Ages.

[snitchnipped]

Well, NFE season is upon us, and of course, I'm up to my neck in unnecessary research.

I may or may not have spent 3 hours working on family trees. Or virtual location scouting around England.

However, going through all my past notes and stories, I came across something confusing (and something that I obviously did NOT document well in my notes on how I came to these conclusions).

ANYWAY. For those fanfic writers (or readers who are stickler to details)... what do you have for your Pevensies' birthdays?

Lewis, apparently, dictated a timeline events that someone else published, which makes it both official and non-official. And we know how trustworthy Lewis is at consistency.

Timeline.

Being still somewhat new to the fandom as of a year ago when I started writing, I used this as a guideline and tweaked from there.

In last year's NFE submission, I wrote Edmund having a birthday in March... and I know I went against canon, for in PC, Edmund had received the torch for his birthday right before they head off for the new school term. But, sorry, my Edmund just isn't a Virgo!

In my NBB (which is still looking to be tweaked, so I don't mind changing) I have Susan stating that her birthday is October 12, 1927. And now I'm just arbitrarily choosing birthdays for Peter and Lucy. So, this is what I have:

Peter — July 27, 1926
Susan — October 12, 1927
Edmund — March 12ish (can't decide), 1930
Lucy — February 3, 1932

So, I'm asking you all... how far off base are these?

Comments

[lady_songsmith]

*deep breath*

Right, as requested, here's my process:

In LWW, Edmund has been away at school for one year.
In PC, Lucy is about to go away to school for the first time.
Most boarding schools start at 11.
I assume a Sept 1 cut-off date for the student age: if you are 11 before Sept 1, you go to school that year.

A steady flow of evacuations from London began in June '39. Operation Pied Piper was Sept '39. In June of '40, an invasion was considered imminent, and evacuation was pushed hard; the Blitz proper began in Sept. of '40.

I start from June of '40 as the timeframe of LWW. Edmund has either turned 12 while at school or is about to turn 12 over the summer. Lucy is either 10 or rising 10.

So far:
Lucy was born no later than 1 Sept'30, and no earlier than 2 Sept'29.
Edmund was born no later than 1 Sept'28 and no earlier than 2 Sept'27.

Next I consider spacing between siblings. Obviously, an absolute minimum of 9 months must exist between them, but that's REALLY hard on Mrs. Pevensie. I use 18 months as my absolute minimum spacing between kids.*

Therefore:
Susan is born no later than 1 March'27 (Edmund in Sept'28, count back 18 months)
Peter is born no later than 1 Sept'25 (1 Mar'27 - 18 mo)
There are no 'earliest' dates calcuable for Peter or Susan.

I subscribe to slightly older Pevensies, so I've pushed Peter and Susan back a bit, and am currently using (but often tweaking) the following dates:
Peter: June ‘25 (newly 15 in June '40)
Susan: Nov '26 (13 in June '40)
Edmund: Sept '28 (11 in June '40)
Lucy: April '30 (10 in June '40)

You can make Peter and Susan younger by pushing the spacing between them closer. If, for instance, you go a year between births, you can get Peter to be 13 (born Sept'26) and Susan 12 (born Sept'27) when LWW opens.

*This is based partly on family history; my great-grandmother had hers exactly 18 months apart (9 to nurse and 9 to carry) except where she miscarried. My grandmother was the youngest of 8 surviving kids; I figure if closer spacing were feasible, great-grandma would have done it.

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

amagical hand wave and Aslan's paw. Seriously. I have them at 16 and 15, 13 and 12 in the summer of 1942 because that's how old I wanted them to be and I backed up from there. The implication is that both Peter and Susan have early birthdays in 1943 -- Feb, March or April, but I don't specify.

In short, I made the ages I wanted them to be and stopped worrying about it. The only complaints I get about it are when Peter is off to war in Maenad of the Maquis -- and yep, I know he's too young to be a flier in the summer of 1943.

Okay, I'm really late to the game here but whatever

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

FWIW, here are my two cents.

I found the Timeline very, very early in my fanfic process, and so it was Canon for me since forever. For several fics awhile ago I wanted birthdays, and I came up with-

Peter - July 1927
Susan - September 14, 1928
Edmund - Christmas week, 1930
Lucy - end of April, 1932

Which makes them on the young end for LWW, really, but that's what I've worked with. I think the spring/summer/fall/winter, Lucy/Peter/Susan/Edmund is a bit of a trope, at least over at FFnet, and I liked it.

What threw a wrench into that for me was that bit in PC about the torch being for Edmund's birthday a week before, *and* that they were heading back for the *summer* term. Which seems like a really weird time of year for Lucy to start boarding school, but also means that your March is feasible.