As much as I adore L.M. Montgomery, Jack Weyland, Jane Austen, and Sarah Dessen and their amazing stories about life, there’s one genre that has my heart. I go to it again and again, never able to keep myself away from a new series.

Fantasy.

I love fantasy.

From the time I was a little girl I’ve loved magic, adventures, knights in armor, riding off to battle, dragons, fairies – everything related to fantasy. It excites me. It helps to fulfill my wild imagination and transports me to a place beyond the sometimes mundane repetitiveness of life. I love The Inheritance Cycle, The Underland Chronicles, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland…. So many books on my To Be Read list are fantasy books. Every time a new book is released that’s clearly in this genre, I get so excited and become hungry to read it.

There are two specific series, though, that have helped me out more than any other – two series that I hold near and dear to my heart, that have become a solid part of who I am, that have helped to shape me into who I am today. I hold these series in almost sacred reverence. If books could be best friends, these would be my tow bestest friends in the universe.

In this post, I pay my respects to The Chronicles of Narnia and How to Train Your Dragon.

Disclaimer: This post contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.

The Chronicles of Narnia
My first encounter with a Narnia book happened in the 4th grade. I was in the library, scouring the shelves for a book to read, when I happened to pull The Voyage of the Dawn Treader off the shelf. I had no idea it was part of a series, and of course with my luck I picked a book in the middle of the series. The whole time I read it I was confused and nothing made sense. When I turned it back in, I promised myself I’d never read it again.

Fast forward to my freshman year of high school. My family decided to go to the movies – it was in the Fall of 2005, before Thanksgiving. I don’t remember what movie we went to see, but I remember the preview for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. During that entire 2.5 minutes I was mesmerized. I wanted, more than anything, to crawl inside the movie screen and become a part of that wondrous land. When we got home I did my research, found out the chronological order of the book series, and began reading it.

I suffered from depression when I was 12 to around 15.5 years old. Those were the three roughest, darkest years of my life. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I felt alone. I felt trapped. I felt like I couldn’t escape who I was, that I couldn’t change and become a better person. I felt isolated because I didn’t fit in very well with the other kids at church and school.

I discovered Narnia when I was 14 – just a few months before I turned 15. And I attribute Narnia to helping me overcome my depression.

Narnia was the book series that gave me the hope, comfort, and acceptance I longed for. I was there when Aslan so beautifully created the land of Narnia. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy became four of my heroes. I thrived off their adventures to restore good to the land. I was with Edmund and Eustace when they were forgiven and redeemed of their awful deeds. I adored Reepicheep. I grew with each of the characters as they learned important lessons. Every time I opened one of the books I breathed in the Narnia air and stepped into a place where I belonged.

You see, Narnia is exactly the type of magical world I wanted to live in when I was younger. I mean, exactly – it’s perfect! Talking animals, magic, Aslan – everything is flawless to me. I’d read other stories about magical lands with talking animals, but nothing struck a chord in me the way Narnia did. The aching of my heart was soothed by Narnia because that’s where I was meant to be.

Switchfoot’s song for the Prince Caspain movie describes exactly how I feel about Narnia.

I could go on and on and on about Narnia, the emotional attachment I have to it, and how the first two movies are close to perfection. In fact, I do plan writing an entire paper on the connection I have with Narnia. But I’ll end with my memory of finishing the series.

Once I got to The Last Battle, I put off reading it because I didn’t want the series to end. Reluctantly I began reading it, preparing myself for the tears I thought I’d shed. I couldn’t have been further from the truth. To this day, the very last chapter in The Last Battle is the most beautiful ending I’ve ever read. Instead of feeling crushed and like a part of my soul had died, my spirits soared as I read about the eternal Narnia. I still vividly remember finishing the last sentence, closing the book, and holding it to my chest with a happy, peaceful smile. And I just sat there on my bed like that for awhile, just relishing that feeling of completeness. Because I knew that Narnia was never going to end for me. It had embedded itself in my core, and it was never going to leave.

How To Train Your Dragon
Usually I try to read the books before I see the movie. I’m a little sad to say that with this series I haven’t read the books – yet. I have the first two and I want to get at least the first one read before I head back up to school. It shouldn’t take me 4 years to get around to reading the books, but when I saw the first movie back in 2010, I had no idea it was based off a book series.

Anyway. In 2010 I was a freshman in college. And I was lonely – again. This time, though, I was lonely for friendship. I had a very small group of amazing friends in Tucson that I loved dearly, but now that we were all graduated from high school our schedules were so busy. We got together as often as we could, and I treasured those times. But my days primarily revolved around college classes, work, and attending church meetings. And again, I didn’t fit in with hardly anyone at church and school. My days were long and devoid of friendship.

Enter Hiccup and Toothless. Hiccup is the awkward, scrawny viking that the whole village picks on. He’s different – exactly how I felt. There was something unique about him, though – he just couldn’t quite see it.

And then he meets Toothless. Toothless is more than just a pet. He’s Hiccup’s best friend, his equal. The relationship between those two is so deep and beautiful. I mean, when you watch How To Train Your Dragon 2 you can feel the depth of their affection, their inside jokes, the secrets they share with each other that no one else knows about.

The scores from the movies are breathtaking. “Forbidden Friendship” perfectly describes Hiccup and Toothless to a T.

As a lonely 19 year old longing to find someone I could connect with that well and have by my side 24/7, Hiccup and Toothless became my solace. They filled a hole inside of me. They became my best friends during those first two years of college. They gave me adventure. They gave me hope that I could one day become great, that I could find a bond that strong.

The first time I saw How To Train Your Dragon 2, I was a complete emotional wreck. The whole movie was a roller coaster for me – from the opening flying scene with Hiccup and Toothless where I felt free, to Hiccup finding his mom, to Toothless killing Stoic while under control of the Alpha. That scene – that entire scene with Hiccup, Toothless, and Stoic – is so full of raw emotion from every end of the spectrum that I went into overload and bawled my eyes out. I was drained after that movie. I even sobbed during the credits because I didn’t know how to process everything.

It’s a heartbreaking movie. But it’s beautiful. Because Hiccup still loves Toothless. They’re still best friends. They still are bound together, inseparable. The forgiveness is breathtaking. They would die saving the other. And because of that, their story and Berk wove their way around my heart.

My perfect little universe would be a mix of Narnia and Berk.

Maybe it’s because I’m an English major and reading and literature and writing are such a huge part of my life. Or maybe it’s something deeper – a real magic that we can’t see, but can feel with every fiber of our being. Because for me, books aren’t “just stories.” They’re not just “fantasy” and “made up” for someone to have a good time.

No, books and stories are a part of us. Like Lloyd Alexander said, they help us understand life. They help us discover ourselves, come to terms with hard concepts, bury the hatchet. They teach us how to love and forgive and let go.

They teach us how to live.