Happy Birthday Narnia!
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis was first published on October 16, 1950… Exactly sixty-one years ago today!
To mark the occasion, we are inviting NarniaWebbers to share their first experience with Narnia. When did you discover it? What were your first impressions? How did you become such a big fan? Post your story in the comments section below. Also, check out this brief history of Narnia:
Here are some stories from the staff to start us off:
Tirian:
When I was about four years old I remember seeing “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” sitting on a table in our house. It was the old cover from the 70’s and it really captured my imagination. I really, really wanted to read the story but my parents said I was too young. I think they finally gave in when I was five. Growing up, LWW was one of the first “real” books that I read (well they read it to me) and I just loved it! It really set the stage for my love of literature and Narnia at a very early age.
Starkat:
DiGoRyKiRkE:
I was bullied a lot in school, and so my Mom pulled me out and homeschooled me. I suppose I’d forgotten about that children’s story from so long ago, but one day, while in a Christian bookstore (around age 12 or so), I found the Narnia section. I hadn’t known that there were more books in the series, so I saved up my allowance for weeks so that I could buy a set, and what a change has been made in my life ever since.
Those books were there for me at a time when few other things were. I don’t think people realize just how much they lean on dreams, until they’re forced to wake up and see the harsh truth that life is a cruel place. Narnia was my dream for many many years. It got me through some hard times, put a smile on my face, and brought me to a place like NarniaWeb, which I truly couldn’t imagine living without.
MountainFireflower:
When I got older, I wondered what had happened after the adventures in LWW. At the end of the book, it had said there were more adventures, right? I wasn’t aware that there were more books, so I decided to write my own. I guess you could call them fan fiction. Thankfully, shortly after that, I discovered my dad’s old set of the Chronicles in our basement. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I love how the Chronicles, even though they are children’s books, are really still so relevant. They’ve been such a lovely part of my life, and as weird as it sounds, I’m thankful for Narnia and the way it’s impacted me.
glumPuddle:
One night in early 2001, I had a cold and was unable to sleep. So I got up, walked into the living room, and sat down. There, lying on the end table, was a box set of The Chronicles of Narnia (thankfully, they were in publication order). I casually picked up the first book, “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,” meaning only to look at the cover to fight boredom, and maybe skim the first page… Before I knew it, hours had gone by and I was still reading. I read the series twice that year. “Wow,” I thought,”These aren’t warm fuzzy kids books after all. They’re actually really good. They’re actually compelling.”
The books bring back the magic and sense of possibility of storytime, and I love Lewis’ ability to take deep concepts and express them very simply. Every time I go back and re-read the series, I see it from a different perspective. I do not think I became a huge fan of the books because they are great reads; I became a fan because they are amazing re-reads… and re-re-reads… and re-re-re-reads…
Only the beginning of the adventures of Narnia!
What’s your story? Post it below!
The first time I ever heard of Narnia, was back in a little town called Ottawa, in Kansas. I believe I was about five. It was in the church library I found the cartoon LWW. I took it home (Mom said it was ok) and watched it. I thought it was the coolest movie ever! I watched it several times. Then, when the latest Lww came out, I saw it in the theater, and was totally amazed. I got the series in the huge volume with the White witch on the front cover. I read the books and I am still going back and rereading them or listening to the audio-books in the car while I am driving to Colorado for the annual vacation. The books are some of the best novels out there, and I tell many people to read them!
My first recollection of the beloved Narnia Chronicles was my parents reading them to me when I was a pre-schooler. They began with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, whose title, even typing it out, brings such warmth and delicious memories to my heart. I was hooked for life, and repeated the same wonder of beginning to read the Chronicles to our own children at young ages. Even now, when they are all adults, I will sometimes read aloud, and find them still captivated. Recently, when reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of our sons, busy with other things, left that stuff to listen in. "You know, he commented, "That is a *good* story". 😀
I love how Lewis presents such depth of profound ideas in simple and understandable ways. His life-changing writings will always be some of my most treasured tales here in the Shadowlands, until the beginning of Chapter One of the Great Story (when we can hopefully converse with the author face-to-face!), bringing comfort, encouragement, conviction, hope, and inspiration, and, most of all, pointing me to the "one true myth"—truths that have helped uphold me in the darker shadows of life. Still, to this day, I can hardly read some of the most precious passages in the Chronicles without coming apart at the seams … in a good way. 🙂
With great fondness and love for Narnia, I enthusiastically exclaim, Aslan is on the move, so … further up and further in!
(The FotF Radio Dramas are favourites in our home, as well as the BBC films, so true to the books they are, overall.)
The 2005 Walden Media Narnia was my introduction to the movies. It turns out, however, that I had heard it mention before- in "Friends" but not knowing what it was it never registered with me.
My older brother got the books when I was quite young. Then my family rented the BBC movies which is what I remember. As I grew older I appreciated them more and soon became a total Narnia fan!! 🙂
I think when I was about 11 my parents got me the books for my birthday. It was very special to me. I read through all of them in 2 days. I also watched all the new Narnia films when they were in theaters. I currently own the LWW film and game for Xbox, as well as the PC game. I hope to get the VDT movie for Christmas or for my 15th birthday in a couple of months. That's my story!
Something else related that has become so intertwined with my life is 2nd Chapter of Acts' 1980 album, "The Roar of Love". And I know there are other NarniaWebbers for whom this has become a beloved musical telling of The LWW as well. ♥
I'm a second-generation Narnia fan. My father had read the books when he was a child, and he says they were the first books that showed him how wonderful reading can be. That was long before he became a Christian, and when he did, they became even more dear to him. So, when me and my siblings were very young (I was probably no older than six) he read the entire series aloud to us, one chapter every night before bed. I remember it so fondly, and I loved those stories. I also practically grew up on the BBC adaptions (and I believe I'm one of the few who actually think of them fondly, despite their low quality!) Since then I've read them countless times; I think it's safe to say that though my whole family enjoys the series, I'm the biggest Narniac of us all. 🙂
Narnia was my first introduction to fantasy literature and readinng. I remmeber my mom had the audiobook for Lion the witch and the Wardrobe, and I loved it. Then a very close friend of my parents used to babysit me and my siblings, and would read the books to us before bed, she read us all 7 in order. I remember in 2004-ish that they were maikng LWW as a movie, I was stoked. I remeber the first showing of it in the theaters on opening night, and for northern New Hampshire (where I used to live) it was packed, me and my whole family and friends went with us and it was just amazing and aweinspiring. I remember in 2004 anxiously awaiting this movie and seeing the screenshots for the movie and seeing the first trailer, there was no way it seemed that this movie could fail, it did not dissapoint!
Okay, my parents had never read the Narnia books to me, but my mom had read them years ago, making notes on all the Christian parallels on the books in pen.
Fast forward to 2005, and while in the Twin Cities in a McDonald's, eight year old me received a Mr. Beaver toy in her Happy Meal, which has now been missing for quite some time. Just a few days later, my family went to a theater, with my cousins to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. This being my first movie like this with all of the fantasy action and battles, I was a tiny bit scared, but having good parents, I knew the difference between fantasy and reality. I loved the movie to death. I remember during the Battle of Beruna I was more concerned for the unicorn than Peter. 😛
Two years later, in fourth grade, we had a book exchange. Being an advanced reader, I tried to choose chapter books over 100 pages or so. Two of those books happened to be The Magician's Nephew and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It took me some time, but I eventually read them and loved them. Later, I read my mom's copies of the seven books and also read over her markings and notes about Biblical parallels she had found.
Today I am still a fan of this beloved series, and hope to see many more generations read it in the future. 🙂
-Leah/Lou
I've grown up with the old BBC Narnias, and then when the new LWW came out, I read the books. I THINK it was after I saw the first movie…I think! So Yeah 🙂
I was first introduced to the Narnian universe at the age of seven (almost 8) when my sister watched the 2005 adaptation. I wasn't too thrilled about that, because I was a total dinosaur fanatic, so while my sister and mom watched LWW, my dad and I watched King Kong. However, in 3rd grade, I read LWW, and found it interesting, so I asked to watch the movie. My sister, then a library volunteer, rented the movie for me in the summer of 2007, and I was hooked. Narnia was all I talked about. Narnia this, Aslan that, it was pretty funny. By October I had read all seven books and discovered that they were making a movie of Prince Caspian, and all I would talk about was Narnia and its messages. For Christmas I received the DVD of the movie and several toy knights, and I played Narnia all the time. My dad built me a castle out of wood, and I made battles with the knights and some plastic animals I had. I watched Prince Caspian on opening day with my parents and sister, and although I'm not as big a Narnia geek as I was, I still watched VoDT on opening day and occasionally read the books. To the producers: Either start over from scratch or keep making the movies, but never let the Narnian legacy die! For Aslan!
Yeah, I watched the BBC movies too and own the complete set. They're not too bad, but their choices for Lucy and Susan weren't exactly all that good. I still like them, though, and every Christmas (since 2007) I still watch the adaptation of PC and VoDT, remembering the little boy who played with knights and was inspired by Narnia.
when I was at my uncles I went in to his spare room and he has millions of films especially narnia and I asked him if I could wath it and he said yes AND THATS HOW I FIGERD OUT ABOUT NARNIA!
cool
First time I remember was when I was in the second grade and our class read LWW and watched the animated movie (on one of those old film reels too lol- no I'm not that old- only 19, my class was just low tech) My mother also read the book too me and I remember begging her every night, "Please, just one more chapter?"
Well over time those memories began to fade until 2005, at the age of 13, when I saw the trailers for the new movie. By then I barely even remembered the plot but I remembered I loved it. It was around this time I discovered that there were 6 more books that I have never even heard of before sitting in a section of our local bookstore. When I got home I ordered all of them from our library's system, and of course they never arrived in order, but I read them anyways, unable to put them down 😛 Fortunately I was very good at reading series out of order (at least I read LB last :P). In 2006 I finally rented the dvd of the new movie and fell in love with it. By 2007 I found out there was going to be more, searched wikipedia, found a link to narniaweb.com and the rest is history.
(and by out of order- I mean severely out of order, like VDT after SC- hence why I'm not one who sides with either chronological or publication 😛 It really depends on the person)
i watched the movie in 2005 and loved it….then i was hooked 🙂
I saw the old BBC movie when I was 2 or 3. I didn't remember too much beyond a creepy witch and a talking lion. But my mom and dad starting reading the books to us kids in the evenings, and I was hooked. When I heard that they were making the movies I was thrilled!
I have seen and loved every movie, read the books multiple times, and listened to the audio books over and over. In fact, that is what I am doing now. 🙂
I was almost 9 years old when I started seeing commercials for the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. One day my mom saw one of the commercials and she said "Oh yay! They're makeing Narnia into a movie!" (My mom's side of the family are Narnia fans. My grandparents go to the theatre with us when a new Narnia film is out) So we went to the theatre and saw The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I loved it! Then the following months my sister read Magicians Neffew to me. I thought that book was great. I wasn't a big reader back then so I didn't finish the series.
Then a few years later Prince Caspian came out. I loved that one too! That convinced me to start reading the Chronicles. Since that day I'm always int he middle of one of the books. When I finish one book I go one to the next book. And when I finish the series, I start it again 🙂
When I was 7, I was spending my Christmas holiday here in the US, back when I lived somewhere else. My aunt took me Christmas shopping, and we had McDonald's for lunch. I had a Happy meal, and the theme was… Narnia. I took one look, and decided that this scary snowy picture MUST be for teens… something like that. I kept the White Witch and Lucy toys though.
I remember that day in 4th grade, when the teacher announced to us that we'll be reading a new book together. She passed out LWW to us, and one glance inside set an alarm off in my head: This is WAY too hard! How are we supposed to read!!??? But we read the first page, which wasn't as hard as the print made it look.
Eventually we read through the whole book, and I loved the story. For some unknown reason, LWW was on TV, so my family and I decided to watch it together. That made me the official Narnia fan. A month later, my dad took me to see the new PC film. Of course half of my 4th grade class was there too. And then I realized: 'thank god I saved those Happy meal toys!' and then, 'Narnia is not ONLY for teens!'
"None of the children knew who Aslan was anymore than you do." –LWW
If LWW isn't first, that is confusing.
I was nine when I first heard of Narnia. I was at a Christian book store and they had the movie playing on a repeat. (The part I saw was of Edmund getting healed by Lucy at the very end of LWW.) Then, Aslan came into the picture. My mom came up and said that this was a movie that her friend had told her about earlier that week. She told me that it had a talking Lion, sword fighting and a witch. I decided that it didn't sound too good to me.
I didn't have anything to do with Narnia until 2008 when I saw some PC posters, promotions on TV, exc. My mom said that maybe, since I was older, we should try Narnia. I was still scared of the witch part, but I said that she and my dad should pre-watch it before me and my younger brother watched it. So, they watched LWW. After watching it, my mom said, "You are going to absolutely LOVE this movie!" The next night, I journeyed into Narnia for the first time. I remember getting chill bumps when Aslan first stepped out of the tent. I shouted with the army "For Narnia, and for Aslan!", cried at the Stone Table, and loved that movie all the way through! I especially loved all of the Christian parallels hidden throughout the story. We watched it three nights in a row because we loved it so much! (I was the first one to notice that it was Aslan to jump out of Mr. Tumnis' fire, not a minion of Jadis.)
I was sooooo excited about PC then! I could hardly wait! One day, I was telling my friends about how I loved the movie and wanted to see PC so badly. "Oh, but don't you know that there are seven books too?" they asked me. I screamed with joy when they told me that! They let me borrow the entire series. Mom was going to read them out loud, one chapter a night, but I couldn't wait that long to see what happened! I finished the series in a week; I even read when my grandparents came over!! I cried with Lucy in the LB because I knew that soon, I would finish the Narnia series!
As I read the last page of LB, I knew I just had to own these books! The next day, I bought the entire Chronicles of Narnia and reread them immediately!
Since then, PC and VDT have come out at the theater and on DVD. I loved every moment of them! Narnia is my favorite book series, (LWW coming out on the top), movie series, (LWW #1 again!)and radio drama series! I even think that I know Narnian history and geography better than I know Earth's! THAT is how I came to know and love Narnia. "For Narnia, and for Aslan!!!!!!"
Honestly I don't have the most amazing backstory for narnia… I really just first heard about it when LWW came out.. : ( But yeah, and THEN i started reading the books… my parents, sadly, never really INTRODUCED me to narnia, but i will be sure to tell my kids about it, seeing how it's such a big part of my life. :0)
Because I didn't really read for a long time, I actually watched the BBC LWW movie before I ever read the books. We had LWW, VDT, and SC.I don't remeber when I first saw that movie. I getting and listening to some audio versions on tape of it around the ages of 7-9 and then I started to read the books from when I was 10-16 (I believe) when I finally finished the Last Battle. (It does take me a long time to read series.)I would guess though that I have know about these books since I was 4 or 5.
Through my sister's book collection! 😀
haha spare room! (spare oom)
I was given MN and LWW when I was about 6, and then my uncle gave me LWW (the movie) for my birthday one year, but I was too scared to watch it. Then my friend invited me to see PC in theaters and I remember loving it and thinking Susan was really pretty. A few years later, I saw LWW on tv, and it was the ending, so of course I wanted to see the beginning, but then I remembered I owned it. I loved the movie, and started reading the books and fell in love with them as well. My mom bought me the rest of the series, and the PC dvd after we saw the Narnia: The Exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. I went to see VDT in theaters with my friend when it came out last year, and she thought I was so strange when I bawled my eyes out at the end. I am still in love with the books and movies and will continue to do so for my whole life.
My sister likes the movies, but she thinks I'm too obsessed with the whole thing. She doesn't understand what it means to be a friend of Narnia.
I actually forget when exactly I was first introduced to Narnia, but it was the BBC version of LWW. My chuch library had it. Then when I was around 6, my family moved nd started going to a new church. While looking in their library, I found the BBC version of PC and VotDT. I recognized the Narnia title and for some reason remembered just the beavers from LWW. After watching PC and VotDT, I found the books in the library and started reading them. I kept on telling my brothers how great they were, but they would not read them. After a couple of years, I decided to read the books to my younger brother (because at the time he did not like to read). So, every night before bed, I would read a chapter of two (occasionaly going past our bedtime), and he loved them. He eventually read them on his own, but he never got into them as mych as I did. And my older brother… I'm still working on him.
when i first saw narnia i waas scared of it,but after i grew up and saw narnia again i fell in love with it and now it is one of my favorite book series.
One night when I was 5 or 6 My sister read the first few chapters of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but I didn't char for it that much but when i was 9 my hole family went to LWW in theaters I've loved narnia eversens
Wow!…and Well…..I just stumbled upon this site as I googled LWW -and it happens to be the anniversary of its publishing! I first read the Narnia books at around age 10-12. They were absolutely transporting! LWW opened a window for me into another world – one that seemed even more real than my own. A deep and enduring hope was birthed in me….I recall picking up the third novel, VDT, and reading the entire story in one day, in one sitting (with brief eating and bathroom breaks….;o)). My eyes were unable to focus for about about 20 minutes when I finally finished!
For Christmas in 2000 I gave my kids The Complete Chronicles of Narnia in hardback (http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Chronicles-Narnia-C-Lewis/dp/0060281375- beautiful with original Pauline Bynes illustrations -colored by her for this special edition!). I have since read the entire series aloud to them -multiple times. Magical moments for all of us in that! I actually professionally recorded Chapters 13-15 of LWW for Easter for our church back in 2006.
My kids played the voices of Edmund, Susan, and Lucy and two friends from church voiced The Witch and Peter for me. Mix in a little professional sound design from another friend and…..well you can hear the results at http://www.michaelbeattieVO.com. Click on the microphone and scroll down! I'd also be happy to post the audio here if the site administrator would like ….and he or she could give me a little technical assistance..;o)
Happy Birthday LWW!!
P.S. It seems like lots of then-young-kids were scared of the White Witch theme before we really got to know Narnia! That's interesting…
i read "the lion, the witch and the wardrobe" for the first time sometime before 5th grade. i don't remember what i thought of it or why i didn't finish the series.. in 5th grade, we went on a field trip to see a stage performance like the one that starkat described; i remember it used only 5 actors. the play reminded me that i had read [and apparently liked] the book, so i went back and read the entire series [in chronological order this time. i hadn't known before about the different orders.] my love for the series has only grown since then.
When I was four my mother read me "A Horse and His Boy". I wanted to hear that story first because it sounded interesting. I loved Aravis and would pretend to be her. When I heard "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" I spent the next six months hiding in closets looking for Narnia. The were a huge part of my childhood.
I kind of grew up with Narnia. When I was about three I saw the BBC LWW version. That was back in the 90's. My older brother had read them, and my brothers and I loved this movie, as well as the other BBC movies, as we were little and there weren't many other good family Christian movies. When I first saw LWW though, I couldn't stop talking about it! I told everyone at pre-school. I continued watching the BBC LWW, PC and VDT as a little girl. When I started school, I was pretty used to Narnia, so I kind of forgot about it for a while, or just didn't think of it often.
Around third grade, my parents told me that new Narnia movies were going to be made. My parents have a "read the book before you watch the movie policy". I got by this when I was little though. So I had to read the book before we would go see the new movie in theaters. I remembered the very basic story of LWW, which most people know, and kind of remembered PC and VDT. I red the books chronologically, and I was captivated from the beginning, being more and more so as I read the books. I loved Narnia!
When I was in fourth grade, and the release getting nearer and nearer, everyone in my class was reading them, and talking about Narnia. I loved this, as it seemed to make everyone nicer in my class. The power of Narnia! I loved this, as I was always left out of stuff because I wasn't allowed to do anything, being a devout practicing Catholic (form of Christianity), in my peers opinion. I was also made fun of for my faith. Narnia seemed to make being a Christian cool, because you could show how this awesome book, LWW, was based off of Jesus and Christianity.
I started reading anything I could that had to do with Narnia, from books about the series, to books about C.S. Lewis and the series, anything! Narnia gave me great joy.
When I started homeschooling, how I looked at a lot of things changed and I was also getting older, so I started looking at a lot of things more deeply. This gave me an even deeper love of Narnia.
Narnia was there for me in my dark times as I got older, giving it more meaning for me. As I get older, I discover more and more in these books, and they give me so much as I get older. I find more and more insight, as well as being reminided of the great innocent joy you have when your a little kid.
These books are an important part of my life, and have shaped who I am in many ways.
I think one of the things I like best about Narnia is it's ability to bring all people together. Whether your a Presbyterian or Catholic, many people have similiar experiences with Narnia.
Long live Narnia!!!
I was four when my mother began reading me LWW. I have loved it ever since. Narnia has always provided me with guidance, courage, and happiness throughout my life.
Long live King Jack!
I don't recall just how old I was when I first read the chronicles,under 10 definitely.They where some of the first books I felt like I was standing with the characters.First stepping through the wardrobe…it was magic.Then the silver chair.The beautiful scenes Lewis paints with his words of the mountain…and the storytelling in the castle.But the part that really caught up and captivated me was the flight upon the owls back out the window with nothing but air beneath you.The way he wrote it…the wind upon your face and the cool night air…the stars.There's facets of those stories you never get accept reading them the 10th time through,you can't say that about very many stories.Not trying to be too long winded here but Lewis really was a remarkable man.( P.S. I read the books in the order he wrote them but those moments really stuck out to me.)
It took me a long time to get formally acquainted with the Chronicles. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” had been in our church library, but it was the 70’s edition and, based on the cover, I had always dismissed it in my mind as “that goofy-looking 70’s book.” A guest preacher came to church and she mentioned the story, saying something about beavers and quoting something about the lion not being safe, but being good. It was a disturbing thought, that something that was good might not be safe, so I stayed quite safely away from that book.
Meanwhile I had been making trips to the public library’s kids section for as long as I can remember, and one time while looking through the videos I had gotten a hold of the BBC’s adaptation. I don’t think I ever made the connection between this video and the book in the church library, but I dismissed it all the same. People in animal costumes were beneath me at the time, and the front cover reminded me of a “Wee Sing” video.
Then one day when I was about 12, my sister strongly urged me to listen to her read that “goofy looking 70’s book for kids.” I protested, but she got me to listen to her read my brother one chapter. –And of course once you hear about a girl who enters an entirely different world, through a wardrobe of all things, your curiosity is aroused. The mystery held my interest initially, then the life and death situation that the characters were facing. Over the next few days I listened to my sister read the entire book, and the world of Narnia has lived in my imagination ever since. Now I, the boy who wouldn’t read Narnia because it was “for kids,” try to convince my students that these books are not so “childish” as their front covers may appear.
Ahh Narnia….The first time I heard about it was several weeks before the movie was released in 2005. I was 9 years old. we were having a bookfair at my school and i saw the book and took it home. i loved it! C.S. Lewis created a world that was magical yet still so familiar to me. I felt as if I had known that place my entire life. And afterwards, i remember one snowy evening, walking into the movie theater about to see it come to life. I laughed, i cried, i loved it! from that moment up to this very day Narnia has been and always will be my safe haven, and I hope that someday when i have children, they will love Narnia like i did. i can't even begin to explain what a tremendous role these books have played in my life. and i will forever be thankful to C.S. Lewis for creating them.
My first Narnia experience was in elementary, 3rd grade, when we read part of "Voyage Of The Dawn Threader" and watched the animated version of "Lion, Witch, And The Wardrobe." Afterwards I saved money to pick up others, which included "Voyage," "Prince Caspian," and "Last Battle."
It wasn't until the 2005 movie that I rediscovered the world of Narnia. I have been attached to the series ever since, the books and the movies. I am partial to "The Silver Chair" more than any for it's grim yet releastic look on human nature.
Hmmm, my brother purchased a few Narnia books from a library in Fort Dodge, Iowa several years ago, and they had some notes in pen along the sides… could they be your mom's? o.O
before i tell you my story i must mention i just tallked to "adult lucy" Racheal Henley, on facebook! cool, eh?
I first entered Narnia at a very young age. I can't remember exactly when it was. I just remember that my grandmother read it to me. I periodically reread the series over 20 years later.
I'm afraid my introduction to the Chronicles shan't be as great as some of yours, but this is what happened. 🙂
I was read the Magician's Nephew when I was quite young; now I can't even remember the age, and at the time I almost didn't want to be read to. But my older brother read me it, and I do remember the experience. I was always read some of Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe before the movie release. Then come the 2005 movie, and my older siblings loved it, but I was still a bit young to appreciate it. Then came news of a Prince Caspian film adaption. 🙂 I'm not sure where I heard of it, but when I did I snatched up our copy and read through the whole book the day before/(almost)day before we watched the movie. I was enchanted, delighted, and I guess the only thing you could say is, drawn in by the movie. My love for the movie and growing interest for Narnia in general is what paved the way for my writing, graphics making, and most importantly, my coming on Narniaweb. That's why, to a certain extend the movies are dear to me.
After that came my writing of fanfiction. There was more ideas in my head and I wrote them with my brother. That was also when I came acrosss the awesome story of 'The Horse and his Boy'. I believe my brother said "It has a horse in it.", and I decided to pick it up. 😛 Me and him sat for a long time and laughed until tears came reading about how the Prince of Calormen jumped up and down and kicked his poor adviser. XD I also delved into the 'Dawn Treader' enjoying the episodic tales contained within it.
It's changed my life, movies and books. I'm planning a re-read of the Chronicles (hopefully) sometime soon. 🙂 And that's most it, the big points of my life that I remember in the past with the Narnia. Of course to this day I still love it just as much as then. 😀
I was about seven years old when I found LWW in my primary school library. It was an old, bad traduction into French (I'm French) so I put it down. But a few weeks after, as I found no book interesting enough, I borrowed it and… Here it was. Chronological order is the most advertised reading order in France, but I was lucky to find LWW first. I read the other in chronological order, but LWW is really the place to begin. I borrowed the other books at my town library and I recall wonderful conversatiosn with the librarians about them. VDT is the only copy I own, and I know almost by heart and still read it today. At eight, I converted all my friends to Narnia at this time. We would invent curtesy to do if we were to meet Aslan, design Narnian clothes and make to-do lists if we ever were to go to Narnia. The magic hasn't end today 🙂
When I was in grade 5 (age 9), one of the units in our class was 'fantasy', and our teacher read LWW to us, and then we watched the BBC version of LWW (it was mid-2005, so the Disney-Walden version didn't exist yet). I never touched the series again until PC came out in 2008 and I went to see it with a friend.
To tell the truth, when I first discovered Narnia, and when the movie came out, I really didn't want to go see it. I said, and I quote: I'm not going to see that!
Funny, here I am, seven years later, and I am the most Narnia-crazy person in my group of friends, and my grade, and possibly my school. Maybe even my town, I don't know.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NARNIA!
I remember when I was around four years old my mum would read the books to me as a bedtime story. She would read me a chapter with it and I was always fascinated by them! When the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe first came out as a movie I was really excited and I started creating my own weapons out of stuff that I found round the house and dressing-up in Narnian clothes.
A couple of years ago, my older brother (who has read the chronicles as a child)rented the dvd of walden's Lww and gave it to me and my sister to watch it and he said its good. I watched it and really enjoyed the story, the characters and the effects. For some reason I didn't wonder if there were more stories. Anyways when Prince Caspian (the film) came out, my brother again introduced us into Narnia by allowing us to watch Prince Caspian on the foxtel movie channel with him….and I fell in love with this story (even more than the first film) and I had a crush on Prince Caspian haha….I researched the narnia chronicles and found there were 5 more books in the series and also found out out they are adapting the next book (VDT)….I convinced my mother to buy the whole series and finally received all stories in one book (Aslan as the book cover) from Angus and Robertson. I read them from LWW (even though I saw the film) to LB and continuously enjoyed the journeys. This took me a full whole week (non stop except to eat/sleep etc lol) to complete reading it. And from then on I was constantly checking this site for updates.
When I read the chronicles I was roughly in year 11 and I had to read books (chosen by the school) in the years before it and I had no interest in reading and was also bad at reading and understanding words, sentences etc. Since reading these books…I have read several books ever since…the narnia books is very important to me as it helped me improve on reading, analysing and also helped me write sentences.
In 2004, my fifth-grade teacher read us The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in class, and I immediately fell in love with Narnia for life.
I read the books when I was, oh, probably seven years old. I have a picture of my mum reading "The Last Battle". She would read a chapter or two out loud, but when she finally had to stop, I couldn't stand the anticipation, and usually finished the book on my own.
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The Audio Dramas were, I think, what really caught my imagination. Something about /hearing/ the voices of the Pevensies in British accents (something my mother could never really pull off) and the music, and of course, that deep, dangerous voice of David Suchet brought Narnia to life for me. And then the movies began coming out. I think the new attention the series was getting made me shift from the "Oh, yeah, I've read those books" perspective into the "The Chronicles of Narnia? Of /course/ I've read them-they're my favorites, and the books are better from the movies." Ever since, I've been a book-purist, advocate for Blond Caspian, and an enthusiastic critic of the movies.
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Most importantly, Narnia helped me draw closer to Aslan in a stage of my life when God was just some incredibly powerful but not necessarily loving entity that controlled the universe. By growing closer to him in Narnia, I discovered how beautiful a relationship with /our/ High King above all High Kings can be. And that is my Narnian legacy.
When i was 7 years old (in 2005) i went to watch the walden media movie The Lion, the Whitch, and the Wardrobe. I fell in love with it! I told my dad it was the best movie ever! He told me about how Aslan was Jesus and when he died for Edmund,it showed how Jesus died for the world. I got the entire series and i have read The Lion, the witch, and the Wardrobe 3 times! and I plan to audition for whatever sequal or prequal Naria has. Narnia has really stood out to me and I love how it shows God's love. Its shuch a refresihng series!
I discovered narnia thanks to the movies, with the second film i decided to read the books because i was i love with narnia then i bought the seven books and i fall in love !!!! and then i saw the thrid movie and i love it and really i want more movies !!!!!!!!!!! because for me is another way to be in narnia!!!!
Wow! I was the same age when I saw LWW! The only difference is that I had them read to me before the movie was in theaters, so I was so happy to hear they where making Narnia into movies.
I agree, that line always said it for me, LWW is supposed to be read first.
Okay then!!!!! I totally agree!!!!
I guess I was about 8 years old when my dad bought the BBC LWW from Amazon. I asked him what that funny looking man on the back was (Mr. Tumnus), and my dad didn't know. My mom had watched it on TV at Christmastime when she was way younger, but other than that, none of us knew a thing about Narnia. I can still remember leaving the room with my sister when the witch was about to kill Aslan; it was a long time before I could bring myself to watch that part 😀
Sometime after that, my dad realized that the death of Aslan was similar to that of Christ, and I can recall him telling a lot of people at church about it. We got the books, and he read them to us, and then I started devouring them. I loved them all except for The Last Battle (which I love now), and even got a prize from my parents for reading the whole series seven times.
It was probably the Narnia series that took an already quick reader and turned her into an absolutely voracious reader.
When I was younger, I didn't have a clue that Lewis had written anything but Narnia, until I saw the Space Trilogy on my dad's shelf. He said I was too young for them, and I forgot about them. Then, I bought Peralandra when I was 13 or 14, tried to read it, got bored, then picked it up two years later, and loved it. Fortunately, someone had given us the other two books in the series, so I read those, too; and have since read them through two or three times. I have also read The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity several times, plus two anthologies and The Abolition of Man.
All of these writings have helped to cement in my mind that Clive Staples Lewis was perhaps the greatest writer to ever live.
I still quote from the Narnia books; he put so much wisdom in those books (such as kicking off your shoes in deep water, or never closing yourself into a closet or anything similar); and he had such beautiful prose, and a deep insight into human nature. Three Cheers for Narnia!
Oh, one more thing: I kind of envy all of you who are experiencing Narnia for the first time, or have only recently started loving them. My love for them is the love of an old and trustworthy friend; yours is fresh and new and exciting at every page. I wish you joy in your journeys, all you new Narnia fans 😀
I love your story 😀 It's so sweet!
I was in college, and I decided to read them to see what the fuss was all about. Loved them. Since then I pull them out and read them every year or so. I like to buy them as gifts for people who have small children to encourage them to read. Now I can pull out the dvds every year too. I'm in Narnia heaven.
Yes, I can remember reading them the first time,the thrill of turning the page to find out what was next(but strangely not how old I was as I already said)But that was quite a while back kind of a faded memory so I let the series sit for a while.Then I'll pick them up and am swept away through the wardrobe…and into Narnia.All over again.Laura you're right.People who've just begun your journey into Narnia don't rush through the wardrobe door, take slow steps.I often wish Lewis would have wrote more of the chronicles ( I know, MORE for us to stress about being made wrong or being made at all.)Anyway,at least we still have the book's, they can't change whats already been printed.
Thank you ! I do quote Lewis too ! "Be brave dear one" is my favourite. And I also thought of kicking my shoes off tyhanks to him a day a fall from a canoe 🙂 Also, I still have an exercice book full of "diary of a girl in Narnia", and Narnian recipes I invented, maps, a fake narnian History manual and loads of Narnian style dresses. Even if I'm 16 now, I sometimes add to them 🙂