Ramandu's daughter

Role

Ramandu's daughter first appears in C. S. Lewis's 1952 novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. In that story, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, along with their cousin Eustace Scrubb, are pulled into the world of Narnia through a painting of a ship. They join King Caspian X on the Dawn Treader as he sails toward the edge of the world to locate the Seven Great Lords of Narnia. During the voyage, they stop at Ramandu's Island, where the retired star Ramandu lives, and are met by his daughter. Lewis never gives her a name, referring to her only by her title. She is described as a young, beautiful, immortal woman with long blonde hair, first seen in a blue gown holding a lit candle. Her arrival brings hope to Caspian and his crew, who have discovered that three of the lords—Mavramorn, Revilian, and Argoz—are trapped under a sleeping spell.

Caspian mentions the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty to Ramandu's daughter and suggests that kissing her might break the curse on the lords. She replies that she will only kiss him after the enchantment is lifted, and she proposes marriage to him. Before leaving the island, Caspian promises to return and break the spell. Three years after his voyage ends, he comes back to Ramandu's Island, marries her, and the two become the rulers of Narnia. Fifteen years into their reign, they have a son named Rilian.

In the 1953 book The Silver Chair, the Lady of the Green Kirtle, disguised as a snake, kills Ramandu's daughter while she sleeps in a glade during a May ride with her twenty-year-old son. Her body is brought back to the city, and she is remembered as a gracious and wise lady whose veins held the blood of stars. Seeking revenge for his mother's death, Rilian is later seduced by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. In the 1956 novel The Last Battle, Ramandu's daughter appears alongside her husband and son among the faithful during the Great Reunion, where all the series' good characters except Susan Pevensie are brought together again.

Development and casting

C. S. Lewis deliberately left Ramandu's daughter unnamed, a choice that Lewis scholar Paul F. Ford believed was meant to inspire a sense of awe around her. Fantasy author Colin Duriez has suggested that the character was influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's elves Lúthien and Arwen, both of whom marry mortal men. Duriez also linked Ramandu's daughter's celestial parentage to Tolkien's angelic Maiar. In the television adaptation, English actress Gabrielle Anwar played the role early in her career, credited simply as Princess. Australian actress Laura Brent took on the part in the film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, marking her first feature film appearance. The name Lilliandil was invented for the movie by Lewis's stepson Douglas Gresham, who explained that it was meant to evoke the sea of lilies from the book while also sounding feminine and ethereal.

Character analysis

Scholars see Ramandu's daughter as defined by her goodness. Mythology expert Elizabeth Baird Hardy notes she is one of the few positive characters who appears as a full-grown adult from the start. Monika B. Hilder, a fantasy literature scholar, views her and Caspian X as wise rulers willing to endure hardship for righteousness throughout their lives. Devin Brown, an English literature professor, argues that her respect for Aslan is what marks her goodness, especially when set against the White Witch's anger and evil toward the lion.

Author Cathy McSporran analyzes Ramandu's daughter as a "saintly mother," contrasting her with the Lady of the Green Kirtle. McSporran says that the Lady and all witches in the Narnia series embody what Lewis called an "infernal Venus," a term he used in his 1942 book The Screwtape Letters for a female character who lures a man to his death. McSporran calls Ramandu's daughter the "natural opponent" of witches because of her innate goodness and beauty. She points to the character's maternal care for Rilian and her ability to see through magical disguises as signs of this opposition.

Critics have also examined the relationship between Ramandu's daughter and Caspian X. Their romance is one of the few in the Narnia series. Devin Brown compares their courtship favorably to that of Arwen and Aragorn in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Brown also notes that Lewis hints at this relationship through Caspian's failed courtship with the Duke of Galma before The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Lewis scholar Michael Ward sees the couple as proof that Lewis was not against his characters growing up and having romantic relationships.

However, children's literature scholar Jennifer L. Miller argues that Lewis does not develop their marriage in the novels. She writes that their interactions as husband and wife are limited to the time between The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair, and only occur in a place outside Narnia. Miller suggests that this portrayal shows how romantic love and desire can exist in exotic, faraway locations, while Lewis kept Narnia itself as a land of innocence and wonder where such ideas would not be allowed.