Prince Caspian

Summary

Prince Caspian begins a year after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are waiting on a railway platform on their way back to school when they are pulled out of England and set down on a wooded island beside a ruined castle. From the apple orchard and a treasure chamber still holding their old gifts, they realize the ruin is Cair Paravel and that centuries have passed in Narnia. They rescue a red dwarf, Trumpkin, from two soldiers about to drown him, and he tells them the story of the land since their day. Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines, who silenced the talking beasts, drove the dwarfs and creatures into hiding and taught that Old Narnia was a fairy tale. Young Caspian, nephew and heir of the usurping King Miraz, learned the old stories from his nurse and from his half-dwarf tutor, Doctor Cornelius. When Miraz's wife bears a son, Cornelius warns Caspian that his uncle murdered his father and will now kill him, gives him Queen Susan's ancient horn, and sends him off by night. Caspian is thrown from his horse in the woods and wakes in the den of the badger Trufflehunter and two dwarfs, the loyal Trumpkin and the bitter Nikabrik. The Old Narnians, among them the centaur Glenstorm and the valiant mouse Reepicheep, gather at the Dancing Lawn and make Caspian their king, but Miraz's army drives them back to Aslan's How, the mound built over the broken Stone Table. In desperation Caspian blows the horn, and Trumpkin is sent to the coast to meet whatever help it brings. The skeptical Trumpkin is won over when the children beat him at swordplay and archery. In a gorge only Lucy sees Aslan beckoning; the others outvote her and go wrong. That night Aslan calls Lucy and tells her she must follow him even if the others will not. One by one they come to see him, and Susan admits she had believed Lucy all along. At the How, Nikabrik, with a hag and a werewolf, proposes calling back the White Witch, and all three die in the struggle. Peter challenges Miraz to single combat; when Miraz stumbles, his own lords Glozelle and Sopespian stab him and start the battle. Aslan's roar wakes the trees, and with Bacchus and Silenus he frees the river god and the townsfolk. Reepicheep's lost tail is restored for the love of his followers, and Aslan heals Caspian's dying nurse. He explains that the Telmarines came from our world, descendants of pirates who stumbled through a cave on a South Sea island, and makes a door in the air for any who wish to go back. Peter and Susan learn they are now too old to return to Narnia. Geoffrey Bles published the book in London on 15 October 1951, subtitled The Return to Narnia, with drawings by Pauline Baynes; Macmillan published it in New York the same year.

Top Lessons

• Following when others will not

  Lucy sees Aslan in the gorge, but the others outvote her and she gives in, and the party loses a day and is nearly killed. That night Aslan tells her that what might have happened is never told, but she must follow him now, whether the others come or not. Faithfulness sometimes means going first and alone.

• Knowing what is true and pretending not to

  Susan later admits that she knew in her heart it was Aslan, but she did not want to believe it. Lewis shows that doubt is sometimes not a lack of evidence but an unwillingness to follow where the evidence leads.

• Remembering the old stories

  Under the Telmarines, Old Narnia is called a fairy tale and children are punished for speaking of it. Caspian's nurse and Doctor Cornelius keep the true history alive, and Trufflehunter holds that the beasts do not forget. A people's memory of the truth can survive long years of being told it was never real.

• Humble kingship

  When Aslan asks Caspian whether he feels himself fit to be king, Caspian says he is only a boy, and Aslan tells him that this is exactly why he is fit. Caspian is also reminded that he comes from Adam and Eve, which is both a dignity and a humbling. Lewis's picture of a good ruler begins with humility.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

There is little clinical material. Lucy's cordial from the first book reappears and heals the wounded after the battle, including Reepicheep, though it cannot regrow his severed tail. Near the end Aslan visits Caspian's old nurse, who is dying in a cottage, and restores her with water from her own well turned to wine, a miracle of healing in the manner of the Gospels rather than a medical scene. Caspian's fall from his horse leaves him dazed and bruised in the badger's cave, where the beasts nurse him.

• Chapter 14

  Aslan finds Caspian's old nurse on her deathbed and restores her with a cup of water turned to wine.

• Chapter 15

  Lucy's cordial heals Reepicheep's wounds, but his lost tail is restored only by Aslan.