Santa Claus and Bacchus fit comfortably in the Narnian metaphysic.

In reading The Chronicles of Narnia, you have perhaps gotten the occasional fits of the Tolkiens: uncontrollable disjointure from the narrative upon encountering Santa Claus or Bacchus. Indeed, to the reader of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, new to Narnia and perhaps to Tolkien, the appearance of Santa Claus is passing strange: a Christ story, wherein [SPOILERS] Aslan is slain for the sin of Edmund, but Santa Claus shows up to celebrate Christmas prior to that event, in a world without a Nativity. The explanation, in that book, is missing and the state almost inexplicable. I contend, however, that by the time the seven book cycle is finished (reading in publication order), these apparent oddities are properly integrated into the Narnian story on a more than dramatic level.

The inclusion of Santa Claus in the first book is easy to understand from a mere thematic perspective. Christmas, the coming of the Savior, is the holiday which immediately precedes the ministry of Aslan to Narnia, the ministry which leads into his self-sacrifice, after which self-sacrifice is Aslan’s resurrection and victory. But it still seems to break the metaphysic of Narnia over its knee. How can these be reconciled?

The first half of the problem is how these Earth deities exist in Narnia. Why is there a Santa Claus in Narnia? Why is there a Bacchus? They never had St. Nicholas or any of the other Santa predecessors; they never had a nativity; they never had a Thomas Nast to crystallize the image. They never had a Rome or a Greece or the pantheon they built. So why Santa? Why Bacchus?

That Hideous Strength gives us the answer. In chapter 14, the Director says, “There is no Oyarsa in Heaven who has not got his representative on Earth…. That is why there was an Italian Saturn as well as a Heavenly one, and a Cretan Jove as well as an Olympian. It was these earthly wraiths of the high intelligences that men met in old times when they reported that they had seen the gods.” The nature of Bacchus, in Lewis’s beloved metaphysic, is as a reflection, lessened and often distorted by men or spirits, of a greater being beyond the moon, beyond corruption.

These beings, as we see quite clearly in their descent upon St. Anne’s in That Hideous Strength chapter 15, are nearly metaphysical, expressing or embodying parts of the world and its narrative. As such (and remembering the personal nature of Narnian stars, as per The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battles), it seems only right, looking at Bacchus, to see in him the Narnian representation of the heavenly Archon (Oyarsa) of some Narnian Power.

But why Bacchus? Why is this entity the same-named as our own? And what about Santa?

We could see an indication that the Power in Narnia is the same as that on earth, given dominion by Aslan in more than a single world. The adjacency in nature and inhabitant between our world and Narnia (as well as the presence of near-man on Charn) coheres decently with this suggestion, while not requiring or significantly supporting it.

Alternately, the Power in Narnia might be different, yet occupying an equivalent role. Bacchus’s original may not be the original (in the cosmology) of earth-Bacchus, but he rules the Narnian version of the same house. The name’s identity then would be either Aslan’s choice or (and the two are not exclusive of each other) the result of Frank, Helen, and other earth-imports (the original Calormenes and Telmarines show Frank and Helen were not alone) recognizing the kinship of the Powers in comparing the Narnian reflection to the earth reflection’s legend.

For Santa, meanwhile, the explanation is relatively clear: he is a reflection of that same power (or its kin) whose earthly reflection we have named Santa Claus, celebrating the coming of Aslan and participating in generosity, bringing joy to the darkest and barest part of the year. He is named such because among the founders of Narnia are Frank and Helen, Londoners well aware of the Santa Claus story, who lend the reflection name, seeing the kinship or identity.

Bacchus and Santa Claus, in The Chronicles of Narnia, are representatives and reflections of the great heavenly powers which are upon earth or of their counterparts in Narnia, given name and form for their resemblance to their earthly counterparts or by Aslan’s will. Thus, while the explanation is not quite contained in Narnia, these beings are consistent with its metaphysic, rather than being authorial impositions without regard for internal consistency. The secondary creation is a little strainted, perhaps, but it is not breached.