Talk:The Silver Chair

Parliament of Owls

"... Initially, Jill and Eustace are aided by a Parliament of talking owls (a pun on Chaucer's Parlement of Foules). ..."

Was it specifically a pun on Chaucer, or on the fairly-well-known collective noun for owls? (For which, Chaucer was maybe the creator?) —wwoods 05:43, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Synopsis too short

The synopsis leaves out a major section of the story, from the time they leave Narnia for the lands of the North until they find Rilian. It doesn't describe the trip north, including the dumb giants of the near-north, the mountains, the great bridge, and the more intelligent but just as cruel giants of Harfang, the "UNDER ME" mystery, nor the tumble to the Underland, the trip on the sunless sea, and the adventure of entering the city of gnomes to find Rilian. I haven't read the book in some time, but I do remember that much. Really, that's most of the book, I think. All it describes here (in contrastingly great detail) are the events at the very beginning and very end of the book. C'mon, people! In place of just complaining, though, I'll try to throw in a bit to round it out.

I even think they encountered a dragon in their trip north before reaching Harfang, but I can't remember for sure. That is another reference to add to the dragon entry in "List of Narnian creatures" if it is true. --Cromwellt|Talk 02:57, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

^^^No they didn't encounter a dragon at all. ;) ^^^

I think you're thinking of Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Christian parallels?!

You're getting obssesive, people. I think that spotting any hardly visible connection with Jesus is funny: I myself can't see any true connections between The Silver Chair and Christianity; and quoting John 6:44 is plainly silly, you could find a chapter in Bible corresponding to any cultural fact you can imagine, including Ozzy Osbourne and Bhagavadgita. I guess you could find some similarities between The Silver Chair and Buddhism, Taoism or Grand Chair Manufacturers of Britain, but - what for? Could we just delete the section? Come on, admit it, there are no TRUE parallels, the only one exist in heads of blind and humorless Christian fundamentals. In half of books I know there's a motif of temptation, a struggle between good and evil and so on. Say, Crime and Punishment. And there's a hell lot of Christian parallels in Dostoyevski's work, if you ask me. Delete the section, pleaze, it's becoming far too absurd. 213.17.152.100 18:37, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Well, Aslan does constantly refer to humans as "Daughters of Eve" or "Sons of Adam". Ever noticed that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.100.240.249 (talk) 23:02, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the first guy. There's way too much religifying in the entries on Narnia. Sure, Lewis also wrote the Screwtape Letters and the like, but it's almost like they're trying to make the Narnia Chronicles into some kind of modern apocrypha. It seems to me that Lewis himself wasn't half so obsessed with the symbolism employed in these books. Why should the rest of us be?--24.19.171.110 (talk) 01:36, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

There are many connections between The Silver Chair and Christianity, like when Jill is to repeat Aslan's given tasks, we should repeat God's word. You people do not know that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had a little contest to see who could write the better christian related novels. AKA Lord of the Rings, and The Silver Chair. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.6.102.69 (talk) 18:20, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Green Kirtle witch/Jadis

Most of this section is wrong, unless my copy of The Silver Chair is radically different from the one used by the writer here. It is not the GKW who recites the "Under Me" couplet, but the mysterious Knight (Prince Rilian); the Green Witch is not even present at this meeting, so certainly does not display any reluctance to discuss the matter further. --Captain Pedant|Talk 09:13, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

It also says that it's debateable whether Jadis is the Green Kirtle Witch. I don't think it's debatable at all. I have the whole set of books and at the beginning of each book it has a cast of characters section. I will now quote (I don't know how to italicize though):

"Jadis. The last Queen of Charn, which she herself destroyed. Jadis arrives in Narnia with Digory and Polly in The Magician's Nephew [italicized] and has taken over the land as the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [italicized]. Completely evil, she is also very dangerous, even in The Silver Chair [italicized].

It says that she is very dangerous in The Silver Chair and I don't know what other dangerous character she could be. Sir Akroy 14:44, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

What's all this rubbish about "some readers of the world"? The White Witch and The Green Kirtle Witch may be of the same kind, as is discussed by various characters in the novel, but they are not the same. They even LOOK different! People who write like that ought to work for Fox news.

I removed that part how there was some debate whether Jadis and the Lady were the same or not, they may have been the same race but that's where the similarities end. And that stuff about Jadis's sister is all rot, there's no evidence at all that Jadis's sister escaped form Charn or survived The Deplorable Word. Stom making things up in the Narnia articles! The books have been around for years and years and I find it strange that people get them wrong.

As for what you say above, IMHO it was written by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about at all. it's not actually in the text, is it? Katana Geldar 02:23, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

The cast of characters added by the editors in later editions of the books is not Lewis's work. Lewis left no hint whatever that the Green Lady is Jadis; in fact, he kills Jadis off at the end of LWW. She appears in none of the later books except Magician's Nephew (which, of course, is set earlier). Elphion (talk) 21:37, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Chapters

I think the chapter listings for the Chronicles of Narnia books should be removed. I started a discussion at Talk:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe#Chapters--roger6106 03:49, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Consider it done. They are unneccessary. b_cubed 03:11, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Prince Rilian the Disenchanted

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? The phrase Prince Rilian the Disenchanted is never mentioned in the book. Someone change his title at the end of the summary. Thank you. 71.38.213.104 18:02, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh, but it is. I'm afraid I don't have my books handy, but it is so dieclared at the end of The SIlver Chair. --Fbv65edel / ☑t / ☛c || 22:14, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Actually, the phrase "King Rilian the Disenchanted" appears in chapter 16 of "The Last Battle"... AnonMoos (talk) 00:44, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Plato

I'm kind of confused. Is C.S. Lewis condemning or condoning "Parable of the Cave" in the mentioned sequence? I think it's about some people bound in a cave, and a philosopher helps them see the "true" reality. How exactly did Lewis view it? Scorpionman 12:33, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Sparknotes?

Seriously, is this Sparknotes or Wikipedia? Since when do encyclopedia entries have uncited "commentary" sections. This article needs a dramatic revamp. 68.100.78.157 09:48, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

The Dawn Treader appearance

Is it possible that the Dawn Treader appears in the book the Silver Chair. In the book Caspian sets sail on a ship to retrace the journey that the Dawn Treader took to the eastern ocean. The book gives very little discription of the ship that Caspian travels on in the Silver Chair and does not specifically say that it is not the Dawn Treader. As many ships will be kept in service for decades and the Dawn Treader was supposed to be brand new at the time of the book the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it may be very possible that Caspian's ship in the Silver Chair is the Dawn Treader, used to retrace it's original voyage.--Preator1 (talk) 17:42, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Interesting speculation -- but speculation. -- Elphion (talk) 21:06, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

However, I think the Dawn Treader was one of the first attempts at Narnian ship-building after the centuries of Telmarine landlubbing, and that Caspian would have been ambitious to go on to build bigger and better ships... AnonMoos (talk) 00:38, 10 April 2011 (UTC)

Absence of Pevensie children

The first graf is not quite correct, as Eustace periphratically refers to Edmund and Lucy as "the two Pevensie kids" in the first chapter. Can someone take a crack at getting this info. in the graf? Maybe a rewrite or repositioning is needed. Ellsworth (talk) 22:17, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

What graph (?) are you referring to? -- Elphion (talk) 22:58, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Abbreviation of "(para)graph", I presume... AnonMoos (talk) 00:34, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Just so, I mean the opening paragraph of the article, before the TOC and first header. Ellsworth (talk) 22:40, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

Anyway, the Pevensie children are part of the background events to the Silver Chair, but are not actual "on stage" characters. They are mentioned, but they do not appear as such, so I'm not sure that there's a problem with the current wording... AnonMoos (talk) 02:22, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

Me neither, that's why I left it as is because I couldn't figure a way to rewrite it that would be a marked improvement. Hopefully someone will be bold and give it a shot. Ellsworth (talk) 22:36, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Ford's Companion to Narnia

One source for The Chronicles of Narnia is sure to be immensely useful for this and other Narnia book articles. --and for some more articles on Narnia particulars such as characters, peoples, places.

• Ford, Paul (2005). Companion to Narnia. Revised Edition. San Francisco: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-079127-8. (another reference identifies 2005 as the fifth edition)

The Companion is an alphabetically ordered enyclopedia with thousands of entries. One of the longest is Plato, or Platonism, etc. (section 7 above).

Skimming this page today, I recall Companion entries that pertain to sections 1, 3-4, 7, and 9. That is, not merely entries for Parliament or Owls, Christianity, Green witch and White witch and Jadis, etc, but entries that pertain in some details mentioned here.

Much that would be "speculation" not permitted here on the part of wikipedia editors may be covered in these articles and attributed to Ford or to his sources.

(to be continued at a main Narnia page) --P64 (talk) 19:44, 11 May 2013 (UTC)

Harfang - To Serve Man

"She encourages them to proceed northward to Harfang, the castle of the "Gentle Giants", who she says would be glad to have them at their Autumn Feast."

This seems to parallel Damon Knight's short story (and a Twilight Zone Episode) To Serve Man, published a few years earlier; does anyone know if there is any connection? --Philculmer (talk) 18:53, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

C.S. Lewis did acknowledge reading "a highly-coloured American magazine of what they call ‘Scientifiction’" (see the preface to The Great Divorce), but the resemblance here doesn't seem specific or detailed enough to require Damon Knight influence (of course the Twilight Zone TV show is chronologically impossible)... AnonMoos (talk) 17:51, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

Parens

There is nothing "structurally incorrect" about a parenthesized sentence, as stated in this diff. One finds them in all sorts of professional writing, even encyclopedias, even WP. Since the parens are causing disagreement, I've removed them. The point is that the sentence does not belong inside the previous sentence; it refers to the entire discussion. -- Elphion (talk) 14:32, 30 April 2020 (UTC)

The article does not include hidden text specifying whether to use British English, or American English. Therefor, please stick to standard English convention (whether American or British) until specified in hidden text. "See article" necessitates parentheses, so if you want to delete them, then I'll cleanup your unfinished job. Christopher, Sheridan, OR (talk) 02:28, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

DeNoel, actually it does include {{EngvarB}} so British English is to be used in the article, per consensus. Elizium23 (talk) 02:54, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

Will you stop pinging me? I can find the link to the discussion myself, thank you.

I was expecting to find the {{Use British English}} template, or a visually similar variant, so when I didn't see it, I falsely assumed it wasn't there, because I've never seen the {{EngvarB}} template before. I was looking for something visually similar to {{Use British English}}.

With that out of the way, I can now appreciate the confusion, which was obviously the fault of my own ignorance. When using American English, the version I typed was correct, but using British English, your version was correct. With the precedence now clearly understood, I will go back and fix my mistake.

I'm sorry. I just didn't recognize the template. Christopher, Sheridan, OR (talk) 04:30, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

Do you have a reference indicating that British English abjures parenthesized sentences? (And I don't mean just someone's style guide.) Many British authors routinely use parenthesized sentences. Even Lewis does. -- Elphion (talk) 04:17, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

Thanks to Christopher for reverting. I see (by reading the comments above more carefully) that he felt that I was deviating from American usage. But I don't believe this is a difference between American and British usage: authors from both countries use parenthetical remarks both within sentences and as free-standing sentences, depending on the context. I repeat, if there is a national usage difference, I'd like to see a reference, as I've never seen this discussed before. -- Elphion (talk) 05:28, 1 May 2020 (UTC)