Jens Raab answers “If between the first and second book (the...”

Arend asked this question about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Chronicles of Narnia, #3):

If between the first and second book (the Lion... and Caspian), one year on earth passed as centuries in Narnia, how come that between the second and third book (Caspian and the voyage), an earth year only passed as three years in Narnia?

Jens Raab The answer to this very good question is quite simple: there is no fixed relation between the passing of time on Earth and Narnia.
Lewis addresses this…moreThe answer to this very good question is quite simple: there is no fixed relation between the passing of time on Earth and Narnia.
Lewis addresses this very issue in the first chapter of "Voyage":
'Narnian time flows differently from ours. If you spent a hundred years in Narnia, you would still come back to our world at the very same hour of the very same day on which you left. And then, if you went back to Narnia after spending a week here, you might find that a thousand Narnian years had passed, or only a day, or no time at all. You never know till you get there.'

SPOILERS for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", "Prince Caspian" and "The Silver Chair" from here on!

Actually, this fact is already obvious in "Prince Caspian" where towards the end of the novel we learn about the origin of the Telmarine people. Descended from shipwrecked pirates in the South Sea, they came to Telmar even long before the 100-year reign of the White Witch over Narnia. It is not clear exactly when this group of shipwrecked pirates that were to become the Telmarines came to Telmar. It could be centuries ago but it is sure that a good amount of time must have passed because on this island 'the race of those pirates who first found it has died out, and it is without inhabitants'. So, while in our world many decades or even centuries have passed, the advent of the Telmarines certainly does not date tens or hundreds of thousands of years back in the Narnian world, which one would expect if the same relation of passing of time applied to the pirates than to the Pevensie kids.

Also remember that Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy reigned decades as kings and queens of Narnia in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and yet when they return to our world at the end of this novel they step out of the wardrobe just instances, not days, after they entered it because they can still hear the visitors outside the room.

This pattern is upheld in later novels. When Eustace and Jill get to Narnia, Eustace's previous adventure on the Dawn Treader has happened just one school term earlier but in Narnia seventy years have passed.

So, Lewis sticks to his statement made in "Voyage": you can never be sure how much time has passed in Narnia.
While this is convenient for him as an author, providing him with liberties of storytelling, it also adds an element of suspense to the reader because you can never know when the next adventure will happen in the Narnian timeline! :-)(less)

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The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

by C.S. Lewis

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