Enchanted Eating and Bacchic Beverages: A Jovial Note on Meals in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Abstract

Questions about exactly what role Lewis’s long-standing interest in mediaeval planetary symbolism may have played in framing the Chronicles of Narnia remain unsettled, but continue to be discussed, following Michael Ward’s influential 2008 book, Planet Narnia. This article examines The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a book that Ward argues is implicitly governed by a Christianised understanding of Jupiter. The paper explores the way in which eating and drinking enhance the Jovial ethos of the novel. Meals contribute to the festal scenes of the book by enhancing the celebrations marked by teas, banquets, and even ordinary dinner conversation. The misuse of food suggests a misunderstanding about both the identity of Narnia’s true ruler and the way in which a monarch should govern. Finally, food and drink restore characters to health, while gustatory terms mark the passage of winter into spring. Collectively, these observations about food suggest that Jupiter’s influence suffuses even easily overlooked elements of the novel’s atmosphere, while also illustrating the explanatory power of Ward’s thesis that planetary symbolism strongly influences the shaping of the Narniad.