Winter

[gmtaslash]

Title: Winter
Author: gmtaslash
Fandom: Narnia
Rating: G. Oh, probably a bit spoilery for The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian (books and movies)
Summary: One of those fics that just turned up and started nomming on Trojie's brain while she was trying to do something else. Was meant to be a drabble but refused to shorten up. Most stubborn story she's ever written. Edmund-centric, as usual, and also as usual ends up playing with the Edmund/Peter dynamic. The SIBLING dynamic, thankyouverymuch, do we look like incestshippers?




If Lucy is vibrant Spring, and Peter is glorious Summer, and Susan is sad but beautiful Autumn, Edmund knows that he is Winter. Winter is almost a bad word in Narnia, and when the poets seek to compare their four monarchs to the seasons of the year, they mysteriously stop after Summer, and shuffle their feet, and find some other metaphor.

But Winter has left her mark on Edmund, and try as he might he cannot change that. He is who he is; he is just, and fair, he is a thinker and a planner, he is Peter's right hand and also his opposite. They call him strategic; he knows they mean calculating. They call him driven; he knows they mean cold.

Cold as ice. Cold as Winter. Cold as charity. It was ice bewitched that tempted him; it was Winter's queen that seduced him; it was calculated charity that saved him. Aslan told him that day that his sins were forgiven; Edmund cannot forget that Aslan needed him in order to triumph.

Edmund broke the sceptre of Winter once, banished the Witch from Narnia, let Summer reign once more.

When they returned to battle for freedom and for Narnia a second time, old enemies would have brought Winter back. Summer found itself bewitched; it was Edmund who broke her frost-rimed hold on his brother.

It seems like Summer cannot keep itself from the frost without help.

It seems like Winter's hold on Edmund will never loosen.

Comments

[sedri.livejournal.com]

... *applauds*

[elvenpiratelady.livejournal.com]

Nice, very nice. I love Edmund cannot forget that Aslan needed him in order to triumph. Edmund, being the Just, probably would have had to make a lot of pragmatic decisions that his siblings might rather not know about - or he wouldn't tell them in order to keep to the ideal of Narnia.

When the poets seek to compare their four monarchs to the seasons of the year, they mysteriously stop after Summer, and shuffle their feet, and find some other metaphor - well, it's not like they'll be turned to stone if they upset the monarchs, is it? (I can't believe that I didn't pick up on the four seasons/four siblings dynamic until I read this. I fail at symbolism.)

[cassie5squared.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. Everyone else jumped in first with the comments I wanted to make, so I'll just add my voice of agreement with them.

[manx-n-shadow.livejournal.com]

*paraphrases Cassie's comment and just agrees* *stamps with Approval Stamp*

Would you like a ypur?

[ladylapislazuli.livejournal.com]

What an amazing piece!

It really displays Edmund's intelligence. And I loved the darker look into why Aslan saved him - it's a very good point.

Fantastic! :D

[kunenk.livejournal.com]

Lovely! And oh, Edmund.

*pokes the third paragraph* Things kind of repeated themselves a bit, huh?

[hsavinien.livejournal.com]

Obviously, the four monarchs need to institute a Winter Fair with Edmund presiding to remind everyone, especially him, of the good bits of winter--skating and sledding, roasting apples and singing. Yes. *nods decisively*