On October 16, 1950, was the publication date of one of the most beloved children’s novels of all time: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Portal fantasies were not a new genre, but Lewis most definitely brought it front and center, leading to generations of children peeking into closets just in case a doorway opens and allows them to escape to a land of myth and legend.
I first read the Narnia novels when I was in grade school. I was given a box set of all seven books and devoured them. I returned to them multiple times through my childhood and even into adulthood. There’s something about the magic of Narnia that pulls you back time and again.
Last year, I was fortunate enough to go to Oxford, and while I was there, I found a delightful little place called the Story Museum. It’s dedicated to–you guessed it!–stories, especially those connected with Oxford authors. The museum has rooms that are done up to mimic scenes from classic children’s books, and I literally stopped in my tracks when I looked up to see a doorway hung with fur coats. I walked through them and found myself in a snowy glen, containing a lamppost festooned with a red scarf. I was in the Lantern Waste. A projector started up, showing footprints, and hoofprints, on the ground: Lucy and Mr. Tumnus meeting for the first time as the book’s dialogue played through the room. It honestly brought me to tears.
Further on, I found a desk. It is C. S. Lewis’s actual writing desk. It was donated to the museum, with one caveat: anybody who wanted to was to be allowed to sit at it and write stories. I sat at that desk for a few minutes, thinking of the wonderful worlds that had been built there, and how lucky we are to have those stories to show us the magic and wonder to found in books.
Whether the books formed a part of your childhood, or whether you only have seen the movies, or whether you’re a new visitor to Narnia, today is a day to celebrate 75 years of journeys through the wardrobe. And remember, if you meet Aslan, he is not a tame lion…