The Silver Chair | Chapter 12: The Queen of Underland

Chapter Summary:

The approaching footsteps turn out to be the Queen of the Underworld herself. She enters the room and tells her the Earthmen present to leave. She asks Prince Rilian why he is unbound. Prince Rilian tells the Queen exactly what has occurred--that he has been rescued and her enchantment has been broken by the others present, and that he wants to be escorted into his own country immediately.

The Queen crosses the room, blows a green powder into the fire in the fireplace, and begins to play a musical instrument. A sweet smell comes from the fire, and the musical instrument is used to lull Eustace, Jill, Puddleglum, and Prince Rilian slowly into an enchantment. The Queen slowly and soothingly convinces everyone present that Narnia and the Overworld are just places of dreams. Puddleglum resists the enchantment the hardest, and tries to remind everyone of the sun and then of Aslan. The Queen slowly convinces them that the sun and Aslan don't exist. 

As the enchantment is nearly complete, Puddleglum gathers all of his strength and steps on the fire, crushing it. Immediately, the sweet heavy smell disappears and the room smells of slightly charred Marsh-Wiggle. The Queen yells at Puddleglum and the pain itself clears Puddleglum's head completely. Puddleglum gives a rousing speech, and the enchantment is broken completely for Eustace, Jill, and Prince Rilian as well. 

The Queen very quickly begins to transform into a snake. As soon as she does so, she wraps herself around Prince Rilian and prepares to kill him, but Prince Rilian, Eustace, and Jill are too fast--all three slice at the snake with their swords, and the snake falls dead. Prince Rilian proclaims his mother's death avenged--he is certain that this is the very snake that murdered his mother over ten years ago.

Reflection:

There's only one thing to take a look at from this chapter, and I don't think anyone would disagree with me. Let's take a look at Puddleglum's speech to the Queen after his second major heroic act in the span of two chapters. It's a long quote, but it's worth it. This comes just after Puddleglum stamps out the fire with his bare foot:

"One word Ma'am, ... One word. All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you said. But there's one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things--trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland" (p. 432). 

Bravo, Puddleglum, bravo. This concise speech is one of the most powerful in the TCON series and certainly one of the bravest (he is delivering this to a powerful witch, and a Queen, to boot). Beyond being a hero within the text, Puddleglum is C.S. Lewis's voice to Christians and non-Christians alike. Yep, we have once again arrived at some pretty powerful allegory--powerful even for the TCON series. Once you gather that the Underworld can be equated to Earth and that Aslan and Narnia can be equated to Jesus and Heaven, you get the picture pretty quickly. The fact that the Queen transforms into a snake is, undoubtedly, not a coincidence either. 

But I won't look deeper into the allegory at this point because if you've been following along, you already get the idea, and you've heard it from me multiple times (besides, I need to save some more of that conversation for The Last Battle). 

Instead, I will conclude by looking back at Puddleglum. The Puddleglum we met just a few chapters ago was a downright pessimist, looking for (ironically) a way to be even more pessimistic, which would put him more in line with other Marsh-Wiggles. Instead, Puddleglum has found the opposite. Even in the darkest of places, he has found an optimism that glows brighter than just about any character in the TCON series aside from Aslan himself. The least likely hero of the novel is indeed the greatest hero.