Two ages for each hero: the one from our world and the one from Narnia

• Les âges terrestres viennent from the chronology of Narnia written by Lewis, cross-referenced with the novels.
• By adding the years of reign at Cair Paravel, the Pevensies have, in 1949, an age lived of over thirty years (approximate calculation from the site).
• Le rapport entre les deux temps change à chaque visite : 1 year on Earth equals 1,288 years in Narnia once, 3 years the next.
• Aslan announces their last journey to Peter and Susan at 14 and 13 years, to Edmund and Lucy at 12 and 10 years.

Two ages for each hero

Lucy is 17 years old when she enters the true Narnia at the end of The Last Battle. This is her age for the English civil registry. But she has already lived about fifteen years as a queen at Cair Paravel, then months as a traveler on the Dawn Treader: in years actually lived, she is over thirty years old.

This is the peculiarity of the Chronicles: whatever time they spend in Narnia, the children return to our world at the exact moment they left, with their previous age. Their bodies grow younger again, but their memories remain. This page therefore gives, for each hero, two ages: the one from the Earth calendar, book by book, and the one we call the lived age.

L'âge de l'état civil

The novels give few precise ages. But Lewis wrote for himself a chronology of Narnia, the Outline of Narnian History, published by Walter Hooper in 1979 in Past Watchful Dragons. He noted there the year of birth of the children from our world: Digory 1888, Polly 1889, Peter 1927, Susan 1928, Edmund 1930, Lucy 1932, Eustace and Jill 1933. We have cross-referenced this with clues from the novels. In the absence of birth months, ages are rounded to the nearest year. The complete table, book by book, is included in the page data.

• Character — Age on Earth in 1949 — Time spent in Narnia — Age lived in 1949
• Peter — 22 years — about 15 years — about 37 years
• Susan — 21 years — about 15 years — about 36 years
• Edmund — 19 years — about 15 years and a few months — about 34 or 35 years
• Lucy — 17 years — about 15 years and a few months — about 32 or 33 years
• Eustace — 16 years — a few months — about 17 years
• Jill — 16 years — a few days — 16 years
• Digory — 61 years — a few hours — 61 years
• Polly — 60 years — a few hours — 60 years

Le résultat a de quoi surprendre: in 1949, Peter has lived almost twice his official age, and Lucy, the youngest of the four, has spent nearly half her life in Narnia. Lewis does not draw all the consequences from this double age, but he shows traces of it. In Prince Caspian, Peter quickly regains his skill with the sword and Lucy her familiarity with Aslan; the memories of their adult lives return with each visit.

Two clocks that do not tick at the same rate

Le rapport entre le temps de notre monde et celui de Narnia change à chaque visite. Nothing allows us to predict it: Professor Kirke had said so, nothing guarantees that the time of another world marches at the pace of ours.

• Between — On Earth — In Narnia
• The Magician's Nephew and The Lion — 40 years — about 1,000 years
• The Lion and The Prince Caspian — 1 year — 1,288 years after the departure of the Pevensies
• The Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — 1 year — 3 years
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair — a few months — about 50 years
• The Silver Chair and The Last Battle — 7 years — 199 years

And in The Last Battle, a week on Earth lasts only a few minutes in Narnia. For the doors themselves, see the portals between the worlds.

L'âge où l'on quitte Narnia

Lewis chose young heroes, and he makes them leave one after another. The moment when Aslan tells each of them that they will never return is one of the most moving threads in the series.

• Peter and Susan, at 14 and 13 years, at the end of Prince Caspian: they have become too old.
• Edmund and Lucy, at 12 and 10 years, at the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: they must now learn to know Aslan in their own world, under another name.
• Eustace and Jill do not receive a farewell. They return one last time, at 16 years, to help Tirian, and do not leave again.
• Digory and Polly, at 61 and 60 years, only see Narnia again at the very end, in the true Narnia.

Chaque livre confides the adventure to children younger than the previous ones, until the last, where all meet again. Le cas de Susan, seule absente, est discussed in Lewis at the helm.

Les paradoxes les plus connus

Le professeur Digory, si vieux? Born in 1888, Digory is only 52 years old in 1940. Yet the novel describes him as a very old man with shaggy white hair. Lewis wrote The Lion before imagining The Magician's Nephew and probably did not make the calculation. The Netflix film seems to settle the issue in its own way, since it moves Digory's childhood to 1955.

Edmund and Lucy. The novel states that Edmund is one year older than Lucy. The chronology, however, has them born in 1930 and 1932. We do not know which of the two versions Lewis would have retained.

Caspian grows old, not Eustace. Eustace leaves Caspian as a young man at the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. A few months later for him, he finds an old dying king of 66 years. This is one of the most melancholic scenes in the series.

Pour situer ces années dans l'histoire du monde, see the history of Narnia, and for the order of the books, in which order to read the Chronicles.

• Years of birth —
  • Digory Kirke — 1888
  • Polly Plummer — 1889
  • Peter Pevensie — 1927
  • Susan Pevensie — 1928
  • Edmund Pevensie — 1930
  • Lucy Pevensie — 1932
  • Eustace Scrubb — 1933
  • Jill Pole — 1933
  • Caspian X — 2290 (a Narnian)
  • Prince Rilian — 2325 (a Narnian)
• Source years — Outline of Narnian History by C.S. Lewis, published by Walter Hooper in Past Watchful Dragons (1979).
• Table —
  • The Magician's Nephew — Le Neveu du magicien — 1900 — 1 (Creation) — a few hours in Narnia — ages
    • Character

      Digory Kirke

      — 12 years — born in 1888
    • Character

      Polly Plummer

      — 11 years — born in 1889
    • Character

      Uncle Andrew (Andrew Ketterley)

      — over 60 years — he says so himself
• On screen — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — 1940 — 1000 to 1015 — about 15 years in Narnia, no time elapsed in England — ages
  • Character

    Peter Pevensie

    — 13 at arrival, about 28 at departure — born in 1927
  • Character

    Susan Pevensie

    — 12, then about 27 — born in 1928
  • Character

    Edmund Pevensie

    — 10, then about 25 — born in 1930
  • Character

    Lucy Pevensie

    — 8, then about 23 — born in 1932
  • Character

    Digory Kirke

    — 52 — old man, though Eustace is described as a very old man
• Did you know — The Horse and His Boy — 1014 — no visitors from our world: the story takes place during the Golden Age — ages
  • Character

    Shasta (Prince Cor)

    — 13 or 14 — twin of Corin, born around the year 1000
  • Character

    Prince Corin of Archenland

    — 13 or 14
  • Character

    Aravis Tarkheena

    — about 13 — Lewis does not give her exact age
  • Character

    Peter Pevensie

    — about 27 — absent: he is fighting the Northern giants
  • Character

    Susan Pevensie

    — about 26 — proposed to by Rabadash
  • Character

    Edmund Pevensie

    — about 24
  • Character

    Lucy Pevensie

    — about 22
• Prince Caspian — Prince Caspian — 1941 — 2303 — a few days — ages
  • Character

    Peter Pevensie

    — 14 years
  • Character

    Susan Pevensie

    — 13 years
  • Character

    Edmund Pevensie

    — 11 years
  • Character

    Lucy Pevensie

    — 9 years
  • Character

    Caspian X

    — 13 years — born in 2290, the year Miraz seizes the throne
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — 1942 — 2306-2307 — several months of travel — ages
  • Character

    Edmund Pevensie

    — 12 years
  • Character

    Lucy Pevensie

    — 10 years
  • Character

    Eustace Clarence Scrubb

    — 9 years — born in 1933
  • Character

    Caspian X

    — 16 years — three years after his coronation
• The Silver Chair — The Silver Chair — 1942 — 2356 — a few days — ages
  • Character

    Eustace Clarence Scrubb

    — 9 years (10 at most) — a term after The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
  • Character

    Jill Pole

    — 9 years — born in 1933
  • Character

    Caspian X

    — 66 years — an old man in Eustace's eyes, who had left him a young man only a few months earlier
  • Character

    Prince Rilian

    — about 31 years — born in 2325, disappeared at 20, prisoner for ten years
• The Last Battle — The Last Battle — 1949 — 2555 — a week on Earth lasts only a few minutes in Narnia — ages
  • Character

    Tirian

    — between 20 and 25 — specified by the text
  • Character

    Eustace Clarence Scrubb

    — 16 years
  • Character

    Jill Pole

    — 16 years
  • Character

    Peter Pevensie

    — 22 years
  • Character

    Edmund Pevensie

    — 19 years
  • Character

    Lucy Pevensie

    — 17 years
  • Character

    Susan Pevensie

    — 21 years — absent: she "is no longer a friend of Narnia"
  • Character

    Digory Kirke

    — 61 years
  • Character

    Polly Plummer

    — 60 years

Lifespan —

• Character

  Peter Pevensie

  — 1927 — 22 — about 15 years (Golden Age) and a few days (Prince Caspian) — about 37 years
• Character

  Susan Pevensie

  — 21 — about 15 years and a few days — about 36 — absent from The Last Battle
• Character

  Edmund Pevensie

  — 19 — about 15 years, a few days, then several months of travel (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) — about 34 or 35
• Character

  Lucy Pevensie

  — 17 — about 15 years, a few days, then several months of travel — about 32 or 33
• Character

  Eustace Clarence Scrubb

  — 1933 — 16 — several months (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader), a few days (The Silver Chair) — about 17 years
• Character

  Jill Pole

  — 1933 — 16 — a few days — about 16 years
• Character

  Digory Kirke

  — 1888 — 61 — a few hours (The Magician's Nephew) — 61 years
• Character

  Polly Plummer

  — 1889 — 60 — a few hours — 60 years

Time ratio —

• The Magician's Nephew — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — 1900 → 1940 (40 years) — 1 year (Golden Age) → about 1,000 years (Prince Caspian)
• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — Prince Caspian — 1940 → 1941 (1 year) — about 1,000 years (Prince Caspian) → 2,303 years (The Silver Chair)
• Prince Caspian — The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — 1941 → 1942 (1 year) — 2,303 years → 2,306 years
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — The Silver Chair — 1942 → 1942 (a few months) — 2,306 years → 2,356 years (about 50 years)
• The Silver Chair — The Last Battle — 1942 → 1949 (7 years) — 2,356 years → 2,555 years (199 years)

See also

• From the First Dawn to the Last Night: The History of Narnia
• How to Read the Chronicles of Narnia
• The Portals Between Worlds
• Digory Kirke
• Lucy Pevensie
• Caspian X
• The Full List of Narnian Characters
• Peter Pevensie
• Susan Pevensie
• Edmund Pevensie
• Eustace Scrubb
• Jill Pole
• Polly Plummer
• Lewis on Trial: The Criticisms of Narnia, and How His Own Writing Responds