Wood between the Worlds
Encyclopedia
The Wood between the Worlds is a linking room
location in The Magician's Nephew
, part of The Chronicles of Narnia
series by C. S. Lewis
.
, who arrives there when Digory Kirke's
Uncle Andrew tricks her into touching and taking a magic yellow ring, which instantaneously transports her into the wood. She falls asleep, and when Digory arrives later the children are both disoriented and at first they aren’t sure how long they have been there or even who they are. This state of lassitude that both children fall into is explained as the result of the Wood being a place where nothing ever happens, unlike the different worlds it connects (where events do occur). Later, Empress Jadis
of Charn is brought to the wood and appears to fall ill because of it, weakening so that the children are stronger than she. After leaving the wood between the worlds, Jadis soon recovers and never brings it up. Digory speculates that her mind is unable to hold memories of the wood.
is in The Magician's Nephew, the pool dries up. In Paul F. Ford's Pocket Companion to Narnia, a diagram shows the Wood Between the Worlds to be housed in Aslan's Country
, sitting on top of all the worlds.
, Charn, and Earth. A sense of slothfulness grips all visitors, including Jadis
. It could be considered a multiverse
of sorts, existing outside the normal physical realities.
Portals in fiction
A portal in science fiction and fantasy is a magical or technological doorway that connects two distant locations separated by spacetime. It usually consists of two or more gateways, with an object entering one gateway leaving via the other instantaneously....
location in The Magician's Nephew
The Magician's Nephew
The Magician's Nephew is a fantasy novel for children written by C. S. Lewis. It was the sixth book published in his The Chronicles of Narnia series, but is the first in the chronology of the Narnia novels' fictional universe. Thus it is an early example of a prequel.The novel is initially set in...
, part of The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages...
series by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
.
The Magician's Nephew
It is first so named by Polly PlummerPolly Plummer
Polly Plummer is a major fictional character from C. S. Lewis's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. She appears in two of the seven books: The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle.-The Magician's Nephew:...
, who arrives there when Digory Kirke's
Digory Kirke
Digory Kirke is a fictional character from C. S. Lewis' fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. He is in three of the seven books: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle, and is mentioned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.In the 2005 film The Chronicles...
Uncle Andrew tricks her into touching and taking a magic yellow ring, which instantaneously transports her into the wood. She falls asleep, and when Digory arrives later the children are both disoriented and at first they aren’t sure how long they have been there or even who they are. This state of lassitude that both children fall into is explained as the result of the Wood being a place where nothing ever happens, unlike the different worlds it connects (where events do occur). Later, Empress Jadis
White Witch
Jadis is the main antagonist of The Magician's Nephew and of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in C.S. Lewis' series, The Chronicles of Narnia...
of Charn is brought to the wood and appears to fall ill because of it, weakening so that the children are stronger than she. After leaving the wood between the worlds, Jadis soon recovers and never brings it up. Digory speculates that her mind is unable to hold memories of the wood.
Geography
The wood is described as having a warm temperature and containing a large number of leafy trees, with canopy foliage so thick that the sky (assuming there is one) cannot be seen from the ground. Despite the thick foliage, a strong light does penetrate to the woodland floor, clearly illuminating objects. The salient feature of the wood, other than the trees, is the presence of many pools of water. Initially, the pools appear to be just shallow puddles. However, when someone jumps into one of the pools while wearing another magic ring, the pool of water transports the wearer to a different world. When a world is destroyed, i.e. all life is removed, as CharnCharn
Charn is a fictional city appearing in the 1955 book The Magician's Nephew, book six in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, written as a prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In the book, Charn is described as a very large and completely deserted city that is in a semi-ruined state....
is in The Magician's Nephew, the pool dries up. In Paul F. Ford's Pocket Companion to Narnia, a diagram shows the Wood Between the Worlds to be housed in Aslan's Country
Aslan's Country
Aslan's Country is a fictional location from C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series. It is the home of Aslan, the great lion. It is described as a series of mountains, thousands of feet high, but without snow or ice. Instead, Aslan's Country has a clear blue sky, lush green grass, colourful...
, sitting on top of all the worlds.
Nature of the wood
The wood is implied to be a place linking all worlds, including NarniaNarnia (world)
Narnia is a fantasy world created by C. S. Lewis as the primary location for his series of seven fantasy novels for children, The Chronicles of Narnia. The world is so called after the country of Narnia, in which much of the action of the Chronicles takes place.In Narnia, some animals can talk,...
, Charn, and Earth. A sense of slothfulness grips all visitors, including Jadis
White Witch
Jadis is the main antagonist of The Magician's Nephew and of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in C.S. Lewis' series, The Chronicles of Narnia...
. It could be considered a multiverse
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
of sorts, existing outside the normal physical realities.