@narnian78 I am in no way disputing that. 😀 

A quick flick through my copy shows Hooper saying several times that Jack drew up the timeline after he'd finished the books.

Posted by: @coracle

A quick flick through my copy shows Hooper saying several times that Jack drew up the timeline after he'd finished the books.

Yes, I quoted those passages earlier in this discussion. So we do at least know that Lewis wrote the timeline himself — unless, as I said, Hooper was lying about it, and I certainly don't want to believe that or to accuse him of it.

I also first encountered the timeline in Brian Sibley's book too, which I still have back at my parents' house! Mum bought it for me when I was 7 and had just finished reading all the Chronicles — I remember us getting it at the wonderful children's bookshop in Melbourne, The Little Bookroom, sadly now closed. (Now I remember, the next year during our family holiday in Queensland, I was utterly rapt to find a bookshop in the small Sunshine Coast town of Montville, called The Narnia Bookshop, with a picture of Aslan on its sign and a lamppost outside! I think it also specialised in children's books, but I don't know if it's still there. Apologies for the Aussie bookshop nostalgia digressions!! )

Honestly, I think that one of the funniest explanations for Queen Swanwhite is that she was a time traveler. As for how long the gap between Silver Chair and Last Battle, Eustace says,''more than a year ago by our time.....we're the only two who are still at school and we're at the same one.'' Yes, he says more than a year, but, then he later says that they are only ones still in school. So, I always took the more than a year ago with a grain of salt and thought that the fact that they were the only ones still in school was the really important thing. So, I always thought at least 6 or 7 years had passed. 

Jill points out later in the book that Polly and Digory are younger when they arrive in Narnia, 

"Youngsters, indeed!" said Jill. "I don't believe you two really are much older than we are here."

As for Jill and Eustace still being 11 or 10, the way Lewis wrote this book and these two in this book, I definitely get the feeling that these two were at least teenagers, but, frankly, I have always thought of them as 16 or 17.

@eustace I agree with this.

Of course, the Pauline Baynes illustrations suggest otherwise! I wonder what information Lewis gave her, about the children's ages in this book. They look more likely 11 or 12, certainly no older than early teens. The school uniforms don't help us, as Jill's pleated gym tunic was standard school uniform. Eustace's short trousers would also be worn by senior boys in many schools. 

Lewis has Eustace give a vague time answer; "more than a year ago" is true of several years! Perhaps Lewis hadn't decided how long the time gap was, and would have amended it when he reviewed all the books. 

In My AU,

• Frank V's Youngest son established Archenland
• There were two Sawnwhites, The first one was the final queen before the long winter and the second one in 1502
• The Last Battle takes place in 1949 in my timeline and Eustace and Jill are in AS-Level school
• Edmund is born in late 1930 and Lucy in early 1932.

@queencrunchytheweeb 

Interesting thought. I think the book indicates that Edmund and Lucy are about a year about. Prince Caspian seems to indicate that his birthday is in September, so it's likely that Lucy's birthday would be in January or February.

@queencrunchytheweeb 

The timeline we have on Narniaweb is a copy of the one Lewis made, and Hooper published within 10 years of his death. 

I don't know what your source is, but the Last Battle was in 1949, not 1945.[crunchy has edited]

@jasmine-tarkheena Ed and Lucy are probably less than 2, but more than one year apart, depending on their birthdays, as you say. 

Took your things into consideration!

@queencrunchytheweeb Thank you!

(I love your interesting nickname.  I hope you will tell us about it on the Getting to Know you Thread sometime)

Edmund and Lucy are about a year about. Prince Caspian seems to indicate that his birthday is in September, so it's likely that Lucy's birthday would be in January or February.

I wonder if anyone has ever assigned zodiac signs to the kids? In fun of course.

@cobalt-jade the stars do not control or direct people, not here or in Narnia.  They are people like Ramandu and Coriakin, in Narnia. 

@coracle Well, there is a kind of astrology practised in Narnia, from what we see of Doctor Cornelius showing Caspian the conjunction of Tarva and Alambil and seeing it as a sign of hope for Narnia, and Roonwit in The Last Battle remarking on the "terrible things written in the skies" and the "disastrous conjunctions of the planets" and how "The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do." Obviously the stars above Narnia are not only people, but in their "Great Dance" across the sky, they somehow show predictions of what will happen in the world below. But we're certainly never told they control or cause events, or even influence them — just apparently foretell them, like prophets of some sort.

And there's definitely no indication that in Narnia, there's any belief that the positions of the stars and planets at someone's birth somehow govern that individual's personality or destiny, which is what "the zodiac" in this world is all about. I very much doubt C.S. Lewis believed in "star signs" of that sort — that's a concept that the vast majority of Christians would say isn't compatible with Christianity — and I can't imagine he saw the children or any other characters in his books as being "born under" a sign of the zodiac that would determine what kind of person they were or how their life unfolded. From what comes across in the Chronicles and what I know of his other writings, he saw people as governed largely by their own choices and their responses to circumstances and the influences of other people, whether good or bad, and not by supernatural forces. Edmund and Eustace behave badly because of bad influences from a "horrid school" or snobbish parents, not because their star signs destined them to be nasty people!

And while we're at it (just because I can foresee this coming up... and no, not in the stars either ) the "Planet Narnia" thesis, as espoused by Michael Ward, is entirely theoretical and flatly contradicts everything Lewis himself declared about supposed hidden meanings in his (and others') books — so unless one believes Lewis was a liar, it's not possible to give that theory any credence and I'd rather not go there myself...

(Hmmm, this is another discussion that's going rather off the original topic — the Narnia timeline — so if it's going to continue, perhaps we should start a thread on the stars and astrology in Narnia, if there isn't one already?)

The Timeline is a bit quirky, but Narnia fans has been using it for years. 

Jill points out in LB that our world is going to have an end someday and asks Jewel if Narnia went on forever. Then he tells her, “All worlds draw to an end, except for Aslan own country.” And she hopes the end of Narnia was still a long way off. I guess there could be a discussion about how what if Narnia had not ended in LB. I guess there wouldn’t be a story, though. 

According to the Timeline, Narnia lasted for 2555. Given that Narnia has a separate time of its own, Narnia could last as long as CS Lewis wanted to. 

I’ve noticed that Jill and Eustace don’t look much different in the illustrations of the last two books, despite an apparently long gap between them. Since the text supports that stretch of time (it’s mentioned they’re the only ones still in school, and Lucy is about 10 in VDT), I’m just going to assume that the illustrator didn’t do the math.

Posted by: @nicemice2023

I’ve noticed that Jill and Eustace don’t look much different in the illustrations of the last two books, despite an apparently long gap between them. Since the text supports that stretch of time (it’s mentioned they’re the only ones still in school, and Lucy is about 10 in VDT), I’m just going to assume that the illustrator didn’t do the math.

I don't think it's made clear anywhere in the book itself — LB, that is — how much time has elapsed (in our world) between the events of SC and LB, so it's possible Pauline Baynes simply didn't know what the time difference was meant to be when she did the illustrations. Lewis himself may not have been certain, since as far as we know, he didn't write up the official(ish) timeline until some time after he'd finished writing all the books. According to the timeline, there's a gap of about 7 years between those two books — taking Jill and Eustace from about 9 years old to about 16 — but the books themselves are nowhere near as specific about Earthly years and characters' ages, and there are plenty of inconsistencies between the books and the timeline. So it's not even clear whether Lewis himself had worked out how old Jill and Eustace should be by the last book, let alone whether he gave Baynes any idea of this.