The Missing Word

Why does Ramandu's daughter have no name in the Chronicles of Narnia?

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"So your friends went on?"

It was Ramandu's daughter who spoke, as she walked slowly along the shore beside Caspian. The Dawn Treader had been back at the Island of the Star for over a week. It was getting to be normal in the eyes of the sailors that their king and their host's daughter should go for a long, slow walk along the shore every afternoon. A special and discrete watch was being kept, to make sure everyone else went in the other direction.

"Back to their own world," Caspian agreed. He paused, and Ramandu's daughter followed his gaze out to the horizon.

"You miss them?"

"I was wishing I could see that world," Caspian replied absently. Then he suddenly remembered his manners and his company, and hauled his gaze back to the present. "I'm sorry. Yes, I suppose I do miss them. Do you know what I miss most?" He laughed, a half-note of self-mockery. "I miss my name. Until they … were here, and now not here, to say it, I hadn't realised how I'm hardly ever 'Caspian' any more. I'm 'The King', and 'Your Majesty'."

"Such is the burden of kingship," said Ramandu's daughter gravely.

"I know." Caspian nodded. "But sometimes it feels as if there's only my old Nurse who knows my name – and Aslan, of course."

"That the Lion knows your name is the most important thing."

"I know," said the King again. "But-"

He didn't finish, and they stood stood side by side for a while, staring out towards the Eastern end of the world, until Caspian broke the silence. "I don't know your name."

"I don't tell everybody."

Her tone was somewhat stiff and Caspian bowed in hasty apology. "Of course not, your ladyship. I-"

"Because I don't like it."

Caspian just managed to shut his mouth, but there was no way to hide that he had stared in sharp and sudden surprise. But Ramandu's daughter didn't seem to notice. "I don't like it," she repeated softly, still looking out to the sea. "That's why I didn't tell you."

"I-it doesn't matter," Caspian ventured into the rather awkward silence that followed.

His companion shook her head. "It does," she objected. "At least, I think it does."

Before Caspian could speak, she turned and put her hand on his arm and looked into his face. For some vast eon of time, they stared at each other. Then Ramandu's daughter dropped her gaze and withdrew her hand and whispered a name.

"You're disappointed," she added after a moment, as Caspian continued to stare down at his arm where her hand had been.

"No..." Caspian shook his head slowly. "I'm … wondering – wondering how to propose to you without a name."

"Heart-of-my-heart?"

The King's head jerked up. "How did you know?!"

And the future Queen of Narnia laughed softly, and put both her hands in his. "Because I felt exactly the same about you?"

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