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| Poster from the film version (Wikipedia) |
Note: The seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis, was designed as a Christian allegory, but it can be enjoyed without resorting to the underlying mythology.
Get Ready: Have you read or seen any of the Narnia series of books and movies? How do you feel about stories that include magic or fantasy?
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--the first and by far the most popular of the seven books in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia--four British siblings are evacuated to the countryside during the World War II German bombing of London. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie stay with a professor in his large old house. There, Lucy goes through the back of a wardrobe and enters Narnia, a magical land, where she encounters a faun named Mr. Tumnus.
He tells her that Narnia is ruled by an evil White Witch who has cast the land into perpetual winter. Intending to report Lucy's arrival to the Witch, Tumnus instead relents and guides her back to the wardrobe.
Lucy's siblings refuse to believe her story, but on her second journey her troublesome brother Edmund follows her. He meets the White Witch, who feeds him a candy called Turkish Delight and convinces him to bring the others to her. If he does so, she will make him a prince.
On a third journey, all four of the children meet a pair of beavers, who tell them that the Witch fears them as the fulfillment of a prophecy that would end her power. Edmund leaves the group to report to the Witch, who decides that the Beavers and the children are to be executed. Fortunately, Father Christmas arrives (a sign that the White Witch's power is weakening, as she had previously banned him from Narnia) and he gives them weapons with which to defend themselves.
The true ruler of Narnia is a talking lion named Aslan, who allows the Witch to sacrifice him in exchange for the life of her captive, Edmund. The morning after she executes the lion, he resurrects. Together, the lion and the children from the wardrobe defeat the Witch in a great battle. The Pevensie children are crowned kings and queens of Narnia until, as adults, they accidentally re-enter the back of the wardrobe--and emerge back in England as children again, with no time passed!
When they tell the Professor their story, he believes them, and tells them they will someday return to Narnia.
--------Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion,_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe
Practice: Match the term to its definition below:
- allegory
- beavers
- evacuated
- faun
- perpetual
- relents
- resurrects
- sacrifice
- siblings
- wardrobe
- cleared out; removed (people)
- a symbolical story
- rises from the dead
- a minor roman god similar to a goat
- children of the same parents
- changes his mind
- north American mammals that build dams
- a cupboard for clothes
- constant; never-ending
- kill to save someone or something else
Answers are in the first comment below.
Submitted to the Shenzhen Daily for March 8, 2021
Answers to the Practice: 1. b; 2. g; 3. a; 4. d; 5. i; 6. f; 7. c; 8. j; 9. e; 10. h
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