The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Summary

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens during the Second World War, when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are sent away from London because of the air raids to stay in the great country house of an old Professor. On a rainy day of hide-and-seek, Lucy, the youngest, climbs into a wardrobe in an empty room and comes out in a snowy wood beside a lamp-post. There she meets Mr. Tumnus, a faun, who takes her home to tea and then confesses, weeping, that he is in the pay of the White Witch, who keeps Narnia frozen in a winter without Christmas, and that he was supposed to hand over any human child he met. He lets her go. At home no time has passed, and no one believes her. When Edmund follows her in, he meets the Witch herself, who calls herself Queen of Narnia, feeds him enchanted Turkish Delight, and promises to make him a prince if he brings his brother and sisters to her house. Back in England, Edmund denies it all. The Professor tells Peter and Susan that logic favors Lucy, and soon all four, hiding from the housekeeper, enter Narnia together. Tumnus's cave has been wrecked and the faun arrested. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver shelter the children and tell them that Aslan, the great Lion and son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, is returning, and that the Witch's power will end when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit on the four thrones of Cair Paravel. Edmund slips off to the Witch, who treats him harshly and sets out to kill the others. As the Beavers and children flee, Father Christmas appears with gifts (a sword and shield for Peter, a bow and horn for Susan, a healing cordial and a dagger for Lucy), and the snow begins to melt. At the Stone Table the children meet Aslan; Peter kills the wolf Maugrim and is knighted, and Edmund is rescued and forgiven. The Witch claims Edmund's life under the Deep Magic, which gives every traitor to her. Aslan secretly agrees to die in his place, and that night Susan and Lucy watch the Witch's crowd shave, bind and mock him before she kills him on the Table. At sunrise the Table cracks and Aslan is alive, by a Deeper Magic the Witch never knew. He breathes life into the stone statues in her courtyard, including Tumnus, and leads them to the battle, where Edmund has smashed the Witch's wand and been badly wounded. Aslan kills the Witch, and Lucy's cordial heals her brother. The four are crowned at Cair Paravel and reign for many years, until, hunting the White Stag, they stumble back through the wardrobe as children in the same hour they left. Lewis published the book in October 1950 with Geoffrey Bles in London, with drawings by Pauline Baynes, and dedicated it to his goddaughter Lucy Barfield. It was the first of the seven Chronicles of Narnia to appear.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1–3: Through the wardrobe

  The Pevensies arrive at the Professor's house; Lucy finds Narnia and has tea with Mr. Tumnus, who repents of his plan to betray her; no one believes her story, and Edmund mocks her.

• Chapters 4–5: Turkish Delight

  Edmund meets the White Witch, eats her enchanted sweets and promises to bring the others; back home he denies Narnia, and the Professor reasons with Peter and Susan that Lucy must be telling the truth.

• Chapters 6–8: The Beavers and the prophecy

  All four enter Narnia, find Tumnus arrested, and are taken in by Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell of Aslan's return and the four thrones; Edmund steals away to the Witch.

• Chapters 9–11: The spell begins to break

  Edmund finds the Witch's courtyard of stone statues and is treated as a prisoner; Father Christmas gives the others their gifts; the thaw ruins the Witch's sledge and spring comes.

• Chapters 12–13: Peter's first battle

  The children meet Aslan at the Stone Table; Peter kills Maugrim; Edmund is rescued and speaks alone with Aslan; the Witch demands his blood under the Deep Magic.

• Chapters 14–15: The Stone Table

  Aslan gives himself up in Edmund's place and is killed by the Witch while Susan and Lucy watch; at dawn the Table breaks and he returns alive by the Deeper Magic.

• Chapters 16–17: The statues, the battle and the White Stag

  Aslan restores the statues and wins the battle; the four are crowned at Cair Paravel, reign as grown monarchs, and return through the wardrobe as children while chasing the White Stag.

Characters

• Lucy Pevensie, protagonist

  The youngest child, first to find Narnia, truthful and devoted to Aslan; later Queen Lucy the Valiant.

• Edmund Pevensie, traitor redeemed

  Spiteful younger brother who betrays the others to the Witch, is ransomed by Aslan, and becomes King Edmund the Just.

• Peter Pevensie, eldest brother

  Leader of the four, who kills Maugrim and becomes High King Peter the Magnificent.

• Susan Pevensie, elder sister

  Sensible, cautious sister who keeps vigil with Lucy over Aslan; later Queen Susan the Gentle.

• Aslan, the great Lion

  True King of Narnia and son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, who dies for Edmund and rises again.

• The White Witch (Jadis), antagonist

  Self-styled Queen of Narnia who keeps the land in winter and turns her enemies to stone.

• Mr. Tumnus, faun

  Lucy's first friend in Narnia, who spares her and is turned to stone for it.

• Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, hosts and guides

  Loyal Narnians who shelter the children and tell them of Aslan and the prophecy.

• The Professor, guardian

  Old scholar whose house holds the wardrobe and who defends Lucy's honesty by logic.

• Maugrim, chief of the Witch's secret police

  The wolf captain whom Peter kills in his first battle.

• Father Christmas, gift-giver

  Arrives as the Witch's spell weakens, bringing the children the tools they will need.

Lessons

• Betrayal and ransom

  Edmund's treachery begins with small spite and a taste for sweets and ends in real danger to his family and to Narnia. Aslan does not excuse the betrayal; he pays its full price himself, and afterwards no one is allowed to bring it up against Edmund again.

  • What small choices lead Edmund step by step to the Witch's house?
  • Why does Aslan tell the others not to talk to Edmund about what is past?
  • How is Edmund different after he is rescued, especially in the battle?

• Telling the truth when no one believes you

  Lucy keeps saying what she saw even when her brothers and sister think she is lying or mad. The Professor shows that a truthful person's strange report deserves a fair hearing, and the story rewards Lucy's honesty.

  • How does Lucy feel when the others do not believe her about the wardrobe?
  • What three possibilities does the Professor lay out about Lucy's story, and which does he think is most likely?

• Good is not the same as safe

  The Beavers tell the children that Aslan is good but not tame or safe, and the children feel both terror and joy when they first see him. Lewis shows that real goodness can be fearsome as well as kind.

  • Why do the children feel afraid and glad at the same time when they meet Aslan?
  • How is the Witch's offer to Edmund 'safe' and pleasant at first, and what is it really like?

• Winter gives way to spring

  Under the Witch it is always winter and Christmas never comes; as Aslan draws near, the ice cracks, flowers appear and Father Christmas arrives. The changing season pictures a world being set free.

  • What signs tell the children that the Witch's power is breaking?
  • Why might Lewis have made the Witch's Narnia a land without Christmas?

Context

The story's frame is the evacuation of London children to the countryside in 1939–40 to escape bombing; Lewis himself housed evacuated schoolgirls at his home, the Kilns, near Oxford, early in the war. The book belongs to a postwar flowering of English fantasy for children and draws on Lewis's lifelong love of Norse myth, classical fauns and dryads, medieval romance and the Christian story.

Composition

Lewis later wrote that the book began with a mental picture he had carried since about sixteen, of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood, and that Aslan came bounding into the story only after he had begun. He did not set out to write an allegory: in a 1958 letter he described Aslan as a supposal, an imagining of what Christ might be like if there were a world like Narnia and he chose to be incarnate and die and rise again there. Geoffrey Bles published the book in London in October 1950 with illustrations by Pauline Baynes, and Macmillan issued it in New York later that year.

Reception

Some early readers, including Lewis's friend J. R. R. Tolkien, disliked its mixing of mythologies, but children took to it at once, and Lewis wrote six more Narnia books by 1956. It has been adapted for radio, stage, television (BBC, 1988) and film (2005), and is one of the most widely read children's books of the twentieth century.

Comparisons

• the-magicians-nephew

  Written later but set earlier, it tells how the lamp-post, the wardrobe's wood and the White Witch came to Narnia and who the Professor was as a boy.

• prince-caspian

  The same four children return centuries later in Narnian time to find Cair Paravel in ruins and Aslan harder to see, testing the faith Lucy shows here.

• the-last-battle

  The final Chronicle ends the world that this book opens, and its treatment of who remains a friend of Narnia looks back to the first coronation.

• on-fairy-stories

  Tolkien's essay names the eucatastrophe, the sudden joyful turn; the cracking of the Stone Table at sunrise is a vivid example, though Tolkien himself disliked the book's medley of creatures.

• the-pilgrims-progress

  Bunyan writes true allegory with a sinner's journey to the Celestial City; Lewis insisted Narnia was a supposal rather than an allegory, and the contrast clarifies what each kind of story does.

• the-screwtape-letters

  Edmund's slide into betrayal through resentment, appetite and flattered pride follows the same small steps Screwtape recommends to his nephew.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The lamp-post in the snowy wood where Lucy first arrives in Chapter 1, and where the four kings and queens find it again at the very end.
• Every time Edmund thinks about Turkish Delight, and how it makes him feel and act.
• The signs that winter is breaking as the Beavers lead the children toward Aslan: dripping trees, a sledge stuck in mud, and Father Christmas.
• Susan and Lucy following Aslan in the night and staying with him at the Stone Table in Chapters 14 and 15.
• The courtyard of stone statues at the Witch's house, first seen by Edmund and later brought back to life by Aslan's breath.

Key terms and names

Narnia

The land Lucy enters through the wardrobe, full of talking animals, fauns and dryads, where time runs differently from England.

Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve

The Narnian name for human boys and girls. The prophecy says four of them on the thrones of Cair Paravel will end the Witch's rule.

Cair Paravel

The castle by the sea with four thrones, where the Pevensie children are crowned.

The Stone Table

An ancient stone slab carved with strange writing, where the Witch kills Aslan and which cracks in two when he returns to life.

The Deep Magic

The law written into Narnia from the beginning that every traitor belongs to the Witch, which she uses to claim Edmund.

The Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time

An older law the Witch did not know: if a willing victim who has done no wrong dies in a traitor's place, death itself starts working backward.

Turkish Delight

The sweet the Witch gives Edmund by magic. It is enchanted, so that the more he eats, the more he wants.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What does Mr. Tumnus confess to Lucy after their tea, and why does he decide to let her go home?
2. Comprehension What gifts does Father Christmas give Peter, Susan and Lucy, and when does each child use the gift later in the story?
3. Comprehension Why does the Witch say Edmund belongs to her, and what bargain does Aslan make to save him?
4. Interpretation Why do you think Edmund lies about having been in Narnia the first time? What does that lie show about him?
5. Interpretation Susan and Lucy cannot stop the Witch from killing Aslan. Why does it matter that they stay with him and keep watch all night?
6. Interpretation Mr. Beaver says Aslan is not safe but is good. What do you think he means, and how do the children's feelings when they meet Aslan show it?
7. Big Question Aslan takes Edmund's punishment even though Edmund did the wrong. Why would someone who is good choose to do that, and what does it teach us about forgiveness?

Faith Connections

• Mark 10:45 (Scripture)

  Jesus says the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many. Aslan's willing death at the Stone Table in Edmund's place is Lewis's picture of that ransom, imagined in another world.

• Mark 14:32-42 and 15:16-20 (Scripture)

  Jesus's sorrow in Gethsemane, the disciples who could not stay awake, and the soldiers' mockery all have echoes in Aslan's slow walk to the Table, the two girls who do stay with him, and the crowd that shaves and jeers at him.

• Song of Solomon 2:11-12 (Scripture)

  The winter is past and the flowers appear on the earth. Narnia's thaw in Chapter 11, as Aslan comes near, turns this picture of spring into a whole chapter.

• C. S. Lewis, letter to Mrs. Hook (December 1958) (Great Conversation)

  Lewis explained that Aslan was not an allegory but a supposal: what might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and he chose to be incarnate, die and rise again there. That is why the story feels both new and familiar.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The Deep Magic says every traitor's life belongs to the Witch, and Edmund is a traitor; so by law the Witch may kill him. But a deeper law says that when an innocent, willing victim dies in a traitor's place, death itself is undone. Aslan is innocent and gives himself willingly. Therefore Edmund goes free, Aslan lives again, and the Witch's reliance on the older law becomes the cause of her defeat.

Rhetorical device: argument by elimination (trilemma). In Chapter 5 the Professor tells Peter and Susan that Lucy's story must be either a lie, madness or the truth, and since Lucy is plainly neither a liar nor mad, they must assume she is telling the truth.

Debate: Resolved: Edmund was more to blame for his betrayal than the White Witch who tempted him.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Trace Edmund from the moment he first eats the Witch's Turkish Delight to the moment he is crowned King Edmund the Just, and explain what changes him.

Comparison with The Magician's Nephew: In The Magician's Nephew, Digory is tempted to take an apple for himself; in this book Edmund is tempted by Turkish Delight. Compare the two temptations and what each boy does afterward.

Medical Lens

There is little here for clinical history. The frame story begins with wartime evacuation from the bombing of London, though Lewis does not dwell on it. Lucy's cordial, made from the juice of a fire-flower, is a fairy-tale remedy that heals Edmund's battle wound and the injured soldiers at a single drop each, and Aslan gently stops Lucy from lingering over her brother when others are dying. The scene can open a classroom conversation about triage and the duty to tend the wounded, but it is not a medical portrait.

• Chapter 17

  After the battle Lucy uses her cordial on the gravely wounded Edmund and then, at Aslan's urging, goes on to the other wounded.

  WAR Wounds

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Write the evening of tea at Mr. Tumnus's cave from the faun's point of view, as he tries to decide whether to give Lucy up.

• Classroom

  Draw two pictures of the same Narnian glade, one under the Witch's winter and one after the thaw in Chapter 11, labeling every sign of spring.

• Dialogue

  Imagine the conversation between Aslan and Edmund on the hilltop in Chapter 13, which the book does not record. Write what you think was said, keeping Aslan's voice grave and kind.

• Essay

  Explain the Deep Magic and the Deeper Magic in your own words, and say why the Witch, who knew the first, could not foresee the second.

Further Reading

• The Magician's Nephew, C. S. Lewis

• Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories, C. S. Lewis

  Includes Lewis's short pieces on writing for children, among them It All Began with a Picture.

• Planet Narnia, Michael Ward

• Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis

  Lewis's own account of his early life and conversion.

• Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles, David C. Downing