Lewis wrote, "The Narnian books are not as much allegory as supposal. Suppose there were a Narnian world and it, like ours, needed redemption. What kind of incarnation and Passion might Christ be supposed to undergo there?"[40]
The main story is an allegory of Christ's crucifixion:[41][42] Aslan sacrifices himself for Edmund, a traitor who may deserve death, in the same way that Christians believe Jesus sacrificed himself for sinners. Aslan is killed on the Stone Table, symbolising Mosaic Law, which breaks when he is resurrected, symbolising the replacement of the strict justice of Old Testament law with redeeming grace and forgiveness granted on the basis of substitutionary atonement, according to Christian theology.[43]
The character of the Professor is based on W.T. Kirkpatrick, who tutored a 16-year-old Lewis. "Kirk", as he was sometimes called, taught the young Lewis much about thinking and communicating clearly, skills that would be invaluable to him later.[44]
Narnia is caught in endless winter that has lasted a century when the children first enter. Norse tradition mythologises a "great winter", known as the Fimbulwinter, said to precede Ragnarök. The trapping of Edmund by the White Witch is reminiscent of the seduction and imprisonment of Kai by the Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's novella of that name.[45]
Several parallels are seen between the White Witch and the immortal white queen, Ayesha, of H. Rider Haggard's She, a novel greatly admired by Lewis.[46]
Edith Nesbit's short story "The Aunt and Amabel" includes the motif of a girl entering a wardrobe to gain access to a magical place.[47]
The freeing of Aslan's body from the Stone Table is reminiscent of a scene from Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Pit and the Pendulum", in which a prisoner is freed when rats gnaw through his bonds.[48] In a later book, Prince Caspian, as reward for their actions, mice gained the same intelligence and speech as other Narnian animals.[49]
