The Seven Lost Lords - Voyage of the Dawn Treader Part 9

We close out our Voyage of the Dawn Treader series by taking a look at the seven Lost Lords of Narnia and two theories that connect them to bigger truths. 

The Dr. Thomas L Martin article that theoriezes the connection to the 7 Deadly Sins here

The videos connecting it to the 8 evil thoughts here and here
We also look at James 4:7,8. 

Music by:

Cinematic-Soul, Viacheslav Starostin 
All Music From Pixabay

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Transcript

Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Perhaps you remember that when I was a child, my usurping Uncle Merez got rid of seven friends of my father's, who might have taken my part, by sending them off to explore the unknown eastern seas beyond the Lone Islands, and none of them ever came back. On my coronation day, with Aslan's approval, I swore an oath that if once I established peace in Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and a day to find my father's friends, or to learn of their deaths and avenge them if I could. These were their names. The Lord Ravillian, the Lord Byrne, the Lord Argos, the Lord Mavremorne, the Lord Octesian, the Lord Rustamar, and oh, that other one, who's so hard to remember. The Lord Roop, sir, said Drinian. Roop, Rup, of course, said Caspian. That is my main intention. Hello everybody, and welcome back to Faithful Fables, the podcast dedicated to exploring the Christian themes in fantasy stories. And today we are closing out our series on the voyage of the Dawn Treader with a special look at the seven Lost Lords of Narnia. The entire reason for the voyage. Now before we get into this, I want to thank everyone for the continued support on this show. It means a lot to me, and I also want to mention Free Luma bracelets. These are Christian bracelets that have NFC readers on them that you can scan with your phone and get daily Bible verses and inspiration. Use code STAYFAITFUS CAPILF all one word at checkout to save 15% on your order and help support the podcast as well. And if bracelets aren't your thing and you still want to support, there is a support the show link in the description. You can click that and go that way as well. Of course, there's no obligation, feel no pressure, and if you can't afford it, please don't. But if you can and you're willing and you're wanting to, I would really appreciate that. With that out of the way, let's get into this. So the reason for the voyage was to find the seven lost lords that Caspian's uncle Miraz sent away. He sent them away because they would have been in Miraz's way and he didn't want he didn't want that. They would have gotten in the way of him getting like claiming the throne for himself, because the seven lords were loyal to Miraz's brother, which was Caspian's father. They were noble Telmarine men. So Lords Byrne, Octesian, Restamar, Rup, Mavramorn, Ravillian, and Argos were all sent by Miraz to explore the eastern seas. And this was by design, so that Miraz could get them all out of Narnia, and as a result of this, they never came back from their voyage. So when Caspian takes the throne from his uncle, he makes a promise to Aslan that he would sail to the eastern seas and find all seven lords, and either bring them back, or at least discover what happened to them.

The Theories

SPEAKER_00 3:45

So we don't actually get a lot of information about the lords themselves, not as much information that we get from other characters in Narnia. And so this episode I want to cover something that throughout my research I thought was pretty interesting. And so credit where credit is due, this is uh information that I found from other sources, uh, which those sources, of course, will be linked in the description if you're interested in diving deeper. But there's something of a theory out there that I want to go over when it comes to the seven lost lords. And technically it's two theories. Um, and I'm getting this information, one from an article linked below, and then also a set of YouTube videos also below. And so basically, the one theory from the article below is connecting the seven lost lords to the seven deadly sins. And the other theory actually takes it a step farther, uh, and this is from the YouTube videos that actually ties the seven lost lords and really the voyage of the Dawn Treader as a whole to the mid-evil teaching of the eight evil thoughts. And so I'm gonna kind of go over both of those a little bit and kind of paint the picture because as I learned about this, I thought it was kind of fascinating, and I really do agree with the theories that this is at least maybe a little bit of what C.S. Lewis was trying to go for, if not completely. So, in this article by Dr. Thomas L. Martin, uh, and a video by a channel called Into the Wardrobe, and both, again, will be linked below. Um and so uh these theories theorize that there are eight trials that are gone through as throughout the voyage, and that these trials lead to the downfalls of these lords. So the seven trials are the seven deadly sins, or um but the other theory, the eight evil thoughts. And there is some overlap in the in the two as well. So these again are not my theories, but I think they make sense, and as we go through it, I think it will make sense for you as well. So let's start with the first Lord being Lord Byrne.

Lord Bern

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Lord Byrne is a fine looking man with a beard. When he got to the Lone Islands, he was tired of travel and decided to stay there and ended up settling down. He was a protector and a nobleman. He chose to give it all up for a life of comfort, which someone in his position was not supposed to do. He was later discovered on the island of Phelamath of the Lone Islands. He was living an ideal life for a nobleman. He had a beautiful and gracious wife and happy daughters. While many people on the Lone Islands were under slavery, Byrne bought people to free them. All the people he had were free people. He helped Caspian stage a coup to overthrow Gumpus, the governor of the Lone Islands, and rewarded by Caspian making him the Duke of the Lone Islands. I just say Lorne Islands? Oh my goodness. The Lone Islands Oh boy. Um anyways, uh yeah, so just a little recap there of Byrne and what happened on the the Lone Islands. Um and so if you if you want more info on that, go back to the previous episode where we talked about that. Um and that's the same for all of these. I've obviously covered all of these things in previous episodes. This is kind of just for review. And uh really what Lord Byrne fell for was the sin of luxuria, or self-indulgence, or more commonly known today as lust. He abandoned his duties for the pleasures and comforts that enticed him, including a beautiful woman and the success that he found there.

Lord Octesian

SPEAKER_00 8:12

The Lord Octesian was never found or rescued, but we are certain that he did not make it farther than Dragon Island. We are told that he likely met the same fate as Eustace and was either turned into a dragon like Eustace or was devoured by a dragon. We know this because they came across his gold armband that Eustace ended up having on his arm. They knew it was Lord Octesian's, because it had a hammer and a star on it. This was his device that marked the armband. He fell into the same trap as Eustace. We may think that it would be the deadly sin of greed because Eustace gave into the temptation of the dragon's horde. That would be greedy to do, to go after treasure in that way. But the theory involving the eight evil thoughts shows us that the sin Octesian fell for was not greed, but rather superbia or pride. His name actually reveals this to us if we break it down. Now, Octesian is a made-up name. C. S. Lewis made this up, like you don't really see much of it anywhere other than in this book when you search for it. And so if we break down the word, oct means the number eight, and easian means one who practices. So if we put that together, it means the one who practices number eight. Now this wouldn't make sense if it was merely the seven deadly sins, but it makes perfect sense if we apply it to the eight evil thoughts, because the eighth evil thought is pride, so he who practices number eight, so he practices pride. So when we look at it that way, Lord Octesian makes perfect sense for the sin of pride.

Lord Restimar

SPEAKER_00 10:21

We find out what happens to Lord Restamar by process of elimination from discovering the other six lords. And so the children in Koryakin, the fallen star from Duffer Island, judged that it must have been Lord Restamar's body that was instantly turned into gold and was laying at the bottom of the water at Deathwater Island. If you remember that past episode where they were on Deathwater Island, there was this enchanted body of water that whatever touched it turned to gold. They f they saw like a statue-looking body at the bottom, and uh they are assuming that that is Lord Restamar. And this theory makes sense as Restamar literally means rest at sea. Now it's unclear if Restamar knew that the water had magical properties that turned whatever it touched into gold, but we can speculate one of two things. Either he didn't know, and this was an unfortunate thing that happened to him when he went to cool off in the water, or he did know and accidentally fell in. Now the idea that he did know that it was, that it turned things into gold makes sense with the deadly sinslash evil thoughts theories. So let's assume he knew this and he was greedy and wanted more, like to turn more things into gold, to the point that it pulled him into the water. We can speculate that he fell for the sin of greed. Another reason we can speculate this because is because greed is what Caspian and Edmund started experiencing, and Caspian decided to quickly leave Deathwater Island because they were feeling this this sense of greed creeping up on them. With that being said, like we could assume that this was the trial for that island.

Lord Rhoop

SPEAKER_00 12:40

And now we get to the Lord Roop. Lord Roop was a prisoner on the Dark Island and was first identified by his cry, made inhuman by terror, as the book says, and when he was brought on to the Don Treader, he says, In the name of all mercies, do not fade away and leave me in this horrible land. His appearance is pale, gaunt, and wild looking. He was wearing only a few wet rags and his hair was completely white even though he was not old. Now, believe it or not, Lord Rupe fell for the sin of envy. But how is the Dark Island linked to envy? This may be a stretch, but the theories theorize that by process of elimination this would make sense. The desires that are tempting on the Dark Island are the desires that one desires something that is owned by another person, creating the shadows that they saw. The shadows of a dream, for which that which they do not possess. The Don Shredder crew mentions two dreams while on the Dark Island. I reckoned I'd find I was married to Nancy if we landed here, and I'd find Tom alive again. This was a place of terrible sadness, grief, and despair. Now, according to the Eight Evil Thoughts theory, envy is actually replaced by sorrow on that list or like sorrow or despair, which is a much better fit and makes more sense for the Lord Rup, since they found him with much sorrow and despair. So if that doesn't make sense, if we go with the Seven Deadly Sins theory, it has to be envy, but when we look at the list of the eight evil thoughts, envy is replaced with sorrow, and this would be a much better fit for that. Next is the three sleepers.

Three Sleepers

SPEAKER_00 15:08

The three sleepers, also known as the Lords Mavramorn, Ravillion, and Argos, were all discovered on Ramadu's Island. They are all in an enchanted sleep sitting at Aslan's table. Now there are three sins that are dealt with here, so I'm going to read something from the book that will make this more clear for all of us. We can try, said Caspian, and began shaking the nearest of the three sleepers. For a moment everyone thought he was going to be successful, for the man breathed hard and muttered, I'll go eastward no more. Out oars for Narnia But he sank back almost at once into yet a deeper sleep than before. With the second it was much the same. We weren't born to live like animals. Get to the east while you've a chance. Lands behind the sun and sank down, and the third only said mustard, please, and slept hard. When talking to Ramandu's daughter, she explains that one of them wanted to just give up and go back home to Narnia. The second wanted to just sit at the table and eat properly. The third was angry and picked up the stone knife that was on the table, wanting to attack the other two men. So we see that the last one listed here is obviously wrath. So that means that the other two are likely sloth and gluttony. Today we are used to the term lazy or laziness instead of sloth, but sloth is actually closer to a neglectful laziness or a lack of care for one's duties, and that perfectly describes who we assume to be Lord Argos, who wanted to give up on his duties and sail back home to Narnia. This leaves gluttony and wrath. We can assume that the Lord Revilion fell for the sin of wrath and wanted to attack the other two with the knife because his name is resembling the word revile, which means to attack with abusive language. So based off that we can assume that he would have been the one falling for wrath because he was angry enough to want to attack his companions, which, by the way, that knife, if you missed that episode with Ramandu's Island, that knife, not just a regular knife, it's actually the stone knife that the white witch used to kill Aslan. But, anyways, last but not least, we have Lord Mavramorn, who by process of elimination, we can assume, fell for the sin of gluttony. And was the Lord that asked for mustard in his sleep. And that's really the only evidence we have other than process of elimination. He asked for mustard. We assume that that is the one who would fall for gluttony.

The 8th Evil

SPEAKER_00 18:18

So if you're keeping track, that for sure covers the seven deadly sins. We see Lord Byrne falling for Luxuria on the Lone Islands, Lord Octesian falling for pride on Dragon Island, Lord Restamar falling for greed on Deathwater Island, Lord Rupe falling for envy or sorrow on Death or sorry Dark Island, and Lord Argos, Ravillion, and Maverne falling for sloth, wrath, and gluttony, all on Ramandu's Island. But like I've been mentioning, there is this theory of the eight evil thoughts, and there is an island that we have not mentioned here either, and that is the island of the Duffers. And so there is room here for an eighth evil with seven lords. How? Well, C. S. Lewis, I believe, was likely using the eight evil thoughts from a fourth century monk named Evagrius Ponticus. And he his list, sorry, adds the sin of vainglory, which, if you're wondering, is the same temptation that Lucy faces on the island of the Duffers, including the temptation to know what someone thinks and says about her, and the temptation to be the most beautiful woman ever. Both would fit in the vainglory category. With adding vainglory to the mix, it perfectly fills out the eight evil thoughts, and it makes I think just more sense to the overall story. Each island that they stopped at, from the Lone Islands to Ramandu's Island, they faced some sort of trial. So looking at the seven deadly sins, obviously those are covered. When we add the eighth sin, you know, from the eight evil thoughts, we get a perfectly rounded out picture of all the trials that they went through. And no, Lucy's not one of the lost lords, but I don't know. Like I we we don't really have information, or at least not a whole lot, about the Lord stopping on Duffer Island, if they would have faced that trial or not, but that trial was there for Lucy. And so it perfectly rounds out those eight evil thoughts. And with C.S. Lewis being the a middle a mid evilist, sorry, he would have probably been using that list instead. So in my opinion, makes sense. The travelers on the Don Shredder learned lessons that would equip them when they returned home. We also face temptations, and others as well. But when we lean on God to help us overcome these temptations, it also equips us for the next time we encounter those temptations. James chapter four, verse seven and eight says, Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. And I also think What I'm seeing as a lesson from this is kind of related to that. Like, yes, obviously it's our choice to flee these things, but we also have to choose to put our trust in God to guide us and get us out. And if we're looking back at the trials that they faced throughout the voyage, there's a lot of times where Aslan was there guiding them. It wasn't obvious all the time, but I mean think back to Deathwater Island. So Edmund and Caspian are feeling the greed, and they're like kind of having like an alpha male showdown of like, no, I'm a higher king than you are, and so it's my treasure, and and it goes back and forth. And literally they see Aslan, and that kind of stops them, and it puts them in perspective of like, yeah, what are we doing here? Like, let's stop this. And then, of course, going through Dark Island, everyone's like kind of losing hope. They're losing their minds, they're losing hope. What happens? Light comes from the sky, and albatross comes down and guides them out. Obviously, that was Aslan because he whispers to Lucy, courage, dear heart, which is something Aslan has said to her before. So we see throughout, and there's there's more examples as well, but even just those two, it's just examples of like God will lead us out. Right? Like we got we we trust him, we turn to him, he will guide us out the same way Aslan was guiding them out, right? Now at that point, like like Edmund and Caspian could have kept fighting, sure. But it put them, it reminded them, like it gave them a reminder and put things in perspective, like, no, what are we doing? Like, let's stop what we're doing, let's think about this and get back on track. And I think that is, you know, partially of what the Holy Spirit does for us is he will convict us and he'll remind us and and uh continues to form and shape us, and we gotta trust in that and slowly turn from those things as well, and set our minds on heavenly things. And so that I think is another lesson. There's many lessons from this book, but that is another lesson that I think we can take from the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Close

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Thank you everyone for tuning into this episode of Faithful Fables. I know it's a little bit shorter than my usual episodes, but that's okay. You know, that we've told the story that needs to be told here, and we also learned the theories about the Lost Lords and the various trials that they had on the voyage of the Dawn Shredder and what the crew all went through. And it's obvious from this book that we can learn a lot from these trials in our own lives. Go back and listen to the other episodes again with these things in mind, and I think it will change the way that you look at it, or even that you will read the book the next time you read it. Now, that being said, with this episode we close out the series on the Voyage of the Dawn Shredder, and we will be moving on to the horse and his boy next. So stay tuned for that, and remember, stay faithful.