Telmar

Telmar is a country in the world of Narnia created by the British author C. S. Lewis. The Telmarines are prominent in the book "Prince Caspian".

History

Located to the west of Narnia, Telmar was a land colonized first by men of Calormen 300 years after the creation of Narnia; where it is in relation to the Western Waste to Narnia's immediate west is unclear, however. (A map commonly found in the back of the books shows only a passage leading to Telmar in the west of Archenland, not far from Narnia.) The inhabitants purportedly found their way to a then-leaderless Narnia after "a great famine". More importantly, it is also the site of a 'chink' that leads from Earth to Narnia. Six pirates and their Pacific Islander wives from our world were shipwrecked and fell through this gap into Telmar, producing lines of proud, warlike descendants, the Telmarines. These are the Telmarines who eventually invade Narnia, at the time in disorder, after a famine in their own land and attempt to rid the country of its magic.

The story of the pirates marooned in the South Pacific, mentioned at the end of "Prince Caspian" bears some resemblance the factual historical account of the mutiny aboard the HMS "Bounty".Fact|date=February 2007 Lewis refers to earlier Narnian humans and Archenlanders, "Northerners", as being light-skinned, being definitively descended from an English cabbie and his wife; however, the Telmarines are never referred to as such, although their strong Polynesian ancestry is inferred. In the , the actors portraying Telmarine characters are mainly from Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal).

The movie "" shows the Telmarine army as trained to fight efficiently in shieldwall formation with large shields and helmets, and to form a Roman-type testudo formation when attacked from above. In this version at the Second Battle of Beruna the Narnians, fighting as individuals, due to their varied sizes and shapes unable to fight as a shieldwall, could defeat Telmarine skirmishers but do little against the Telmarine shieldwalls, until large Narnian walking trees intervened.

Presumably when the Telmarines overran Narnia earlier, similar Telmarine shieldwall formations efficiently trapped and destroyed large disorderly charging Narnian armies in open country, and surviving Narnians hid in dense forest.

Family Tree

It is from this line of Telmarines that Prince Caspian (later King Caspian X) is descended:

familytree| | | | | | | | | | CAS |CAS=Caspian VIII