# Aslan is on the move **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003 "2005-08-21T18:00:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/61 "2005-08-25T12:49:10Z")
As I said, I’m away from by books, so I can’t answer till next week. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/62 "2005-08-25T12:50:28Z")
And while I’m using the computers in Internet cafes, I can’t use spellcheck, so I make stupid mistakes like “by” for “my.” ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/63 "2005-08-25T13:03:42Z")
> [@furt](#): > > This is laughably ignorant of C.S. Lewis… How so? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/64 "2005-08-25T14:01:25Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > And while I’m using the computers in Internet cafes, I can’t use spellcheck, so I make stupid mistakes like “by” for “my.” Like a spellcheck would catch that. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/65 "2005-08-25T14:19:24Z")
> [@Genghis Bob](#): > > How so? C.S. Lewis is regarded by some as one of the best writers about what it means to be an Anglican Christian. [Mere Christianity](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060652926/102-0515338-3315346?v=glance) is an excellent case for orthodox Christianity. He writes about what Christians beleive, and how Christians should act, the meaning of original sin, the transcendent Creator God, and the divinity of Christ, and Christ’s resurrection. These are orthodox Christian beliefs. > [@foolsguinea](#): > > As for the Xtian elements, to be fair, Aslan is as much a Krishna figure as a Jesus Christ type. Which is to say, really, he represents Lewis’s idea of God rather than something religiously orthodox. I could rephrase **foolsguinea** ’s statement by saying that C.S. Lewis’ writing is so profound, so fresh, that he makes us see orthodox aspects of religion in an entirely new light. ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/66 "2005-08-25T14:24:54Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > C.S. Lewis is regarded by some as one of the best writers about what it means to be an Anglican Christian. [Mere Christianity](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060652926/102-0515338-3315346?v=glance) is an excellent case for orthodox Christianity. He writes about what Christians beleive, and how Christians should act, the meaning of original sin, the transcendent Creator God, and the divinity of Christ, and Christ’s resurrection. These are orthodox Christian beliefs. . . I knew this about CS Lewis. I’ve read _Mere Christianity_, _The Great Divorce_, _The Screwtape Letters_, _Suprised by Joy_. That’s why I was surprised to see \*\*Furt’s \*\* assertion that CS Lewis was “ignorant”. On re-reading \*\*Furt’s \*\* post in light of your reply, I see that I _ **whooshed myself** _. Oh well; it’s not the first time, and probably will not be the last! ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/67 "2005-08-25T15:47:56Z")
> [@Genghis Bob](#): > > I knew this about CS Lewis. I’ve read _Mere Christianity_, _The Great Divorce_, _The Screwtape Letters_, _Suprised by Joy_. That’s why I was surprised to see \*\*Furt’s \*\* assertion that CS Lewis was “ignorant”. > > On re-reading \*\*Furt’s \*\* post in light of your reply, I see that I _ **whooshed myself** _. Oh well; it’s not the first time, and probably will not be the last! No, I think that **Furt** meant that **foolsguinea** was unaware that C.S. Lewis is a great defender of traditional Anglican Christian beliefs. Aslan is not a Krishna figure. Aslan is Christ, if Christ were in Narnia. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/68 "2005-08-25T16:18:42Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > What were the name changes, do you remember? From [here](http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/lewis/cs-lewis.htm): > [@](#): > > **Is it true that there are differences in the British and American editions of the Narnia books?** > > Some very minor changes were made to The Lion … and The Voyage … for their American publication. For example, the name of the witch’s agent is changed from “Maugrim” to “Fenris Ulf” and Peter’s title from “Sir Peter Wolfs-Bane” to “Sir Peter Fenris-Bane.” In the English edition, Aslan says that the Emperor’s magic is written “in letters as deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones of the Secret Hill.” In the American he says “in letters as deep as a spear is long on the trunk of the world ash-tree.” The current (1994) Harper Collins American editions have been standardised with the English versions. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/69 "2005-08-25T16:30:16Z")
Wow. “Maugrim” and “fire-stones of the Secret Hill”? What could possibly be the purpose of such changes? > [@](#): > > In the draft script, the non-Narnian sections of the book were updated to modern Los Angeles. The children are staying with the Professor in order to avoid an earthquake, rather than air-raids: in an earlier draft, they were sent away as a punishment because Edmund had shop-lifted a CD. Other delights apparently included a Narnian trades-union (ALON: “Allied Leopards of Narnia”) and centaurs that graze. The first draft evidently had Edmund asking the White Witch, not for “Turkish Delight” but for “Cheeseburger and Fries”! Had this made it to the screen, I’d have burned down as many movie theatres as possible before they caught me. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/70 "2005-08-25T16:59:58Z")
> [@](#): > > and centaurs that graze. But centaurs _do_ graze, don’t they? I seem to remember at the end of the Silver Chair they talked about how the centaurs had to first eat a normal human breakfast (eggs and sausages and toast and all that) then had to eat a horse (ie, graze, at least in my mind!) breakfast, since they had two stomachs. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/71 "2005-08-25T17:41:43Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > _However_, as he wrote in the letter to Laurence in which he addresses the ordering point, “perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone reads them.” I think this is the most important part. I forget where (The Discarded Image?) but Lewis said that he didn’t even see a need to read a book exactly in order (though he wasn’t necessarily talking about novels). He also thought that trying to divine an author’s intentions about their own writing was largely a waste of time. I’d imagine his reply wasn’t meant to be speaking with authority on the proper way to do it, merely to provide the information that indicated one needn’t stick to his ‘plan’, since that as such didn’t really exist. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/72 "2005-08-25T18:07:28Z")
> [@Dung Beetle](#): > > Wow. “Maugrim” and “fire-stones of the Secret Hill”? What could possibly be the purpose of such changes? I’d always wondered whether the World Ash Tree was really [Yggdrasil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yggdrasil), which would fit in with Lewis’ and Tolkien’s grounding in Norse mythology. (Look for the carving of a tree on the wardrobe in the movie trailer.) Likewise, Fenris was the child of Loki, and took the shape of a wolf. These changes from the original text are interesting. Perhaps Lewis felt that mythology would be more acceptable in the United States? I wonder if the original names were grounded in Christianity. Perhaps “The Secret Hill” is an oblique reference to [Golgotha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgotha)? Maugrim? I got nothin’. Maybe created specifically for the book. I have a hardcover set in the original ordering, and with the American wording. Not the original Pauline Baynes dust jackets, but I think I’ll keep them. I’ve been a fan of these books for over forty years, and I can’t believe that I never knew this (it’s probably old hat to most of you folks), but I just found out that Lewis passed away the same day that J F Kennedy was assasinated. best to all, plynck ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/73 "2005-08-26T02:28:57Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > I was under the impression that the children who were regular correspondents of Lewis were sort of his “godchildren,” either because they were the children of friends and colleagues of his or because he knew them in some other way, like the children from London who stayed in his house during World War II. So, in criticizing their stories and such, he was merely acting in his _in loco parentis_ role. I don’t think that he had any long correspondences with children who weren’t known to him in other ways. I don’t think this is the case. He got a lot of fan mail from the States, from people he knew nothing about. Some of these correspondences lasted a long time, even though, in those days of limited air travel (and Lewis travelled very little, if at all, outside the British Isles between the end of the Great War and his holiday in Greece with Joy shortly before she died), the correspondents were never to meet. Thus, he wrote 28 letters to Joan (at the time of the start of their correspondence just a young girl) over a period of many years. Joan lived in New York, wintering in Florida, but was I believe unknown to Lewis. Similarly, Laurence was a nine-year old when he (in fact, his mother - see below) first wrote to Lewis in 1955 - again from America. Interestingly, when he did write to his godchild Sarah, he addressed her as ‘My dear Sarah’, while the other kids were typically ‘Dear xxx’. Re the ordering of his children’s books, it’s also worth bearing in mind that when CSL wrote to Laurence in 1957, his wife was “very, very ill”, as he writes in the final paragraph of the same letter. So, such matters would have seemed rather insiginificant at the time. Re the Aslan/Jesus point, in 1955 Laurence’s mother wrote a letter to Lewis c/o Macmillan’s because her son was worried that he loved Aslan more than Jesus (dear kid!). Within ten days, she received Lewis’s lengthy reply, putting the boy at ease. (After that, Laurence himself wrote to CSL quite a bit.) Actually, Lewis’s is a beautiful letter - the kind that brings tears to one’s eyes. Addressing Laurence’s mum’s main point, CSL writes: “Laurence can’t _really_ love Aslan more than Jesus, even if he feels that’s what he’s doing. For the things he loves Aslan for doing or saying are simply the things that Jesus really did and said. So that when Laurence thinks he is loving Aslan, he is really loving Jesus.” Going back (in fact, forward) to the 1957 letter, Lewis writes the following after telling Laurence (and his mum) about his wife’s serious illness. “I am sure Aslan knows best and whether He leaves her with me or takes her to His own country, He will do what is right.” The identification of Aslan with Jesus is made as strong as it might be without being made explicit. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/74 "2005-08-26T09:55:48Z")
Plynck writes: \> These changes from the original text are interesting. Perhaps Lewis felt that \> mythology would be more acceptable in the United States? I’m pretty sure that the small changes are not in any sense an “Americanization” of the book. Lewis just decided after finishing the books that he could make a couple extra mythological references by changing the names of a couple characters. He almost certainly intended these changes to be made in all the editions of the books, but for some reason these changes only happened to be communicated to the American publisher. This is like the discussion of why the American publisher changed the title of the first Harry Potter book to _Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone_. It’s not the case that “sorceror” would be familiar to American children while “philosopher” wouldn’t, as in the British title _Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_. This is purely and simply a matter of the publisher saying, “I can change the book in any way I want. No one else’s opinion matters, including that of the author.” This is why the American publisher randomly changes some British terms in the Harry Potter books to American terms, even though it’s done in a bizarrely sporadic fashion. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/75 "2005-08-26T20:15:19Z")
Well, I certainly didn’t read all the books in order, & I don’t feel too bothered by it. As for Aslan being a Christ-type, I still maintain that he is C.S. Lewis’s _idea_ of a Christ-type, but in his multiple appearances through history, far closer to one of the Olympian gods as portrayed in Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_ than the singular prophet-god of Xtianity. My comparison of Aslan to Krishna was not that well thought-out. I was dimly remembering that Krishna, or Vishnu, was incarnated multiple times. None of this is a slam against Jack Lewis. I think his intuitive idea of what “the son of the Great Emperor from across the sea” _should_ be like is a greater clue to nature of the god that human hope seeks than the addled myths of Christian tradition. People like to talk about C.S. Lewis as a Xtian apologist, but I credit him with saving me from fundamentalist Xtianity. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/76 "2005-08-26T20:30:10Z")
Actually, I credit Lewis with showing me a vision of the divine order that Christianity finally convinced me it wasn’t. What really saved me was something else. But Lewis did perhaps prepare to accept the possible legitimacy of polytheism, which is helpful in my intermittent quest for truth. ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/77 "2005-08-27T22:15:34Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > This is like the discussion of why the American publisher changed the title of the first Harry Potter book to _Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone_. It’s not the case that “sorceror” would be familiar to American children while “philosopher” wouldn’t, as in the British title _Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone_. This is purely and simply a matter of the publisher saying, “I can change the book in any way I want. No one else’s opinion matters, including that of the author.” This is why the American publisher randomly changes some British terms in the Harry Potter books to American terms, even though it’s done in a bizarrely sporadic fashion. Sorry for my confusion here, but did you mean “This is like the discussion etc.” or This is \*not \* like the discussion etc."? It would appear that in the first case the changes were at Lewis’ request and changed back after his death, and in the second they were at Rowling’s publisher’s direction with no direction from her. In rereading this thread I saw your earlier post that Lewis’ changes had no particular reference to the nationality of his audience; sorry I missed that. In the Rowling/HP example, however, I would disagree. With “The Philosopher’s Stone”, I think that the publisher was deliberately dumbing down the title to make it sound sexier. Which is a damn shame, if I might be allowed to continue the minor hijack about substitutions. One of the joys in reading The Narnian Chronicles as a child was discovering English terms that differed from those used in America, such as “torch” for what we call a flashlight. American HP publishers have done as much as they could to cushion their readers from any potential culture shock :rolleyes: best to all, plynck ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/78 "2005-08-28T17:34:36Z")
I meant that the discussion of why the small changes in names were made in the American editions of the Narnia books and not the British editions is similar to the discussion of why the American authors changed the title of the first Harry Potter book and, fairly randomly, changed a few of the British slang terms in the Harry Potter books in the following sense: Plynck had written the following: \> Perhaps Lewis felt that mythology would be more acceptable in the United \> States? It’s pretty clear that this isn’t true. (Among other things, I know enough about both American and British culture to know that in no sense is discussion of mythology more acceptable in the U.S. than in the U.K.) The only reason that the changes were made in the American editions of the Narnia books and not the British ones is that just by accident the list of changes happened to reach the American publisher and not the British publisher. This seems similar to me to the claims of some people that the reason that the American publisher changed the title of the first book and rather randomly changed some British slang to American slang because American children are less likely to know what a philosopher is and don’t want to have to experience British slang. I don’t think so. If these changes are dumbing down the book, it’s because the publisher is dumb and not American children. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2005, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/79 "2005-08-28T18:20:25Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > No, I think that **Furt** meant that **foolsguinea** was unaware that C.S. Lewis is a great defender of traditional Anglican Christian beliefs. Aslan is not a Krishna figure. Aslan is Christ, if Christ were in Narnia. Exactly so. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003/80 "2005-10-10T17:33:35Z")
From a 10-minute show reel, [the news is encouraging](http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21505) (link is from AICN, so YMMV). Can’t wait. 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aslan-is-on-the-move/318003.md?page=5)