(Note: I’m posting this on a dare.)
So the other day, after a few too many glasses of chianti, I got to thinking about some of the fictional heroes that shaped my young fantasies. Mostly, these heroes were a procession of Han Solos, Han Solos, and more Han Solos, with the occasional Westleys a.k.a. Dread Pirate Roberts and Gilbert Blythes thrown in for good measure.
But it occurred to me that there were other, more unexpected influences. So this isn’t an “Everything I Needed to Know About Heroes” (since we cannot forget Han!) but closer to a
“Some Of The Things I Know About Heroes,
I Learned From C.S. Lewis.”
First, and most importantly, the heroes of the Chronicles of Narnia simply dripped with honor.
Or honour, as the case may be. Whatever, they were the finest, most upstanding guys, when they weren’t, you know, under enchantments and stuff. And they covered most of the major “heroic archetypes” (check it out, Gina… opens in a new window, just for you!) I’d learn about when I grew older and started deconstructing this hero stuff. Let’s take a look.
Peter Pevensie, High King of Narnia: Chief. Fine, upstanding, do-gooding, a bit bossy, sure, and slightly stick in the mud. His character develops best in the second book of the series, Prince Caspain, wherein basically everyone looks to him at every opportunity to be the one making the decision and he always rises to the occaion. He’s got a very kingly air about it, corrects other people’s grammar, works hard, etc. etc. Totally swoonworthy for all 12 year old girls in the sword fighting scene there… very brave when he thought he was going to his death.
Edmund Pevensie, King of Narnia, sometime.. um… traitor under duress: Bad Boy. Oh wow, does this guy have a problem with authority figures. He even gets one of them killed. But you know what, Edmund is my favorite of all the Narnians, because he, unlike goody two shoes like Lucy and Peter, actually knows the value and truth behind the magic. He understands what he could have lost, what he was almost responsible for destroying, and it colors his EVERY REACTION in the rest of the series. You can see it. He says he trusts Lucy because last time he didn’t. He comforts Eustace the dragon with the info that no matter how much of a PITA Eustace was being, Edmund had been worse. He’s got a really phenomenal character arc (though so do Eustace and Shasta). Unlike his brother, he can also crack a joke. And he always thinks about things very carefully. King Edmund, you’re my number one hero…
King Caspian the Tenth of Narnia: Swashbuckler. I mean, Prince Charming and all, but you know this guy would rather be on the High Seas. It’s said over and over again that he was never so happy as when he was exploring, and he’s the only one of the Narnians who shows any interest in visiting Earth. Ever. (Reepicheep wants to go outof the world, but it’s more like a religious thing to him.)
Prince Rillian of Narnia: Lost Soul. I mean, really. He’s actually described at one point as reminding someone of Hamlet! Tortured? My lord. I think the whole section where Rillian is tied to the Silver Chair and then the confrontation with the witch afterwards is the best writing in the whole series. Can you imagine being the prince in that moment? Trying to come to grips with losing half your life as a slave while trying to save your neck in the process? Rillian rallies admirably.
Shasta, a.k.a. Prince Cor of Archenland: The Warrior. I thought for a while about making him a “Best Friend” because he does have a lot of those qualities to him, but he’s also incredibly brave, the bravest person in the book. And his reactions to things have a definite “warrior” flair to them. Come on, who goes after a charging lion with his bare hands because there’s nothing else?
Diggory Kirk, a.k.a. The Professor: The Professor. Do I even have to go on with this one?
King Tirian, the Last King of Narnia: The Warrior. He fights even when he knows he has lost. I hate this book though, so I won’t say much more about him.
You’re probably wondering why I haven’t spoken about Eustace. Frankly, I can’t fit him in. He’s not a heroic archetype. I was trying to make him a “best friend” but he really doesn’t fit the profile. Plus he’s such an unmitigated pill for much of his page time that it’s tough to tell what he’s like as a hero. But most of all, unlike the other characters, you never get to see what Eustace grows into. Despite all of his adventures, he’s never a man in Narnia. I think, given the chance, he’d be halfway between a Best Friend and a Professor, with a bit of Warrior thrown in, because, well, he’s a friend of Narnia, and they’re always a bit Warrior. Plus, he’s got all that dragon experience.
No Charmers, though. That character type is too “fake” to do well in such an honor-heavy series as Narnia.
Weird the way my mind works sometimes. Later, we can do a compare and contrast of Gilbert Blythe and Philip Ammon, or the various Disney Princes (I like Aladdin and the Prince in Sleeping Beauty — ten points if you remember his name!)
April 19th, 2006 at 6:18 am
Phillip is the name of the Prince in Sleeping Beauty
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April 19th, 2006 at 6:25 am
Ten points to Bonnie! A winner already? It’s not even eight a.m.
Good to see you! Long time, no see…
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April 19th, 2006 at 8:04 am
Crap. Bonnie beat me to it!
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April 19th, 2006 at 8:13 am
Phillip and Aurora. The first movie I ever saw in the theatre as a little kid. Loved me some Prince Phillip.
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April 19th, 2006 at 8:53 am
I just watched the movie this past weekend. Loved the books and I thought they did a fine job in adaptation.
But I like the beavers the best…..
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April 19th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Ah, fianlly a NARNIA post! Thank you, Jana! That makes so much sense that you liked the Beavers best.
TLTWATW wasn’t my favorite of the books, though man, was it just me, or was the guy playing Mr Tumnus quite the hottie? Never thought I’d have a thing for goat feet… but…
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April 19th, 2006 at 9:15 am
I guess Tumnus could be considered a hottie…..but he’s just not my type. And I don’t mean the feet, which I could probably overlook. He was just a bit unmanly for me. I like those tough, rugged manly men and Tumnus knew a bit too much about tea and decorated too well for my taste. Of course, I’m also the woman who doesn’t get the whole Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom thing either.
I think my favorite of the children is Lucy. She reminds me so much how the younger you are the more simple it is to just accept what you see and go with it. As adults we are suspicious of everything and I wonder sometimes how much “magic” we overlook every day of our lives.
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April 19th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Woo Hoo!!! Thanks, Diana
LOL, Kristen }:)
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April 19th, 2006 at 9:39 am
(((Diana))) Thanks for the link.
And my kitty thanks you too–the old one who was laying on my lap and my arm–because by virtue of only needing one hand, I didn’t have to unseat him to open it.
I’m afraid this does it. I’m going to have to reread Narnia. I loved those books when I was a kid. I remember eagerly checking them out from the library and devouring them when I got home. But I haven’t read them since, and that was (ahem) a long time ago. Evenso, I can still remember my astonishment and delight at the ending of TLTWATW.
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April 19th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Gilbert Blythe. Mmmmm. Levi Zendt from the Centennial miniseries. Oh, oh… does anyone remember that old show(before my time I fell in love with them in reruns.) about the gambler and the gunslinger who kept trying for amnesty? Loved them. Can’t remember the name, but they were so charming and outlaw like. Speaking of outlaws, I loved me some Sacketts too. Sorry, I grew up in a place called Alfalfa Oregon and adored cowboys.
Hee
Teri
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April 19th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
How appropriate that this post comes under “confess your secret” because I think that William Moseley (who played Peter) was a major hottie for such a young man…and when we got to “older” Peter at the end (Noah Huntley) I knew I was lost. Give me a chief anyday! That’s my favorite archetype and the one I write about most often.
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April 19th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Han Solo. mmmmmmm. Can we all take a moment and remember the great kiss scene from Empire Strikes Back? “I like nice men.” “I’m a nice man.” sigh.
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April 19th, 2006 at 4:35 pm
I have two main heroic literary loves:
Sam Gamgee from LotR (Who doesn’t want a guy who would stick with you right up to the mouth of hell and back?). Loved him long before the movie, and even Orlando Bloom in long blonde tresses couldn’t shake me.
Athos from The Three Musketeers. Tragic man at his best. He’s been hurt, he doesn’t keep a mistress, he believes in the nobility of royalty when no one else does. He’s the ideal idealist. I spent large portions of my sophmore year of HS in a funk because Dumas killed him in The Man in the Iron Mask.
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April 19th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Ohh, Athos. *joins Becca in drooling*
In LOTR it’s Éomer and Faramir, the loyal warrior and the noble poet, who got me (and Karl Urban and David Wenham aren’t bad on the eyes, either *grin*).
Other heroes? Well, Ruedegêr von Bechelaren from the Song of the Niblungs, a man torn by conflicting loyalties to the Burgunds on one side and Kriemhild an the Huns on the other; in a way he influenced my Roderic de Sinclaire from Kings and Rebels. Kjartan from the Laxdoela saga who dies for the honour of his friend in a scene Verdi would have composed had he known the book. lol
And then there are characters that aren’t heroes in the traditional sense but totally fascinating: Andrej Bolkonsky (War and Peace), Nikolaj Stavrogin (Dostoyevski, The Possessed), Daniel Deronda (Eliot’s novel), Wallenstein the way he is presented in Golo Mann’s biography …. those and a number of others have always stayed with me since I read the books for the first time.
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April 19th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
There are two more heroes, Olivier from the Song of Roland and some other French epics (how could I forget him) and Rodrique Marques de Posa from Schiller’s play Don Carlos. I played the part at school (yep, there were always more girls than boys in the theatre group, and more male than female roles in the play, and I have a deep voice and was willing to learn that friggin’ amount of text).
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