The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe | Chapter 17: The Hunting of the White Stag

Chapter Summary:

Sometime before the end of the last chapter and the beginning of this one, Aslan has killed the Witch. This causes her army to flee, and the battle ends quickly. Peter tells Aslan that Edmund was the cause of their victory--Edmund had disarmed the Witch of her wand during the battle.

Edmund was also badly wounded in the battle. Aslan calls Lucy to him. Lucy uses her cordial given to her by Father Christmas to then heal others who are dying on the battlefield. Aslan knights Edmund while Susan and Lucy wonder whether Edmund should be told what Aslan did for him.

Everyone travels to Cair Paravel, where Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy become Kings and Queens of Narnia. Aslan slips away from the celebration.

Many years pass. Peter becomes known as Peter the Magnificent; Susan becomes known as Susan the Gentle; Edmund becomes known as Edmund the Just; Lucy becomes known as Lucy the Valiant.

One day, Mr. Tumnus informs them that the White Stag has been spotted--and rumor has it that anyone who catches the White Stag will be granted wishes. The Kings and Queens chase the Stag through the forest, and come across a strange lamp-post in a thick part of the forest. Seeing the lamp-post reminds them of what feels like a dream within a dream, and all four of them decide that they must venture beyond it and follow the White Stag. 

As they walk past the lamp-post, they walk into some coats, and then they suddenly tumble from the wardrobe into the Professor's house. It is the same day--the same hour--as when they left. The children tell the Professor what had happened. He tells them that they will not be able to return to Narnia through the wardrobe, but that he suspects that they will again, some day.

Reflection:

C.S. Lewis saves his best for last with this chapter. There is plenty to discuss in this chapter--more than I could possibly cover, but I will try. The first thing I would like to do is look at a few significant quotations from this chapter.

1) Here is what happens immediately after Lucy gives a few drops of her healing cordial to a dying Edmund on the battlefield:

"'There are other people wounded,' said Aslan while she was still looking eagerly into Edmund's pale face and wondering if the cordial would have any result. 

'Yes, I know,' said Lucy crossly. 'Wait a minute.' 

'Daughter of Eve,' said Aslan in a graver voice, 'others also are at the point of death. Must more people die for Edmund?'" (p.130).

This is definitely the first time that Lucy has talked back to Aslan--in fact, it might be the only time anyone does in this novel. She is definitely not trying to be rude--she is only concerned for her brother. But Aslan makes it clear where the priority must lie. Indeed, this is the most cross that Aslan has probably been with any character in the novel (well, we of course don't hear his conversation with Edmund, either). 

But I think this quotation has surprising applicability today as it directly relates to the Bystander Effect--the idea that the more people are present to witness an event (in which someone needs help), the less likely each individual is to offer assistance. In a more lighthearted tale of the Bystander Effect, I remember walking through the Baylor campus as an undergraduate and another student fell off his skateboard--and rather roughly. There were a ton of people in the immediate area, and no one reacted to help him. No one asked if he was ok. He lay there on the ground for several seconds without moving, before finally pushing himself up off the ground (his immobility was thus presumably from embarrassment rather than pain or unconsciousness). But no one offered to help him or even check that he was ok. We were all still assessing the situation, and he could have certainly been hurt. Anyway, I think that applies here in some ways.

2) Very soon after the above quotation, Susan and Lucy have this brief conversation:

"'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" (p. 130-131).

This is one of the more interesting exchanges of the novel (on an allegorical level, they're discussing the merit of... evangelism?). As with the most interesting exchanges in most novels, we do not find out what the end of the conversation is, and we most certainly don't know whether Edmund is ever told what Aslan has done for him. This leaves the conversation up for interpretation, you see. The reader can now decide, along with Susan and Lucy, whether or not Edmund ought to have been told that Aslan had suffered and died for him. Perhaps they tell him, perhaps they don't. Remember--they were the only two--aside from the Witch and her henchmen--to witness Aslan's death. And of course, we will never really know.

3) And then a few more moments later, when the narrator is describing Cair Paravel:

"And oh, the cry of the seagulls! Have you heard it? Can you remember?" (p. 131).

This is a very interesting quotation, stuck in the middle of a good deal of significant plot--almost hidden away. The narrator does this occasionally during the course of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe--that is, address the reader, but this is the first time (I believe) that there is a question involved. Two actually. And very perplexing questions, at that. The first question, in essence, asks the reader if he or she has been to Narnia. The second question, leading from the first, asks whether the reader can remember having been to Narnia. This is most unusual for this text, and rather telling, I think. Perhaps what it means is that all of us have been to our own individual Narnias. It's like what Dumbledore says--just because it happens in our heads doesn't mean that it isn't real.

And now, leaving the quotations behind, we come to one of the other questions from this last chapter--what is with the White Stag? (Insert Expecto Patronum! joke here.) There is precious little that we know. We know that the White Stag has appeared before, and that it supposedly grants wishes if caught--but other than that, all we know is that the White Stag leads the Kings and Queens of Narnia back to the lamp-post so that they can return to their own world. Coincidence? Chance? Or was this what Aslan had in mind all along?

And here we end the Golden Age of Narnia and move on to bigger and better things--like four children who have aged at least 15 years being thrown back into their childhood bodies and minds at the flip of a switch--or at the opening of a wardrobe.

Onward to The Horse and His Boy.