Dear NFE Writer!
Jul. 12th, 2024 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingNote: I am repurposing my stock Yuletide letter here, which is why some of the sections may seem slightly off-topic for a single fandom exchange.
Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write context-free porn, I'll be thrilled just to get a response to one of my prompts. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
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General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings -- het, slash, femslash, threesomes, poly, whatever, so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere -- but I prefer gen, and I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. So while you can do whatever you like with background pairings, they are not what I am most interested in.
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet (...okay, bittersweet leaning toward happy) and a little complicated.
3. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more, so any world-building you can sneak in around the edges of a story will be received with great joy. I am also totally open to OCs and/or the development of canon characters who might as well be OCs, as you may note from the structure of several prompts.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that there's more to life than sex. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and world-building are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; good spelling and grammar; a sense of wonder; writing that evokes an emotional reaction as well as telling a story; close relationships that don't necessarily involve sex (i.e., friendship, families, teachers and students, coworkers, traveling companions, soldiers in the same cause, etc.); the consequences of actions and choices; a sense of place and time; dialogue that conveys character as well as plot information; politics; ethics; people being intelligent even if they make bad choices; people trying to do the right thing even if they make bad choices; conflict because of opposing goals that both have points in their favor; a lack of simple solutions; female characters treated as people instead of plot devices; male characters treated as people instead of plot devices; ideas that make me stop and think; the nature of memory; the nature of truth; possession; soul-searching; non-gratuitous torture (...I have a kink, shut up); war and battles; hand-to-hand fighting; swordfights; peace and diplomacy; magic that's properly magical and strange or magic that's explained as a science (but not both at once); books and reading; people exploring a new country/world/city; linguistics and languages; early Industrial Revolution technology (or whatever technology is suitable to the milieu); people using logic to investigate a problem; and fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on: obvious authorial hatred for characters I like and/or find interesting (which is generally all of them); sex or romantic love with no in-story justification (unless the people in question are already a canon couple); gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work); idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
6. If you want to know more about my general approach to Narnia, all my fanfic is available on this masterlist. Some of my meta posts are also listed there, down at the bottom of the page.
The three most important things to note are as follows:
A) The books are my canon, not any of their various adaptations to film.
B) My personal stance on the Pevensies after their initial return from Narnia is that they really did become children again, in mind as well as in body. So they are children who remember being adults, but those memories are filtered through children's brains and general perspective on the world. The only prompt for which this might be relevant is the "What if the Friends of Narnia came from somewhere other than England?" prompt, but I figure that since this seems to be a minority viewpoint in the fandom and I'm asking for a tailored gift, I might as well mention it. :)
C) I am not Christian. However, Lewis's use of Christian mythology is central to the series, which I find creates an interesting tension for many writers that doesn't occur in stories built on mythologies that aren't in widespread current use. So while I prefer stories that stick to the general canon assertions that Aslan is a god and a Christ-analogue, that he created the Narnian world, and that he is good (but not safe), I would also prefer stories that acknowledge the existence of other gods in the Narnian world, in the world of England, in Charn, and any other worlds that become relevant. I would like a recognition that good does not always equal right, ethics are complicated and often situational, and there isn't always one right answer. And I do not want to be preached at.
Thank you for your consideration!
Okay. On to specific prompts.
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Dwarf Culture Under the Telmarines:
Prompt: I would like a story about Narnian dwarf culture in the decades leading up to Prince Caspian, with a particular focus on how (and why) Jadis was remembered among some dwarf factions with so much more fervor than Aslan. If you want more character-specific prompts, I'd be interested in knowing how a Black Dwarf and a Red Dwarf came to be living together with a Talking Badger (because that seems like an unusual arrangement even among the people who lived in hiding), or in the details of Doctor Cornelius's dwarf heritage and what seems to have been a network of Old Narnian sympathizers who lived among Telmarines and had no direct contact with the people who lived in hiding.
(Note: This request is for book!verse rather than any of the film versions of PC.)
Thoughts: (Please feel free to ignore the character list for this prompt. As long as you hit the worldbuilding/cultural stuff, I could not care less what character(s) -- if any! -- you use.)
So basically, I am fascinated by the cultural transmission and alteration of history and folklore, and while it's made textually explicit that Talking Beasts pride themselves on accurate memories, I am pretty sure Narnian Dwarfs are more like humans in that their stories shift over the generations. Additionally, some of them were clearly allied with Jadis and there's textual prejudice between them and Talking Beasts, as per Mr. Beaver's ugly words in LWW about things that look human but aren't. The "dark" Beasts seem to have been accepted back into regular Narnian culture by Caspian's day, but there are clearly a bunch of "dark" Beings -- werewolves, hags, etc. -- who remain outsiders. And I wonder if that's somehow inherent to their nature, or if it's continuing prejudice.
Nikabrik is a fascinating person to me, because while Trumpkin clearly thinks all the ancient stories are made up, Nikabrik is quite sure that Jadis, at least, is real. He doesn't jump to summoning her immediately, though; that waits until the war is in dire straits, after the attempt to summon the "bright" figures from history/mythology apparently fails. But he clearly maintains contacts among the outcast Beings, since he was able to bring in a hag and a werewolf on relatively short notice -- especially since they don't seem to have been part of the army beforehand. But so far as I can tell, neither Trumpkin nor Trufflehunter had any idea about those connections, which is interesting since he'd lived with those two for years.
Doctor Cornelius is also fascinating to me, though admittedly that's mostly because of the implications of his existence and what it implies about the existence of semi-humans living in secret among Telmarine human communities. Whoever these people are, they are clearly living in some degree of hiding, and yet they appear to have no contact whatsoever with the Old Narnians out in the woods. How and why was that contact lost? What parts of their cultural heritage have they retained (or lost) and why? Are there Old Narnian humans among their communities, or have they been assimilated into Telmarine human society? It's such a fascinating area of speculation. (Also I'm really curious about whether his dwarf heritage comes from his mother's side or his father's, or maybe even both.)
Um. Also the Dwarfs get really bad treatment later on in TLB, and I'd like to see them taken on their own terms and treated as a people with their own rich, thriving culture, even during the generations in hiding. I mean, they probably had an easier time of it than some of the Talking Beasts. And I guess I'm also curious why the Old Narnians seem not to have kept contact with Archenland, nor asked for help during the war against Miraz. (The Doylist reason is obviously that Lewis hadn't invented Archenland yet, but from a Watsonian perspective, that needs explaining.)
This has devolved into rambling, sorry. Anyway, Dwarfs! Culture! Jadis! Prejudice! Nikabrik torn between two factions! Doctor Cornelius and his mysterious backstory! Hopefully you can dig some inspiration out of this mess. *wry*
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Rilian's Everyday Life While Enchanted:
Prompt: I would like a story about Rilian's decade under enchantment. He canonically didn't spend all his time in Underworld -- we first meet him and the Lady of the Green Kirtle riding on the road from Harfang, and he himself says she takes him aboveground to accustom his eyes to sunlight, though he's not allowed to show his face or speak to anyone on those trips. He also seems to have a position of some minor authority in the Lady's city, though what exactly he uses it for is anyone's guess. So I would like to see some of his day-to-day life under the Lady's spell, and through that, some of the world he and the Lady moved in.
(Note: You can go as dark as you want in the background, for obvious reasons, but the foreground should be practical details and worldbuilding rather than angst or mindscrew, please!)
Thoughts: Obviously any response to this prompt should have a creepy undertone, because Rilian is not in his right mind (and if his relationship with the Lady is in any way sexual, that's rape), but as stated above, I'm more interested in everyday practical details. In other words, where did the Lady take him on those trips? If Rilian has to be bound in the chair every night, how the flipping heck did that work during multi-day road trips? What did he DO all day underground? How did the food and clothes and supplies (and horses!) get to Underworld? What kind of diplomatic relationships does the Lady have with other people who live north (and/or west) of Narnia? (Secondarily, who are those people? We know about Harfang, but a castle like that can't exist in isolation; it needs a society to support it.) There's a very medieval romance feel to the Lady, her environs, and her spells, and I'd like to see them through a more realistic lens.
I am inclined to think that Rilian didn't age while enchanted (except maybe in his one hour of freedom each night), which might make for extra background creepiness if anyone notices that aspect of the spell and the Lady either handwaves it or makes him forget.
Tangential Note: I do not subscribe to the theory that Jadis and the Lady are the same person, so please avoid any use of that idea if you are writing for this prompt. It will, alas, throw me completely out of your story.
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Anywhere but England:
Prompt: Write me a version of Narnia where the visitors from Earth come from anywhere other than England! This can be as basic as 'they come from another part of our earth' to 'they come from an entirely different fictional universe'. I admit I'm more interested in how people with a non-Christian, non-English worldview would interact with Narnia's VERY Christian-and-English framework -- or how people from somewhere else taking the place of Digory et al might send the entire Narnian world spinning off down a different mythological path -- than with the potential for cool crossovers, but if you can combine the culture clash stuff with a crossover, that would be neat. :)
Thoughts: I think the prompt is fairly self-explanatory?
You can pick any set of canonical visitors and rewrite their story to fit another land and culture, or write a completely different trajectory for Narnia from the word go, with different people on different adventures that resolve along different mythological lines. I have no further guidance -- I want to see what you come up with!
(Ignore the "original character" stuff list from AO3; it's just there for technical reasons. You can invent original characters OR you can write canon characters as if they'd always been from somewhere other than England -- I genuinely do not care.)
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Telmarine Aeneid:
Prompt: Hear me out: What if you told Caspian I's journey from Telmar to Narnia, and subsequent conquest of Narnia, as if it were the Aeneid? Aslan is Jupiter/Fate, because Guy In Charge who we're told is good but who acts pretty damn ambiguous is totally Aslan's bag. Maybe the Lady of the Green Kirtle is Juno (wants to keep Narnia as her own playground? received a prophecy that a Telmarine Narnian would be her doom?). Is Dido a Talking Beast the Telmarines encounter in the Western Wild en route to Narnia and the sea? Who is the equivalent of Lavinia? Is the trip to the underworld a sidequest to Bism or an actual visit to Aslan's Country? Does the war start because a Telmarine kills an actual Talking Deer?
The possibilities are FASCINATING, and I want you to explore them because I do not have the time or spoons to do this justice myself!
Thoughts: Listen, sometimes you just get An Idea that will not leave you alone until you release it into the world. Hopefully I have now infected you and one day this will be born in all its unhinged glory. :D
Also I know some of you people are into Greek mythology -- have you considered moving a bit west and a few centuries later? *makes puppydog eyes at you*
(Again, don't worry about the "original character" stuff list from AO3; it's just there for technical reasons.)
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Brother Cadfael in Narnia:
Prompt: This is a crossover request -- and specifically a crossover with the Cadfael books, not the TV series.
I would LOVE if you wrote me Brother Cadfael solving a mystery among the Talking Beasts and Beings of Narnia. What time period does this story take place in? Who knows! How and why is Brother Cadfael in Narnia? Up to you! I just want to see him doing herbalism and sleuthing and matchmaking for some quirky mix of non-human people. I feel that after a few minutes to adjust his worldview he would take talking animals in stride and pretty quickly catch on to the Aslan/Jesus parallels. (Also, listen, Narnia had to learn about monks from somewhere given that Tumnus canonically owns a book titled "Men, Monks and Gamekeepers: a Study in Popular Legend." I am just saying.)
Thoughts: So I may have been reading the Brother Cadfael series recently. Um. But listen, Cadfael just feels like a person who might accidentally open a door and wander into Narnia one evening. And whether he winds up staying or merely visits for a while, I think he would be pretty quick to find someplace that needs an herbalist who can also dispense good advice and solve mysteries, particularly since I am very unsure what Narnia's official justice system looks like at ANY point in the country's history.
You know I'm right. You know you want to see Cadfael resolve the murder of a Talking Crow, or matchmake for a Talking Beaver who has fallen in love with a Talking Fox, or help figure out who stole a dwarf's mining tools, or exchange gardening tips with a Talking Mole and talk theology with a centaur. :)
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And that is that.
Hi, and thank you in advance for writing a story for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write context-free porn, I'll be thrilled just to get a response to one of my prompts. *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
---------------
General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings -- het, slash, femslash, threesomes, poly, whatever, so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere -- but I prefer gen, and I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. So while you can do whatever you like with background pairings, they are not what I am most interested in.
2. I read all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet (...okay, bittersweet leaning toward happy) and a little complicated.
3. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more, so any world-building you can sneak in around the edges of a story will be received with great joy. I am also totally open to OCs and/or the development of canon characters who might as well be OCs, as you may note from the structure of several prompts.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that there's more to life than sex. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and world-building are dead cool.'
The long version: I like character development; world-building; explanation of plot holes in canon; subtle humor; good spelling and grammar; a sense of wonder; writing that evokes an emotional reaction as well as telling a story; close relationships that don't necessarily involve sex (i.e., friendship, families, teachers and students, coworkers, traveling companions, soldiers in the same cause, etc.); the consequences of actions and choices; a sense of place and time; dialogue that conveys character as well as plot information; politics; ethics; people being intelligent even if they make bad choices; people trying to do the right thing even if they make bad choices; conflict because of opposing goals that both have points in their favor; a lack of simple solutions; female characters treated as people instead of plot devices; male characters treated as people instead of plot devices; ideas that make me stop and think; the nature of memory; the nature of truth; possession; soul-searching; non-gratuitous torture (...I have a kink, shut up); war and battles; hand-to-hand fighting; swordfights; peace and diplomacy; magic that's properly magical and strange or magic that's explained as a science (but not both at once); books and reading; people exploring a new country/world/city; linguistics and languages; early Industrial Revolution technology (or whatever technology is suitable to the milieu); people using logic to investigate a problem; and fires, floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on: obvious authorial hatred for characters I like and/or find interesting (which is generally all of them); sex or romantic love with no in-story justification (unless the people in question are already a canon couple); gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work); idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will.
6. If you want to know more about my general approach to Narnia, all my fanfic is available on this masterlist. Some of my meta posts are also listed there, down at the bottom of the page.
The three most important things to note are as follows:
A) The books are my canon, not any of their various adaptations to film.
B) My personal stance on the Pevensies after their initial return from Narnia is that they really did become children again, in mind as well as in body. So they are children who remember being adults, but those memories are filtered through children's brains and general perspective on the world. The only prompt for which this might be relevant is the "What if the Friends of Narnia came from somewhere other than England?" prompt, but I figure that since this seems to be a minority viewpoint in the fandom and I'm asking for a tailored gift, I might as well mention it. :)
C) I am not Christian. However, Lewis's use of Christian mythology is central to the series, which I find creates an interesting tension for many writers that doesn't occur in stories built on mythologies that aren't in widespread current use. So while I prefer stories that stick to the general canon assertions that Aslan is a god and a Christ-analogue, that he created the Narnian world, and that he is good (but not safe), I would also prefer stories that acknowledge the existence of other gods in the Narnian world, in the world of England, in Charn, and any other worlds that become relevant. I would like a recognition that good does not always equal right, ethics are complicated and often situational, and there isn't always one right answer. And I do not want to be preached at.
Thank you for your consideration!
Okay. On to specific prompts.
---------------
Dwarf Culture Under the Telmarines:
Prompt: I would like a story about Narnian dwarf culture in the decades leading up to Prince Caspian, with a particular focus on how (and why) Jadis was remembered among some dwarf factions with so much more fervor than Aslan. If you want more character-specific prompts, I'd be interested in knowing how a Black Dwarf and a Red Dwarf came to be living together with a Talking Badger (because that seems like an unusual arrangement even among the people who lived in hiding), or in the details of Doctor Cornelius's dwarf heritage and what seems to have been a network of Old Narnian sympathizers who lived among Telmarines and had no direct contact with the people who lived in hiding.
(Note: This request is for book!verse rather than any of the film versions of PC.)
Thoughts: (Please feel free to ignore the character list for this prompt. As long as you hit the worldbuilding/cultural stuff, I could not care less what character(s) -- if any! -- you use.)
So basically, I am fascinated by the cultural transmission and alteration of history and folklore, and while it's made textually explicit that Talking Beasts pride themselves on accurate memories, I am pretty sure Narnian Dwarfs are more like humans in that their stories shift over the generations. Additionally, some of them were clearly allied with Jadis and there's textual prejudice between them and Talking Beasts, as per Mr. Beaver's ugly words in LWW about things that look human but aren't. The "dark" Beasts seem to have been accepted back into regular Narnian culture by Caspian's day, but there are clearly a bunch of "dark" Beings -- werewolves, hags, etc. -- who remain outsiders. And I wonder if that's somehow inherent to their nature, or if it's continuing prejudice.
Nikabrik is a fascinating person to me, because while Trumpkin clearly thinks all the ancient stories are made up, Nikabrik is quite sure that Jadis, at least, is real. He doesn't jump to summoning her immediately, though; that waits until the war is in dire straits, after the attempt to summon the "bright" figures from history/mythology apparently fails. But he clearly maintains contacts among the outcast Beings, since he was able to bring in a hag and a werewolf on relatively short notice -- especially since they don't seem to have been part of the army beforehand. But so far as I can tell, neither Trumpkin nor Trufflehunter had any idea about those connections, which is interesting since he'd lived with those two for years.
Doctor Cornelius is also fascinating to me, though admittedly that's mostly because of the implications of his existence and what it implies about the existence of semi-humans living in secret among Telmarine human communities. Whoever these people are, they are clearly living in some degree of hiding, and yet they appear to have no contact whatsoever with the Old Narnians out in the woods. How and why was that contact lost? What parts of their cultural heritage have they retained (or lost) and why? Are there Old Narnian humans among their communities, or have they been assimilated into Telmarine human society? It's such a fascinating area of speculation. (Also I'm really curious about whether his dwarf heritage comes from his mother's side or his father's, or maybe even both.)
Um. Also the Dwarfs get really bad treatment later on in TLB, and I'd like to see them taken on their own terms and treated as a people with their own rich, thriving culture, even during the generations in hiding. I mean, they probably had an easier time of it than some of the Talking Beasts. And I guess I'm also curious why the Old Narnians seem not to have kept contact with Archenland, nor asked for help during the war against Miraz. (The Doylist reason is obviously that Lewis hadn't invented Archenland yet, but from a Watsonian perspective, that needs explaining.)
This has devolved into rambling, sorry. Anyway, Dwarfs! Culture! Jadis! Prejudice! Nikabrik torn between two factions! Doctor Cornelius and his mysterious backstory! Hopefully you can dig some inspiration out of this mess. *wry*
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Rilian's Everyday Life While Enchanted:
Prompt: I would like a story about Rilian's decade under enchantment. He canonically didn't spend all his time in Underworld -- we first meet him and the Lady of the Green Kirtle riding on the road from Harfang, and he himself says she takes him aboveground to accustom his eyes to sunlight, though he's not allowed to show his face or speak to anyone on those trips. He also seems to have a position of some minor authority in the Lady's city, though what exactly he uses it for is anyone's guess. So I would like to see some of his day-to-day life under the Lady's spell, and through that, some of the world he and the Lady moved in.
(Note: You can go as dark as you want in the background, for obvious reasons, but the foreground should be practical details and worldbuilding rather than angst or mindscrew, please!)
Thoughts: Obviously any response to this prompt should have a creepy undertone, because Rilian is not in his right mind (and if his relationship with the Lady is in any way sexual, that's rape), but as stated above, I'm more interested in everyday practical details. In other words, where did the Lady take him on those trips? If Rilian has to be bound in the chair every night, how the flipping heck did that work during multi-day road trips? What did he DO all day underground? How did the food and clothes and supplies (and horses!) get to Underworld? What kind of diplomatic relationships does the Lady have with other people who live north (and/or west) of Narnia? (Secondarily, who are those people? We know about Harfang, but a castle like that can't exist in isolation; it needs a society to support it.) There's a very medieval romance feel to the Lady, her environs, and her spells, and I'd like to see them through a more realistic lens.
I am inclined to think that Rilian didn't age while enchanted (except maybe in his one hour of freedom each night), which might make for extra background creepiness if anyone notices that aspect of the spell and the Lady either handwaves it or makes him forget.
Tangential Note: I do not subscribe to the theory that Jadis and the Lady are the same person, so please avoid any use of that idea if you are writing for this prompt. It will, alas, throw me completely out of your story.
---------------
Anywhere but England:
Prompt: Write me a version of Narnia where the visitors from Earth come from anywhere other than England! This can be as basic as 'they come from another part of our earth' to 'they come from an entirely different fictional universe'. I admit I'm more interested in how people with a non-Christian, non-English worldview would interact with Narnia's VERY Christian-and-English framework -- or how people from somewhere else taking the place of Digory et al might send the entire Narnian world spinning off down a different mythological path -- than with the potential for cool crossovers, but if you can combine the culture clash stuff with a crossover, that would be neat. :)
Thoughts: I think the prompt is fairly self-explanatory?
You can pick any set of canonical visitors and rewrite their story to fit another land and culture, or write a completely different trajectory for Narnia from the word go, with different people on different adventures that resolve along different mythological lines. I have no further guidance -- I want to see what you come up with!
(Ignore the "original character" stuff list from AO3; it's just there for technical reasons. You can invent original characters OR you can write canon characters as if they'd always been from somewhere other than England -- I genuinely do not care.)
---------------
Telmarine Aeneid:
Prompt: Hear me out: What if you told Caspian I's journey from Telmar to Narnia, and subsequent conquest of Narnia, as if it were the Aeneid? Aslan is Jupiter/Fate, because Guy In Charge who we're told is good but who acts pretty damn ambiguous is totally Aslan's bag. Maybe the Lady of the Green Kirtle is Juno (wants to keep Narnia as her own playground? received a prophecy that a Telmarine Narnian would be her doom?). Is Dido a Talking Beast the Telmarines encounter in the Western Wild en route to Narnia and the sea? Who is the equivalent of Lavinia? Is the trip to the underworld a sidequest to Bism or an actual visit to Aslan's Country? Does the war start because a Telmarine kills an actual Talking Deer?
The possibilities are FASCINATING, and I want you to explore them because I do not have the time or spoons to do this justice myself!
Thoughts: Listen, sometimes you just get An Idea that will not leave you alone until you release it into the world. Hopefully I have now infected you and one day this will be born in all its unhinged glory. :D
Also I know some of you people are into Greek mythology -- have you considered moving a bit west and a few centuries later? *makes puppydog eyes at you*
(Again, don't worry about the "original character" stuff list from AO3; it's just there for technical reasons.)
---------------
Brother Cadfael in Narnia:
Prompt: This is a crossover request -- and specifically a crossover with the Cadfael books, not the TV series.
I would LOVE if you wrote me Brother Cadfael solving a mystery among the Talking Beasts and Beings of Narnia. What time period does this story take place in? Who knows! How and why is Brother Cadfael in Narnia? Up to you! I just want to see him doing herbalism and sleuthing and matchmaking for some quirky mix of non-human people. I feel that after a few minutes to adjust his worldview he would take talking animals in stride and pretty quickly catch on to the Aslan/Jesus parallels. (Also, listen, Narnia had to learn about monks from somewhere given that Tumnus canonically owns a book titled "Men, Monks and Gamekeepers: a Study in Popular Legend." I am just saying.)
Thoughts: So I may have been reading the Brother Cadfael series recently. Um. But listen, Cadfael just feels like a person who might accidentally open a door and wander into Narnia one evening. And whether he winds up staying or merely visits for a while, I think he would be pretty quick to find someplace that needs an herbalist who can also dispense good advice and solve mysteries, particularly since I am very unsure what Narnia's official justice system looks like at ANY point in the country's history.
You know I'm right. You know you want to see Cadfael resolve the murder of a Talking Crow, or matchmake for a Talking Beaver who has fallen in love with a Talking Fox, or help figure out who stole a dwarf's mining tools, or exchange gardening tips with a Talking Mole and talk theology with a centaur. :)
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And that is that.
