The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | Chapter 8: Two Narrow Escapes

Chapter Summary:

The Dawn Treader sails away from Dragon Island and sails further south and east for about five days. One day, something is spotted on the horizon. Everyone quickly realizes that they have spotted the great Sea Serpent. The serpent moves toward the Dawn Treader and appears to leap over it. Eustace slashes at it (with no effect) with Caspian's sword. Reepicheep is the first to realize that the serpent is trying to wrap itself around the ship to squeeze it in half. Everyone pushes the serpent's tightening coil, and almost gets it off the stern, but the coil cracks off the stern and the Dawn Treader sails away.

Four days later, land is spotted. The Dawn Treader lands near a stream by the island. The next day, Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, and Reepicheep go to explore the island. On a hill, they find the remains of Narnian armor and swords (but no body). 

Then, they came down the hill to a lake. At the bottom of the lake is a statue of a man made of gold. Testing the depth, Edmund lowers a spear into the lake, but it becomes heavy and he drops it. Edmund looks at his boots and sees that the tips are gold. Suddenly everyone understands that the lake turns everything into gold (and that the man at the bottom is one of the lost Narnian Lords--the third discovered thus far). 

Just as Edmund and Caspian begin to argue about who holds claim to the gold-making lake, a huge lion passes on top of the hill nearby--and everyone knows it is Aslan. They stop arguing and vote to name the island Deathwater. They agree that the place is cursed, and that no one present must tell anyone about it. They return to the Dawn Treader and sail away.

Reflection:

Boy, have the tides turned in this chapter. Eustace, before the prototypical obnoxious boy that no one likes, has turned into a boy who pulls a sword and slashes at a gigantic sea serpent. Though the act did nothing to dissuade the serpent, the narrator describes his action as doing "the first brave thing that he had ever done" (p. 329). Clearly, Eustace is moving in the right direction as a character.

Meanwhile, we have the events on Deathwater Island (orginally Goldwater Island) to discuss as well. Caspian and Edmund display a rather shocking degree of greed once discovering that the lake turned objects into gold--both of them draw their swords on one another before the larger-than-life Aslan passes by and everyone seems to snap out of their greedy spell.

Speaking of that appearance by Aslan--it is a fairly unusual one. Aslan has been only somewhat absent throughout the journey of the Dawn Treader, appearing only once--to Eustace only, and for the sole purpose of de-dragonizing him. And then we have this scene here, where Aslan passes nearby on top of the hill--but he doesn't speak or even acknowledge that the others are present. It's as if his mere presence is a reminder to Caspian and Edmund of their journey and what Narnia stands for. I think, really, that Aslan was just there to give them a quick reminder of why they should not be fighting over possession of the lake that turns things into gold. After Aslan passes, the narrator writes that "they looked at one another like people waking from sleep" (p. 333). A strange sort of amnesia has seemed to set in as well--Captain Drinian thereafter said that they all seemed to come back to the ship bewitched. It's actually worth looking at his brief statement:

"'Their Majesties all seemed a bit bewitched when they came aboard ... Something happened to them in that place. The only thing I could get clear was that they think they've found the body of one of these lords we're looking for" (p. 333).

What I find most interesting about Drinian's statement is that apparently Aslan's presence did not have enough impact that it brought all of them back to reality entirely. This was a place of a strong magical power of some sort--and not a positive power. 

Frankly, I think the island is simply an island that bewitches the normal sense of greed that a person has--and provides a resource (the lake) that would only cause that greed to exponentially grow. Caspian and Edmund almost fell victim to the curse of greed--which could have left one of them dead (as greed has often done many, many times throughout history). Luckily, they left the island of greed unharmed, thanks to Aslan's intervention.

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Apologies for the late post today (not that anyone is reading this, but that's ok). Work is getting rather busy, and I'm having to catch up on this a bit at home.