Prince Caspian

This evening, I saw “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.”  It was beautiful and magical.  I miss Narnia already and was so sad to be transported back to the train station with the Pevensie children.  I felt much of the same nostalgia/grief/pain as when I first saw the last scene of the final movie of the “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.”  I saw it in the eyes of the children as I saw it in the eyes of Frodo.  There was no going back, but also the sense of a changed moving forward.  What happened then and there affected and changed what will happen here and now. 

I’ve read the LOTR trilogy seven times.  There was a period of time where I read it every year.  Maybe it was a need to get away, to escape the present that I felt led to be transported to that distant time and place.  I would go away and at the end come back to the present, refreshed and encouraged to continue on.  When the movies came out, I was carried away by the scope and beauty with which they recreated the world that had long hid in my mind.  Granted, there were lapses and deviations from the storyline, but the heart was still there, and the beauty.

I have also read all the Narnia books.  I read them shortly after I first read LOTR.  I was drawn to the fantasy and let Lewis take me to other places as Tolkein had.  Maybe it was because Tolkein had created such a complete world, with nooks and crannies, that I felt led to go back and explore time and again.  Narnia, though it was enchanting and delightful and painful and haunting as well, didn’t quite have that pull.  With LOTR, I got to explore the Old Forest and the Barrows and revisit Tom Bombadil and Lothlorien.  Maybe it had to do with how Lewis concluded his stories.  There was finality at the end.  Tolkein, though he brought closure to the fellowship with Frodo’s departure, left the story open with Sam.  There was a “to be continued” sense.  It was a season finale as opposed to series finale (OK, so I’ve been watching too much TV lately, but you get my gist…).  Even as I write, I want to go back and re-read portions, to explore that world once more.

Watching the Chronicle movies has been like meeting an old friend after a long time apart.  The memory needs refreshing, but the happiness is still the same, the joy of friendship rekindled.

There’s a song at the end of the movie that sums up quite nicely many of my feelings.  I hope you like it.

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