THE WAYS OF ASLAN:
REFLECTIONS ON THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
In recent months I had the opportunity to read the seven “Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis for a third time—to our third child, Emily, who is nine. She has an appetite for stories that is insatiable, so we kept “on pace,” as it were. As I read I found myself coming upon check marks I had put in the margin before to identify some of those poignant passages that give insight into the character of Aslan, the Christ figure. After adding a few new marks this time through, I began to see some common threads and key ideas underlying Lewis’s not-just-for-children children’s fantasy stories and decided to compile the passages. See the following excerpts. (The seven books are: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle.)
LWW 75-76: Mr. Beaver to the Pevensie children about Aslan, “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
LWW 123: “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”
LWW 127: about his duty to use his new sword and fight the vicious attacking wolf, “Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that made no difference to what he had to do. He rushed straight up to the monster…”
LWW 138: of Edmund after being rescued from the witch, “He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the witch said.”
LWW 180: of Aslan, “He’ll drop in often. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”
PC 136: Aslan to Lucy, “But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
PC 137: Aslan to Lucy, “To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”
PC 138: Aslan to Lucy after she objects to his instruction to tell the others about his arrival, when she has said “But they won’t believe me!” He replies, “It doesn’t matter.”
PC 139: Lucy to herself on following up on Aslan’s orders (above), “I mustn’t think about it, I must just do it.”
PC 143: about their walk following Aslan when he was visible only to Lucy, “Lucy went first, biting her lip and trying not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she forgot them when she fixed her eyes on Aslan.”
PC 148: when Aslan stood and faced the children, “… looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad.”
PC 149: on the previously-unbelieving dwarf Trumpkin being tossed about by Aslan, “He was as safe as if he had been in bed, though he did not feel so.”
PC 200: Aslan asks young Prince Caspain if he feels sufficient to take up the kingship of Narnia, and Caspian replies in the negative. “Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not.”
VDT 92: Edmund answers Eustace’s question about whether he knows Aslan, “Well—he knows me.”
VDT 93: about the change in Eustace after having been a dragon, “To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy.” “The cure had begun.”
VDT 135: in response to Lucy’s surprise that she had made the already-present Aslan visible, “Do you think I wouldn’t obey my own rules?”
VDT 136: to Lucy, “Child,” said Aslan, “did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?”
VDT 137: Aslan to Coriakin (magician and ruler of the silly Dufflepuds), “Do you grow weary, Coriakin, of ruling such foolish subjects as I have given you here?”
SC 19: Aslan to Jill in response to her mention that Eustace had called to Somebody for help, “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling you,” said the Lion.
SC 134: Puddleglum in response to the bewitched knight, who considered it comical that Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum would have thought that the stone letters “under me” were written to them, and who said that the words that they formed were but an accident of history left from a longer original: “There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant king caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.”
SC 146: in response to the question whether everything would come right if they would just untie the raving knight, “I don’t know about that,” said Puddleglum. “You see, Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the Sign.”
HHB 159: Aslan in response to Shasta’s question why he wounded Aravis, “Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no-one any story but his own.”
HHB 160: of the radiance of the Lion, “No-one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.”
HHB 176: reflections of Shasta when walking along a cliff-side trail in clear light where he had walked previously in fog beside Aslan, “But of course,” he thought, “I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time.”
MN 171: Aslan speaks of the folly of Digory’s uncle Andrew, “But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice…. Oh Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!”
MN 174: Aslan to Jill about the witch who ate from the Tree without permission and before the right time, “Child,” he replied, “that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after.” He goes on in response to the question whether the fruit will keep the witch ever young: “It will. Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart’s desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want: they do not always like it.”
MN 175: Digory realizes, in regard to his dying mother, “… that there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love by death.”
MN 181: Digory, back in his own world with his sick mother to whom he had given the apple from Aslan, thought his own world looked so ordinary and unmagical that he hardly dared to hope; “… but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope.”
LB 154: of the children and creatures meeting Aslan, how they “… looked into the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time.”
LB 170: “… there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.”
LB 171: Jewel the unicorn says of his arrival in the real Narnia after the shadow-Narnia had been destroyed, “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”
LB 184: the last lines of the last page of the book, regarding the Pevensie children, “And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
In recent months I had the opportunity to read the seven “Chronicles of Narnia” by C. S. Lewis for a third time—to our third child, Emily, who is nine. She has an appetite for stories that is insatiable, so we kept “on pace,” as it were. As I read I found myself coming upon check marks I had put in the margin before to identify some of those poignant passages that give insight into the character of Aslan, the Christ figure. After adding a few new marks this time through, I began to see some common threads and key ideas underlying Lewis’s not-just-for-children children’s fantasy stories and decided to compile the passages. See the following excerpts. (The seven books are: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle.)
LWW 75-76: Mr. Beaver to the Pevensie children about Aslan, “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
LWW 123: “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”
LWW 127: about his duty to use his new sword and fight the vicious attacking wolf, “Peter did not feel very brave; indeed, he felt he was going to be sick. But that made no difference to what he had to do. He rushed straight up to the monster…”
LWW 138: of Edmund after being rescued from the witch, “He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the witch said.”
LWW 180: of Aslan, “He’ll drop in often. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”
PC 136: Aslan to Lucy, “But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
PC 137: Aslan to Lucy, “To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”
PC 138: Aslan to Lucy after she objects to his instruction to tell the others about his arrival, when she has said “But they won’t believe me!” He replies, “It doesn’t matter.”
PC 139: Lucy to herself on following up on Aslan’s orders (above), “I mustn’t think about it, I must just do it.”
PC 143: about their walk following Aslan when he was visible only to Lucy, “Lucy went first, biting her lip and trying not to say all the things she thought of saying to Susan. But she forgot them when she fixed her eyes on Aslan.”
PC 148: when Aslan stood and faced the children, “… looking so majestic that they felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad.”
PC 149: on the previously-unbelieving dwarf Trumpkin being tossed about by Aslan, “He was as safe as if he had been in bed, though he did not feel so.”
PC 200: Aslan asks young Prince Caspain if he feels sufficient to take up the kingship of Narnia, and Caspian replies in the negative. “Good,” said Aslan. “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not.”
VDT 92: Edmund answers Eustace’s question about whether he knows Aslan, “Well—he knows me.”
VDT 93: about the change in Eustace after having been a dragon, “To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy.” “The cure had begun.”
VDT 135: in response to Lucy’s surprise that she had made the already-present Aslan visible, “Do you think I wouldn’t obey my own rules?”
VDT 136: to Lucy, “Child,” said Aslan, “did I not explain to you once before that no one is ever told what would have happened?”
VDT 137: Aslan to Coriakin (magician and ruler of the silly Dufflepuds), “Do you grow weary, Coriakin, of ruling such foolish subjects as I have given you here?”
SC 19: Aslan to Jill in response to her mention that Eustace had called to Somebody for help, “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling you,” said the Lion.
SC 134: Puddleglum in response to the bewitched knight, who considered it comical that Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum would have thought that the stone letters “under me” were written to them, and who said that the words that they formed were but an accident of history left from a longer original: “There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant king caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this.”
SC 146: in response to the question whether everything would come right if they would just untie the raving knight, “I don’t know about that,” said Puddleglum. “You see, Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us once he’s up, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the Sign.”
HHB 159: Aslan in response to Shasta’s question why he wounded Aravis, “Child,” said the Voice, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no-one any story but his own.”
HHB 160: of the radiance of the Lion, “No-one ever saw anything more terrible or beautiful.”
HHB 176: reflections of Shasta when walking along a cliff-side trail in clear light where he had walked previously in fog beside Aslan, “But of course,” he thought, “I was quite safe. That is why the Lion kept on my left. He was between me and the edge all the time.”
MN 171: Aslan speaks of the folly of Digory’s uncle Andrew, “But I cannot tell that to this old sinner, and I cannot comfort him either; he has made himself unable to hear my voice…. Oh Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good!”
MN 174: Aslan to Jill about the witch who ate from the Tree without permission and before the right time, “Child,” he replied, “that is why all the rest are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loathe it ever after.” He goes on in response to the question whether the fruit will keep the witch ever young: “It will. Things always work according to their nature. She has won her heart’s desire; she has unwearying strength and endless days like a goddess. But length of days with an evil heart is only length of misery and already she begins to know it. All get what they want: they do not always like it.”
MN 175: Digory realizes, in regard to his dying mother, “… that there might be things more terrible even than losing someone you love by death.”
MN 181: Digory, back in his own world with his sick mother to whom he had given the apple from Aslan, thought his own world looked so ordinary and unmagical that he hardly dared to hope; “… but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope.”
LB 154: of the children and creatures meeting Aslan, how they “… looked into the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time.”
LB 170: “… there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes.”
LB 171: Jewel the unicorn says of his arrival in the real Narnia after the shadow-Narnia had been destroyed, “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”
LB 184: the last lines of the last page of the book, regarding the Pevensie children, “And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”
