The Chronicles of Narnia & Blue Flower, Part II

How "Prince Caspian" relates to "Wide Awake"

Hello folks, welcome back to another essay about the correlations between The Chronicles of Narnia and Blue Flower! I’m following Lewis’s order of publication here, so our second consideration will be Prince Caspian. I have determined that the song in Blue Flower that relates to Prince Caspian is Wide Awake. Above: the book cover. Below: the song (lyrics included in case you’re too lazy to go listen to the song. In which case, why are you even reading this essay? You’re way too lazy to be actually interested in what I have to say. Sorry.).

“Wide Awake” by The Gray Havens

Let's stay wide awake
Step on down to the looking glass
We'll find a way
To search for the answers here at last
Time can wait
Step on down, just for a while
Wide awake
A tidal wave
Come on in, yeah, the water's fine
No time to waste
Who knows the answers we will find?
A picture frame
Is all that you need to stay a while
Wide awake
Cuz' ever since I was young
I just wanted to know
If there was anything to any of the stories
Where the blue flowers grow
And I got all kind'a reasons
It could be nothing at all
Behind any of the curtains and the title pages
I can't let them go
And maybe that's a reason to stay
Wide awake
Let's stay wide awake
Look, all I know is we'll be on track
We'll find our way
When it doesn't feel like we're going
But going back
Time can wait
I got a feelin' about summertime
For endless days
Cuz' ever since I was young
I just wanted to know
If there was anything to any of the stories
Where the blue flowers grow
And I got all kind of reasons
It could be nothing at all
Behind any of the curtains and the title pages
I can't let them go
So maybe that's a reason to stay

Now, I don’t have an exact quote that relates to the lyrics of this song (there could be one I missed, for all I know, I’m not trying to be a scientist about this), but there is a certain hauntingness to the song that relates to Prince Caspian. (Yes, I know Substack says that hauntingness isn’t a word.)

In the early parts of Prince Caspian, Lewis speaks of the longing Caspian has to learn more of “Old Narnia,” from his tutor. This is echoed in the song with the phrase “Cuz ever since I was young/ I just wanted to know/ if there was anything to any of the stories/ where the blue flowers grow…”

For those Gray Havens/Lewis fans out there, does anyone know why the Gray Havens keep referencing “blue flowers” in this particular album, other than a representation of the “blue north longing,” as I have always thought of it?

The other part of the song that alerted me to its corresponding book was the beginning “Let’s stay wide awake/ Step on down to the looking glass…” In Prince Caspian, Caspian’s tutor often takes him out to look at the stars through (guess what?) a telescope—a looking glass, so to speak.

Others might suppose that this song correlates more to The Dawn Treader, as the lyrics reference “A tidal wave/ come on in, the water’s fine/ no time to waste/ who knows the answers we will find/ a picture frame…” To be honest, they do have a point, as water and a picture frame do play a major role in The Dawn Treader. However, there is another song that corresponds much better to The Dawn Treader than Wide Awake, and this will be covered in my next essay. I realize that this was a much shorter essay than last time, but I was slightly rushed on time!

Thanks for reading. Again, I hope this inspires you to go and reread Lewis’s excellent Chronicles of Narnia and listen to The Gray Havens’ Blue Flower album. Perhaps it is time to meld the two senses, sight and hearing, into a harmonious blend that leaves the soul hungering after those far north “blue flowers” that ever linger, beckoning, on the edges of our sight.

-Gloriana