The part with Lucy telling the story in The Horse and His Boy but not remembering at the end of LWW is one of the plot holes that I haven't found a satisfactory explanation for. Perhaps there's a significant amount of time between the two books, but it seems strange that adult Lucy can remember enough details to tell the story then, but then forget it entirely within the next few years.

That strikes me as one of those things that works much better when you're telling a single Narnia story, but stops making as much sense as soon as you write more. The idea that Narnia was so real to the children that they forgot the real world makes sense as a way to end that book, but starts to lose cohesion when you want to have continuity in that world. I do kind of pity the film makers who have to decide whether to keep that plot hole, adapt it out, or come up with some explanation.

As for them forgetting what the lamppost was, that is one I've never thought of before, but you're right. I can't really think of a good explanation for that, either. Maybe... maybe they were just so caught up in Narnia, they started to lose all memory of home? Even the things that Narnians would recognize as normal (or at least identifiable)? Something like when the dwarves were unable to see Aslan's Country because they'd convinced themselves they were in a stable. (Though that would be a really strange self-delusion for these good Kings and Queens.)

I could go for a wild idea and suggest maybe the White Stag somehow confused their memories. After all, he's rumored to have the ability to grant wishes, so why not also the ability to confuse his pursuers? I don't really think either of those is a good explanation, these are barely better than wild guesses.

Perhaps following the White Stag had an odd effect on the four Kings and Queens, and they didn't remember where they were.

I wonder if that was part of the reason Lewis supposedly wanted to re-work the Chronicles and tighten up the continuity...because of areas like this where callback references seem to contradict what he had written in the book in which the event actually happened.

Although it's definitely easier to keep details straight in one book than in a series, when you didn't initially plan it to be series (much less 7 books long).

Here's a headcanon that might help: Lucy and Co. can recall the story of the wardrobe, but not the lamp-post, because the lamp-post is the landmark by which they would return home, and until the hunting of the White Stag, it wasn't yet time for them to go home. Sort of like how the king in Sleeping Beauty orders that all the spindles be destroyed to protect the princess, until one fateful day she finds one.

It's still odd that Lucy would be able to tell the story of LWW in HHB, but I suppose "we once lived in a world that now feels like a dream and we entered Narnia through a thing called a wardrobe, and then we were made kings and queens of Narnia after many adventures..." while omitting the memory of the lamp-post.

I've wondered about this too. I think it has to do with the fact that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first Narnia book Lewis wrote, and although at the end he hints there will be more adventures to come, he hadn't fully thought those out at the time he was writing the first book. Then as the rest of the series developed, it seems that along the way he genuinely forgot some of the details of what he'd said in that original book, and apparently he never read back over it to check that things matched up.

The area with the lamp-post isn't identified by any name in LWW; there was no map of Narnia published with the first book and all we're told (by Tumnus) is that Narnia itself is "all that lies between the lamp-post and the great castle of Cair Paravel on the eastern sea". In Prince Caspian, the second book published, it does have the name of Lantern Waste and is shown on the map at the front of the book. Doctor Cornelius describes it as "Lantern Waste, up-river, west of Beaversdam, where the Royal Children first appeared in Narnia, as the records tell".

This already seems to jar a bit with the fact that at the end of LWW, the adult Kings and Queens have forgotten what the lamp-post is and have only a vague feeling that "strange adventures or else some great change of our fortunes" lie beyond it. They're clearly no longer aware of it as the place where they "first appeared in Narnia". So how did that fact come to be in Narnia's historical records for Doctor Cornelius to know about it some 1300 years later?? Maybe Tumnus wrote something about it, since of course he was the one who first met Lucy there, and being a native Narnian, his memory isn't affected over time by the "air" of Narnia the way the Pevensies' memories of their world apparently were?

We could also assume that the area around the lamp-post wasn't given the name Lantern Waste until after the Pevensies disappeared, which might partly explain why they didn't remain aware of it during their reign. It is on the very fringes of Narnia, after all. But I think it really does come down to Lewis himself forgetting exactly what he'd said in the first book, even between writing that and the second book. Let alone later in The Horse and His Boy when we have the even more glaring inconsistency of Lucy telling "the Tale of the Wardrobe", only a year before she and her siblings walk back through it without having any real awareness that it's there!!

So basically, it's a continuity error on the author's part, not something for which there's any really satisfactory "in-universe" explanation. Like some of the other inconsistencies between LWW and the later books, it doesn't ruin the story for me, but it does mean there are some details that we just have to accept as not lining up. I often wonder what changes Lewis would have made if he'd had the chance to do a revised edition of the Chronicles, as he suggested not long before his death, but I guess we'll never know.

One reason is that it wasn't written by Tolkien! He was very good at details, and already had an ancient history background on which to build.
Lewis was writing something more organic, shall we say, and didn't fill in the gaps.

Good speculations everyone!
I think the fact that this was Lewis' first attempt at something like this is probably the best explanation for the problem. ( After all, this is the same book where lions and foxes are lifting glasses, dubbing people with swords and shaking hands, so ...)

Or they weren't allowed to remember the true importance of the lamp-post until it was the right time. That's kind of what I always figured.

Transferring posts from Forum 2.0:

hermit » May 27, 2020 1:11 pm

Unfortunately, the idea that the Lantern Waste wasn't named as such until after the Pevensies left doesn't really hold up. In HHB Rabadash tells his soldiers that although they must regard Narnian blood as sacrosanct for now, there will come a time when they will leave nothing alive between Cair Paravel and the Lantern Waste. I suppose you could argue that was the Calormene name that the Narnians later adopted, but that seems very unlikely

Courtenay » May 27, 2020 2:06 pm

Hmmm, that's a good point — I'd forgotten Lantern Waste gets a mention in HHB.

Again, I really think the only explanation (which unfortunately doesn't work "in universe") is that Lewis simply forgot that at the end of LWW, he'd had the grown-up Pevensies forget their own world so near-completely that they no longer knew what the lamp-post was or that the way back to England lay beyond it. He presumably hadn't thought out the sequels in any great detail when he wrote that part and then it apparently slipped his mind, even by the time he wrote the next book (Prince Caspian), that it would be inconsistent for the area around the lamp-post to have a name and be memorialised in connection with the four Kings and Queens if they themselves forgot all about it during their reign!!

Hmmm... Not sure on the Pensevies, but in regards to the name "Lantern Waste"... it's possible that the name has been around so long that only a very few local experts would know why it was named that to begin with.  Do you know where the name of your road or hometown come from?  How about two towns over?

There was a FB meme that made the local news in my home town because a linguist showed the origins of the local city names.  Most people, even those who lived there didn't know where any of them came from except for the obvious Troy, NY was named after Troy from Ancient Greece.  But honestly I can't say I remember the origin of Schenectady, or why Buffalo is called Buffalo.  Or where did the names Catskill and Adirondack come from?  And apparently East Greenbush has nothing to do with bushes at all, but rather pine trees.

Just like in real life, Narnians may have lost that knowledge over time and generations.

Edit: I see Reepicheep775 already made a similar point!

I've often wondered about this myself; not the continuity issues, which are (as others have said) plot holes.  Not them forgetting about the lamppost, but about them forgetting our world entirely.  I have all kinds of memories from when I was their age.  I remember what school I went to, what games I played, and where we lived.  I have some bad memories too, most of which are blocked out - but that's just it: we block out the bad, not the good.  Wouldn't the kids have ever missed their parents?  Wondered if they survived the war?  What about friends?  The word "lamppost" is just a random fact, easily forgotten if they're not common; remembering the lamppost would be like remembering the name of your first teacher, or the name of your next-door neighbor.  But 6-12 years of life in another world?  I just never understood that.  Even if I had spent the past 30 years in Narnia - which, undeniably, would be awesome - I would still remember (and maybe even miss) my home.

PS: @wolfloversk It's funny you mention NY town names, because as a kid in school I heard a few theories on why Buffalo is called Buffalo.  I grew up in western NY but never really learned why - never mind Amherst, Dunkirk, Batavia etc. 😀

I'm not sure of the problem. The Pevensies, when they went there in the first place, weren't all that aware of Lantern Waste, where they met Mr Tumnus & Edmund met the White Witch. At the end they chase a stag which leads them to the Lantern Waste. By that time they had been in Narnia far too long, & were beginning to forget their old life in England, so were returned to the Professor's house. However, Digory Kirke, ie the Professor, had never forgotten his own adventure in Narnia so then they would have plenty to talk about, afterwards.

The person I am has been known to mislay in the shopping centre carpark, her car, complete with husband at wheel, listening to the radio, & to spend some time trying to figure out where we were parked, so I'm nobody to talk.  

I have wondered if the light in the lamppost was lit all of the time.  It seems that it could have served as a beacon in Narnia as our lighthouses do for ships on our coast.  It would show the way to our world, although it would not have been used for that purpose very often.  It appears that it had some historic purpose for the Narnians. And of course the name “Lantern Waste” was given to its location with the intention that it should be remembered in Narnia.

I think that that fact that the Lamppost comes from England is what made the Pevensies forget.  People mentioned before on how England and generally their life before discovering Narnia seems like a dream to them. I'm just making a theory here, but I think that because the Lamppost comes from England, as is mentioned in Magician's nephew, it would also seem like a dream to them because they are a part of Narnia and their world is only Narnia in the Golden age. They would not remember the things from England, even if it has been in Narnia for a long time.  Also as people mentioned before I think they wouldn't remember the Lamppost because they hadn't seen it in a long time and had been too busy with royal duties that they wouldn't remember it. It is like when you want to tell someone something, but you are too busy with other things that you forget to tell them at the end of the day. Lastly, I think that they wouldn't remember the Lamppost because they had been living in Narnia for so long, the memories of how they got there might have been faint. It was almost like for them they were born in Narnia. For example: Lucy had been living in Narnia  longer than she had been living in England!