InsaneJournal

The Telmarine war cry is “Christ Amour”. This is not as bizarre as you’d think it would be (it isn’t in the books, but we’re not talking about what is or is not in the books right now). It only seems weird until you realize that there is no way the Telmarines could be unfamiliar with Christianity. They came into Narnia from an era in our world that was after the arrival of Christianity. The Magician’s Nephew tells the story of the creation of Narnia, from the pov of Edwardian era humans, and I once heard that C.S Lewis said the Telmarines arrived in the twenties. I have never heard anyone say this before or since though. But there’s a good chance (eighty percent, probably) that the Telmarines knew about Christianity before they entered Narnia.

I think that may be the point of them. I read a fic from a Telmarine pov where Peter is referred to as “the pagan king” and I thought “that is exactly how they’d see him”.

From their pov, the Narnians worship an animal and believe in a bunch of frightening minor nature gods. The Telmarines fear and hate anything related to Old Narnia, so they fear and hate Aslan, even to the point of desperately pretending he doesn't exist. And of course, Aslan is actually Jesus, so it's all about how Christians are cut off from their own god and are consequently terrified of perfectly normal things their god made. And you know, the horrible horrible things they do to other people in the name of the god they are carefully trying to keep locked away in some building.

They don't understand that Aslan *is* the same being their ancestors worshipped in our world, so they spend the whole book (and movie) trying to wipe out Old Narnia. Partly because the reality of God scares them so they have to put up walls in order to deal with it. And also, partly because they just don't comprehend that any version but their own is valid.

Like all those people who just couldn't understand that people who voted for Obama could also have strong Christian values and be voting according to them (although it's always been interesting that people during US elections say they're going to vote for "The Christian candidate"...as opposed to what, the Hindu candidate?)


I wanted this to be longer but I strained my hand today.