Narnian Creation

At first they hear a mighty voice - the Word - that is raised in song, an immortal song that creates the first swirling movement over the face of the primal waters. The single voice of God, or the Creative Word, is then joined by the harmonious singing of innumerable voices, as all the stars of heaven blaze forth. They then see the land of Narnia slowly begin to form in the starlight, as a light fresh wind begins to stir, the movement of the life-giving Holy Spirit. Then the first dawn of the newly created world appears, as its Sun rises above the horizon to reveal the contours of the hills and valleys. It is then they see the great Lion, later to be known as Aslan, in the leonine form which is to be the image of God that is revealed to the people and creatures of Narnia. Following upon these primal acts the song of creation continues, accompanied by the angelic starry voices, and grass and trees appear, and all manner of vegetable life, followed by the different species of animals. And then, in response to a final burst of creative fire from the mind and voice of the Lion, the creatures of the inner side of nature appear - the gods and goddesses of the woods, the elemental and faery creatures, fauns, satyrs, dwarfs, and animals that have the gift of speech.

There is thus a place in Lewis's Christian vision not only for the angels of the stars but also for the nature spirits of the pagan world. In this he demonstrates a neo-Platonic breadth of vision, the loss of which is perhaps one of the major handicaps of the modern Church. A narrowness of vision even more deadly is demonstrated, each in their way, by Uncle Andrew and Queen Jadis. Jadis, who is in large part responsible for the destruction of her own world, finds herself in considerable discomfort in the presence of the Creative Word. Her first reaction is to flee from Aslan, and then to attack him, in desperation. It is her throwing an iron bar at him, snapped from a London lamp-post, that causes the lone lamp-post to grow in the wastes of outer Narnia. The creative ambience around Aslan, and the Tree of Life, is such that the fragment of iron acts like a seed or cutting of the original from whence it came. By a wondrous predestination, which has all the hallmarks of a higher magic, it forms an ever burning light, that subsequently guides Lucy and the children when their redemptive intervention is later required against the powers of Jadis in a later Narnian epoch.

Gareth Knight

The Magical World of the Inklings

Element Books (1990)