The Chronicles of Narnia books that make up "The Chronicles of Narnia" are presented here in order of original publication date: "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", completed by the end of March 1949 and published by Geoffrey Bles in the United Kingdom on 16 October 1950, tells the story of four ordinary children: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie, who have been evacuated to the English countryside from London in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II. They discover a wardrobe in Professor Digory Kirke's house that leads to the magical land of Narnia. The Pevensie children help Aslan, a talking
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the wardrobe. Lucy guides them to Tumnus's cave, but they find it ransacked, with a notice from Jadis (the White Witch) proclaiming his arrest for harbouring humans. Mr. Beaver, a talking animal, finds and befriends the children, and takes them to his den. There, he and Mrs. Beaver tell them of a prophecy that the Witch's power will fail when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit in the four thrones at Cair Paravel. Aslan, the great lion and the rightful King, has been absent for many years but is now "on the move again" in Narnia.