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As a boy, I spent a great deal of time in imaginary worlds. In the real world, of course, I was mostly in my room – but, thanks to the magic of books, I travelled to worlds of wonder and terror. From Barsoom to Pellucidar, Tír na nÓg and Asgard to Amber and Arrakis, I read them all. But few imaginary worlds dominated my adolescent mental landscape as Middle Earth and Narnia.
But what if Middle Earth and Narnia were not just not entirely imaginary, but part of the same universe?
What if I told you that the England inhabited by Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer and the Pevensie siblings is the very same land where, ages ago, the Fellowship of the Ring marched to decide the fate of the world? […]
I believe that there’s strong evidence that Middle Earth and the England of the Narnia books exist in the same literary universe along the same continuous timeline. Moreover, this is also the same universe of Dr Elwin Ransom and the [Space] Trilogy. And it may even be the case that this is the same universe as Uncle Screwtape and his dear nephew Wormwood.
Stuart Hunt, presenter of the Into the Wardrobe YouTube channel, has done many deep dives into Lewis’ lore and presented some novel theories, in the past, but this is surely one of his wilder ideas. But it has some surprisingly consistent scholarship to back it up.
Of course, in recent decades, fictional ‘multiverses’ have been beaten to death by lazy movie execs with ‘sequel-itis’ and a determination not to let a complete dearth of ideas get in the way of raking in the cash. But, back when J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis were creating their masterworks, such an idea would have been startling, to say the least. But is it even plausible?
As most fans know, Tolkien and Lewis were in fact decades-long friends and collaborators. As members of the literary circle “The Inklings”, they read and critiqued each other’s work long before any of it found its way into print. At one point, they even challenged one another to a writing ‘competition’: each was to write a science fiction story – Lewis on space travel, Tolkien on time travel. The prolific Lewis quickly turned the challenge into three classic novels: the “Space Trilogy” of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.
Tolkien, a famously slow and self-critical writer, abandoned his time-travel story, The Lost Road. But The Lost Road, which intended to link Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth to the modern world, via the Atlantis legend, serves as the key evidence for Hunt’s “unified field theory of Narnia and Middle Earth”, which he dubs the “Novel Unification of Middle Earth and Narnia Overarching Reality Theory, also known as the NUMENOR Theory”.
Readers of Tolkien will, of course, recognise the name of Númenor: a mythical island-kingdom of Middle Earth, which was inspired by a recurring ‘Atlantis’ nightmare of the professor’s. But the word also occurs in Lewis’ Space Trilogy.
In the final book of the Space Trilogy, the legendary magician Merlin returns to modern-day England, where it’s explained that he’s one of the final descendants of Númenor.
Of course, Lewis could simply have borrowed a cool-sounding name from his friend, but Lewis openly hinted that the connection went far deeper.
In fact, Lewis explains in the preface of his book, and I quote: “Those who would like to learn further about Númenor and the True West must alas await the publication of much that still exists only in the manuscripts of my friend, Professor J R R Tolkien.”
As it happened, they had to wait another 13 years to learn anything more. Even then, The Lord of the Rings only contains fleeting references to what was, by the time of the story, a long-ago and now vanished land. A fuller history of Númenor didn’t see the light of publication for 32 years after Lewis wrote his preface, with the posthumous publication of The Silmarillion.
But, even before his death, Tolkien had made clear in interviews that Middle Earth is indeed our world, in a long past era. Where The Lord of the Rings was set in the Third Age of Middle Earth, we today live in its Seventh (and final) Age.
We’ve already established that the world of Dr Ransom is the same world as Middle Earth – it’s just ages later in the timeline. And I’ll point out that this is absolutely not the same as our world that we’re living in right now. Even though Tolkien envisioned Middle Earth as England’s own ancient mythology, it is still a work of fiction in our world. However, for Dr Elwin Ransom, Númenor and Middle Earth by extension were absolutely historical reality.
So, how does that connect to Narnia, which is canonically set in ‘another world’ entirely separate from our own?
Well, the key comes later on in That Hideous Strength, when we learn about Merlin’s magic. We learn that his magic is actually Atlantean. That is, Númenor is confirmed in this series to be synonymous with the civilization of Atlantis.
Now, Tolkien readers will know that this is really nothing new. It’s heavily implied in the works of Tolkien that Númenor is Atlantis. It was an ancient civilization that was highly advanced and eventually was cast into the sea and destroyed. But remnants survived the downfall, and Merlin was part of a long line of Númenorean descendants.
It’s via the Númenor-Atlantis connection that we can establish a Narnia-Middle Earth connection.
In The Magician’s Nephew, we learn that Uncle Andrew’s magic rings are made from a special kind of dust sealed in a box with symbols of Atlantean origin. And lest we assume that this is some other variation of the Atlantis myth, this particular box of dust was given to him by his godmother Lefay – undoubtedly a descendant of Morgan Le Fay, the half-sister of King Arthur.
And again, it’s only in this particular universe where there’s a link between Atlantean and Arthurian legend. So this wasn’t just any box. It was a Númenorean box. And through the Númenorean connection, we can confidently say that Middle Earth is actually a part of the English history in the Narnia universe, which includes the events of the Ransom Trilogy.
Another key connection between the two literary worlds is the idea of “the Lost Road”. Tolkien’s cosmology tells that, before the fall of Númenor, the world was flat and a ‘straight road’ existed between Middle Earth and the ‘blessed realm’ of Valinor in the west. But when Númenor was destroyed, the world was ‘bent’: mortals who sailed west eventually wound up where they started from. Only elves could sail ‘the straight road’ (meaning that, technically, elven ships are spaceships).
Likewise, the Ransom Trilogy also explains that our world, also known as Thulcandra, was also cut off from the outer heavens and is now known as the Silent Planet.
Let me also point out that it’s interesting to see that in Narnia we actually see an idealized version of the original world. In fact, it’s still a flat planet. And Aslan’s realm can still be reached by sailing due east to the edge of the world. You see, if Narnia and the world of Arda actually had the same creator, it would make sense that both planets would be fundamentally designed in the same way.
Tolkien and Lewis being both philologists, language naturally plays a huge role in their works – including possibly linking them.
In his travels, Dr Ransom learns to speak the language Old Solar, which is the common language of the universe, although it is now lost on Earth, the Silent Planet. However, there are striking similarities between Old Solar and Elvish.
In Old Solar, the celestial beings are called the eldila, and in Elvish the elves are called eldar, meaning the people of the stars.
Here’s another one: In his space travels, Dr Ransom actually meets Tor and Tinidril, the sort of Adam and Eve of the planet Venus. And very simply, they are the great parents of Venus. And in Middle Earth we also encounter Tuor and Idril, the great parents of Eärendil, who represents the morning star, Venus.
(Possibly being less learned in Tolkien lore, Hunt seems unaware that “Tinidril” could also be a portmanteau of Idril, and one of Tolkien’s most important characters, Luthien (so important that Tolkien’s and his wife Edith’s gravestones bear the names “Beren” and “Luthien”), also named “Tinuviel”.
Hunt also tries to link the creator-being of the Space Trilogy, Oyarsa, to Tolkien’s creator, Eru, “the One”. This, though, seems to be stretching the point.
More intriguing is that, really deep-diving into the lore, brings in Lewis’ other famous work: The Screwtape Letters. Of course, the Letters clearly are set in the modern world, being epistolary advice from a senior devil to a younger, on the best ways to tempt mankind. But here’s the kicker:
Originally the letters were supposed to have been transcribed by Dr Ransom himself.
Similarly, The Lord of the Rings is supposed to have been written by Bilbo and Frodo Baggins themselves, in ‘Westron’, with Tolkien merely translating and retelling the story in English.
Just in case you’re wondering: Sam Gamgee’s real name, in his native language, was Banazîr Galbasi.
