Tag Archives: The Magician’s Nephew

The Thing about Riding Centaurs: A Note on Narnia, Harry Potter, Madeline Miller’s Song of Achilles, and the Black Stallion

Posted on July 27, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

As a child reading in a bed surrounded by acres of horse-less fields, I was completely taken up by the Black Stallion series by Walter Farley. Marooned survivors of a shipwreck, city kid Alec Ramsay befriends an untameable stallion, whom he … Continue reading →

Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Owen Barfield, Language, Childlike Faith, Joy, and the Inklings

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

I have just begun reading Susanna Clarke’s weighty novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. I mean “weighty” in the literal, physical sense: I am finding this 1,000-page wonder, a book I did not believe could be written in this century, … Continue reading →

Posted in News & Links, Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia, Inklings, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Narnia, owen barfield, Piranesi, Susanna Clarke, The Magician's Nephew | 43 Comments

Orual and the King of Glome

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Brenton Dickieson

On the surface of it, there is no greater contrast than Queen Orual and her tyrannical father. Even when we consider only Book 1 of C.S. Lewis’ great literary fiction, Till We Have Faces, Orual is not just a successful … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, Till We Have Faces | 15 Comments

Gods or Angels? A guest post by Yvonne Aburrow

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

The Inklings and Paganism Before he became a Christian, C.S. Lewis was deeply inspired by ancient Pagan mythology, and he continued to value it as mythopoeia after his conversion, and seems to have sought to reconcile the Christian worldview with … Continue reading →

Posted in Guest Blogs, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, myth, mythology, Narnia, Norse Mythology, owen barfield, paganism, That Hideous Strength, The Discarded Image, The Hobbit, The Magician's Nephew | 35 Comments

A Timeline for the Creation of Narnia

Posted on September 13, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

Yesterday I shared some Press Association news about a new C.S. Lewis letter that popped up in a Lewis Facebook discussion groups. It really is a neat letter and a great opportunity to see Lewis’ handwriting when he is writing … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged books, C.S. Lewis, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Narnia, Prince Caspian, Roger Lancelyn Green, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Horse and His Boy, The Last Battle, The LeFay Fragment, The Magician's Nephew, The Silver Chair, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Walter Hooper, writing | 24 Comments

Good Political Leadership According to Narnia

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

I made the statement almost by accident to some of my grad students: Narnia has a pretty sophisticated political philosophy, especially when you consider it is written for children. As soon as I said it, I knew it to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections | Tagged American politics, books, C.S. Lewis, children's literature, fantasy, Narnia, Political Theology, Politics, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician's Nephew, Trudeau, Trump, UK Politics, war, WWI, WWII | 76 Comments

The Words C.S. Lewis Made Up: Re/Anti/Un/Ness

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

Behind C.S. Lewis’ famous Narnian chronicles was his experience as a teacher of English literature, a writer about the history of literary movements, and a tinker in other forms of fiction. In that tinkering, and in his letters and essays, … Continue reading →

Posted in Studies in Words, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Both Sides of the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis, English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, g k chesterton, letters, love, OHEL, Studies in Words, Surprised by Joy, The Four Loves, The Magician's Nephew, The Screwtape Letters, Theology of Culture, writing | 2 Comments

The Haunting Death: Lewis, Buechner, and Me on the Loss of my Parents

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

On Friday, February 12th, I watched my mother finally succumb to cancer. She was only 61. In her death she taught me a great deal about how to live. You can read a brief story of her life here. I am now … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections, Reviews | Tagged Bebb, C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, Galatians 2:20, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Jane Austin, Lemony Snicket, Letters to an America Lady, Lois Lowry, orphan literature, Prince Caspian, The Giver, The Magician's Nephew, The Willoughbys, Watchman Nee | 31 Comments

On a Picture by Chirico: A Proposal about the Creation of Narnia

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

What sorts of things was C.S. Lewis thinking about as he made the sudden turn to Narnia? When you look at the projects on Lewis’ desk, you would hardly guess that he would turn to a children’s fairy tale. Here … Continue reading →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Lewis Biography | Tagged art, C.S. Lewis, children's literature, Chirico, faerie, fantasy, Fictional Universes, lion the witch and the wardrobe, myth, Narnia, On Writing, Past Watchful Dragons, Poetry, The LeFay Fragment, The Magician's Nephew, Walter Hooper, writing | 71 Comments

The Real Order to Read Narnia: A Third Way

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Brenton Dickieson

When my son and I sat down to go through Narnia together, perhaps when he was 7 and 8, I had no doubt that we would read them as C.S. Lewis wrote them–the Published Order. That means starting with The … Continue reading →