The Silver Chair

Summary

The Silver Chair begins behind the gym at Experiment House, a muddled modern boarding school where bullies rule. Jill Pole is crying there when Eustace Scrubb, much changed since his voyage on the Dawn Treader, tells her about Narnia. Chased by the bullies, they call on Aslan and slip through a door in the wall onto a high mountain in Aslan's Country. Jill shows off at the edge of a cliff, and Eustace, trying to pull her back, falls over; Aslan blows him away to Narnia. Desperately thirsty, Jill finds the Lion lying beside a stream and must drink in front of him, for there is no other water. Aslan gives her a task: find Prince Rilian, the lost son of King Caspian, and he gives her four Signs to guide her. Eustace must greet an old friend as soon as he arrives; they must travel north to the ruined city of the ancient giants; they must do what the writing on a stone there tells them; and they will know the prince because he will be the first person to ask them something in Aslan's name. Jill is to repeat the Signs every morning and night. Blown to Narnia, she and Eustace watch an old king sail away and do not realize that he is Caspian; the first Sign is missed. The owl Glimfeather takes them to a Parliament of Owls, where they learn that ten years earlier Rilian's mother was killed by a green serpent and Rilian vanished while searching for it, after meeting a beautiful lady in green. With the gloomy, loyal Marsh-wiggle Puddleglum as guide, they cross Ettinsmoor and meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle with a silent knight in black armour, who sends them to the giants of Harfang for warm beds and an Autumn Feast. Hurrying through snow, they cross the ruined city without knowing it, and only from the giants' windows do they see the words UNDER ME cut in its pavement. Discovering a cookery book with Man and Marsh-wiggle in it, they escape into a crevice and fall into Underland, where gloomy Earthmen take them to the Queen's castle. The black knight is Rilian, enchanted, who each night is bound to a silver chair for an hour of what he is told is madness. In that hour he begs them in Aslan's name to free him, and they do. The returning Queen casts a spell of sweet smoke and thrumming to make them forget the sun and Aslan; Puddleglum stamps out her fire with his bare foot and declares for Aslan, and she turns into the green serpent and is killed. The party climbs back to Narnia. Caspian returns and dies blessing his son, and in Aslan's Country the Lion's blood restores him. Geoffrey Bles published the book on 7 September 1953, illustrated by Pauline Baynes.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-2: Behind the Gym; Jill Is Given a Task

  Fleeing bullies at Experiment House, Jill and Eustace reach Aslan's mountain; Eustace falls from the cliff, and Aslan at the stream gives Jill the four Signs.

• Chapters 3-4: The Sailing of the King; A Parliament of Owls

  The children miss the first Sign as old Caspian sails away, and the owls tell them the story of the green serpent and the vanished Prince Rilian.

• Chapters 5-6: Puddleglum; The Wild Waste Lands of the North

  The Marsh-wiggle Puddleglum leads them north across Ettinsmoor, past stone-throwing giants, to a meeting with the Lady of the Green Kirtle and her silent knight.

• Chapters 7-9: The Hill of the Strange Trenches to How They Discovered Something Worth Knowing

  Cold and cross, they blunder across the ruined city in the snow, are welcomed at Harfang, see the words UNDER ME from a window, and learn they are to be eaten at the feast.

• Chapters 10-11: Travels Without the Sun; In the Dark Castle

  Escaping into Underland, they are led by Earthmen over the sunless sea to the Queen's castle and meet the black knight, who explains his nightly fit.

• Chapter 12: The Queen of Underland

  The bound knight asks in Aslan's name to be freed and is revealed as Rilian; the Queen's enchantment nearly overcomes them until Puddleglum stamps on her fire, and she dies in serpent form.

• Chapters 13-14: Underland Without the Queen; The Bottom of the World

  The released Earthmen rejoice and return to their deep home of Bism, while the travellers push upward toward Narnia as the Queen's realm floods.

• Chapters 15-16: The Disappearance of Jill; The Healing of Harms

  Jill breaks through into a Narnian snow dance, Rilian is reunited with his dying father, and on Aslan's mountain Caspian is made young before Aslan and the children rout the bullies of Experiment House.

Characters

• Jill Pole, protagonist

  Bullied schoolgirl, brave but prone to showing off, who must remember Aslan's four Signs.

• Eustace Scrubb, Jill's companion

  Reformed former bully who has been to Narnia before and quarrels and makes up with Jill.

• Puddleglum, guide

  Gloomy, pipe-smoking Marsh-wiggle who always expects the worst and proves the most steadfast of all.

• Prince Rilian, the lost prince

  Caspian's son, held for ten years under the Queen's enchantment as the black knight.

• The Lady of the Green Kirtle, Queen of Underland

  Beautiful enchantress and the green serpent who killed Rilian's mother.

• Aslan, the Lion

  Son of the Emperor-over-the-Sea who calls the children and gives Jill the Signs.

• King Caspian X, King of Narnia

  Aged hero of the Dawn Treader voyage who sails in search of Aslan and dies on his return.

• Trumpkin, Lord Regent

  Very old, deaf Dwarf who governs Narnia while Caspian is away.

• Glimfeather, Talking Owl

  White owl who helps the children and brings them to the Parliament of Owls.

• The King and Queen of Harfang, gentle giants

  Hospitable giant rulers who plan to serve their guests at the Autumn Feast.

• Golg, Earthman

  Gnome who explains that the Earthmen were enchanted and come from the deep land of Bism.

Lessons

• Remembering the Signs

  Aslan tells Jill to say the Signs over every morning and night, because the air of Narnia will thicken her mind. When she grows comfortable and careless she stops saying them, and the travellers miss the ruined city. The book shows that what we are told plainly must be remembered on purpose.

  • Why does Aslan tell Jill to repeat the Signs so often?
  • When does Jill stop saying the Signs, and what happens because of it?
  • What helps you remember something important?

• Puddleglum's courage

  Puddleglum always says things will go wrong, yet he never turns back, and when the Queen's spell is strongest he is the one who acts. He puts out her fire with his own bare foot and says he will follow Aslan whatever happens. Courage, Lewis shows, is not the same as cheerfulness.

  • Why is Puddleglum so gloomy, and why do the children come to love him?
  • Why does the pain in his foot help Puddleglum think clearly?
  • Who is braver, someone who feels no fear or someone who goes on in spite of it?

• The comfortable trap

  The Green Lady promises hot baths and soft beds at Harfang, and the children hurry toward comfort and stop looking for the Signs. The giants who welcome them warmly mean to eat them. The story warns that what looks easy and kind can lead us away from the task we were given.

  • Why do the children want so badly to reach Harfang?
  • How do they find out what the giants plan for them?

• Holding to the truth in the dark

  In Underland the Queen tells them there is no sun, no sky and no Aslan, only her lamp and her cave. Her soft voice and sweet smoke almost make them believe it. The book teaches that the truth does not stop being true because someone talks us out of seeing it.

  • How does the Queen try to make the travellers forget the sun?
  • What does Puddleglum say about the world they remember, even if the Queen were right?
  • Why does the spell break when Puddleglum stamps on the fire?

Context

Lewis wrote the book in the years after the Second World War, when British education was debating new progressive methods. Experiment House, a coeducational school where the Head lets bullies go unpunished because they are interesting cases, is his satire on that fashion; he had attacked the same tendencies in The Abolition of Man (1943). Underland, the realm beneath the earth where a queen argues that the sun is only a dream drawn from her lamp, echoes the cave of Plato's Republic, a work Lewis knew closely and alluded to again in The Last Battle. The giants, the northern marshes and the enchanted knight draw on the medieval romances and Norse lore he taught at Oxford.

Composition

Lewis wrote the story between the Christmas vacation of 1950 and early March 1951. Among working titles he considered were Night under Narnia, suggested by his friend Roger Lancelyn Green, and The Wild Waste Lands. Geoffrey Bles published it in London on 7 September 1953 with illustrations by Pauline Baynes, and Macmillan issued an American edition the same year. It is dedicated to Nicholas Hardie, son of Lewis's friend Colin Hardie of the Inklings.

Reception

Reviewers welcomed it as a fourth Narnian adventure, and Puddleglum quickly became one of the best-loved characters of the series. His speech to the Queen of Underland is often cited by Christian writers as an image of faith under pressure. The BBC adapted the book in six television episodes in 1990.

Comparisons

• the-voyage-of-the-dawn-treader

  The previous book turned Eustace from a sneering boy into a friend when Aslan peeled away his dragon skin; here he brings that change to Experiment House, and the young King Caspian of the voyage returns as a dying old man.

• the-republic

  The Queen of Underland argues, like a jailer in Plato's cave, that the sun is only an imagined copy of her lamp; Puddleglum answers that the world he remembers is better than the cave, whatever she says.

• the-princess-and-the-goblin

  George MacDonald, whom Lewis called his master, also sent children through mountain tunnels into a kingdom of underground creatures, with a guiding thread from a wise grandmother in place of Aslan's Signs.

• the-pilgrims-progress

  Christian and Hopeful leave the King's Highway for the easier By-path Meadow and fall into Giant Despair's dungeon; Jill and Eustace leave off the Signs for the comfort of Harfang and fall among giants who would eat them.

• the-last-battle

  Jill and Eustace return together in the final Chronicle, and the Narnia beyond death that they glimpse when Caspian is made young on Aslan's mountain opens fully there.

• the-odyssey

  Like Odysseus in the Cyclops's cave, the travellers at Harfang discover that their giant hosts plan to eat them and must escape by cunning.

Quotes

For Students

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

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The four Signs Aslan gives Jill in Chapter 2. Each time the travellers keep or miss one, ask why.
• The things Jill and Eustace quarrel about on the way north, and how the quarrels make them careless.
• Puddleglum's gloomy sayings, and the moments when he is the first to be brave.
• The Queen's spell in Chapter 12: her fire, her smell, her music and her soft arguments that there is no sun.
• How the story begins and ends at Experiment House, and what Aslan does there at the very end.

Key terms and names

Experiment House

The school where Jill and Eustace are bullied. The Head lets the bullies do as they like, and the book ends when Aslan and Caspian put the school to rights.

The four Signs

The instructions Aslan gives Jill to help her find Prince Rilian. She must learn them by heart and say them over every morning and night.

Marsh-wiggle

A tall, thin, froggy creature of the marshes north of Narnia. Puddleglum says all Marsh-wiggles are serious, but he is thought too cheerful by his neighbours.

Harfang

The castle of the gentle giants, where the Green Lady sends the travellers for the Autumn Feast. The children find out that they are meant to be part of the meal.

Underland

The dark country under the earth ruled by the Queen, full of sad Earthmen who have been enchanted to work for her.

The silver chair

The chair to which Rilian is tied every night. It keeps him under the Queen's spell, and when he is freed he smashes it with his sword.

Bism

The bright, hot land far below Underland where the Earthmen truly belong. Golg tells the travellers about its living jewels.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What are the four Signs that Aslan gives to Jill?
2. Comprehension Why do Jill and Eustace miss the first Sign when they arrive in Narnia?
3. Comprehension What do the children find in the giants' kitchen at Harfang that tells them they are in danger?
4. Interpretation Jill wants another stream so she does not have to go near the Lion. Why does Aslan say there is no other stream, and why does she drink anyway?
5. Interpretation The Queen tells the knight that he goes mad for one hour each night. Why is that hour actually the one time he can think clearly?
6. Interpretation Should the travellers untie the knight when he asks them in Aslan's name, even though he might be dangerous? Why do they decide to do it?
7. Interpretation Puddleglum stamps on the fire with his bare foot. How does the pain help him and the others?
8. Big Question If someone tries very hard to talk you out of something you know is true, how can you hold on to it?

Faith Connections

• Deuteronomy 6:6-9 (Scripture)

  Moses tells Israel to keep God's words in their hearts and talk of them when they lie down and when they rise up. Aslan gives Jill the same command about the Signs, and the journey goes wrong when she stops.

• John 4:13-14 (Scripture)

  Jesus tells the woman at the well that whoever drinks the water He gives will never thirst again. Jill learns at the Lion's stream in Chapter 2 that the only water that will satisfy her is the water Aslan offers.

• Ephesians 6:12 (Scripture)

  Paul says our fight is against the spiritual powers of darkness, not against flesh and blood. Lewis wrote in a letter to a child that this book is about the continuing war with the powers of darkness, and the Queen of Underland is one of those powers.

• Hebrews 11:1 (Scripture)

  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. In the dark castle Puddleglum holds on to the sun and to Aslan when he cannot see either of them.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Aslan gives the travellers clear Signs and tells them to remember them. When they keep the Signs, even when it is hard, they are guided rightly; when they grow comfortable and careless, they go astray. In the dark, the Queen argues that nothing they remember is real, but Puddleglum answers that the world he remembers is better than hers and that he will live by it. Therefore faithfulness means holding to what we were truly told, even when we are tired, comfortable, or talked out of seeing it.

Rhetorical device: reductio argument. In Chapter 12 the Queen claims the sun is only a bigger copy of her lamp and Aslan only a bigger cat, reducing every memory of the Overworld to something in her cave. Puddleglum turns the argument around by saying that if the four of them have only made up those things, their made-up world is still far better than her real one.

Debate: Resolved: Jill is more to blame than Eustace for missing the first three Signs.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Tell how each of the four Signs was kept or missed, and explain what the travellers learned from the Signs they missed.

Comparison with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Eustace was a bully in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and helps a bullied girl in The Silver Chair. Tell how Aslan changed him in the first book and how that change shows in the second.

Medical Lens

The book contains a striking inversion of madness and sanity. The black knight is told by the Queen that for one hour each night he becomes mad and dangerous and must be bound to the silver chair; in fact that hour is the only time he remembers who he is, and his cheerful, empty manner for the rest of the day is the enchantment. The Queen's later spell, worked with a green powder thrown on the fire, a sweet heavy smell and a steady thrumming of a mandolin-like instrument, dulls memory and reasoning in a way readers often compare with intoxication or hypnosis, and it is broken by sharp pain when Puddleglum burns his foot. The opening and closing chapters bring age and death into a children's book with unusual directness: Caspian, once the young king of the Dawn Treader, returns frail and dies blessing his son, and Rilian's grief at his mother's death ten years earlier is the source of the quest. These are imaginative rather than clinical portrayals.

• Chapter 11: In the Dark Castle

  The knight explains that the Queen has told him he suffers a nightly fit of madness and must be tied to the silver chair until it passes.

  Madness Psychosis
• Chapter 12: The Queen of Underland

  The Queen's green powder, sweet smoke and thrumming dull the travellers' minds until Puddleglum stamps on the fire and the pain of his burnt foot clears his head.

  Altered States Pain
• Chapter 16: The Healing of Harms

  Old King Caspian returns from his voyage, blesses Rilian and dies; on Aslan's mountain the dead king lies in the stream before he is made young.

  Aging Senescence Death Dying Grief

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Make a map of the journey from Cair Paravel to Harfang and down into Underland, and mark the place where each of the four Signs should have been kept or was missed.

• Fiction

  Write the letter Puddleglum might send to Jill a year later, full of gloomy predictions and real affection.

• Poetry

  Write a short poem for Jill to say every morning and night so that she will not forget the four Signs.

• Essay

  Explain why Rilian's nightly hour in the silver chair is called madness by the Queen, and why it is really the only hour when he is himself.

Further Reading

• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis

• The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis

  Lewis's lectures on education, which share the concerns behind Experiment House.

• Planet Narnia, Michael Ward

  Reads each Chronicle in light of a medieval planet; The Silver Chair is linked with the Moon.

• The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald

• The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis, Alan Jacobs