So for a while, I had assumed that rats are one of the creatures in Narnia that don’t talk. Firstly, we never really meet any rat characters. Yes, I know there was the water-rat in LB, but I’ve heard speculation that it was meant to be a vole or something, not an actual rat. Then, more tellingly, there’s the fact that mice only gained the ability after gnawing away the ropes binding Aslan to the stone table, and prior to that, there was nothing about talking rats. So there’s really no reason to assume they exist.
So talking rats in Narnia just plain don’t exist.
Or do they?
The truth is in this line from TSC:
A flourish of silver trumpets came over the water from the ship's deck: the sailors threw a rope; rats (Talking Rats, of course) and Marsh-wiggles made it fast ashore;
I was naturally shocked. Not just by the revelation, but by Lewis’s blunt “of course” as if there had ever been any question. Oh, and the fact that there are other Marsh-Wiggles that appear, something I hadn’t really noticed when I initially read the book. And yeah, the fact that there are Marsh-Wiggles (besides Puddleglum, obviously) who don’t just sit around crying and moaning all the time.
So I’m curious, how did rats gain the ability to talk? Were the rodents that chewed away the ropes binding Aslan both mice and rats? That seems the most likely answer. However, it’s possible that rats were, for some reason, chosen from the beginning to be able to talk, while their cousins who have a much nicer reputation were somehow overlooked? I’ve been very curious about this for a while.
Despite their less-than-heroic reputation in most media (espicially compared to mice), it at least sounds like the rats are on the “good” side in Narnia. However, the fact that they’re associated with Marsh-Wiggles suggests they aren’t as likeable as the mice. But hey, if there can be a likeable marshwiggle, a likeable rat doesn’t seem too far out. I’d be interested to see how Reepicheep would get along with them, though…
Topic starter
Posted : October 24, 2024 7:10 pm
I'm guessing the rats are supposed to be water rats by implication since, like the Marsh wiggles, they're involved with boating and sailing. C. S. Lewis was likely influenced by the positively portrayed water rat from The Wind in the Willows.
For better or worse-for who knows what may unfold from a chrysalis?-hope was left behind.
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Posted : October 24, 2024 7:58 pm
"Water rat" is the traditional term in England for the species more correctly called a water vole (and yes, that's what Ratty in The Wind in the Willows actually is). We've really no way of knowing whether Lewis intended the "Talking Rats, of course" to be water rats (i.e. water voles) or some other species, but given that they're tying up a ship, they could be ship rats! I don't know that Lewis ever thought out the nature of Talking Rodents in Narnia in much detail, really.
"Now you are a lioness," said Aslan. "And now all Narnia will be renewed."
(Prince Caspian)
Posted : October 24, 2024 11:49 pm
NiceMice2023 liked
Rats are often associated with shipping and sea travel, maybe for good, but, I agree, often for ill, because of epidemics. Not only Ratty, himself, in Wind in the Willows, but also the rat with the gold earring, who tries to persuade Ratty to leave his comfortable little riverside home, to go travelling, in one of the chapters in that book, a rather neutral character, affected by autumn restlessness. Nobody, to my knowledge, has ever written a novel featuring a rat as incapable, inefficient or unintelligent. Rats deserting a sinking ship comes to mind, as does the expression to "rat" on someone. Though when I was learning German, I was amused to find out that the German word for town hall was "Der Rathaus", when a town hall is the place where people talk around a table. Der Ratte is the German word for the rat as an animal, but it is also a German word for advice or counsel.
There was a bloke, I met in real life, in our cramped little post office, who carried a pet rat with him, sitting on his shoulder. Even Templeton in Charlotte's Web, though definitely self-interested, was helpful to Charlotte's little spiderweb plan to help Wilbur. Even Reepicheep, Peepiceek & their tribe of talking mice were larger than usual mice to be more feasible characters. Another favourite ratty character was Ratatouille.
This post was modified 2 months ago 5 times by waggawerewolf27
Posted : October 27, 2024 5:08 am
Courtenay liked