the costuming detail in narnia makes me go bonkers sometimes tho likeeee. they're wearing clothes from their golden age selves in the second film, and lucy who was famously the warrior queen? her dress is actually pants under an overskirt. the white witch's icicle crown slowly melts away to nothing as spring breaks and aslan's power overcomes her own. she wears his shorn mane as a symbolic part of her battle garb. caspian wears the same shirt under his armor for almost the entirety of the movie. it's his fucking pajama shirt. because that's the only thing he was wearing when he escaped.
still reading the crafting of narnia book but i've GOT to inform you all of some of the things i have learned about the pevensies' armor and weaponry because god knows i canNOT stop posting about the prop work for these films
i know we've discussed it before regarding their crowns but all their armor/gifts ALSO have unique plant imagery per pevensie, chosen for symbolic reasons! peter's oak, susan's ash and daffodils, lucy's yarrow and fire flowers, and edmund is birch
the coloration of edmund's equipment (the red on his shield, his belt, etc) is different from the royal red/gold/silver of his siblings' because of the different origins (father christmas vs the centaurs)
peter's helmet my most beloved is sculpted to evoke the image of a lion's snout (thank u andrew adamson, my best friend forever)
originally on the band of peter's helmet, right above the brow, there was concept art for a tiny etched lamppost and i WISH WE HAD GOTTEN THAT....
edmund's sword and shield are sculpted to subtly reference the lamppost
peter's and edmund's helmets also incorporate the skyline of cair paravel in the etching. what the fawk
i did NOT know this before but the etching on lucy's cordial bottle is meant to reference the scene in dawn treader (the book) where a bird brings ramandu a fire berry, because they figured it must come from the same plant as the fire flower in narnian lore
lucy's dagger is so similar to peter's sword as a nod to their close relationship :((((
i SUSPECTED this but now i know for certain the engraving on the top of peter's shield with the apples and leaves is indeed a reference to the tree of protection planted in the magician's nephew !!!!
god but the narnia set/prop design though. like especially on the pevensies' christmas gifts and thrones, but also the armor. there are tiny rising suns at the bottom of peter's pauldrons and lions etched into the centaurs' armor. there are lions everywhere, not just on peter's shield. susan's quiver has a lion's face. her horn is fashioned after a roaring lion, and they're made to look like they've both been carved from the same ivory tusk. the pommels on lucy's dagger and peter's sword? lion heads. so is the stopper on lucy's cordial, and the buckle of peter's shield strap. their initials are wrought into the quiver, the cordial, the shield. the prophecy from the books is inscribed on peter's blade. susan's quiver strap has tiny bird clasps, and the tips of her arrows look like leaves. there are flowers tooled into lucy's belt. the thrones all have their gifts carved at the top, and edmund's is his sword breaking the witch's wand. it looks like the scales of justice. they literally did not have to do all that. thank god they did tho because i think of it constantly
some detail shots of the pevensie crowns from my trip to the arlington museum of art <3 they absolutely ATE with these and i'll never be over seeing them in person
nobody ever talks about the witch literally wearing aslan's shorn mane as part of her battle outfit in narnia. but i've been thinking about it for literally 18 years atp
images i like to call "why i will never shut the fuck up about how good narnia's propwork is.jpeg" aka my god i really love peter's belt pattern.
for those of you who can't read my handwriting or want more details, here is a rough breakdown of exactly what's going on in the patterning here:
SUN MOTIF: fashioned to evoke a compass as well, the sun motif recurs regularly throughout peter's props, including the buckles/end caps of his belt and sword straps, on his crown, on his armor (pauldron & greave), as well as on his scabbard though i don't have a pic of that here.
OAK LEAVES: all the pevensies have floral/plant motifs; peter's are oak and apple (which i'll get to). oak leaves and acorns are on his crown and his armor, some of his costumes, and also here. i am 85% sure the leaves surrounding the sun are oak leaves, though they could be apple instead with the top leaves over the tree of protection (which i will get to) being oak; it's a little hard to tell for sure, as there are ~3-4 different types of leaves here. however, they seem closer to oak than apple.
APPLES/TREE: peter's other associated plant is the apple tree, as a reference to the tree of protection planted over narnia in the magician's nephew. references to the tree are throughout the film, as seen on the wardrobe itself (fashioned from wood from a direct descendant of the tree of protection), in professor kirke's study, and here on peter's belt. besides the tree itself, the belt also has an actual apple (and what looks like apple leaves) engraved onto it, matching the apples and apple leaves at the top of his shield, which are a confirmed direct reference to the tree and peter's role as a protector.
INITIALS: this may be a happy accident, as you can see similar spots on the other panels, but the top of the sun panel just happens to form a perfect "p" in each corner (not the bottom, interestingly) in a way that looks very similar to how each pevensie's initials are on their christmas gifts (peter's on his shield, susan's on her quiver, and lucy's on her cordial).
DAFFODILS, FIRE FLOWERS, BIRCH: IGNORE the fact that i wrote ivy my ass blanked on edmund's armor being birch. i'm stupid okay. anyway as mentioned, each pevensie has their own plant motifs, evident on their gifts, costumes, and crowns. you can see one of each's here worked into peter's: tiny versions of susan's daffodils and lucy's fire flowers are stamped between each alternating section, and edmund's birch leaves are nestled behind the apple leaves and the tree of protection. they're so incredibly easy to miss, but edmund's are unmistakably the same style as the ones engraved on his helmet, and the girls' flowers are pretty evident too. a little-known fact about all the pevensie gifts is how entwined they are—all three sets share the gold, silver, and royal red coloration, as well as an abundance of lions, of course, but they're connected in deeper ways. lucy's dagger was crafted to look like a smaller version of peter's sword as a direct nod to their close relationship (see the crafting of narnia book if you don't believe me). the little leather bands that make up small parts of susan's belt system are embossed with the same yarrow leaf pattern as lucy's dagger straps. and here we see peter's combining all his siblings' motifs, on the very straps used to carry the weapons he uses to protect them. that shit's crazy, man. it's crazy. and basically no one knows about it because how could you with propwork this small and intricate and unimportant to the plot!! how could you!!!
anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk about why i'm completely deranged about the narnia propwork. my sources are my own two eyes, the crafting of narnia book, staring for hours at close-up prop photos, and talking to people who make replicas or have the originals. i feel so crazy about these movies fr.
currently deeply unwell over these close ups of peter's greaves + glenstorm's vambraces from this person's pics of the narnia exhibition from back in the day. movie props.....i love u movie props....the fuckin detail, guys....
i continue to notice details about the narnia films every time i watch them like it's genuinely wild how much detail they packed in that i feel like we never talk about??? in the book, tumnus mentions if the witch catches him lying to her, among other things she'll saw off his horns. you can see in prison and after he's been turned back from stone that the tips of his horns HAVE been sawn off, and then at the coronation, he's wearing decorative horn caps. this is never once mentioned in dialogue. i don't know if i've ever seen it talked about. but it's there! just to fill out the world!
