InfluenceHIGH
The Chronicles Of Narnia influenced The Magicians
Added by · 29 June 2026
The evidence
- Fillory - Narnia: The fictional magical land of Fillory in Grossman's universe is an explicit stand-in for Narnia. Like Narnia, Fillory was created by two animal gods (Ember and Umber, playing the role of Aslan) and is accessed by British siblings (the Chatwins, parallel to the Pevensies) who travel there from Earth through everyday portals (like a grandfather clock rather than a wardrobe).
- The "Neitherlands": In The Magicians, the hub world connecting different dimensions via pools of water is a direct nod to the Wood Between the Worlds from C.S. Lewis’s The Magician's Nephew.
- Tackling Morality and Trauma: Where Lewis used Narnia as a Christian allegory where good and evil are clear, Grossman reframes portal fantasy to examine clinical depression, addiction, sexual trauma, and the sobering reality that magic doesn't automatically fix internal human unhappiness.
- From the author:
- "My work on these books really began when I was 8 and I picked up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I've always been deeply drawn to Lewis's work... I wrote the first draft of* The Magicians, and they went to Narnia, so it used to be much more directly an engagement with Narnia. I don't think of it as an homage or a critique; maybe it's both, I don't know. I always wanted to talk back to C.S. Lewis."*
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