Narnian ChroniclesA local companion
People

Talking Beasts

Also known as Talking Animals, Talking Beast, Talking Animal

Animals awakened to speech and reason in Narnia’s creation, with the charge not to return to the ways of dumb beasts. They form a central part of Narnian society.

This encyclopedia follows the whole story. Plot details from all seven chronicles may appear below.

01
Primary sources

In the chronicles

These links are generated from exact-name appearances in the supplied novels. Each opens the cited paragraph in the local reader.

The Magician's Nephew5 cited passages⌄
  1. Chapter IX · paragraph 38"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters."Open passage →
  2. Chapter X · paragraph 5…wberry," said Polly. "I am glad he was one of the ones picked out to be a Talking beast." And the Cabby, who was now standing beside the children, said, "Strike me pink. I always did say as that 'oss…Open passage →
  3. Chapter X · paragraph 6…ly and cherish them but do not go back to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return. Do not so."Open passage →
  4. Chapter XI · paragraph 12…urely don't mean," said the Jackdaw to the Badger, "that you think it's a talking animal! It didn't say any words."Open passage →
  5. Chapter XI · paragraph 68…hey are not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in but Talking Beasts and free subjects?"Open passage →
The Horse and His Boy2 cited passages⌄
  1. Chapter V · paragraph 46…f the Narnian King might be friendly to the two horses, because they were Talking Beasts of Narnia, he would hate Aravis, because she was a Calormene, and either sell her for a slave or send her back …Open passage →
  2. Chapter XIII · paragraph 10…a great deal of rearranging. A whole detachment of very dangerous-looking Talking Beasts whom Shasta had not noticed before and who were mostly of the cat kind (leopards, panthers, and the like) went …Open passage →
Prince Caspian7 cited passages⌄
  1. Chapter IV · paragraph 53… Fauns and Satyrs, of Dwarfs and Giants, of the gods and the Centaurs, of Talking Beasts. It was against these that the first Caspian fought. It is you Telmarines who silenced the beasts and the trees…Open passage →
  2. Chapter IV · paragraph 65… through all the nooks and wild places of the land to see if any Fauns or Talking Beasts or Dwarfs are perhaps still alive in hiding."Open passage →
  3. Chapter V · paragraph 70…umans the people who laughed at Aslan would have laughed at stories about Talking Beasts and Dwarfs. Sometimes I did wonder if there really was such a person as Aslan: but then sometimes I wondered if…Open passage →
  4. Chapter V · paragraph 73"Well, to tell you the truth, I have," said Caspian. "But they weren't Talking Beasts."Open passage →
  5. Chapter XIV · paragraph 44…veryone was laughing, flutes were playing, cymbals clashing. Animals, not Talking Animals, were crowding in upon them from every direction.Open passage →
  6. Chapter XV · paragraph 1…Dwarfs, who had been of Nikabrik's party, began to edge away. But all the Talking Beasts surged round the Lion, with purrs and grunts and squeaks and whinneys of delight, fawning on him with their tai…Open passage →
  7. Chapter XV · paragraph 26… that Caspian was now King and that Narnia would henceforth belong to the Talking Beasts and the Dwarfs and Dryads and Fauns and other creatures quite as much as to the men. Any who chose to stay unde…Open passage →
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader4 cited passages⌄
  1. Chapter I · paragraph 39…and Edmund recognised it at once--Reepicheep, the most valiant of all the Talking Beasts of Narnia and the Chief Mouse. It had won undying glory in the second Battle of Beruna. Lucy longed, as she had…Open passage →
  2. Chapter II · paragraph 9…dn't be better. There's no trouble at all now between Telmarines, Dwarfs, Talking Beasts, Fauns and the rest. And we gave those troublesome giants on the frontier such a good beating last summer that …Open passage →
  3. Chapter XVI · paragraph 45"Your Majesty promised," said Reepicheep, "to be good lord to the Talking Beasts of Narnia."Open passage →
  4. Chapter XVI · paragraph 46"Talking beasts, yes," said Caspian. "I said nothing about beasts that never stop talking." And he flung down the ladder in a t…Open passage →
The Silver Chair2 cited passages⌄
  1. Chapter III · paragraph 50…what it is, Master Glimfeather; when I was a young Dwarf there used to be talking beasts and birds in this country who really could talk. There wasn't all this mumbling and muttering and whispering. I…Open passage →
  2. Chapter IX · paragraph 11…illed him. Scrubb, who had been in that world before and had at least one Talking beast as his dear friend, felt horrified; as you might feel about a murder. But Puddleglum, who was Narnian born, was…Open passage →
The Last Battle11 cited passages⌄
  1. Chapter I · paragraph 1… in the fork of a great tree, and his name was Shift. There were very few Talking Beasts or Men or Dwarfs, or people of any sort, in that part of the wood, but Shift had one friend and neighbour who w…Open passage →
  2. Chapter I · paragraph 22…a Talking Lion," said Shift. "You needn't bother about that. There are no Talking Beasts up beyond the Falls, up in the Western Wild. This skin must have belonged to a dumb, wild lion."Open passage →
  3. Chapter II · paragraph 56…King and the Unicorn was that about half the people in the crowd were not Talking Beasts but Men. The next thing was that these men were not the fair-haired men of Narnia: they were dark, bearded men …Open passage →
  4. Chapter III · paragraph 3…," said Jewel. Tirian looked up and saw that Calormenes (mixed with a few Talking Beasts) were beginning to run towards them from every direction. The two dead men had died without a cry and so it had…Open passage →
  5. Chapter III · paragraph 24…pt on pulling up the scarlet jacket to scratch himself. A great number of Talking Beasts stood facing him, and nearly every face in that crowd looked miserably worried and bewildered. When they saw wh…Open passage →
  6. Chapter IV · paragraph 5… knees snuffly animal kisses. (They could reach his knees because Narnian Talking Beasts of that sort are bigger than the dumb beasts of the same kinds in England.)Open passage →
  7. Chapter IX · paragraph 34…ive like outlaws? And they might gradually get stronger and stronger, for Talking Beasts and Archenlanders would be joining them every day. And at last they'd come out of hiding and sweep the Calormen…Open passage →
  8. Chapter X · paragraph 35"Art thou not called a Talking Beast?" said the Captain. "Then hold thy devilish noise and talk."Open passage →
  9. Chapter X · paragraph 36…m in a backyard in England. And the longer he caterwauled the less like a Talking Beast he looked. Uneasy whimperings and little sharp squeals broke out from among the other Animals.Open passage →
  10. Chapter XIV · paragraph 10…for dear life, by thousands and by millions, came all kinds of creatures--Talking Beasts, Dwarfs, Satyrs, Fauns, Giants, Calormenes, men from Archenland, Monopods, and strange unearthly things from th…Open passage →
  11. Chapter XIV · paragraph 12…es changed terribly--it was fear and hatred: except that, on the faces of Talking Beasts, the fear and hatred lasted only for a fraction of a second. You could see that they suddenly ceased to be Talk…Open passage →
02
Connections

Follow another path

EventCreation of Narnia

Aslan sings the Narnian world into light, landscape, vegetation, and life.

→CultureOld Narnia

The living memory and surviving community of Narnia’s Talking Beasts, Dwarfs, Fauns, Dryads, and other ancient peoples during Telmarine rule.

→PlaceNarnia

The central country of the chronicles, created by Aslan and inhabited by humans, Talking Beasts, Dwarfs, Fauns, centaurs, and many other peoples.

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