Does Aslan rule the Wood between the Worlds?

I'm under the impression that Aslan rules everything. Of course, you can argue that The Wood Between the Worlds, not being a world, doesn't count. 

Posted by: @kingedthejust

I find it odd that Lewis, after creating such an important place, doesn't mention anything about it at all past that.  

As I wrote in another topic, I don't see the Narnia books as one big story. I see them as individual yet connected stories. So it doesn't surprise me that there are places and devices which serve a role in just one story. The WBTW sure is memorable though. I feel like this quote from C. S. Lewis, in response to a fan letter, applies to your questions. 

I could not write that story myself. Not that I have no hope of Susan’s ever getting to Aslan’s country; but because I have a feeling that the story of her journey would be longer and more like a grown-up novel than I wanted to write. But I may be mistaken. Why not try it yourself?

Posted by: @col-klink

As I wrote in another topic, I don't see the Narnia books as one big story. I see them as individual yet connected stories. So it doesn't surprise me that there are places and devices which serve a role in just one story. The WBTW sure is memorable though.

I agree. The Wood between the Worlds is a pretty "late" invention of Lewis's, as The Magician's Nephew was one of the last Narnia books he wrote — it was published second last, but I've read somewhere that he was working on it and The Last Battle more or less simultaneously and in fact finished writing LB first — and we're unfortunately never given much sense of how it fits into his fantasy universe as a whole.

It's definitely a handy plot device in a story that (unlike all the rest in the series) involves people travelling not only between our world and Narnia, but into another "other world", Charn, as well. But it seems Lewis only thought of it towards the completion of the series, when he'd already pretty much decided how it would all end and that these would be the last two Narnia books he would write. So I guess he didn't really leave himself much scope for "integrating" the Wood into his invented universe and making more use of its potential, as he might have done if he'd thought of it earlier on.

It's definitely implied in the story that all the pools lead to completely different worlds, and I've always found it a little disappointing that we don't get to see what some of the other ones are! But that's a big part of the intrigue of the story, as is the whole mysteriousness of the place — the fact that we never do find out what the Wood really is and how it came to be, let alone where else one could travel to from there.

I would say the Wood must be ruled by Aslan as well, since Lewis is writing from an explicitly Christian standpoint and I can't imagine that he would invent a part of the universe that ISN'T created and ruled over by the one God. Aslan himself obviously doesn't need to use the Wood between the Worlds when transferring someone from one world to another (as he can) — in The Magician's Nephew, he calls Helen, the Cabby's wife, directly into Narnia from London. But at the start of the last chapter, he does take Digory, Polly and Uncle Andrew via the Wood before sending them home. In that case, it's for a specific purpose: to show them that the pool that led to Charn has now dried up, because "That world is ended, as if it had never been" — and to warn them that the way their / our own world is going (with an implied reference to nuclear warfare), it could have a similar fate.

So Aslan not only knows about the Wood between the Worlds and can visit there, but he clearly also knows which pool leads to which world and what is happening in each of those other worlds, which no worldly being (not even Jadis) does, as far as we're aware. I'd say that pretty much implies that Aslan rules the Wood as well.

And I totally agree that Lewis would have seen the Wood as a jumping-off point for his young fans to write their own stories of what some of the other worlds are, or how the Wood itself came to be! I've got the delightful collection of his Letters to Children (in storage at the moment, thanks to my recent move, or I'd look up some examples), and in so many of them he encourages young readers to write their own Narnia stories, especially ones that start from things he's hinted at in the books but not expanded on. He was a major advocate of fan fic before the term even existed!  

(Mind you, all this reminds me of a major plot flaw in The Last Battle — which, as I said, Lewis was writing pretty much simultaneously with The Magician's Nephew, so we can't even blame it on him forgetting some details of an earlier work after a few years. In LB, we learn that Peter and Edmund went to retrieve the buried magic rings from behind what used to be the Ketterley / Kirke family's home in London, so that Eustace and Jill could use those rings to get into Narnia. They do find the rings, but as we know, never manage to give them to Jill and Eustace because of the train crash. But the big problem is — and Digory / the Professor and Polly themselves should have thought of this! — that the rings WOULDN'T have taken Jill and Eustace directly into Narnia... they'd have taken them into the Wood between the Worlds. And from the Wood, as again Digory and Polly know from experience, there's no way of knowing which world each pool leads to (unless you're Aslan). So their whole great plan would never have worked out anyway!!!   )

@courtenay 

One wonders if The Magician’s Nephew would have been as interesting without The Wood Between the Worlds.  I think that an in between place makes the story more interesting. The untold mysteries about it are so compelling.  This attracts you to read more of the story. If you knew everything about all of the worlds within the pools you might become bored and put down the book. That is something Lewis would never wanted.  Keep people guessing and they will hunger for more than they already know.  🙂

I don't think anyone could explain what the Wood Between the World is better than this quote from the book. 

"Don't you see?" said Digory. "No, do listen. Think of our tunnel under the slates at home. It isn't a room in any of the houses. In a way, it isn't really part of any of the houses. But once you're in the tunnel you can go along it and come into any of the houses in the row. Mightn't this wood be the same? — a place that isn't in any of the worlds, but once you've found that place you can get into them all.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly wish C. S. Lewis had used the Wood in other Narnia books. I love the plots as they are and it really wouldn't have fit. 

Posted by: @courtenay

Mind you, all this reminds me of a major plot flaw in The Last Battle — which, as I said, Lewis was writing pretty much simultaneously with The Magician's Nephew, so we can't even blame it on him forgetting some details of an earlier work after a few years. In LB, we learn that Peter and Edmund went to retrieve the buried magic rings from behind what used to be the Ketterley / Kirke family's home in London, so that Eustace and Jill could use those rings to get into Narnia. They do find the rings, but as we know, never manage to give them to Jill and Eustace because of the train crash. But the big problem is — and Digory / the Professor and Polly themselves should have thought of this! — that the rings WOULDN'T have taken Jill and Eustace directly into Narnia... they'd have taken them into the Wood between the Worlds. And from the Wood, as again Digory and Polly know from experience, there's no way of knowing which world each pool leads to (unless you're Aslan). So their whole great plan would never have worked out anyway!!!

Not necessarily. We only get a summary of what happened from Eustace, who wasn't a good storyteller. The Friends of Narnia were pretty desperate at that point. They probably decided it was better to try countless pools before finding Narnia than to do nothing. 

Posted by: @col-klink

Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly wish C. S. Lewis had used the Wood in other Narnia books. I love the plots as they are and it really wouldn't have fit. 

I agree — I reckon it would have seemed gimmicky after a time, if in every book some characters got into the Wood and chose another pool to jump into. It would lose its mysteriousness and wonder and become just another cheap plot device. (I'm thinking of Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series, in which there's a different magical land above the cloud at the top of the Faraway Tree every chapter or two. I LOVE those books, but they're aimed at a much younger audience than Narnia is and the atmosphere they create is quite different.)

Like I said, I was always a little disappointed that we never found out where any of the other pools led, but those unanswered questions are actually part of the appeal of the Wood itself for me! If we found out TOO much about it, the magic would be gone.

Posted by: @col-klink

Not necessarily. We only get a summary of what happened from Eustace, who wasn't a good storyteller. The Friends of Narnia were pretty desperate at that point. They probably decided it was better to try countless pools before finding Narnia than to do nothing. 

Now that's a good point too. If I were writing the script for an adaptation of The Last Battle (hello, Netflix? Are you hiring at the moment?? ), I would actually switch back and forth between the plot threads of Tirian in Narnia and the Seven Friends in England, showing them meeting together and talking and coming up with their plans. Then we could see how perhaps Digory and Polly explain to the younger ones that the rings won't take them directly to Narnia, but to the Wood between the Worlds, and then they can discuss it further — "But we must try to get there, we must do something to help that man..." "Well, the pool for Narnia was obviously one of the nearest ones to the pool for our world, wasn't it, because you said you jumped in that one by mistake when looking for the pool for Charn?" "Yes, we could just try each pool, and come back immediately if it goes somewhere else, until we find the one for Narnia..." "What if something goes wrong, though — if you get into a different world and something happens and you can't get back?" "Oh, never mind that — it's a risk we'll just have to take! It's for Narnia..."

(Actually, in the adaptations of the earlier books, I'd bring in snippets of the Friends right from when they first start to get together for regular meetings. My personal "head canon" is that when he went to study with the Professor during the events of Dawn Treader, Peter started to talk to him then, telling him that all four of them DID get back into Narnia (i.e. for Prince Caspian), and so the Professor starts to open up to Peter about how he and a friend actually saw Narnia being created. Then when Edmund and Lucy come home from their stay with Eustace and tell Peter that they and Eustace went to Narnia again, Peter tells them he's been talking to the Professor about Narnia, and the Professor has offered to introduce them to his dear friend Miss Plummer... and then Susan comes home from America and she's obviously become so enamoured of being "all grown up now" that it's gone to her head, and when the others try to tell her they've started meeting up with the Professor and "Aunt Polly" to talk about Narnia, Susan suddenly goes all cold and says "What on earth do you mean? Narnia? Oh, don't be so silly — you're not still thinking about those funny games we used to play when we were kids...")

Sorry, I'm going totally off topic, but my imagination is running away with me here!  I'll stop now.

Posted by: @col-klink

Maybe it's just me, but I don't particularly wish C. S. Lewis had used the Wood in other Narnia books. I love the plots as they are and it really wouldn't have fit. 

I agree. I wouldn't have the Wood between the Worlds in the Narnia series, but it's just such a big setting. Imagine, it holds access to all the worlds! 

I understand that C.S Lewis didn't have time to evaluate on the WBTW since Magician's Nephew was published pretty late in the Narnia series. Yet I can't help wondering what's beyond the woods or how it was made.  Although like others mentioned before, it wouldn't work to fit it in the Narnia series, at least he could've added in Polly and Digory accidentally stumbling into one other world before going to Narnia.  

Posted by: @courtenay

Sorry, I'm going totally off topic, but my imagination is running away with me here!  I'll stop now.

Don't be sorry! I'm pretty sure everyone on Narnia Web has done that once... or twice.  

@kingedthejust 

Come to think of it, the Spare Room in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was also a place where people did not frequent very often, and yet it contained the wardrobe. It was similar in that way to The Wood Between the Worlds in The Magician’s Nephew.  Understandably, Lewis did not want to overuse those places since that would diminish the magic. The places had their own unique secrets. They worked effectively for just one book, and they served their purpose very well.  🙂

I would have to imagine that CS Lewis drew at least some inspiration for the Wood Between the World's from the concept of  Yggdrasil (the World Tree) from Norse Mythology.

I will have to admit, most of my knowledge of Norse Mythology is probably now heavily skewed by the manner in which it is depicted in the Marvel Thor movies and comic books, but I think the basic concept of Yggdrasil is consistent throughout - that there is a literal or metaphorical tree that connects the 9 Worlds of the Universe.

Given how heavily Lewis draws from classical mythology throughout his stories it would be unusual if this wasn't at least partly in his thinking.

Good call about Yggdrasil, icarus!

I think of WbtW as a sort of Grand Central Station -- you take one "train" in and leave by another "train" to get to your destination.

The humans saw it as a forest, being from Earth or Earthlike worlds that had trees, but perhaps creatures from other worlds perceived it according to their preconceptions. Like a cavern full of mushrooms, etc. It shapes itself according to visitor or the species of the visitor.

Lewis did leave it vague about the other worlds... like, if each "world" was its own unique universe, as Narnia was, or a life-bearing planet of a universe, as he thought of Earth, Malacandra, and Perelandra.

In my last read-through of The Magician's Nephew (last year), I remember Uncle Andrew talking about the concept of another world...and not just another planet, but another universe/dimension.  The kind of place you can only reach through magic.  Normally, our "in between" of sorts would be outer space.  If we had the technology and the fuel capacity, we could travel to any world we wanted to.

How does inter-world travel work when magic is your only option? I would guess that there would still be a period when you are no longer in the world you just left, but not yet in the world you're travelling TO.  Only, a lot more magical.  While it would probably vary depending on the author (and CS Lewis decided to use a forest), this idea emerges elsewhere in mythology as well.  For example, in Norse Mythology, their Nine Realms are all connected via a singular Tree-like structure, and are connected by "bridges".

As soon as Aslan established the direct portal between Narnia and Earth, the story no longer has any use for the WBtW.  However, it's probably still out there somewhere.  Waiting to be (God forbid) accessed by the next Uncle Andrew!