Narnia: Writing Narnian Fanfiction Part II

Writing about another author’s character is a huge responsibility that I did not take lightly. For this reason, I shied away from writing the Pevensies at first, and I scrapped the idea of having dialogue for Aslan completely.
How could I stay true to Aslan’s character? I felt that it would be like putting words in God’s mouth.
I do not mean to say that I was reluctant in a legalistic way, like it would be sacrilegious.
I only mean that I do not have the slightest idea what Aslan would say to Lucy in the woods, or to a deathly-ill Susan (in the scenarios that I created).
When I read the Bible, just when I think Jesus would react one way, I read that, in reality, he did something entirely different. When someone disobeyed God, he would strike them dead. When another person wronged him, he would pray for them and forgive them. He destroyed the whole earth and its sinful human inhabitants in a flood, and later sent his only son to die on behalf of the same people.
The justice and mercy of God, written in Narnia by Lewis in the character of Aslan, is unpredictable and mysterious.
I don’t pretend to know what Aslan would do in this scene or that, just as I don’t know what God will do in this moment or the next.
I don’t know if he is safe, I don’t know when he will come again, I don’t know what he thinks about. In my short story, I wrote the tone of Lucy’s wandering in the woods to reflect these types of questions. There are endless things I do not know about Aslan- about God.
There is, however, one thing about Aslan that we do know, which Lewis expresses
through the voice of Mr. Beaver, is this:
“I tell you, he is the King of the woods and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea. Don’t you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion — the Lion, the great Lion. Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you” (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe)

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