thoughts on Narnian calendars

[edenfalling]

We know very little about Narnian timekeeping, mostly because Lewis didn't care and therefore didn't write anything about it. There's strong implicit evidence that a Narnian year is roughly the same length as an Earth year. Neither the characters nor Lewis-as-narrator ever say anything to hint otherwise, and in fact VDT casually establishes that one year has gone by for Lucy and Edmund while three years have passed for Caspian, which suggests the Pevensies (who are the only ones in a position to make the comparison) think Narnian and Earth years are equivalent in length.

But the only explicit textual reference to Narnian timekeeping is the letter Peter dictates in Prince Caspian, where he gives the date as the 12th of Greenroof. From this, we can conclude that Narnians don't use the standard English month names. We can also conclude that Greenroof is a summer month, given the other time mentions in Prince Caspian. (In summary, Caspian flees the castle in early summer, meets with a bunch of Old Narnians on a nice summer day, holds a gathering at the Dancing Lawn three days later, and then retreats to Aslan's How and spends an unspecified time there battling Miraz -- judging by Lewis's descriptions, I'd say a minimum of two or three weeks -- before blowing Susan's horn and yanking the Pevensies into the story.)

The other temporal anchor we have for Greenroof is that the Pevensies find ripe apples in the Cair Paravel orchard. Cursory internet research tells me that apples ripen anywhere from late summer to winter, depending on the variety, which is annoyingly unspecific but does support my reading that Caspian et al spent a fair amount of time besieged at the How.

If Narnian months are direct correlates to Earth months, Greenroof must be equivalent to either July or August. July fits a little better with the name itself (August tends to be drier), but August fits somewhat better with the ripe apples. Length of time from 'early' summer is not a useful metric, both because early summer could be said to start anywhere from late May (judging by weather) to late June (solstice), and because Lewis is so damnably vague about how long the Old Narnians were holed up in Aslan's Howe before they decided to use the horn.

If, however, Narnian months are not direct correlates to Earth months -- that is, if they are roughly the same length, but start and end at different points, perhaps based on a different designated new year's day -- then I'd split the difference and make Greenroof run roughly from July 20 to August 20, which would place Peter's letter right about the start of August. (This assumes a New Year starting around the spring equinox, which is or has been common in many eras and cultures.)

This is not hugely relevant to anything, but I have been attempting to stick textual dates on a bunch of letters in "The Courting Dance." Since I'd previously established that story as taking place during the summer, I started wondering exactly where in the summer Greenroof fell, and what to call the months before and after it. I am tentatively going with the offset months, and calling the prior one (June 20-July 20, give or take) Sunhigh, because solstice. heliopausa has used the name Fruitswell for the month after Greenroof (in The Atrementus Collection, a lovely meta-heavy series about the publication of the books on Tumnus's shelf in LWW), which I may adopt as my own headcanon.

I have no idea what the other nine months should be called, though. Any suggestions?

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ETA: autumnia reminds me that VDT also contains reference to named months... which are, annoyingly, January, February, and March, and January is referenced as the start of a new year. *headdesk* Oh, Lewis. He couldn't maintain inter-volume continuity if his life depended on it, could he?

So we have, I think, five options: one, ignore the named months in VDT; two, ignore the named month in PC; three, assume that some months got renamed over the years while others retained the names Frank and Helen brought from England; four, assume that a thirteenth month got jammed in at some point (lunar influences, perhaps?); or five, assume that the Telmarines and the Old Narnians use slightly different calendars, and the Telmarine one is a closer match to the English one.

Comments

[edenfalling]

Argh, Lewis. I swear, the man had no concept of continuity whatsoever. *beats head against desk*

I edited the post to take that into account, and I think there are five basic options: one, ignore the named months in VDT; two, ignore the named month in PC; three, assume that some months got renamed over the years while others retained the names Frank and Helen brought from England; four, assume that a thirteenth month got jammed in at some point (lunar influences, perhaps?); or five, assume that the Telmarines and the Old Narnians use slightly different calendars, and the Telmarine one is a closer match to the English one.

My personal preference is for options one, three, or five, mostly because I like fictional calendrical systems, but I think all are justifiable.

[autumnia]

I do prefer option four though I had to check about lunar influences -- I wrote stories that mention the Moon but had to double check that it actually existed in the Narnia world. And from your preferred possibilities, I'd like to think the Telmarines had a different naming system that may had been adopted some time in the 1300 years between LWW and PC, and that everywhere else still used the old (Gregorian) names. Peter would have had to ask someone (Trumpkin? Cornelius? Caspian?) when was it they had arrived in Narnia at some point in order to dictate the challenge correctly.

"I see," said Scrubb. "Well now, let's get on. Tell us all about the lost Prince." Then an old owl, not Glimfeather, related the story.

About ten years ago, it appeared, when Rilian, the son of Caspian, was a very young knight, he rode with the Queen his mother on a May morning in the north parts of Narnia.

- Chapter 4, A Parliament of Owls, SC

With the inclusion of May by the Owls, I still think Greenroof as an additional month in the calendar probably makes the most sense. Who knows, the summer season in Narnia might be longer than our world.. especially after the Long Winter finally thawed out.

[edenfalling]

Argh, LEWIS. Okay, on that basis, I am going to assume either that the Telmarines brought standard English month nomenclature with them (and the Galmian sailor was using that in order to be intelligible to his crewmates), or that each month has a standard and a formal/poetic name, and Peter was obviously using the latter in his almost overly formal letter.

[autumnia]

I like the idea of having a common and poetic name for each month. I can see the Narnians using Greenroof, etc. normally within their borders but using the standard January, May, etc when dealing with other countries (especially with things like paperwork and formal international agreements).