Tag Archives: The Silver Chair

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 →

“An Older Wardrobe: Echoes of Deuteronomy in The Silver Chair” by A.J. Culp

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

As a child, I wasn’t much of a reader. But I was a listener. I loved listening to stories—to stories told and stories read. And the Chronicles of Narnia were some of my favourites, with my mother often reading them … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged A.J. Culp, Bible, C.S. Lewis, Deuteronomy, Memoir of Moses, Narnia, The Silver Chair | 15 Comments

“I Would Rather Die for Evermore Believing,” with George MacDonald and Frederick Buechner

Posted on January 21, 2021 by Brenton Dickieson

This week, I have been sharing my thoughts about Frederick Buechner‘s recent book, The Remarkable Ordinary: How to Stop, Look, and Listen to Life (2017). I have also been sharing some highlights from the text, including quotations from remarkable–and remarkably ordinary–authors. … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Curate, Frederick Buechner, George MacDonald, Puddleglum, The Remarkable Ordinary, The Silver Chair, Thomas Wingfold | 4 Comments

8 Questions about the Problem of Susan Narnia Debate, or How to Read Well

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

Kat Coffin’s brief article last week on “The Problem of Susan” is the hottest post of 2019. “How do you Solve a Problem like Susan Pevensie?” has been discussed in the blog comments and in various forums, sometimes with a … Continue reading →

Posted in Original Research, Reflections, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged A Preface to Paradise Lost, An Experiment in Criticism, Gender Theory, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mere Christianity, Michael Ward, Narnia, Reading, sexism, That Hideous Strength, The Last Battle, The Personal Heresy, The Problem of Susan, The Screwtape Letters, The Silver Chair, Till We Have Faces, Virginia Woolf | 53 Comments

Girls, Boys, and the Maps in Their Heads: A Reflection on Narnia

Posted on January 24, 2019 by Brenton Dickieson

I walk around with a map in my head. Or at least I try to. I have driven in Tokyo, Manhattan, Vancouver, Kobe, Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, and–most terrifying of all–Wales. There were times in the wilds of Japan or BC … Continue reading →

Posted in Memorable Quotes, Original Research, Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, feminism, leadership, Lewis and Gender, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Monika Hilder, Narnia, Prince Caspian, spirituality, The Last Battle, The Silver Chair, Voyage of the Dawn Treader | 186 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 | 20 Comments

The Words C.S. Lewis Made Up: Curialisation

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

We all know C.S. Lewis as the Narnian, but behind the children’s work 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, … Continue reading →

Posted in Studies in Words | Tagged Arthuriana, C.S. Lewis, Eugène Vinaver, lion the witch and the wardrobe, Morte Darthur, Narnia, Prince Caspian, That Hideous Strength, The Allegory of Love, The Quest of Bleheris, The Silver Chair, Till We Have Faces, William Morris | 13 Comments

TTL 17: “The Son of Lancelot.” — by Brenton D. G. Dickieson

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

Originally posted on The Oddest Inkling:
Here is Post #17 in the Series on Taliessin through Logres! It’s a long one, but a good one. Please visit the INTRODUCTION to this series first, and here is the INDEX to the…

Posted in Original Research, Reflections | Tagged Arthuriana, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, Dante, H.G. Wells, intertextuality, Milton, Out of the Silent Planet, Paradise Lost, Perelandra, Sorina Higgins, That Hideous Strength, The Silver Chair | 6 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 →

Posted in Fictional Worlds, Reflections | Tagged C.S. Lewis, children's literature, fantasy, lion the witch and the wardrobe, literature, Narnia, Reading, The Magician's Nephew, The Silver Chair, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Walter Hooper | 70 Comments

Balder the Beautiful Is Dead, Is Dead: C.S. Lewis’ Imaginative Conversion

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Brenton Dickieson

One day a young C.S. Lewis casually turned to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s death-dirge in the tradition of a northern epic poem, Tegner’s Drapa. He read these words that forever changed him: I heard a voice that cried, Balder the beautiful … Continue reading →