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 book: Lewis's interest in the literary symbolism of medieval and Renaissance astrology is more overtly referenced in other works such as his study of medieval cosmology "The Discarded Image", and in his early poetry as well as in "Space Trilogy". Narnia scholar Paul F. Ford finds Ward's assertion that Lewis intended "The Chronicles" to be an embodiment of medieval astrology implausible, though Ford addresses an earlier (2003) version of Ward's thesis (also called "Planet Narnia", published in the "Times Literary Supplement"). Ford argues that Lewis did not start with a coherent plan for the books, but Ward's book answers this