The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe popular English folklore. There are several parallels between the White Witch and the immortal white queen, Ayesha, of H. Rider Haggard's "She", a novel greatly admired by C. S. Lewis. "The Story of the Amulet" written by Edith Nesbit also contains scenes that can be considered precursors to sequences presenting Jadis, particularly in "The Magician's Nephew". Nesbit's short story "The Aunt and Amabel" includes the motif of a girl entering a wardrobe to gain access to a magical place. The freeing of Aslan's body from the stone table by field mice is reminiscent of Aesop's fable of "The Lion and
The Chronicles of Narnia "Narnia" stories. Lewis maintained that the "Narnia" books were not allegorical, preferring to term their Christian aspects a "supposition". "The Chronicles" have, consequently, a large Christian following, and are widely used to promote Christian ideas. However, some Christians object that "The Chronicles" promote "soft-sell paganism and occultism" due to recurring pagan imagery and themes. In later years, both Lewis and the "Chronicles" have been criticised (often by other authors of fantasy fiction) for gender role stereotyping, though other authors have defended Lewis in this area. For example, Lucy gets a healing potion and a dagger, while Peter gets a sword.