If you don't understand the background of The Lion, many people may think this story is very old-fashioned. Ah~ I originally hoped that White Witch was a character who is both good and evil. Later, when I looked at it, this story still did not break out of the circle of good and evil. Only after checking the background can I understand why this story is set in such a dualistic structure, of course it is related to the religious background of the author of the novel. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the first in the series The Chronicles of Narnia by the famous British scholar and novelist CS Lewis (1898-1963), and JRR Tolkien (1892-1973) who wrote The Lord of the Rings are both from Oxford. The characters in the circle called The Inklings, everyone knows each other's details, and they all have opinions on each other's novels. It is sad that the Chronicles of Narnia fell to the stage of children's books, and the Lord of the Rings became a fairy tale for adults. Especially JK Rowling (1965-) himself also mentioned that The Chronicles of Narnia is the forerunner of her Harry Potter series, Narnia is her daughter’s 365 nights story (I think it is also her own pillow story), and Potter will also interact with Narnia only wrote seven volumes.
But, in other words, for most Chinese readers, Narnia may only be suitable for adult studies, because many of our children do not have a Christian family background. Narnia has been recognized as an enlightenment reading of the Bible, just as we can find the essence of Confucian morality in the Three-character Classic. However, there is a little difference between the two. Both talk about history, but the three-character classic talks about the history of political rise and fall (from Xi Nong, to the Yellow Emperor...Return to the Han Dynasty, the Republic of China is prosperous). The book is a number of official history books; while Narnia talks about the history of the Bible. Several key concepts. The most obvious plot of these concepts in The Lion is that Aslan was sacrificed and resurrected on behalf of Edmund, symbolizing the sacrifice of Jesus to redeem all original sins and resurrection. Among them, Edmund symbolized Judas the betrayer, and guarding the body of Aslan. The two girls, Lucy and Susan, symbolize the two Marys who guarded the body of Jesus and were the first to contact the body of Jesus in the Bible. According to Wikipedia, this contains the four major themes of the gospel: betrayal, death, resurrection, and redemption. There is also Peter, who is called the future king, in The Lion. It is too obvious that he symbolizes Saint Peter. In this way, Aslan is Jesus, and the four children are the four apostles. In Narnia's later works, Aslan also mentioned a "Emperor over Sea" (Emperor over Sea), which is of course more than Aslan. Big, it symbolizes the Father. Wikipedia says this is the framework of the Trinity set up by the author CS Lewis.
People have different opinions on this meaning. For example, the author of the Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien, criticized his colleagues for saying that this is a very naive grafting. He also mentioned other references to the myths of various countries in the Chronicles of Narnia, so we can see that the grafting in the Lord of the Rings is not So stiff. But Narnia does seem to be geared towards children, so simply adding some elements is easy to understand. Although Potter's system is more mature than Narnia, how does it compare to Ring? Compared with the black tower? Compared with AD&D? The myths of the same European countries can serve different readers through different levels of text, so capitalists can make everyone's money.
Looking specifically at the pagan elements in The Lion, the main ones are: Mr. Tumnus, who introduced himself as a "faun", this is the beast in the ancient Roman mythology, the appearance is the same as in the movie. But the student who listened to the translation of the subtitles probably didn't understand the background knowledge first. As a result, he translated the person's name into "Thomas" and his identity was "Little Deer", which was confusing. He is not a deer, but a sheep, "human sheep". What everyone is more familiar with is the "Centaur" in the Aslan army, called Centaur, which is also in ancient Roman mythology. In addition to literature and game works, one of the zodiac signs is it; in addition, Dante puts it in the "Divine Comedy" It is set as the cow head horse face in hell. There is an obvious powerful figure in the White Witch army, the figure with a bull head, and that is Minotaur, from ancient Greek mythology. There is a Crete island in the Mediterranean Sea, on which the Cretan civilization of pre-Greek has been unearthed, which is a magnificent maze-like palace. But in mythology, this palace is called the nest of this minotaur. There is also a world setting. For example, Mr. Tumnus mentioned that this is a "Always winter, but never Christmas" place. Of course, the second half of this sentence is to give the children a quiet moment, but in the eyes of serious people, it is very unbearable. The first half of the sentence is about Norwegian mythology. It is mentioned in Norwegian mythology that on the eve of the destruction of the world, there was a long winter. The second half of the sentence is about Christianity. At this time, I remembered that I have to mention the "two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve" in the prophecy of the savior of Narnia, that is, two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve, used to refer to male humans And female humans. Don't you think it would be awkward for these pagan monsters to speak such biblical language? This is understandable. For children's books, the author does not need to painstakingly re-establish a seamless world system and world history.
Remember that before Aslan was resurrected, a mouse gnawed away the rope on his body for him? Allegedly, this comes from the "lion and mouse" story of Aesop's fables. The lion caught a mouse one day, but finally let it go. Later, the lion was caught by the hunter, and the mouse repaid the lion and saved it. As for Santa Claus, I don’t need to say too much. He is not entirely a religious figure. Most of him comes from folklore. These are two elements of non-mythological origin.
Yilin Publishing has translated and published a full set of The Chronicles of Narnia last year, which is much cheaper than Harry Potter. The former may be just a fashion in the last century, and later became a tradition with the Lord of the Rings; and ha Lee Porter has been completely held in the palm of the hand of the money-supreme capitalist. In this way, culture is reduced to a commodity, a commodity with huge profits.
PS gives you a world map of Narnia:
http://look.gxnews.com.cn/picwater1/20060717/b5fb86a952977bdefb731eb3d6060529c_130463.jpg
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