Narnia, Part the Fifth

In which Laura tries to remember what the heck we are actually doing and tries desperately not to get distracted.


**Morgan Freeman narrates: She did, in fact, get distracted.**


Chapter 14. “The Triumph of the Witch.”


Whoooo boy. This is the hardest part to read as a kid. Aslan has PLANS, but he’s keeping them to himself.


Aslan and Peter discuss the battle that will certainly happen the next day. For even though the Witch will have…no…that would be spoilers…she won’t have victory over the children. And as long as the children are alive? And can still take the thrones at Cair Paravel? They are still a threat. And even though they are…again…FUCKING CHILDREN, and have grown up IN THE LARGEST CITY IN THE UK, the freedom of Narnia is in their hands.


I feel like people don’t talk about how very messed up this is. These are CHILDREN. Peter? He’s probably 13, at the max. That’s an 8th grader. Or a very young 9th grader. He’s shorter than his mom. He doesn’t even have chest hair.


And yet…he is leading an army of centaurs and giants and dwarfs against a WITCH who is so powerful she made it be JANUARY FOR A HUNDRED YEARS.


These poor kids. At least Tolkien wrote about grown-ups. Even the “young” hobbits were in their 30s.


I mean, I get it, every kids wants a good adventure story, but also…fuck.


Aslan doesn’t even promise that he will be there with Peter. He has to do this on his own, maybe.


The Lion has been carrying a heavy secret burden all day, and the weight of it dampens the mood of everyone in the camp. Susan and Lucy find that they can’t sleep, and so they slip out of their tent to go find Aslan.


And he is leaving.


They follow the Lion away from the camp, back towards the mysterious Stone Table where they had been that morning. He discovers that they are following him and allows them to continue, as long as they “promise to stop when I tell you, and after that leave me to go on alone.” (LWW 149)


Eventually Aslan tells the girls they must stop and bids them farewell. Susan and Lucy hide in the bushes and watch him walk up the hill towards a great crowd of monsters. Ogres, Wolves, Hags, Horrors, and other spooks from literature. And—of course—the Witch.


She demands that her minions tie Aslan and place him on the table. The girls, from their hiding place, expect that Aslan will do lion things like pounce or roar but no—he approaches as a lamb to the slaughter. For this is the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time. The Witch deserved the life of Edmund the traitor, but Aslan is giving his own life in Edmund’s place.


Aslan is tied, muzzled, shaved, mocked, kicked, hit, and spit on.


And finally, the witch reveals her ultimate treachery. For the Deep Magic is appeased, yes. “But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well?…You have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and you have not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die.” (LWW 155)


Susan and Lucy look away. And I have to set the book aside for today, because even though I know what’s coming, I know when to take a moment to breathe.

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