Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
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SynopsisIt was more than a year after she lost them that Susan found the envelope and the two rings, green and yellow, inside it. She knew, of course, what these rings were. She remembered the Professor’s story about them, and the Wood, and the pools to different worlds, and how Narnia had come to be.
She knew what would happen, if she put the yellow one on. Narnia, her heart sang, Aslan. They'd died, her family. They'd died in the train crash. But perhaps Aslan had taken them away with him, just before it happened. Perhaps their bodies had been left behind, but their spirits had gone on. Perhaps she could be with them again. Perhaps Aslan had been calling her, all this time. ⤷ Or, Susan Pevensie's story, continued. |
Author's Notes
I have never liked or agreed with many contemporary responses to the 'Problem' of Susan. It seemed to me that C. S. Lewis wasn't criticizing femininity or sexuality when he wrote Susan's ending, but materialism, and Susan's rejection of a Higher Truth.
As a fan of both Narnia and Lord of the Rings, and since Lewis and Tolkien were not only contemporaries but writing companions, and because no one knows what happened to the rings Peter and Edmund had been bringing to the others when their train crashed, I decided to write this crossover and satisfy my own craving for a happy ending for Susan.
Thus, I chose to have Susan become Ivorwen, because not much is known about Aragorn's grandmother, and even the first half of her name is shrouded in mystery. Ivorwen is a Sindarin name, a language which Tolkien based heavily on Welsh; some quick googling suggested ivor could mean archer. Furthermore,
As a fan of both Narnia and Lord of the Rings, and since Lewis and Tolkien were not only contemporaries but writing companions, and because no one knows what happened to the rings Peter and Edmund had been bringing to the others when their train crashed, I decided to write this crossover and satisfy my own craving for a happy ending for Susan.
Thus, I chose to have Susan become Ivorwen, because not much is known about Aragorn's grandmother, and even the first half of her name is shrouded in mystery. Ivorwen is a Sindarin name, a language which Tolkien based heavily on Welsh; some quick googling suggested ivor could mean archer. Furthermore,
The -wen ending of Ivorwen's name means 'maiden', but the initial ivor- is mysterious. It may be connected to vor- 'constant', suggesting 'very faithful maiden' as the meaning of the entire name, but there's no direct evidence to support this.
(source)
This all seemed very fitting, linguistically.
Better yet, Susan-as-Ivorwen doesn't in any way (to my mind, at least) diminish the dignity and significance of Aragorn's lineage, and is a suitably honourable role for a former Queen of Narnia, even one who once turned away from Aslan. I also thought it would be narratively neat for Susan to become a lost queen in a few different ways, first through her own history and then by her marriage to Dirhael the Dunedain.
Finally, I wanted this crossover to be, above all, plausible, and I wanted the role I gave Susan to be significant to the greater story of The Lord of the Rings without actually changing the canon. After all, were it not for Ivorwen's urging, Arathorn and Gilraen would never have been wed, and Aragorn would never have been born.
Better yet, Susan-as-Ivorwen doesn't in any way (to my mind, at least) diminish the dignity and significance of Aragorn's lineage, and is a suitably honourable role for a former Queen of Narnia, even one who once turned away from Aslan. I also thought it would be narratively neat for Susan to become a lost queen in a few different ways, first through her own history and then by her marriage to Dirhael the Dunedain.
Finally, I wanted this crossover to be, above all, plausible, and I wanted the role I gave Susan to be significant to the greater story of The Lord of the Rings without actually changing the canon. After all, were it not for Ivorwen's urging, Arathorn and Gilraen would never have been wed, and Aragorn would never have been born.
— Sumayyah A.