[Fic] "The Golden Age: A Historical and Cultural Survey" -- Chronicles of Narnia
Summary: An excerpt from the introduction to The Golden Age: A Historical and Cultural Survey, published by the University of Redhaven in the year 1667. (225 words)
[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]
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The Golden Age: A Historical and Cultural Survey
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The so-called Golden Age of Narnia is best understood not as a distinct historical era but rather as a later attempt to construct a new national ideology in the wake of the Long Winter and its concomitant destruction of both material and performative culture. The Pevensie tetrarchs ruled for a mere fifteen years, much of which was spent rebuilding a shattered land, warding off attempted conquest on several fronts, and mediating the legal and social complications of mass repatriation. Their reign was by no rational standards a time of stability, let alone of prosperity. Their abrupt and still unexplained departure did not tragically precipitate chaos, as legend would have it, but was merely one of a nearly uninterrupted string of crises that began with the Pevensies' arrival in Lantern Waste and continued throughout Lord Steward Peridan's reign. Narnia's political fragility cannot truly be said to have ended until the year 1102, when Lady Steward Evelyn declared herself Queen Evelyn the First of Her Name, thereby raising House Scrapemoss to royal status in law as well as in fact.
Why, then, is such an ephemeral and troubled period remembered as a paradise?
The question can be answered in part by a simple comparison of the Pevensies to their immediate predecessor, Jadis the Usurper, whose dictatorship, enforced by both magical and mundane cruelty, ground Narnia nearly to oblivion over the better part of a century...
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Inspired by the 7/12/15
15_minute_ficlets word #231: ephemeral
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Writing fake history is fun. :D
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
[ETA: The AO3 crosspost is now up!]
---------------------------------------------
The Golden Age: A Historical and Cultural Survey
---------------------------------------------
The so-called Golden Age of Narnia is best understood not as a distinct historical era but rather as a later attempt to construct a new national ideology in the wake of the Long Winter and its concomitant destruction of both material and performative culture. The Pevensie tetrarchs ruled for a mere fifteen years, much of which was spent rebuilding a shattered land, warding off attempted conquest on several fronts, and mediating the legal and social complications of mass repatriation. Their reign was by no rational standards a time of stability, let alone of prosperity. Their abrupt and still unexplained departure did not tragically precipitate chaos, as legend would have it, but was merely one of a nearly uninterrupted string of crises that began with the Pevensies' arrival in Lantern Waste and continued throughout Lord Steward Peridan's reign. Narnia's political fragility cannot truly be said to have ended until the year 1102, when Lady Steward Evelyn declared herself Queen Evelyn the First of Her Name, thereby raising House Scrapemoss to royal status in law as well as in fact.
Why, then, is such an ephemeral and troubled period remembered as a paradise?
The question can be answered in part by a simple comparison of the Pevensies to their immediate predecessor, Jadis the Usurper, whose dictatorship, enforced by both magical and mundane cruelty, ground Narnia nearly to oblivion over the better part of a century...
---------------------------------------------
Inspired by the 7/12/15
15_minute_ficlets word #231: ephemeral
---------------------------------------------
Writing fake history is fun. :D
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)