Stone and The Beatles

I haven't read this series since I was in 4th grade and what a difference a "few" years make. When I read it a long time ago, I had no idea where the books were going. I was confused, perplexed, but strangly transfixed into the series. After reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I did not know if I should continue, but could not keep myself away from the land of Narnia. I have always heard of allegories and parallels to the world of christianity that the books made, but never truly understood what it meant now that I am reading them again. There are the quite obvious ones, but then there are the ones that are hidden. Although Lewis does not encourage looking for these, we wonder as audience, what else is there? One thing that really caught my attention was the references to stone in LWW: stone table, the White Witch turning the traitors into stone, and her stone knife. First of all the stone table that Aslan died on. We have always heard references to the cornerstone in the bible, such as Christ being the chief cornerstone in Ephesians, and the one that really caught my attention was the reference in Isaiah saying "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed." All the children had issues with trusting Aslan, but he knew what he was doing in everything. With the witch, I wonder why her victims were turned into stone. Why did she not kill them? Were they her prizes? Fighting with her stone knife and her victims in stone, makes me think that since Aslan is the "cornerstone of Narnia", that he always had control of her, even if she thought she had control over Narnia.

This last bit that crossed through my mind has nothing to do with the Christianity of the books, but rather relationship between two pieces of works by two different groups. As I was reading Prince Caspian, the song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles came on. This song was written roughly 11 years after The Last Battle was published. I was listening to the lyrics and was confused on the some of the similiarities of the song and books. Obviously Lucy's name in the title, but also the diamonds part. In the LWW, her bottle that she recieves from Father Christmas, is claimed by some to be made of diamond. The song begins "picture yourself on a boat in the river.....and marmalade skies." The first part refering to the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where they enter Narnia through a picture of a boat in the water and I thought it was humorous that they mentioned marmalade. The song also mentions being in a train station. Prince Caspian begins with the children in a train station. Another part of the song talks about going over a bridge and people eating marshmallow pies. In the Silver Chair, Jill and Eustace have to cross a bridge near the land of giants. Are these giants tall enough to be in the clouds aka marshmallow pies? There maybe plenty of other similiarities or none at all between the series and the song, but I found it interesting that the Beatles (or Lennon's son) may have been channeling Lewis when writing this song or they were just on LSD.