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also, beaver testicles relieve pain
May. 24th, 2009 02:50 pmOkay, thought.
In PC, Nikabrik says that the White Witch "stamped out the Beavers...at least there are none of them in Narnia now" (p. 169, paperback Scholastic edition).
However, it seems patently unlikely that the White Witch actually did exterminate the Beavers; after all, we saw a beaver couple in LWW, and I would be highly surprised if they hadn't had children during the Golden Age. Even if they were the last of a kind, which seems unlikely (why would the White Witch want to exterminate them? After all, it's not exactly as though an army of beavers poses the greatest threat to her reign), they still would have had children, I'd think.
So here's the thought: the White Witch didn't wipe out the beavers. The Telmarines did.
In Europe, beavers were hunted nearly to extinction for their fur and for their scent glands, which were used for medicine in perfume. They were also significantly hunted in America. (Interestingly, Eurasian and American beavers aren't genetically compatible.) It seems fairly likely that the Telmarines might have decided that beaver fur made great hats or muffs, or gone after them for the scent glands, etc. Especially since talking beavers are bigger than dumb beavers; I sincerely doubt the Telmarines cared that much that the beavers were yelling at them to stop, you murderers!
And the beavers probably aren't the only species wiped out by the Telmarines, either.
What's interesting is that it's blamed on the White Witch. *muses*
Apropos of nothing, there was also a giant beaver, one of the Pleistocene megafauna. Wouldn't want to run into one of those in a dark alley.
In PC, Nikabrik says that the White Witch "stamped out the Beavers...at least there are none of them in Narnia now" (p. 169, paperback Scholastic edition).
However, it seems patently unlikely that the White Witch actually did exterminate the Beavers; after all, we saw a beaver couple in LWW, and I would be highly surprised if they hadn't had children during the Golden Age. Even if they were the last of a kind, which seems unlikely (why would the White Witch want to exterminate them? After all, it's not exactly as though an army of beavers poses the greatest threat to her reign), they still would have had children, I'd think.
So here's the thought: the White Witch didn't wipe out the beavers. The Telmarines did.
In Europe, beavers were hunted nearly to extinction for their fur and for their scent glands, which were used for medicine in perfume. They were also significantly hunted in America. (Interestingly, Eurasian and American beavers aren't genetically compatible.) It seems fairly likely that the Telmarines might have decided that beaver fur made great hats or muffs, or gone after them for the scent glands, etc. Especially since talking beavers are bigger than dumb beavers; I sincerely doubt the Telmarines cared that much that the beavers were yelling at them to stop, you murderers!
And the beavers probably aren't the only species wiped out by the Telmarines, either.
What's interesting is that it's blamed on the White Witch. *muses*
Apropos of nothing, there was also a giant beaver, one of the Pleistocene megafauna. Wouldn't want to run into one of those in a dark alley.