Welcome, NarnianHobbit. Your calling your first guitar "Caspian" has inspired me to give my bass guitar a name - I think I'll call it/him "Rumblebuffin", as he's solidly built, quite heavy and very rich in the bass frequencies.

^ I love that, King_Erlian. Your instrument really does match those solid characteristics of that memorable giant!

Hi everyone!

I've been nosing about on NarniaWeb for a little while and was delighted to find there's a community of people online who love talking about Narnia too. This just seems like a very special and friendly and welcoming place and I'd love to be part of it — hope to get to know you all better in the future.

In the meantime, here are my answers to the list of questions as suggested...

1. Name (please avoid your real full name): Courtenay (that is my real first name)
2. King or Queen of Narnia (guy or girl): Queen
3. Family (single/married/kids): Single
4. Occupation: Christian Science nurse ("What's that?")
5. How you learned about NarniaWeb: Stumbled across this site when looking for some good resources to defend C.S. Lewis against the tired old charges of sexism and racism — found what I needed here (excellent, thanks!), so I started exploring further. I've been really enjoying the Talking Beasts podcasts!
6. How old were you when you first read the Chronicles: Mum read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to me when I was five years old. I was absolutely enchanted and was then delighted a couple of years later to discover there was a whole series of seven books! I finished reading them all at just about the time the hokey but endearing BBC version of the Chronicles came on TV (this was in Australia, c. 1989-1990) and the rest, as they say, is history...
7. How many times have you read the Chronicles: I've lost count!
8. Favourite of the Chronicles: I really, honestly couldn't say. Every one of the seven books has something special about it that stays with me and that I wouldn't want to be without.
9. Hobbies and/or interesting things about you: I'm an expat Aussie living in the UK, have a BA (Hons) degree in history and religion studies, love reading and music, and am addicted to cross stitch. Faith-wise, I wasn't brought up in any religion and was an agnostic throughout my teens, but then rediscovered Christ (or was it the other way around?) and realised that everything I'd loved about Narnia as a child, and especially about Aslan, was true after all...

One more obscure fun fact: I'm a language enthusiast and am learning Kernewek (Cornish), which is closely related to Welsh and died out almost completely in the late 18th/early 19th century, but was revived in the early 20th century and now has a small but growing community of speakers, but not nearly enough good literature for children or adults. Once I'm fluent enough, we will (God willing) have all seven Chronicles of Narnia in Cornish*, starting of course with An Lew, an Wragh ha'n Dhilasva. (Can you tell what that is from the title? )

* If anyone's wondering about copyright issues there, I don't have all the information myself, but will of course look into the legal requirements thoroughly before trying to get anything published. There have been several translations of the Narnia books into other languages over the years, so it's obviously possible.

Welcome to the NarniaWeb forum, Courtenay! I found your answers very interesting, indeed.

Faith-wise, I wasn't brought up in any religion and was an agnostic throughout my teens, but then rediscovered Christ (*or was it the other way around?) and realised that everything I'd loved about Narnia as a child, and especially about Aslan, was true after all...

This totally gives me the goosebumps!
*In other words, “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you” from TSC, one of my favourite lines in the Chronicles.

Kernewek (Cornish) sounds fascinating. Kudos and best wishes in pursuing this!

You are not alone as a book and music lover here. To start you off, here is our Books topic,
In regards to music, there are a few different threads:
on Instruments
on Favourite Music
and a separate topic for Musicians.

Enjoy the discussions all around the forum!

*In other words, “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you” from TSC, one of my favourite lines in the Chronicles.

And mine!

Enjoy the discussions all around the forum!

Many thanks for your warm welcome and good wishes and all the links! I've also already discovered the thread for sewing and embroidery and have something I could share there, so I'll just head in that direction...

(By the way, I notice my posts have to be approved by a moderator before they appear — I understand that's to deter spammers and trolls, but does it wear off once we've done enough good posts to prove we're legit? )

Oooh, yes, I had forgotten all about that Sewing (etc) topic. Glad you found it!

Yes, the 'probation' period is for ten posts. You should whip through these in no time, and then be good to go with no more official approvals.

Right, better get posting, then! Give the mods something to do... (And many thanks to them, by the way — I used to be an assistant moderator for another discussion forum and I know how much work it can be, especially when you've got people who sadly are just there to make trouble.)

Oh my goodness! That is such a great idea Courtenay! I had no idea that there even was a Cornish language but the idea of seeing Narnia get its own translation in yet another language makes me happy! (My brother is learning Welsh right now, so he might be able to understand parts of it. ):D Hopefully everyone on Earth will someday be able to read these awesome books in their own language!
Oh, and welcome to Narniaweb!

Hi everyone!
Once I'm fluent enough, we will (God willing) have all seven Chronicles of Narnia in Cornish*, starting of course with An Lew, an Wragh ha'n Dhilasva. (Can you tell what that is from the title? )

Hi Courtenay! I was surprised that your entry in the Name that author thread, in the games & blogs concerned an author called Bryce Courtenay & wondered if there was any link. He wrote quite a few books, many set in Australia, where he lived, though I think he may have lived in South Africa for a while as well. Others of his works concern other countries, such as The Family Frying Pan which was set in Russia, originally. This is one of his stories which I liked best.

Yes I think I can tell you what your quoted Cornish title might be.

An Lew (The lion), an Wragh (The Witch) ha'n (Dhilasva) and the Wardrobe.

"An" is a characteristic of other Celtic languages as well eg

An Gearran (February) An Giblean (April) An Ceitean (May), An t- Samhain (November) in Scottish Gaelic.

There are some threads you may well like here. Such as the books thread in this forum, as well as the Weird Words thread

Hi Courtenay! I was surprised that your entry in the Name that author thread, in the games & blogs concerned an author called Bryce Courtenay & wondered if there was any link.

No, no link except that he has a nice surname and he even spells it right! (Courtenay is my actual given name and I've spent my whole life having to correct people who spell it "Courtney". It's pronounced exactly the same way, but "Courtenay" is the older spelling.)

Yes, you're right about the Cornish title, of course. Interestingly, I gather "an" is also "the" in Irish and Scottish Gaelic, but it's different in Welsh — "y", I think — although Welsh is much more closely related to Cornish. Just one of those odd quirks of how languages evolve!

One of the little conundrums I'm toying with, on that note, is how best to translate the name Dawn Treader. "Tread" has a few possible shades of meaning in English, but translated too literally into another language, it's likely to come out as sounding something like Dawn Trampler or Dawn Stomper. Which I think is not QUITE the effect C.S. Lewis was intending to create with the name... (I will probably go with something more like Dawn Venturer or Dawn Explorer, if only I can find the right words. I'm still a learner myself and my current dictionaries don't have those terms in them!! Anyway, that's all for the future.)

One of the little conundrums I'm toying with, on that note, is how best to translate the name Dawn Treader. "Tread" has a few possible shades of meaning in English, but translated too literally into another language, it's likely to come out as sounding something like Dawn Trampler or Dawn Stomper.

Cornish hasn't evolved quite as much as Welsh, maybe. Welsh & especially Irish, are in everyday use, whereas Cornish not so much, though the nearest I ever got to Cornwall was the ancient City of Bath. If you go into the Hebrides & up as far as Inverness, road signs are done in both English & Scottish Gaelic. So Tobermory on the Isle of Mull might be Tobar Mhoire (Mary's Well). They say on the Isle of Mull the sheep dogs only answer commands in Scottish Gaelic.

I'm wondering if you'd do better to find an equivalent to trek, hike, journey, or just step or walker, maybe? They say that in some Northern countries there are literally hundreds of words for something like snow but very few for less important matters that are more important elsewhere. Thanks for the explanation about Bryce Courtenay, who died in November 2012.

Cornish hasn't evolved quite as much as Welsh, maybe. Welsh & especially Irish, are in everyday use, whereas Cornish not so much, though the nearest I ever got to Cornwall was the ancient City of Bath.

Bath is wonderful, isn't it? It's the most beautiful city I've ever seen anywhere. I've been there many times (though I live over the other side of England, just outside the Greater London border in western Kent) and I especially loved the Christmas market, which I've been to a couple of times.

Cornish, unfortunately, still doesn't have any settled communities where it's in day-to-day use — there are several hundred fluent speakers and hundreds more with at least some knowledge, but not enough living in close proximity where they can interact in the language all the time. (Other than in some families where parents have brought their children up to speak it at home — which I'd definitely love to do if I happened to find a Cornish-speaking husband, but no such thing has ever come my way and I'm not holding my breath! ) So it mainly gets spoken at deliberate gatherings — there are regular informal pub conversation groups and language events throughout the year.

However, there are now bilingual street signs in many towns in Cornwall (just the street names, but it's a start) and the amount of public exposure and awareness that the language gets has increased even over the past 6 or so years that I've been visiting Cornwall fairly regularly, so that's something. (I have Cornish ancestry on my father's side, which is how I got interested after I first visited Cornwall some years ago and fell head over heels in love with the place.) And as I was saying, there's a small but growing industry in Cornish-language books and we always need more children's literature, so... (And there's definitely a Cornish-speaking Christian community — we have a lovely C of E minister who runs Cornish language services in Anglican and Methodist churches all over Cornwall, with one being held nearly every Sunday, and they get a substantial audience, as I know from having been to several. So that tells me there have got to be some Cornish language enthusiasts who would definitely love to have the Chronicles of Narnia in Cornish.)

I'm wondering if you'd do better to find an equivalent to trek, hike, journey, or just step or walker, maybe?

Yes, that's a thought. "Treader" is a bit of a funny name to attach to a ship anyway, but hey, I'm not the one who chose it! But I do want to be as faithful as possible to what Lewis actually wrote or intended, needless to say.

If there's a thread somewhere on NarniaWeb about translations or languages in general, by the way, I'll be happy to go there so as not to keep cluttering up the welcome thread...

The Spare Oom topic I can find on languages that is unlocked, Courtenay, is here. It has not been posted in for a couple of years, but it would be great to see it active again.

Welcome to NarniaWeb, Courtenay! I think it's very cool that you want to translate the Chronicles of Narnia into Cornish.

One of the little conundrums I'm toying with, on that note, is how best to translate the name Dawn Treader. "Tread" has a few possible shades of meaning in English, but translated too literally into another language, it's likely to come out as sounding something like Dawn Trampler or Dawn Stomper. Which I think is not QUITE the effect C.S. Lewis was intending to create with the name...

I was thinking that some languages might just transliterate the names, so I went back and looked at the Korean version The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (I really need to go and read my sister's copy). To my surprise, it wasn't a transliteration. In English, it would mean something like The Sailing of the Dawn Trip/Journey.

I'm wondering if you'd do better to find an equivalent to trek, hike, journey, or just step or walker, maybe?

I guess the Korean title followed wagga's logic!

So I went and looked up the Japanese version out of curiosity, and it seems that Dawn Treader is translated as Morning Glory, or at least as best as I can tell!

*heads over to the THE GIFT OF GAB: ALL ABOUT LANGUAGES! thread*

~Wunder

Thanks, johobbit — and hi, Wunderkind_Lucy! I'll head over to that thread now as well...