Narnia Part 1

Sometimes when you're walking around the woods or the mountains here, I imagine Frodo Baggins on his great quest - and apparently C.S.Lewis felt exactly the same.

“I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge.” C.S.Lewis

“That part of Rostrevor which overlooks Carlingford Lough is my idea of Narnia.” C.S.Lewis

He was born in Belfast in November 1898 and used to come to Rostrevor on his holidays as a child - (so did Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret as children, and before them thousands of Victorians came for the waters - but that's a story for another day.)  

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To honour this connection our local council, who deserve huge kudos for this, have decided to put a Narnia trail into the forest.   Figures have been appearing overnight for weeks now - apparently it's due to be officially opened in another couple of weeks.

I've only been to see one little part yet, and I'll show you more as I discover them.   So here's a wee glimpse of what's going on in the woods today ... and a bit about the man himself.

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. 

Lewis wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. C. S. Lewis's most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics in The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.  (courtesy of the official C.S. Lewis website)  

He was a friend and colleague of J.R.R. Tolkien - they met in 1926.

“I yearn to see County Down in the snow; one almost expects to see a march of dwarfs dashing past. How I long to break into a world where such things were true.” C.S.Lewis

I love the fact that these chairs are growing out of tree stumps.

Five of these beautiful figures in the bluebell wood