the other children as their journey progresses. Visibility and invisibility and their connection with fear and faith, is a recurring moralistic trope throughout the book which dovetails with the bacchanalian elements in ways that underscore the book’s didactic thrust.
Once the children arrive at the Stone Table, Aslan makes a gigantic roar that awakens the river god and the nymphs, who are known in ancient Greek folklore to be female nature spirits (Larson, 2001). A large crowd of Tree People chanting Aslan’s name descend upon the scene. The tree-like figures perform a “thick and rapid” (136) dance around Aslan, drawing connection with the ecstatic dances of maenads who were the female followers of Dionysus. One youth appears wearing only faun skin and a wreath in his hair, with a face “almost too pretty for a boy, if it had not looked so extremely wild” (136–137). A man with a donkey appears alongside him. These figures are Bacchus and Silenus, directly acknowledged by Lucy at the end of the chapter (138). Vine leaves descend and cover the crowd, quickly sprouting sumptuous grapes; a direct allusion to Bacchus being the wine god, which is also referenced later in the book when Bacchus gives Caspian’s old nurse wine to heal her (174). Everyone eats the delicious grapes while chanting, “Euan, Euan, eu-oi-oi-oi”. This “great cry” that the creatures make while engaging in this Bacchic ceremony derives from the ritual cry of worshippers of Dionysus in Ancient Greek, ‘euoi’ (εὐοῖ).
As the sun rises, Lucy and Susan both agree that they “wouldn’t have felt safe with Bacchus and his wild girls” without Aslan there. This observation makes a moral distinction between the Bacchic participants and Aslan and the children. According to Juliette Harrisson (2010), the Bacchic elements of the Narnia Chronicles are “domesticated” for the child reader, where the sexual and violent aspects are radically diminished (3). In Lucy’s comments, however, there is acknowledgement of the dangers of this wild behaviour, situating Aslan as the embodiment of pure, Christ-like moral good, and the children as his faithful followers.
The second overt reference to bacchanalian ritual which occurs in Chapter Fourteen also constitutes the climax of the children’s adventures. After the combat between Peter and Miraz, the Tree People reappear, alarmingly descending upon the crowd and frightening the Telmarine warriors. They chase Miraz’s followers to the river where a bridge has since disappeared, and they surrender. What follows is a procession of laughing, music-playing maenads parading with Bacchus, Silenus, Aslan, Lucy and Susan in tow. Again, the Bacchic crowd chant “Euan, euoi-oi-oi-oi” (172). As they journey, Aslan demands Bacchus release the river god as they pass him, showing that while Bacchus is powerful, Aslan has the most power and authority (169). As their procession continues, they pass a tired schoolteacher who is lured from her classroom by Aslan and his entourage. The “pig-like” boys in her classroom threaten to call the Inspector when she is distracted by the magic outside, which, crucially, the boys can’t see. The boys then transmogrify into pigs (173), just like Circe’s transformation of Odysseus’s men into pigs in Homer’s the Odyssey.
Preceding the boys’ transmogrification, a man beating a boy is transformed into a tree (171). These transformations and transmogrifications draw connection with Ovid’s Latin narrative poem from 8AD, Metamorphoses where myth is the dominant subject matter. It also underscores the use of mythological elements to aid Lewis’ moral narrative in Prince Caspian. Transformations operate to avenge those who are bad in Prince Caspian, whereas Ovid’s transformations are arguably more ethically nuanced. Also, the ‘bad’ (or not as good) characters cannot see the magic of Narnia in the same way that the ‘good’ characters can. Drawing the bacchic reverie to a close, Bacchus, Silenus and the maenads appear and perform “a magic dance of plenty” (179) and they indulge in an elaborate feast shortly before the children return to earth. While these references may be unfamiliar to the child reader, the sheer amount of mythic imagery in the book provides a lively entry point into learning about them.
Harrisson argues that the inclusion of Bacchus in select books of the Narnia Chronicles was to insert a symbol of death and rebirth to parallel Jesus Christ (3) and there are Christian overtones in the book as well. Aslan is often read as a Christ-like sacrificial character (Wilson, 2008: 177; Dalton, 2005: 129). Aslan is the primary guide of Prince Caspian’s moral compass and the magical lion’s Christian embodiment is notable at various points throughout the book, for example when he heals a child’s dying aunt (who it is revealed is in fact Caspian’s old nurse from childhood) (173); or when he breathes on Susan to relinquish her fearful thoughts (133).
There is also discussion of who ‘believes’ in Aslan (65) in the book. This question of faith is foregrounded in Lucy’s belief in Aslan’s appearance when the others doubt her (125). Similarly, the little boys not believing what their school teacher sees results in them being turned into pigs. Lewis’ engagement with classical Greek and Roman mythology, as well as the Christian elements, are intertextual dimensions of Prince Caspian that adds atmosphere, texture, and movement to the plot, while communicating a moralistic narrative that the wilder parts of human nature must be tempered with purity and goodness. Through the figure of Aslan, ‘good’ wields the most power in Prince Caspian.
Further Reading
Costello, Alicia D., “Examining Mythology in “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis", Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 1.11 (2009), (accessed: March 31, 2022).
Dalton, Russell W., “Aslan is on the Move: Images of Providence in the Chronicles of Narnia”, in Shanna Caughey, ed., Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth and Religion in C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles, Dallas: BenBella Books, 2005, 129–146.
Harrisson, Juliette, “The Domestication of Classical Mythology in the Chronicles of Narnia”, New Voices in Classical Reception Studies 5 (2010) (accessed: March 31, 2022).
Hidalgo de Garnica, Blanca, “Myth in The Chronicles of Narnia”, JACLR: Journal of Artistic Creation and Literary Research 7.1 (2019): 72–86 (accessed: March 31, 2022).
Larson, Jennifer, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Markos, Louis, “The realm of Faërie, and the shadow of Homer in Narnia and Middle-earth”, Mallorn: The Journal of the Tolkien Society 47 (2009): 25–28 (accessed: March 31, 2022).
Wilson, Dominique, “Christianity in Narnia”, Sydney Studies in Religion (2008): 173–187.
Zegarlińska, Magdalena, “Mythological references in The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis”, Beyond Philology 11 (2014): 165–184.
