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.

Top 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

Verified Quotes

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.