I feel.like all the Dumb Beasts are the animals you might eat (cows, sheep, pigs, fish etc.) or hunt for food (stags, some bears, etc) but not for sport (lions,.foxes, etc.) whereas all the Talking Animals are ones you would not (horses, mice, ravens etc)

Posted by: @icarus

I feel.like all the Dumb Beasts are the animals you might eat (cows, sheep, pigs, fish etc.)

Not necessarily so. There's a Talking Lamb in The Last Battle. 

Posted by: @icarus

whereas all the Talking Animals are ones you would not (horses, mice, ravens etc)

As for mice, we're made aware in Prince Caspian that there were no Talking Mice in Narnia until that group of mice ate away the cords that bound Aslan to the Stone Table, and were given the gift of speech as a reward for their kindness. There's also a brief reference to Talking Rats in The Silver Chair, but we're not told whether they were given that status at the beginning of Narnia or earned it later! 

Which talking animals would you have liked to have been in Narnia that were mentioned very little? I would have liked more talking birds.  In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the birds which brought Ramandu his food sang in a language that no one knew. But at least they were talking songbirds.  They certainly weren’t dumb beasts. There is a mention of a robin in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and it may have been a talking bird.  I would have liked Narnia have more songbirds such as thrushes, finches, and larks.  Lewis must have seen at least some of these while growing up in the British Isles since the area is rich in bird life. Or at least he heard their songs, and I think he would have appreciated them. There were larger talking birds such as eagles and owls in Narnia and they were beautiful, but of course they were not songbirds.  I could easily imagine Lewis joining a group to protect birds such as the Audubon Society or a similar organization if he were living today. I think he definitely appreciated birds.  🙂

Posted by: @narnian78

I could easily imagine Lewis joining a group to protect birds such as the Audubon Society or a similar organization if he were living today. I think he definitely appreciated birds.  🙂

We do have an organisation like that in the UK — the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), founded in 1889 — and as far as I know, C.S. Lewis was never a member of it and isn't known to have shown any particular interest in it or in similar groups.

It would be nice to have talking songbirds featured in the Narnia books, but just because they're not mentioned specifically in the narrative doesn't mean they didn't exist (and there's certainly nothing to say they didn't). I'm guessing that if any children had written to Lewis asking if there were talking songbirds in Narnia, he would probably have said something similar to what he often suggested to his young fans — "Why don't you write some stories of your own about them?"  

There were no talking reptiles. I think being warm-blooded was a requirement. 

@courtenay 

I have heard of that organization before, and I am guessing that there are others protecting birds and other wildlife since a single group of people cannot do everything for conservation.  There are probably more conservation groups in the UK today than there were in Lewis’ time. Here in the US we have the National Wildlife Federation and American Bird Conservancy besides Audubon. They protect non talking birds and animals, which Lewis would have considered a good thing.  If Lewis were living today with the need to save wildlife habitat which is disappearing he probably would have supported conservation groups. The Narnia books show his love for nature and its creation by Aslan. Saving the wildlife habitat was very important to him.

I just read this article online that reminded me of the discussion we had here, a while ago, about the apparent incongruity of one of the animals restored to life by Aslan in the White Witch's house: A Kangaroo in Narnia

I like the point the writer makes about certain incongruities in Tolkien's world as well — I hadn't thought of that!  

I had completely forgotten about the kangaroo! In my new head cannon he or she is definitely not a dumb beast. They'll definitely have an Aussie accent as well. 

"Far out, I must've been asleep!"

Posted by: @glenwit

I had completely forgotten about the kangaroo! In my new head cannon he or she is definitely not a dumb beast. They'll definitely have an Aussie accent as well. 

 

"Far out, I must've been asleep!"

So long as he doesn't then see the One who brought him back to life and respond with "Ah, Assa mate, is that you? Fair dinkum! G'day, cobber!"

(And no, we don't all talk like that in Oz, really — I'm just doing the most extreme send-up I can manage. But seriously, it's no worse than that scene in the Walden version of LWW where Mr Beaver declares of Aslan: "He's the top geezer!" ) 

Posted by: @courtenay

For that matter, Aslan as a lion is not native to Britain either

He's only native to British heraldry.  

@varna As indeed are the unicorn (specifically for Scotland) and the dragon (for Wales).  

Posted by: @varna

Posted by: @courtenay

For that matter, Aslan as a lion is not native to Britain either

He's only native to British heraldry.  

 

I did find the entry for "poor kangaroo", on page 155 of my edition of LWW, opposite a picture of many of these unpetrified animals and other creatures, including the Giant. Whilst everyone was rushing around to find more victims of the White Witch's wrath, it was impossible to tell who it was who identified as a kangaroo. But if being native to British heraldry is one criterion for inclusion, why not a kangaroo, even though it comes from the Southern hemisphere? But then, you'd have to include an emu as well, when the Australian coat of arms has both an emu and a kangaroo supporting a shield. But then you'd have to include a black swan, the emblem of Western Australia. And of course, owls, and also the idea of a "parliament of owls", especially in Parliament are not unknown Down Under. 

We went to a place called Joadja, a little shale mining venture for what used to be called paraffin or kerosene, a community that has long since died & moved away & has been kept on as a countrified day excursion for things to see around Sydney. Lining the fences as we were bussed in, were all these kangaroos, resident to the area, being entertained by the unwonted activity, and I've noted this sort of curiosity displayed elsewhere, by horses, cows etc, including the kangaroos. I expect that is why we have now this expression "a kangaroo court", meaning a farcical court where fair procedures are jettisoned. It would be interesting to know just how a kangaroo might have riled the White Witch, or was it merely brought into her grim palace on Maugrim's say-so?

@col-klink

Also, no talking farm animals except for donkeys (and horses, I guess, depending on the breed.)

Plenty of evidence for both across the Narnia series. In HHB, we have both Bree and Hwin, in Calormen, having both been stolen from Narnia's Southern slopes, by Calormene traders, who also appear in the Lone Islands in VDT, as well as in the Last Battle, not to mention in Silver Chair, where we hear about a talking stag like Chervy, the deer, being caught & eaten for a venison lunch by the giants of Harfang, & the shock and horror of Puddleglum, in particular, at being put in that sort of situation, equivalent to cannibalism to him. 

All those animals given the power of speech, in MN, only stayed in Narnia, or maybe in Archenland, the only places where free speech were originally guaranteed, by the way. Under the Telmarines they were forced to go underground, just like Trufflehunter, and the Dwarves, whilst Reepicheep, when taken prisoner by Pug and his mates on Felimath, was considered quite the catch precisely because he wouldn't shut up. The treatment of slaves, including the dumb escorts of the Tisroc, indicate just what sort of society Calormen had become, not always evil, but definitely not a free society, a place where the likes of Bree and Hwin preferred not to give away their powers of speech.

Did someone mention amphibians and reptiles not being included? What about Puddleglum or Eustace as a dragon? Of course, Eustace couldn't talk as a dragon, and it seems that Rabadash as a Donkey couldn't, either. But then, when Ginger the Cat, an ally of Shift the Ape, lost her powers of speech, having seen Tash, wasn't that a consequence of any animal who committed evil?