WHEN THE LION TELLS YOU TO DRINK 28 July 2008
Posted by Renette in 6 The Silver Chair, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve.3 comments
“If I run away, it’ll be after me in a moment,” thought Jill. “And if I go on, I shall run straight into its mouth.” Anyway, she couldn’t have moved if she had tried, and she couldn’t take her eyes off it. How long this lasted, she could not be sure; it seemed like hours. And the thirst became so bad that she almost felt she would not mind being eaten by the lion if only she could be sure of getting a mouthful of water first.
“If you’re thirsty, you may drink.”
They were the first words she had heard since Scrubb had spoken to her on the edge of the cliff. For a second she stared here and there, wondering who had spoken. Then the voice said again, “If you are thirsty, come and drink,” and of course she remembered what Scrubb had said about animals talking in that other world, and realized that it was the lion speaking. Anyway, she had seen its lips move this time, and the voice was not like a man’s. It was deeper, wilder, and stronger; a sort of heavy, golden voice. It did not make her any less frightened than she had been before, but it made her frightened in rather a different way.
“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.
“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.
“Then drink,” said the Lion.
I mentioned before that THE SILVER CHAIR is my favorite book in The Chronicles of Narnia, not only because of the character of Puddleglum, but also because of its theme of obedience and faith. It also contains a lot of passages which can be interpreted in the light of Scriptures, such as the excerpt I quoted above, which is from Chapter 2, “Jill Is Given a Task.”
In the story, Jill and Eustace had just stumbled into Aslan’s Country, a rich forest where “huge trees, rather like cedars but bigger, grew in every direction” and where there was “not a breath of wind in that cool, bright air.” While Eustace was trying to keep Jill from falling off a very high cliff, he lost his balance and fell himself, only to be saved by the Great Lion, Aslan, who blew him all the way to Narnia.
After crying a lot by herself in horror of what happened (the Lion had left her after blowing Eustace off), Jill started feeling very thirsty. She looked around and finally saw a stream, which was “bright as glass,” instantly making her feel even thirstier than before. Before she could stoop for a drink though, she noticed the figure of the Lion lying by the stream.
While she was debating to herself whether to run or drink, the Lion spoke. “If you’re thirsty, you may drink.” He is obviously giving her permission to approach and drink from the stream.
While Jill was still standing, uncertain of what to do and unsure of who said the words, the Lion spoke again. “If you are thirsty, come and drink.” This is now more than giving permission, he is actually giving her an invitation to drink and quench her thirst.
Jill finally realized that it was the Lion who was speaking to her, and it frightened her. “Are you not thirsty?” the Lion asked her. After replying in the affirmative, he said, “Then drink.” This is not only an invitation, but an outright instruction or directive to approach Him and drink from the stream.
But what is it about the water that is so important that he not only needed to permit Jill to drink it, but he had to invite and even order her to do so when she hesitated?
Aslan knew that the water will quench Jill’s thirst. He understood how thirsty Jill was, and knew that she needed a drink of water to clear her head and prepare her for the task he was about to give her.
In the same way, Jesus understands our thirst – be it physical (like thirst for water), mental (like thirst for knowledge) or emotional (like thirst for love). In His own time and in His own way, He provides the things that would quench this thirst.
But there’s one more thirst that we all have, and which Jesus alone can meet. It’s our inherent thirst for God. As it says in Psalm 42:1-2: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God.” But how do we quench this thirst?
There was one interesting occasion when Jesus offered water to someone too. In John 4, He told the Samaritan woman, “… those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” The water He is referring to, the Living Water, is Himself. And He permits, invites and instructs all of us to quench our thirst for God through Him.
And when the Lion – or Jesus, the Lion of Judah – tells you to drink, the best thing you can do is to do as Jill did. “She went forward to the stream, knelt down, and began scooping up water in her hand. It was the coldest, most refreshing water she had ever tasted.”
LISTENING TO NARNIA (Part 2) 25 July 2008
Posted by Renette in 5 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6 The Silver Chair, 7 The Last Battle, HarperCollins.add a comment
As mentioned in my previous entry, I recently bought The Chronicles of Narnia Unabridged Boxed Audiobook Set of HarperCollins for my birthday through Amazon.com. It’s been over a month since I first started listening to it (while driving alone – which I don’t really do that often, I usually have either my brother or boyfriend with me), and I’m now at the last CD of the last book.
Since I’ve already given my comments on the first four audiobooks, here are my comments on the last three.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (narrated by Derek Jacobi)
I have to admit, VDT is my second least favorite of the Narnia books. One reason is that I never really warmed up to the character of Eustace Scrubb. But Derek Jacobi did an amazing job with him. Pre-dragon Eustace was lofty and annoying, but later became actually… likeable. I particularly loved how he read what dragon Eustace was trying to write in the sand and ended with an exasperated “Oh, bother.” I actually had to double check my book to see if it was really there. It was, but I never noticed it before until Derek Jacobi brought it to life. I didn’t really care for his Lucy voice at the beginning, but it grew on me. I actually cried a bit towards the ending of VDT, when Lucy told Aslan, “It isn’t Narnia, you know… It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?”
The Silver Chair (narrated by Jeremy Northam)
I was worried before listening to this because as I have mentioned before, SC is my favorite of the Narnia books, mainly because of its theme (remembering and following the signs) and its main character, Puddleglum the Marshwiggle. Although Puddleglum’s voice was not how I imagined it to be, and the Lady of the Green Kirtle did not trill her R’s as much as I thought she should have, it was nevertheless very well done. The banter between Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb was always lively.
The Last Battle (narrated by Patrick Stewart)
I mentioned in my previous entry that my favorite audiobook was The Magician’s Nephew. After the first chapter of hearing Professor X (Xavier) – er, I mean, Patrick Stewart – reading LB, I knew the people from HarperCollins saved the best for last. Patrick Stewart was amazing. There were particular moments in his reading that really stuck to my mind, such as when the Talking Dogs barked: “Welcome! Welcome! We’ll help, we’ll help, help, help. Show us how to help, show us how, how. How-how-how?” I also loved his voice for Puzzle and Shift and Poggin the Dwarf. He was able to distinguish each voice and give it a character of its own, so you always knew who was talking.
After listening to 30+ hours worth of reading, all I can say is that I can’t wait to start listening all over again!
ON THE BBC’s THE SILVER CHAIR 5 July 2008
Posted by Renette in 5 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6 The Silver Chair, British Broadcasting Corporation.2 comments
I’ve had the complete VCD collection of the BBC adaptation of THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA for 3 years now (someone gave it to me for Christmas during our department’s exchange gift) but I have only attempted to watch it once. I started with THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, but I had to give up after only a few minutes. I was instantly creeped out by the talking beasts – which were actually people wearing animal costumes, quite unlike the realistic computer-generated animations of the Disney-Walden Media version. Of course, this is quite understandable, since the technology twenty years ago cannot be compared to the technology available today. From what I hear, the BBC adaptation was actually the best in its time. Anyway, I’ve always planned on getting down to the series and watching the entire thing just for the sake of saying that I’ve seen it, but I never got around to it until tonight.
Following the suggestion of my friends at the TLC forum (TLC stands for THE LION’S CALL, one of my favorite websites), I now started with THE SILVER CHAIR, which they said was the best (being released last in the series – that is, in 1990). Now, The Silver Chair is my favorite book in the Chronicles, and PUDDLEGLUM is my favorite character in the entire world, so I was really curious to see it. Besides, the actor playing Puddleglum (Tom Baker) was getting rave reviews in all the Narnia forums I’ve been.
So now that I’ve seen it, what can I say? Minus the distracting special effects, the dreary costumes (especially of the Underlanders) and the scary-looking puppet Aslan, I must say I really liked it!
COMMENTS ON THE CAST
David Thwaites as EUSTACE SCRUBB looked too young and was too short, and he was not irritating enough. Even during his post-dragon period, Eustace still had his moments. But I could live with that, the actor was good enough.
Camilla Power as JILL POLE was amazing. She was pretty and smart and even sassy at times. She was everything I hoped Jill would be.
Tom Baker as PUDDLEGLUM was fantastic! I’ve always imagined Puddleglum to be very, very thin and tall, but what was important is that he captured the Puddleglumy spirit. He was rather funny without trying, his facial expressions were properly gloomy, and he delivered my favorite lines with all the ghastly cheerfulness of a marshwiggle.
Barbara Kellerman as THE LADY OF THE GREEN KIRTLE was a bit too theatrical and overly dramatic for my taste, which is why she couldn’t quite pull of the eerily calm demeanor of the Emerald Witch. But she did trill her R’s nicely.
Richard Henders as PRINCE RILIAN didn’t quite capture the silly spirit from the book during his enchantment, and he was quite theatrical as well especially in the silver chair scene. I also found him weird-looking with a beard. He reminds me of a cartoon character but I can’t remember who.
Ronald Pickup as the voice of ASLAN was a bit too sleepy and slow and unimpressive, but that may be because I’m comparing him to Liam Neeson’s version.
Warwick Davis (who played NIKABRIK in Disney-Walden’s version of PRINCE CASPIAN) as GLIMFEATHER got all the tu-who’s right in my opinion.
Big Mick as the hard-of-hearing TRUMPKIN was hilarious, although he had only a short role.
COMMENTS ON THE SCRIPT
I must say that I’m very impressed at how faithful this adaptation was to the book, and how closely the plot and script followed the text. I also particularly like the numerous direct quotes, which the actors were thankfully able to say without sounding weird or unnatural. I’d say the following were relatively the biggest changes, which were all quite minor and understandable:
1) Rilian was wearing a mask when they met him in the Underworld. He had to have a mask so that the viewers won’t connect the dots too soon since they already showed what the prince looks like when Aslan was giving the signs to Jill.
2) The Lady of the Green Kirtle did not use a mandolin-like instrument which she thrummed to complete her enchantment. Instead, there was this weird greenish spray from her fingers.
3) The side-story of the Land of Bism wasn’t dealt with, which was okay because it could deflect from the plot.
4) The children called each other a couple of times by their first names (Eustace and Jill). In the book, they always used their last names (Scrubb and Pole) except for the part where they said goodbye, thinking that they were going to their deaths.
MEMORABLE QUOTES
The following quote was not said by Puddleglum in its entirety in the movie, but since this is my favorite quote in the book, I’m putting it here:
“One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”
After a speech like that, I’ll have to agree with Prince Rilian: “The blessing of Aslan upon this honest marshwiggle!”
In the book, the following quote was actually given by Aslan to Edmund and Lucy towards the end of THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, when Lucy told him that it was him they miss when they return to our world. However, since Aslan said it towards the end of BBC’s version of THE SILVER CHAIR, I’m putting it here as well:
“There I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
If you don’t know what Aslan’s other name is, here’s a link to an insightful essay from The Lion’s Call (by Petraverd) which discusses this point.
OTHER COMMENTS
I don’t even want to begin talking about the costumes of the Underworld gnomes, which reminds me of the Michelin character that looks like an obese mummy. I’m sure that with their limited budget, that was all they could come up with.
After seeing The Silver Chair, I’ve now decided to watch all the others in the series. It’s funny to be watching the BBC version twenty years after they were made, but I now think that this is a must-see for all hardcore Narnia fans. So thanks BBC for bringing Narnia to life!
WORDS OF WISDOM FROM PUDDLEGLUM 21 May 2008
Posted by Renette in 6 The Silver Chair, Other Creatures.add a comment
In case you haven’t read The Silver Chair, then you haven’t met my favorite literary character of all time, PUDDLEGLUM THE MARSHWIGGLE, who lives in a wigwam by the River Shribble. Puddleglum had “a long thin face with rather sunken cheeks, a tightly shut mouth, a sharp nose and no beard” and when we first meet him, he was wearing “a high, pointed hat like a steeple, with an enormously wide flat brim.” His hair “hung over his large ears” and was “greeny-grey, and each lock was flat rather than round, so that they were like tiny reeds.” he had a body that “was not much bigger that a dwarf’s, he would be taller than most men when he stood up,” thanks to his “very long legs and arms.” Upon meeting him, the children noticed that “the fingers of his hands were webbed like a frog’s, and so were his bare feet which dangled in the muddy water.” He wore “earth coloured clothes” which hung loosely on his thin body. Puddleglum’s “expression was solemn, his complexion muddy, and you could see at once that he took a serious view of life.”
Puddleglum was a caricature of pessimism, and a model of gloomy fortitude (or “ghastly cheerfulness”). He is not dashing in any way, though he has his own charm. He was not a great warrior (“I am not clever with my sword”), yet he was able to finally break the spell of the Lady of the Green Kirtle. C S Lewis said that the character was modeled after his gardener, Fred Paxford (I’d have loved to meet him!).
Puddleglum had me at hello, with this classic line to greet Eustace Scrubbs and Jill Pole: “Good morning, guests. Though when I say good I don’t mean it won’t probably turn to rain or it might be snow, or fog, or thunder. You didn’t get any sleep, I dare say.” He followed this up with this introduction: “Puddleglum’s my name. But it doesn’t matter if you forget it. I can always tell you again.”
It’s hard to fully explain or describe the charm of Puddleglum if you haven’t read the book, but here are some of my favorite Puddleglum quotations, which will hopefully give you some idea of who he is and what he’s like.
PUDDLEGLUM to Scrubbs and Pole, when Eustace said he shouldn’t come if he thought the quest for Prince Rilian was such an impossible task anyway:
“Don’t you lose heart, Pole… I’m coming, sure and certain. I’m not going to lose an opportunity like this. It will do me good. They all say – I mean, the other wiggles all say – that I’m too flighty; don’t take life seriously enough. If they’ve said it once, they’ve said it a thousand times. ‘Puddleglum,’ they’ve said, ‘you’re altogether too full of bobance and bounce and high spirits. You’ve got to learn that life isn’t all fricassed frogs and eel pie.’ You want something to sober you down a bit. We’re only saying it for your own good, Puddleglum.”
If Puddleglum was more cheery compared to the other wiggles, I’d love to meet them all! Here’s PUDDLEGLUM to the enchanted Prince Rilian, when he told them mockingly that the third sign (the words “under me” written in stone on the ruined city) was actually part of an old saying that had nothing to do with their task:
“There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant king caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.”
Talk about believing in the omnipotence of GOD. Here’s PUDDLEGLUM to Scrubbs and Pole, when they were trying to decide whether to let loose the maniacal Prince Rilian after uttering Aslan’s name, which was the last sign given to them by Aslan:
“That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the sign.”
That’s what I call OBEDIENCE. Here’s PUDDLEGLUM to the Lady of the Green Kirtle, who was trying to enchant them into forgetting their own world (Narnia and the earth) in favor of the witch’s dark, dreary Underworld:
“One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
Now that’s what I call FAITH. PUDDLEGLUM to Scrubbs, Pole and Rilian, when the Underworld started collapsing after the death of the Lady of the Green Kirtle:
“I’ll tell you what it is. That witch has laid a train of magic spells so that whenever she was killed, at that same moment her whole kingdom would fall to pieces. She’s the sort that wouldn’t so much mind dying herself if she knew that the chap who killed her was going to be burned, or buried, or drowned five minutes later.”
I know people like the witch in that sense! Finally, here’s PUDDLEGLUM to Scrubbs, Pole and Rilian, when they seemed to be trapped in the Underworld due to its collapse. Prince Rilian said, “Courage, friends. Whether we live or die Aslan will be our good Lord,” to which Puddleglum replied:
“That’s right, sir. And you must always remember there’s one good thing about being trapped down here: it’ll save funeral expenses.”
Talk about seeing the silver lining!
