A whistler in the land of Narnia

Whistle
1

Just a few days ago I received a VHS version of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” and today I finally got to watch it.
It woke me up.

:astonished:

What a great find!

If you’re a fan of Narnia and a whistler, you MUST see this!

First I encourage you to turn to the book “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, chapter two. You find this Faun, named Mr. Tumnus, who, although under the Witch’s order to report any humans caught, having met Lucy under a lamppost, invites her to his house for a tea.

…then to cheer himself up he took out from its case on the dresser > a strange > little flute > that looked as if it were made of straw, > and began to play…

Of course in a story you can only imagine the tune. In the video, unfortunately, the imagination gets killed in a sense that it’s ‘perfected’, and thus breeds the dangers of possible whistle idolatr…oops, where was I :stuck_out_tongue: ? Oh yes, in the video, you can clearly see that the instrument Tumnus is playing has a striking resemblance to that of whistles. I’m sure it’s not exactly a “flute”, as mentioned in Jack’s book, because it has a mouthpiece and windway (namely, they’re equipped with fipples). It 's a V-shaped conical double whistle with relatively big bells, plays in the key of A, and one body (to the left) drones A while the other carries the tune (air, I suppose), something like this;

A-G’GFGEF- | A-G’GFGAc-A-
A-G’GFGEE-F- | ced-c-BA—



The picture
http://members.tripod.co.jp/Harris_MacDonald/whistle3
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” 1988, 1990 BBC, home vision HVE entertainment

Although the tune lasts for about 15 seconds or so, it was beautiful. To my ears it sounded somewhere miday between a whistle and a re***der.

2

…then to cheer himself up he took out from its case on the dresser a strange little flute that looked as if it were made of straw, and began to play…

Easy guess: it’s Avanutria.

Now she never told us she finally got a commercial recording contract with her drinking-straw chanter. :laughing:

3

This is the “live” version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, right? (As opposed to the animated version that my nieces about wore out watching over and and over again when they were little). I liked the live version except I thought Aslan looked kinda cheesy. I think they did the best they could with the money and technology available, but Aslan of all people (lions) really needs to look majestic and larger than life, scary and loving at the same time…(after all, he’s not a tame lion). I don’t know how you’d do it.

The Narnia series is probably my favorite books of all time, I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve read them…that reminds me, I haven’t read them in a while, I think I’m due again! I get something new out of them each time (or something I had forgotten).

Beth

4

Yep, the “Live” version by BBC. I checked the animated version on Amazon and they were out of stock :frowning:

:imp: Burn, PayPal, Burn..

Peace!
Tak

5

Very cool!

6

word on the street is they are making a movie out of it again because Lord of the Rings did so well.

7

To my ears it sounded somewhere miday between a whistle and a re***der.

Susato?

8

They are indeed making a new live action movie of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I think they are planning on filming all 7 books eventually. Anyway, here is the website for all Narnia fans interested:
http://www.narnia.com/

9

This topic reminds me of a recent question I’ve had. When was the order of books in the Chronicles changed? When I read them as a kid the order was different than how they come in the box sets you can buy today.
In my day it was 1)The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe 2)Prince Caspian 3)Voyage of the Dawn Treader 4)The Silver Chair 5)Horse and His Boy 6)The Magician’s Nephew 7)The Last Battle.
Now it’s all in chronological order with the Magician’s Nephew up front and the Horse and His Boy after Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe which to my mind takes a lot of the fun and adventure out of the series.
Cheers,
Aaron

10

I don’t know what year exactly it was that it changed, but in the “new” set I bought to replace my worn-out old ones it says “The HarperCollins editions of The Chronicles of Narnia have been renumbered in compliance with the original wishes of the author, C.S. Lewis. This is the first time the series has appeared in this order in the United States.”

But I agree with you, I like the old order better, or at the least I think people should read The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe first. In fact I always recommend that when I lend out my extra set to someone. I think it really is the best introduction to the land of Narnia, as it was written first. The order you read the others I don’t think matters so much (except for The Last Battle last, of course).

I hope they do as good of a job, if not better, with the movie as they did with LOTR.

Beth

11

I love those books, I’ve read them all so many times and always imagined his little flute as being a high pitched penny whistle.

12

I always did think Mr. Tumnus was a cute little faun. Not only did he drink tea, but he played a whistle. (And quite a marvellous whistle at that!)