Hi! I had some fanfic related questions I didn't know where else to ask.
Firstly does anyone know if Narnia fic was ever posted anywhere before 2001 (the earliest logged on fanfiction.net)? I've been trying to research into it but still haven't been able to find reference to anything before then, on personal blogs or anything. Since Narnia wasn't exactly an ongoing property at the time fandom culture was born, I've kind of assumed there weren't any fanzines or pre-internet distribution of fic (though if anyone knew of something like that existing that would be awesome.)
And secondly, does anyone know if there were any "infamous" fics over the past couple decades, for any reason? I'm so curious about the fandom back when it was active (I was too young to be involved at the time) and have always wondered if there were any legendarily awful (or great) fics going around that everyone knew about. I think I heard someone mention some fic called The Stone Table one time but I have no idea what they meant by infamous and I've never heard any other reference to it.
SO YEAH just super interested in the origins of Narnia fic and the fandom culture at the time! If anyone knows anything please do let me know ^^
Topic starter
Posted : November 9, 2021 5:27 pm
Hey Tricia!
First of all, welcome to NarniaWeb 
I can't speak to fanfiction published before 2001, as that was well before my time.
However, there are some absolutely epic fanfictions from more recent times. One that I think is legendary in a good way is called "The Lion and the Fox". It's sort of based on the Walden LWW film, but with original content and more lines from the book added in as well. It alternates between Peter and Edmund's perspective. IIRC, the person who wrote it went on to become an actual published author.
This is the journey
This is the trial
For the hero inside us all
I can hear adventure call
Here we go
Posted : November 9, 2021 10:03 pm
@glenwit Oh that's awesome! Thank you for the rec, I will definitely check it out! Fanfic authors who go on to write original work are so inspiring ^^
Topic starter
Posted : November 10, 2021 12:12 am
I certainly did, in 1974, but that was before the internet 
Posted : November 10, 2021 10:51 am
tricia_pevensie liked
The Stone Table is an unpublished novel from 2019 by the author Francis Spurford. I guess it is technically "Fan Fiction" in the sense that it isn't an officially authorized story, but at the same time he is an award winning professional author, so it's probably of a much higher quality than one would usually categorise "fan fiction".
As of now this novel remains unpublished, so the amount of people who've ever been able to read it is probably no more than a handful.
In terms of other "unauthorized Narnia stories", there were a bunch of "choose-your-own-adventure" Narnia novels published in the 1980s that are easy enough to buy second hand or find online.
I'm a big fan of the "Return to Deathwater" book, if only because I find that Island to be such a fascinating place in VODT.
Posted : November 10, 2021 1:04 pm
@icarus Ohhhh thank you so much for clarifying that!
And I have the choose your own adventures actually, though I haven't read all of them yet! Very excited to get to that one ^^
@cobalt-jade Oh that's so cool! Do you know if fans ever shared fic before the internet? Or did you mainly just keep it to yourself? I've always been so curious about what pre-internet fic was about, like which pairings were popular, or if the same common tropes existed.
Topic starter
Posted : November 10, 2021 4:28 pm
@icarus that is no longer 'unpublished'. The writer, one F Spufford, claims he asked the Estate for permission to publish it, and when they didn't reply he printed and distributed over 70 copies of it. Unfortunately, the Estate did not receive any such request. It remains, therefore, unauthorised. It would have just been fan fiction if the writer wasn't an established and published author himself.
(If you come across one, please contact m).
There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.
"...when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards."
Posted : November 10, 2021 9:00 pm