Narnian headcanon week, 6

[heliopausa]

Oh my!  running late(ish).  But all sorts of things have been happening today (all good).

Sixth in the series:

 

King Lune was once Prince Lewin – he had an older brother, the heir apparent, Prince Lew, who was lost at sea.  In the Archenlandish way, this tragedy (this particular kind, of a complete and mysterious disappearance) was not referred to again, after one year's full mourning. 
In the same way, the loss of Prince Cor was not mentioned after the end of the mourning period; hence Corin himself had never heard of his brother, nor had the younger members of Lune's court, nor the Narnians (who had been still caught in Jadis's Winter when it happened).  For this reason, Lucy and Edmund and Corin don't any of them, on seeing the brothers together, draw the conclusion which would have been obvious, had they known the story. 

“Why, so he is your double,” exclaimed Queen Lucy. “As like as two twins. This is a marvelous thing.”

When Lune speaks to his two sons about kingship, he is doing so remembering, and even repeating, partly, the same words used by his own father to him, the bitter night they accepted that Prince Lew was lost forever.  (Hence, by the way, his use in this passage of the archaic forms he does not usually adopt.)

Comments

[edenfalling]

Interesting! I tend to go with Cor and Corin being born about a year after the end of the Winter, and the reason people are so surprised to see him and Corin together is that for thirteen years, everyone KNEW he was dead. It can be hard to adjust one's thinking even in the face of inarguable physical evidence. But I really like the idea of a sort of taboo of silence around vanishments. It makes me wonder what could lead to that tradition -- does mentioning those who have disappeared sometimes summon them back... only they come back wrong?

[heliopausa]

Ooohhh... "come back wrong". That's terrifying! All sorts of horrific possibilities.