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

[autumnia]

I spent a bit of time trying to figure out the Narnian calendar last year when I was working on my own fics, trying to figure out the schedule of stops that the Dawn Treader made while using Eustace's diary as a guide.

My personal head canon puts Greenroof right in the middle of July and August, so something similar to what you had in mind. I do think the calendar is mostly a direct correlation of ours, but with an added month in the middle of summer.

In VDT, there's mention of the New Year and they do speak of months using our names:

"That's landsman's talk," said Drinian. "There's always a prevailing west wind in these seas all through the late summer, and it always changes after the New Year. We'll have plenty of wind for sailing westward; more than we shall like from all accounts."

"That's true, Master," said an old sailor who was a Galmian by birth. "You get some ugly weather rolling up from the east in January and February. And by your leave, Sire, if I was in command of this ship, I'd say to winter here and begin the voyage home in March."

- Chapter 14: "The Beginning of the End of the World," VDT

[the_rck]

I'd go with the idea of the Telmarines and the Old Narnians using different calendars. The Telmarines are supposed to be from Earth. I'm not sure that canon nails down the timing of their departure from Earth, but it has to be after The Magician's Nephew, so them using some version of the Gregorian calendar would make sense.

[watersword]

I have no useful suggestions, but am vastly enjoying your attempts to make sense out of the continuity disaster that is these books. This is like 85% of the reason I subscribed to your journal.

[heliopausa]

Hello! Thanks for the mention of the recent story! :)
I haven't time to comment properly here (yesterday was a national election in australia; much busyness ensues) but just quickly - there are more doors than one between this world and Narnia. It's a man from Galma, not a native-born Narnian, who says January etc. Possibly the people in Galma came long after Frank and Helen, and brought the this-world names with them?
(and I think I have another month-name in a story somewhere; if the location comes to me, I'll indicate it.)

[cat-i-th-adage.livejournal.com]

I vote for the thirteenth month option, because lunar influences are cool.