Podcast #102: ‘The Silver Chair’ Book Commentary (Part 2)
We are now halfway through our series of book commentaries on The Chronicles of Narnia! Rilian and Glumpuddle continue their discussion on The Silver Chair, including occasional bits of advice for the filmmakers. Thanks to everyone who sent in questions! You can e-mail audio or text questions/observations to podcast@narniaweb.com.
Chapters discussed:
Audio question from Benjamin (2:55)
5. Puddleglum (7:27)
Audio question from PuddleCheap (13:09)
6. The Wild Waste Lands of the North (17:18)
7-8. The Hill of the Strange Trenches, The House of Harfang (24:39)
9. How They Discovered Something Worth Knowing (30:54)
Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
Another great one guys. Now, when i first read from Puddleglum. I sort of assumed him to be a depressant, like he thought life was dreary and there was absence of light in the world and it made me feel depressed. possibly he viewed the bland things in life and it was kind of humorous in a way and your reference to the donkey on pooh (I don't know how to spell his name.) made me laugh, that's how i saw him at first half the book. He does have courage inside him and i was unaware of how courageous and clever he was until either the meeting at Harfang or the descent into Underworld. Moving forward, we meet the Lady Green Kirtle, The Underland queen, witch, whatever you want to call her and i never noticed it before, but since you brought it with her persuasion and charming tongue sent the two children to danger, but Puddleglum (being the wise one) could tell something was off with this mysterious trilling woman and her silent companion tries to persuade the kids not to fall into the promises of civilization, because it wasn't in the signs or commands of Aslan, finally gives in the children's pleas. But he still keeps his guard,the way the queen decieved them was like in Hansel and Gretel where the old woman feed the children sweets and drugged them only then we find out that she intended to fatten them up and bake them.
Now in the scenes in the castle, I didn't really think it as "Comical" to find out the giants plans for them, though i was curious to see the exact way to bake/cook Marsh wiggle cause Lewis cut us off to make the escape moment. The stag scene was awkward because it would be like we found out we've been eating our friends without knowing and They did'nt know until the Giant said something, So aslan knew beforehand and he must have been more angry with the giants for murdering a native or inhabitant of his country rather than children and marshwiggle for unknowingly doing wrong. To be eaten by Aslan would be far worse than being consumed by a giant man/woman, because basically Aslan is the God reference of these tales and to be eaten by Him, is like God eating his creation. Us. As for the actual height, if they were to eat them without choking on them, Jill saw the size of the pie pan and she could lay down comfortably in it, so im assuming the size of the humans would be up to their ankles or just a few inches below their kneecaps. Anyways my thoughts, Further up and further in!
I actually meant to send in a question but of course I forgot to, so I'll post it here. Where do you guys think the talking stag came from? Did the Harfang Giants venture all the way to Narnia to hunt or are they native to the area? I thought talking animals only lived in Narnia.
does anybody else really want a audiobook of all the books read by rilian?
This. Make it happen.
Haha. Thanks guys. That's quite a compliment.
Maybe it wandered too far north, like how Bree didn't listen to his mother's wishes and ventured into the Archenland mountains.
Another great podcast! *applauds* Really enjoying the fan-submitted questions and related discussions! Loved the commentary on Puddleglum; he's such a wonderful character.
That's interesting about writing down the signs… I can't believe I've never thought about that! Good grief! XD I kind of wonder if they *will* have Jill write them down in the film, but then she somehow loses the paper and realizes with horror that she never took the time to memorize the signs and know them by heart, as Aslan had commanded her.
Seems pretty far to wander alone… Unless a herd moved north at one point and decided stayed there at one point in time.
I suspect that giants are finding a way to get stags from Narnia. I'm not sure if the Harfang giants are officially at peace with Narnia like the Ettinsmoor giants.
This brings back memories of when my fifth grade teacher read "The Silver Chair" to the class so many years ago. She dramatized the voice of Puddleglum as an actress would have done it. That was my first introduction to the book. Thanks for the wonderful podcast!
Great podcast guys! On a note, any one else have their first experience with most Narnia books from BBC radio tapes/cds/radio? Just wondering.
That would be a good idea actually. Having her write it down would show she is less intent on memorizing it as well and would fill the logic plot hole of "Why didn't she write it down?"
I don't think Narnia knows Harfang even exists at this point.
I always imagined Jill being confident she would remember the signs — she didn't think she needed to write them down. Then when the others ask her, she realizes she's forgotten. And after they meet the Green Lady, she's too focused on getting to the castle to want to bother about them.
I think that the Queen definitely knew something about the serpent and was trying to warn Rilian.
Very possibly the Queen recognised the snake, or knew of someone who could change into a snake. Otherwise, why would a snake go and kill her out of the blue?
That is funny about writing down the sings, never even crossed my mind.
I was thinking about it though and it does seem very plausible that she wouldn't have thought about it, as far as I can think. I mean first she flew, and probably had no paper with her. Then when she was in the castle it even says she forgot all about the signs, then Eustace comes in and they talk about the signs but then the bell for supper interrupts them. Then she is really tired after supper, then the parliament of owls, which if they would've thought about it I doubt the owls had paper with them….
Anyway without going through the whole journey it seems very plausible that she wouldn't have thought about it during the times when she could've gotten paper….
That was one thing I was gonna bring up about the stag too…. It is interesting that that stag fed all those giants…that one big stag.
As to the 'largeness' of the giants. It says about the Porter at Harfang: "He was not a perfectly enormous giant; that is to say, he was rather taller than an apple tree but nothing like so tall as a telegraph pole."
I thought that was interesting what you said Rilian about the queen seeing the witch change into a serpent. I think that is a likely possibility.
Narnia may have known Harfang giants existed, they just didn't know where the "City Ruinous" was located.
Hey guys, I love your show! How well, short or drawn-out, detailed or not, do you think they will reinterpret the snake transformation scene of The Lady of the Green Kirtle. I think that it's one of the scariest scenes (aside from, in The Last Battle, the arrival of Tash and seeing Tash in the stable) in all of the seven Chronicles of Narnia, and I think that they should do it the justice it deserves. I REALLY hope that this question gets discussed.
I know this has nothing to do with this post but . . .
Where is the annual April Fools post???!!!
LOL!
I always thought the reason why they couldn't just ask to leave Harfang was because the Lady of the Green Kirtle sent them there for the purpose of being served for the autumn feast. That's why the giants chased them when they saw the children and Puddleglum running away. Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum pretended to be all innocent so no one would suspect that they were trying to leave. If they had asked to leave, the giants probably would have come up with some excuse as to why they couldn't.
In terms of the size of the giant, someone already posted the quote describing their size. I don't think they're giants in the sense of other fantasy stories with giants. They'd be less like tall-building size, but definitely taller than Hagrid from Harry Potter. Still, I think we tend to imagine them as bigger than they are.