Coriakin

Did You Know?

• In the 1989 BBC television serial, Coriakin was played by Preston Lockwood.
• Bille Brown portrayed Coriakin in the 2010 Fox/Walden film and died just over two years after its release.
• Norman Bowler voiced Coriakin in the 2001 Focus on the Family Radio Theatre adaptation.

Fictional character biography

Coriakin began as a star, but Aslan assigned him to govern the Duffers and lead them toward wisdom as a penalty for unspecified earlier wrongs. When Prince Caspian asks about these faults, Ramandu, another star, says it is not proper for a human to understand what errors a star can make. Coriakin appears as a wizard, going barefoot in a red robe and wearing a crown of oak leaves. He resides on an island in a large house that resembles an English mansion, with a spellbook kept in a top-floor room and odd possessions like a Bearded Glass.

Some scholars see possible references to Druids or Melchizedek, but Lewis’s exact meaning and symbolism for Coriakin are not obvious. He governs the Duffers by magic, though he wishes they would eventually follow wisdom. Because the Duffers are stubborn and slow-witted, he uses a spell to join their legs into one each, turning them into Monopods. Thinking they have been made ugly, the Duffers creep into his rooms and cast a spell to become invisible, hiding their new look.

This spell also makes Coriakin drowsy, so he does not notice the arrival of the Dawn Treader and its crew. Tired of being unseen, the Duffers force Lucy Pevensie to read the spell that restores visibility, since only a young girl could read it. After looking at a few other tempting spells, Lucy makes everything in the magician’s house visible, including Coriakin and Aslan himself. Lucy then sees the magician as kind, wise, and humorous, not the frightening sorcerer the Duffers described.

He welcomes Aslan politely and accepts the long task of guiding the Duffers to wisdom. He provides a grand feast for his guests but eats only bread and wine. He advises Lucy to persuade the Duffers that their new form is better than the old one, and she succeeds. The dwarfs call themselves Monopods but keep confusing the name with their original one, eventually becoming known as Dufflepuds.