A Year with Aslan: Daily Reflections from The Chronicles of Narnia Read online

  —The Last Battle

  In what kind of place could everything be allowed? Why isn’t everything allowed in Narnia or in our world?

  OCTOBER 6

  To the Bottom of the World?

  YOUR HONORS,” said Golg (and when they turned to look at him they could see nothing but blackness for a few minutes, their eyes were so dazzled). “Your Honors, why don’t you come down to Bism? You’d be happier there than in that cold, unprotected, naked country out on top. Or at least come down for a short visit.”

  Jill took it for granted that none of the others would listen to such an idea for a moment. To her horror she heard the Prince saying:

  “Truly, friend Golg, I have half a mind to come down with you. For this is a marvelous adventure, and it may be no mortal man has ever looked into Bism before or will ever have the chance again. And I know not how, as the years pass, I shall bear to remember that it was once in my power to have probed the uttermost pit of Earth and that I forbore. But could a man live there? You do not swim in the fire-river itself?”

  “Oh no, your Honor. Not we. It’s only salamanders live in the fire itself.”

  “What kind of beast is your salamander?” asked the Prince.

  “It is hard to tell their kind, your Honor,” said Golg. “For they are too white-hot to look at. But they are most like small dragons. They speak to us out of the fire. They are wonderfully clever with their tongues: very witty and eloquent.”

  Jill glanced hastily at Eustace. She had felt sure that he would like the idea of sliding down that chasm even less than she did. Her heart sank as she saw that his face was quite changed. He looked much more like the Prince than like the old Scrubb at Experiment House. For all his adventures, and the days when he had sailed with King Caspian, were coming back to him.

  “Your Highness,” he said. “If my old friend Reepicheep the Mouse were here, he would say we could not now refuse the adventures of Bism without a great impeachment to our honor.”

  “Down there,” said Golg, “I could show you real gold, real silver, real diamonds.”

  “Bosh!” said Jill rudely. “As if we didn’t know that we’re below the deepest mines even here.”

  “Yes,” said Golg. “I have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you Topdwellers call mines. But that’s where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead gems. Down in Bism we have them alive and growing. There I’ll pick you bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze you a cupful of diamond juice. You won’t care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow mines after you have tasted the live ones in Bism.”

  “My father went to the world’s end,” said Rilian thoughtfully. “It would be a marvelous thing if his son went to the bottom of the world.”

  —The Silver Chair

  Why are Eustace and Rilian tempted to travel to the bottom of the world? Would you be interested in doing so? If so, what would be the most alluring part?

  OCTOBER 7

  He Ought to Know

  WHEN AT LAST SHE WAS FREE to come back to Edmund she found him standing on his feet and not only healed of his wounds but looking better than she had seen him look—oh, for ages; in fact ever since his first term at that horrid school which was where he had begun to go wrong. He had become his real old self again and could look you in the face. And there on the field of battle Aslan made him a knight.

  “Does he know,” whispered Lucy to Susan, “what Aslan did for him? Does he know what the arrangement with the Witch really was?”

  “Hush! No. Of course not,” said Susan.

  “Oughtn’t he to be told?” said Lucy.

  “Oh, surely not,” said Susan. “It would be too awful for him. Think how you’d feel if you were he.”

  “All the same I think he ought to know,” said Lucy. But at that moment they were interrupted.

  —The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

  Lucy and Susan are debating whether Edmund should know that Aslan gave his life at the Table in Edmund’s place. Do you agree with Susan that he would rather not know or with Lucy that he ought? How would you feel if you were Edmund hearing such a thing?

  OCTOBER 8

  Could It Be True?

  IT IS A RAFT,” said King Tirian.

  And so it was. Half a dozen splendid tree trunks, all newly cut and newly lopped of their branches, had been lashed together to make a raft, and were gliding swiftly down the river. On the front of the raft there was a water rat with a pole to steer it.

  “Hey! Water-Rat! What are you about?” cried the King.

  “Taking logs down to sell to the Calormenes, Sire,” said the Rat, touching his ear as he might have touched his cap if he had had one.

  “Calormenes!” thundered Tirian. “What do you mean? Who gave order for these trees to be felled?”

  The River flows so swiftly at that time of the year that the raft had already glided past the King and Jewel. But the Water-Rat looked back over its shoulder and shouted out:

  “The Lion’s orders, Sire. Aslan himself.” He added something more but they couldn’t hear it.

  The King and the Unicorn stared at one another and both looked more frightened than they had ever been in any battle.

  “Aslan,” said the King at last, in a very low voice. “Aslan. Could it be true? Could he be felling the holy trees and murdering the Dryads?”

  “Unless the Dryads have all done something dreadfully wrong—” murmured Jewel.

  “But selling them to Calormenes!” said the King. “Is it possible?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jewel miserably. “He’s not a tame lion.”

  —The Last Battle

  What does Aslan’s not being a tame lion have to do with anything? What does it mean to be tame or not? How would you characterize yourself?

  OCTOBER 9

  He Likes to Be Asked

  I AM HUNGRY,” SAID Digory.

  “Well, tuck in,” said Fledge, taking a big mouthful of grass. Then he raised his head, still chewing and with bits of grass sticking out on each side of his mouth like whiskers, and said, “Come on, you two. Don’t be shy. There’s plenty for us all.”

  “But we can’t eat grass,” said Digory.

  “H’m, h’m,” said Fledge, speaking with his mouth full. “Well—h’m—don’t know quite what you’ll do then. Very good grass too.”

  Polly and Digory stared at one another in dismay.

  “Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said Digory.

  “I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge.

  “Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly.

  “I’ve no doubt he would,” said the Horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”

  —The Magician’s Nephew

  Why is it wrong for Polly and Digory to assume that someone should have provided their meals? What do we learn when we have to ask for what we need?

  OCTOBER 10

  Poggin’s Optimism

  POGGIN WAS REALLY QUITE CHEERFUL about the night’s work they had to do. He was sure that the Boar and the Bear, and probably all the Dogs would come over to their side at once. And he couldn’t believe that all the other Dwarfs would stick to Griffle. And fighting by firelight and in and out among trees would be an advantage to the weaker side. And then, if they could win tonight, need they really throw their lives away by meeting the main Calormene army a few days later?

  Why not hide in the woods, or even up in the Western Waste beyond the great waterfall and live like outlaws? And they might gradually get stronger and stronger, for Talking Beasts and Archenlanders would be joining them every day. And at last they’d come out of hiding and sweep the Calormenes (who would have got careless by then) out of the country and Narnia would be revived. After all, something very like that had happened in the time of King Miraz!

  And Tirian heard all this and thought, “But what about Tash?” and felt in his
bones that none of it was going to happen. But he didn’t say so.

  —The Last Battle

  Despite the news that Narnia has been overthrown by the Calormenes, Poggin remains optimistic. Why do you think Tirian chooses not to share his own less optimistic views? If you were King Tirian, would you have spoken up? Why or why not?

  OCTOBER 11

  Lunch with the Giants

  AT LUNCHTIME something happened which made all three of them more anxious than ever to leave the castle of the Gentle Giants. They had lunch in the great hall at a little table of their own, near the fireplace. At a bigger table, about twenty yards away, half a dozen old giants were lunching. Their conversation was so noisy, and so high up in the air, that the children soon took no more notice of it than you would of hooters outside the window or traffic noises in the street. They were eating cold venison, a kind of food which Jill had never tasted before, and she was liking it.

  Suddenly Puddleglum turned to them, and his face had gone so pale that you could see the paleness under the natural muddiness of his complexion. He said:

  “Don’t eat another bite.”

  “What’s wrong?” asked the other two in a whisper.

  “Didn’t you hear what those giants were saying? ‘That’s a nice tender haunch of venison,’ said one of them. ‘Then that stag was a liar,’ said another. ‘Why?’ said the first one. ‘Oh,’ said the other. ‘They say that when he was caught he said, Don’t kill me, I’m tough. You won’t like me.’ ” For a moment Jill did not realize the full meaning of this. But she did when Scrubb’s eyes opened wide with horror and he said:

  “So we’ve been eating a Talking stag.”

  This discovery didn’t have exactly the same effect on all of them. Jill, who was new to that world, was sorry for the poor stag and thought it rotten of the giants to have killed him. Scrubb, who had been in that world before and had at least one Talking beast as his dear friend, felt horrified; as you might feel about a murder. But Puddleglum, who was Narnian born, was sick and faint, and felt as you would feel if you found you had eaten a baby.

  —The Silver Chair

  Why do they each react so differently to the discovery that they have been eating a Talking stag? Why is it such a tragedy?

  OCTOBER 12

  Eustace Is Visited by a Lion

  WELL, ANYWAY, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn’t that kind of fear. I wasn’t afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it—if you can understand. Well, it came close up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn’t any good because it told me to follow it.”

  “You mean it spoke?”

  “I don’t know. Now that you mention it, I don’t think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I’d have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it.”

  —The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

  After being turned into a dragon, Eustace is visited by a lion, perhaps in the night or perhaps in a dream. Why is Eustace afraid? Why does he follow the lion even though he fears it?

  OCTOBER 13

  Eustace Sheds His Skin

  [EUSTACE SAID,] “And [the lion] led me a long way into the mountains. . . . So at last we came to the top of a mountain I’d never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden. . . . In the middle of it there was a well.

  “I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells—like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe, it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don’t know if he said any words out loud or not.

  “I was just going to say that I couldn’t undress because I hadn’t any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that’s what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.

  “But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that’s all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully. . . .

  “Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.”

  —The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

  Why do you think Eustace is unable to effectively remove his own skin? When and why have you wanted to step out of your skin?

  OCTOBER 14

  The Lion Removes Eustace’s Skin

  THEN THE LION said—but I don’t know if it spoke—‘You will have to let me undress you.’ I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

  “The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know—if you’ve ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is fun to see it coming away.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” said Edmund.

  “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off—just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt—and there it was, lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me—I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on—and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again. You’d think me simply phony if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they’ve no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian’s, but I was so glad to see them.”

  —The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

  What about having his dragon skin removed do you think hurts and feels good at the same time? What have you experienced that was painful at the time but in the end made you feel much better?

  OCTOBER 15

  I Think You’ve Seen Aslan

  AFTER A BIT the lion took me out and dressed me—”

  “Dressed you? With his paws?”

  “Well, I don’t exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other, in new clothes—the same I’ve got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream.”

  “No. It wasn’t a dream,” said Edmund.

  “Why not?”

  “Well, there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been—well, un-dragoned, for another.”

  “What do you think it was, then?” asked Eustace.

  “I thin
k you’ve seen Aslan,” said Edmund.

  “Aslan!” said Eustace. “I’ve heard that name mentioned several times since we joined the Dawn Treader. And I felt—I don’t know what—I hated it. But I was hating everything then. And by the way, I’d like to apologize. I’m afraid I’ve been pretty beastly.”

  “That’s all right,” said Edmund. “Between ourselves, you haven’t been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were only an ass, but I was a traitor.”. . .

  It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.” To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.

  —The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

  Have you ever seen a transformation like Eustace’s? How are you likely to focus on the relapses rather than the overall cure?

  OCTOBER 16

  The Cat Enters the Stable

  THE APE WAS CALLING THE CAT to come forward. “Ho-ho!” said the Ape. “So you, a pert Puss, would look upon him face to face. Come on, then! I’ll open the door for you. Don’t blame me if he scares the whiskers off your face. That’s your affair.”

  And the Cat got up and came out of its place in the crowd, walking primly and daintily, with its tail in the air, not one hair on its sleek coat out of place. It came on till it had passed the fire and was so close that Tirian, from where he stood with his shoulder against the end-wall of the stable, could look right into its face. Its big green eyes never blinked. (“Cool as a cucumber,” muttered Eustace. “It knows it has nothing to fear.”)