This timeline was provided by C.S. Lewis, to map out the events of his series. Narnian Time is not in sync with the time on Earth. For instance, when Lucy Pevensie spends a few hours in Narnia she returns to find that only seconds have passed.
C.S. Lewis' Timeline of Narnia
Outline of Narnian History
| Narnian years | NARNIA | English years | ENGLAND |
|---|---|---|---|
| – | – | 1888 | Digory Kirke born. |
| – | – | 1889 | Polly Plummer born. |
| 1 | Creation of Narnia. The beasts made able to talk. Digory plants the Tree of Protection. The White Witch Jadis enters Narnia but flies into the far North. Frank I becomes King of Narnia. | 1900 | Polly and Digory carried into Narnia by magic Rings. |
| 180 | Prince Col, younger son of Frank V, leads certain followers into Archenland (not then inhabited) and becomes first King of that country. | – | – |
| 204 | Certain outlaws from Archenland fly across the Southern desert and set up the new kingdom of Calormen. | 1927
1928 |
Peter Pevensie born.
Susan Pevensie born. |
| 300 | The empire of Calormen spreads mightily. Calormenes colonise the land of Telmar to the West of Narnia. | 1930
1932 |
Edmund Pevensie born.
Lucy Pevensie born. |
| 302 | The Calormenes in Telmar behave very wickedly and Aslan turns them into dumb beasts. The country lies waste. King Gale of Narnia delivers the Lone Islands from a dragon and is made Emperor by their grateful inhabitants. |
1933 | Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole born. |
| 407 | Olvin of Archenland kills the Giant Pire. | – | – |
| 460 | Pirates from our world take possession of Telmar. | – | – |
| 570 | About this time lived Moonwood the Hare. | – | – |
| 898 | The White Witch Jadis returns to Narnia out of the Far North. | – | – |
| 900 | The Long Winter begins. | – | – |
| 1000 | The Pevensies arrive in Narnia. The treachery of Edmund. The sacrifice of Aslan. The White Witch defeated and the Long Winter ended. Peter becomes High King of Narnia. | 1940 | The Pevensies, staying with Digory (now Professor) Kirke, reach Narnia through the Magic Wardrobe. |
| 1014 | King Peter carries out a successful raid on the Northern Giants. Queen Susan and King Edmund visit the Court of Calormen. King Lune of Archenland discovers his long-lost son Prince Cor and defeats a treacherous attack by Prince Rabadash of Calormen. | – | – |
| 1015 | The Pevensies hunt the White Stag and vanish out of Narnia. | – | – |
| 1050 | Ram the Great succeeds Cor as King of Archenland. | – | – |
| 1502 |
About this time lived Queen Swanwhite of Narnia. |
– | – |
| 1998 | The Telmarines invade and conquer Narnia. Caspian I becomes King of Narnia. | – | – |
| 2290 | Prince Caspian, son of Caspian IX, born. Caspian IX murdered by his brother Miraz who usurps the throne. | – | – |
| 2303 | Prince Caspian escapes from his uncle Miraz. Civil War in Narnia. By the aid of Aslan and of the Pevensies, whom Caspian summons with Queen Susan's magic Horn, Miraz is defeated and killed. Caspian becomes King Caspian X of Narnia. | 1941 | The Pevensies again caught into Narnia by the blast of the Magic Horn. |
| 2304 | Caspian X defeats the Northern Giants. | – | – |
| 2306–7 | Caspian X's great voyage to the end of the World. | 1942 | Edmund, Lucy and Eustace reach Narnia again and take part in Caspian's voyage. |
| 2310 | Caspian X marries Ramandu's daughter. | – | – |
| 2325 | Prince Rilian born. | – | – |
| 2345 | The Queen killed by a Serpent. Rilian disappears. | – | – |
| 2356 | Eustace and Jill appear in Narnia and rescue Prince Rilian. Death of Caspian X. | 1942 | Eustace and Jill, from Experiment House, are carried away into Narnia. |
| 2534 | Outbreak of outlaws in Lantern Waste. Towers built to guard that region. | – | – |
| 2555 | Rebellion of Shift the Ape. King Tirian rescued by Eustace and Jill. Narnia in the hands of the Calormenes. The last battle. End of Narnia. End of the World. | 1949 | Serious accident on British Railways. |
Controversy
While the authenticity of some posthumous works attributed to C.S. Lewis edited by Walter Hooper have been challenged (Lindskoog 1988), the timeline is generally accepted by Lewis scholars such as Paul Ford and Martha Sammons, despite a number of seeming discrepancies between the timeline and the text of the books, including the following:
- The timeline says Digory Kirke was born in 1888 (his similarity in age to Polly in The Magician's Nephew, born in 1889 according to the timeline, backs this up) and confirms him as the Professor of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This would only put him in his early fifties in 1940 (when the timeline says "The Pevensies, staying with Digory (now Professor) Kirke, reach Narnia through the Magic Wardrobe") which conflicts with the description of Professor Kirke in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as "a very old man with white shaggy hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head".
- In Prince Caspian, Trumpkin says that Queen Susan's Horn was blown "Between nine and ten of the clock". All the children then reply "Just when we were at the railway station!", suggesting the possibility that there is a synchronization of the two timelines.
- While 1900 is given by the timeline as the year "Polly and Digory [were] carried into Narnia by magic Rings", The Magician's Nephew begins by saying "In those days Mr Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road." The Bastables were searching for treasure while living at 150 Lewisham Road in E. Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers; the book is set in 1899, the year before its sequel, The Wouldbegoods (see chapter ten, where a letter dated 1900 is recieved). Both dates tally with Sherlock Holmes, who (according to the 60 canonical stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) was resident in 221B Baker Street from 1881/1882 (A Study in Scarlet) until his retirement in 1903/1904, with the exception of a hiatus between 1891 (The Final Problem) and 1894 (The Adventure of the Empty House).
- Paul Ford points out in his Companion to Narnia that the text of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe states Edmund and Lucy to be one year apart in age, though the timeline gives their years of birth as 1930 and 1932 respectively, which would put their relative ages at anything from only just more than one year (December 1930 – January 1932) to almost three years (January 1930 – December 1932).
- Queen Swanwhite was said by Jewel the Unicorn to have ruled Narnia before Jadis in The Last Battle but the timeline says she ruled around the year 1502, more than 600 years after Jadis returned to Narnia. This has led some fans to explain the inconsistency with speculation that there were two queen Swanwhites, one before Jadis and mentioned by Jewel, the other in 1502, named after the first and referred to by the timeline.
- It is disputed if there are indeed seven years between the events of The Silver Chair and The Last Battle or if the second "9" in "1949 was meant to be a "3" which had just been misread by Hooper from Lewis' own handwriting. However, Eustace states in The Last Battle that only he and Jill are still in school. If that was 1943, Peter would have been sixteen, Edmund would have been almost thirteen, and Lucy would have been eleven, and so still at school (compulsory education until the age of fourteen had been enforced in England since the early 1920s).
- Devin Brown, author of Inside Narnia: A Guide to Exploring The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe uses the timeline as a way to reconcile some of the statements concerning the timing of Aslan's appearances in Narnia with other character's recollection of those appearances.
See also
Sources
1. Past Watchful Dragons; Walter Hooper; Macmillan; 1979