The Magician's Nephew | Chapter 8: The Fight at the Lamp-Post

Chapter Summary: 

In Chapter 8, The crowd begins to mock the Queen, who becomes angry and assaults the nearest civilians. Digory (quickly joined by Polly) manages to grab onto Jadis's ankle and put on his magical ring. 

Everyone who is touching Digory by some degree of connection (Digory, Polly, Jadis, the horse, the Cabby, and Uncle Andrew) is transported into the woods between the worlds, and then subsequently into a completely dark, cold place. Jadis proclaims that they have arrived in an empty world; they are literally nowhere.

Just as Uncle Andrew is plotting an escape, a beautiful voice begins to sing. All at once, stars appear and many other voices begin to sing as well. A sun very slowly begins to rise, and a barren river/valley are revealed, along with a lion (the original voice) who is facing in the direction of the sun. Everyone reacts differently to the scene & voices: The Cabby is enchanted, and the horse appears gleeful. Uncle Andrew appears surprised, and Jadis is angry, with the knowledge that the magic here is stronger than her own.

Jadis breaks the silence and tells them to prepare a way out; Uncle Andrew reveals the secret of the rings. The chapter ends with the sound of the voices beginning to change.

Reflection:

I remember reading TCON just enough to know that we have now arrived at the creation of Narnia (or as some like to refer to it, Genesis 1: 1-10). It's going to be rather difficult to discuss this chapter without discussing allegory or Biblical parallels, and there's enough controversy and variety of opinion on those subjects to keep me going for quite a while. Besides, there will be plenty of time for this later. 

What I think is most telling, aside from the two pieces above, is the reaction of each of the characters to what they are witnessing--the formation of a new world. Here are a few snippets of their reactions:

"The Cabby and the two children had open mouths and shining eyes; they were drinking in the sound, and they looked as if it reminded them of something. Uncle Andrew's mouth was open too, but not open with joy... His shoulders were stooped and his knees shook. He was not liking the Voice. If he could have got away from it by creeping into a rat's hole, he would have done so. But the Witch looked as if, in a way, she understood the music better than any of them. Her mouth was shut, her lips were pressed together, and her fists were clenched. Ever since the song began she had felt that this whole world was filled with a Magic different from hers and stronger... the horse stood with its ears well forward and twitching... It no longer looked like a tired old cab-horse; you could now well believe that its father had been in battles" (p. 43).

Remember how we talked about the parallels between Uncle Andrew and Queen Jadis--here again, we see that they are the only two characters (horse included) who are negatively impacted by the scene unfolding before them. You could even venture to guess that this reaction is the result of the connection with magic--Jadis's reaction so much more negative because of her deeply evil connection with magic. Interestingly, the above statement is all we ever hear about Digory and Polly's reaction to this moment. The Cabby is by far the most talkative individual during this creation scene, and one of the most enchanted. And finally, the horse is the character that shows the greatest indication of personal impact based on the events unfolding. It seems, perhaps, that there is a (negative) correlation between magical experience and the emotion each character associates with this scene. Perhaps there are other explanations, but that's the one I see. It will be interesting to see how each character reacts as the remainder of the creation story unfolds before them.