The miracle of Narnia
The miracle of Narnia or the mysterious door or: The foundation of Narnia ( English original title The Magician's Nephew in German The nephew of the magician ) is a novel by the writer C. S. Lewis and appeared in 1955 as part of the series The Chronicles of Narnia . Although written as the penultimate, the book forms the beginning of the seven-part series, according to Lewis' wishes.
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Little Digory lives in Victorian London. His mother is seriously ill, so Digory lives with his aunt Letty and his strange uncle Andrew. Soon he meets the neighbor girl Polly, whose parents are very strict, and the two decide to explore the interconnected attics of the houses. By chance they end up in the study of Digory's uncle, who is in possession of mysterious rings. He gives Polly a yellow ring, the touch of which makes her disappear on the spot. Andrew now tells his nephew what the rings are all about: he created them from mysterious dust that he found in the estate of a deceased relative. The yellow rings, he believes, take whoever touches them to another world. The green ones bring the person back to earth. However, Digory's uncle lacks the courage to test this himself, so he cowardly uses the two children. He gives Digory two green rings and one yellow ring to save Polly. The two children then meet again at the ponds in the forest between the worlds . The rings therefore not only lead to another world, but, starting from these ponds, to many others: The yellow rings bring their wearer and everyone who touches it into the forest; if you wear the green and jump into a pond, you get to another world. Curious, Polly and Digory want to do some research before heading back home by jumping into the various ponds.
You land first on Charn, a dying, already deserted world. In a large hall of a residence, in which many beautifully dressed figures of former rulers sit as if in deep sleep, Digory finds a small bell with the saying: “Strike the bell, call the danger. Or don't strike it, but then, in truth, you will ask yourself insane - what would have happened if you had struck it. ”In order not to go crazy, he strikes the bell and wakes up the last survivor, Queen Jadis. The power-obsessed, cruel witch was once responsible for the destruction of her world and the death of all its inhabitants as she cast a killing curse when she was about to be overthrown, and now forces the children to take her to the forest between the worlds and from there to bring to earth.
When they get there, Andrew Ketterley is completely fascinated by Jadis, who is bossing him around and planning the subjugation of the earth. After some confusion, the kids manage to bring them back to the forest between the worlds .
Without having planned it, this time they are not traveling alone, but together with Uncle Andrew, a coachman and his horse. You enter an empty world through another pond. There they first hear the song of the lion Aslan . A new world emerges from the song he sings - Narnia . When this is done, he calls some animals over and gives them the ability to speak.
Meanwhile, the witch Jadis escapes and hides somewhere in the new world. Since Digory woke up the witch, and with it the evil, and brought it to Narnia, it is also his duty to protect the new land from her. Together with Polly, who wants to help him, he sets off to pick an apple from a special tree that, when planted, can protect the country from evil. He's never allowed to eat it himself.
At the apple tree they meet Jadis, who has eaten some of the forbidden fruit and tries to seduce Digory into stealing the apple and bringing it to his mother to heal her. Resisting the temptation, Digory brings the apple to Aslan, who allows Digory to plant the apple. A new tree will grow in no time. The lion gives Digory an apple from the tree for his mother and explains to him that a stolen apple only seemingly helped her, while a given one can actually heal her.
Back home, Aslan's word comes true, and Digory's mother gets well. The coachman stayed behind in Narnia, so that from then on people lived there too.
Digory buries the rings and plants the casing of the apple, from which a large apple tree grows. After this was uprooted much later by a storm, he had a closet built from it. But not he experiences the magic of the closet first, but the four children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, (see also The King of Narnia Prince Caspian of Narnia ), who spend the years of the Second World War with him in the country.
At the same time the tree in Narnia was also uprooted. Without this protection, Narnia can again be attacked by evil ( The King of Narnia ).
Christian references
In all Narnia novels there are poetically alienated references to Christian salvation history , from creation to the Fall, sacrificial death and resurrection to the apocalypse. This also applies to “The Miracle of Narnia”, which takes up motifs from Genesis . This is how the world of Narnia is created by Aslan : the divine lion sings, and the world of Narnia arises out of darkness. First light appears, then plants and animals, in the same order as in the creation in the Bible. There, however, the Lord God speaks something and it becomes or happens, in the book the lion sings. The “ fall into sin ” is also indicated; as in the Bible, it has to do with the forbidden removal of a fruit. It is also noticeable that Aslan always addresses the children as "daughter of Eve " and "son of Adam". In the chronological volumes that follow, the people of Narnia repeatedly call the children of men that way.
filming
- planned: as a successor to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Journey on the Dawn (cinema, real film)
Reviews
literature
- Clive Staples Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia Volume 1 - The Miracle of Narnia . Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2006; ISBN 3-8000-5264-4
- Clive Staples Lewis: The Chronicles of Narnia . Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2005 (bound complete edition); ISBN 3-8000-5186-9
Individual evidence
- ↑ Graz City Library: Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Narnia Translations: Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://filmkinotrailer.com/film/narnia-4/
