Into the Wardrobe

My roomie just read LWW for the first time, and she asked a question I'd never thought of. Did the Professor put the fur coats in the Wardrobe on purpose, knowing that it was a potential portal to Narnia?

Does the question mean "Did the Professor put fur coats in the Wardrobe so that people who might get into Narnia would be able to stay warm?"

I doubt it. The Professor would not have known that the witch had cast a spell to make it always winter in Narnia, since he hadn't been there since Narnia's creation. And when Lewis was writing LWW, he may not have worked out the story back to its beginnings, and he may not have known at that point that the Professor had been to Narnia himself, or indeed knew anything at all about Narnia. I think in LWW (I don't have the book with me) all the Professor says about the Wardrobe is that there are odd things in his house that he doesn't know much about that may well be magical.

Yes, that's what the question means. Good point that he wouldn't know it was always winter there. And no, Lewis probably didn't have the pre-story all worked out, but I think that bit you refer to (I don't have my book with me either) indicates that he was thinking at least that the Professor had some previous experience with magical things or was aware of the existence of other worlds - and that some of his stuff might be connected to them.

Or the coats might have been put there by Mrs. McCready to store the things out of the way in some little-used room. They did have moth balls on them after all -- does that sound like a precaution someone like the Professor would take? Sounds more like the housekeeper to me.

(I can imagine a little side event that she wanted to repress and later stuffed away into her subconscious. When she was first hanging the coats up in the Wardrobe so long ago, she expected them to bump against the back wall, but was taken aback when each coat sort of swung forward and backward more than it should have. She reached her hand back to touch the panel that should have been there to see what was going on, and felt nothing. She was going to explore further, but felt a fresh breeze hit her in the face from the back of the Wardrobe, and, somewhat unnerved, since the room was rather lonely and quiet, she hastily straightened up and shut the door and hurridly went about her other duties in another room.

It was vaguely disturbing to her and she tended to avoid that room from there on out, trying to forget about it, which explains why she paused reluctantly just long enough when showing visitors around the house one day that allowed the children enough time to scurry into the Wardrobe in hiding...)

--Stanley

Then of course there is always that rather amusing anecdote from Shadowlands.

I think the fur coats were simply fortuitously placed there...

Just imagine if they'd been lion skin! *grins*.

Of course in this day and age, they are all 100% synthetic. In fact I'd not be surprised if they'd been replaced with fully lined gortex jackets..