C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia is one of the most translated fantasy series in literary history. Its Georgian-language versions ( ქრონიკები ნარნიის შესახებ – Kronikebi Narniis shesaxeb ) represent a fascinating case study in post-Soviet translation practices, religious adaptation, and the introduction of Western children’s fantasy to the Caucasus region. This paper examines the history, translators, and unique cultural challenges of rendering Lewis’s Christian allegories, British fauna, and archaic lexicon into Georgian. It argues that the Georgian Narnia is not merely a translation but a localized rewriting that balances fidelity to the source text with the demands of Georgian Orthodox tradition and modern literary expectations.
During the Soviet period (1921–1991), Georgian literature thrived in its own language, but translations of overtly religious Western works were restricted. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) could not be officially published in Georgian because of its explicit Christian symbolism (Aslan as Christ). Unofficial, samizdat-style translations existed in Tbilisi intellectual circles, but the first printed Georgian excerpts appeared only in 1988, during Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika reforms. the chronicles of narnia qartulad