The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Chapter 16: The Very End of the World

Chapter Summary:

The Dawn Treader continues to sail eastward. Lucy sees only one more person beneath the water, and feels an immediate connection to the girl she sees. Over the next few days, the sun becomes ever more brilliant, and no one ever eats or sleeps. One day, Caspian and Drinian see nothing but white up ahead, as far as the eye can see. It is quickly discovered that there is an endless field of white lilies covering the still-deep ocean. The Dawn Treader sails onward into the lilies. 

The sea gets more and more shallow, until it is clear that the Dawn Treader cannot go any further. Caspian gathers everyone on the ship, and says that he and Reepicheep will continue on to the east while the Dawn Treader sails back west. Everyone argues against Caspian's decision. When Lucy reminds Caspian of Ramandu's daughter, Caspian changes his mind, and declares that everyone must go back, Reepicheep included.

After isolating himself in his cabin, Caspian has a vision from Aslan. Aslan has told Caspian that he is to go back--and that Eustace, Edmund, Lucy, and Reepicheep only are to sail onward. 

After saying goodbyes, Eustace, Edmund, Lucy, and Reepicheep go onward in a smaller boat, while the Dawn Treader and its crew turns around. They stay in the current, and soon see in the distance a huge, immobile wave. The next morning, at sunrise, they each see, just beyond the other side of the sun itself, massive mountains of impossible heights--and they all know that this is Aslan's country.

The boat runs aground, and Reepicheep says that he must now go on alone. Eustace, Edmund, and Lucy watch as Reepicheep sails to the large, immobile wave, goes over the top, and disappears, never to be seen again in Narnia. Eustace, Edmund, and Lucy then walk south, until they come to land. On that land is a lamb, who welcomes them and tells them to eat. They eat for the first time in days, and they are actually hungry.

Lucy asks the lamb if this is the way to Aslan's country. The lamb, transforming into Aslan, tells Lucy that her path to Aslan's country is through her own world. Lucy asks Aslan when she will come back to Narnia, and Aslan says that neither Edmund or Lucy will return to Narnia--they are too old. Aslan tells them that they must now learn to know him by another name in their own world. Lucy asks if Eustace will ever come back--and Aslan replies that this is not for Lucy to know. 

Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace pass through a door that Aslan creates, and they reenter into Aunt Alberta's home in Cambridge, where their adventure began. Meanwhile, Caspian and his men return to Ramandu's island, where the three Lords are awake. Caspian marries Ramandu's daughter, and she becomes the ancestor of many great Narnian kings. Meanwhile, Eustace is a much improved boy back on earth.

Reflection:

We should have known it was coming. After the surprise we get when Peter reveals that he and Susan will never again return to Narnia, we should have been expecting it. But nevertheless, it seemed too abrupt, even at the world's end--a place where we knew there would be many sorts of endings. Still, Aslan's answer is still rather shocking when Lucy asks when they will return to Narnia. In short, the answer was never. According to Aslan, this is because Edmund and Lucy have become too old, and that it is now time for them to make a connection with their own world, and to get to know Aslan as he is portrayed in their world. 

This conversation, of course, is also some of the strongest allegory that we have experienced as readers throughout the entire TCON series. It just doesn't get much more straightforward than the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Aslan is the Jesus of Narnia, and is representative of the Jesus of the earth; from what Aslan says, they are basically one and the same. Aslan tells Edmund and Lucy that the reason that they were brought to Narnia was so that they could get to know Aslan, in order to get to know him even better back on earth. 

Let me repeat that again just in case the point was lost: This was THE purpose for Edmund and Lucy to come to Narnia. They didn't come to Narnia to save Narnia from the White Witch, or to rescue Prince Caspian, or to sail to the end of the world--and they didn't come to Narnia to be Kings and Queens and to reign at Cair Paravel. Edmund and Lucy (and we can presume Peter and Susan as well) came to Narnia in order to better get to know Aslan. And so they have. This is the hidden knowledge that Peter gains from Aslan at the end of Prince Caspian--that Aslan is not a being mutually exclusive to Narnia. He is present even in their other world.

And along with all of this, Aslan tells Edmund and Lucy that there is indeed a way into Aslan's Country from their world--and that Aslan will be guiding them to that place all the time. We will (spoiler alert) return to Aslan's Country at a later time and we'll see if or how Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy arrive there. Oh, there is much to be said about that topic! 

Thank you as always for reading along with me, whether this is the first post you've read, or the 79th (yes, this is the 79th entry). Onward and upward to The Silver Chair.