Lion Witch Wardrobe Chapter 8 Summary

[Prospero Barela]

PeterSusan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are four siblings who have been sent to the country to escape the air raids of World War II. They stay with Professor Kirke, an eccentric but kind old man, who resides in a house filled with twists, turns, and surprises. On their first day in the country it rains, so the Pevensies decide to explore the house. As they explore, they discover a spare room that is completely empty except for a large wardrobe. Peter, Susan, and Edmund leave the room, but Lucy stays behind to look inside the wardrobe. Surprised when the wardrobe door opens, Lucy steps inside the enormous closet to find a snowy wood at the back of it. Intrigued, she explores the wood, knowing that the safe wardrobe is still behind her. Eventually she meets a faun, a creature that is half goat and half man. The faun is carrying an umbrella and several parcels. When it sees Lucy, it is so startled that it drops all of its packages.

After the faun recovers from the scare, it asks Lucy if she is a Daughter of Eve. Lucy does not understand this question, but she later realizes that the faun is asking whether Lucy is a human girl. Lucy replies that she is a girl, of course. The faun introduces himself as Tumnus, and asks Lucy how she has arrived in Narnia. Narnia, it turns out, is the name of this strange land that Lucy has entered. Lucy is confused and replies that she has come in through the wardrobe in the spare room. Tumnus misunderstands this, and thinks that Lucy comes from a city called War Drobe and a country called Spare Oom. Tumnus invites Lucy to his home for tea. Lucy agrees, on the condition that she does not stay for a long time, and they travel the path to Tumnus's house.

Lucy has a delightful tea with Tumnus. Tumnus serves wonderful food and then plays beautiful music for her on a little flute. Finally Lucy shakes herself out of her reverie, or dream, and announces that she must go home. The faun sorrowfully tells her that she cannot go home. When Lucy asks why, the faun bursts into tears. Lucy comforts him as best she can, and Tumnus tells her that he is crying from guilt. He is a servant of the White Witch, the horrible ruler of Narnia, who has cast a spell over the land so that it is always winter and never Christmas. He has been enlisted to catch any humans he can find and bring them to her. Tumnus does not say what the witch will do with the humans, but we can assume that they will be killed. Lucy begs Tumnus to release her, and he agrees, saying that he had never met a human before and did not know what they were like. Tumnus walks Lucy back to the lamppost at the border between Narnia and the wardrobe door, and they say farewell.

The first chapter of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe focuses on the character development of the four children. Lewis uses carefully selected words to illustrate the children's personalities, rather than giving the reader long, tedious descriptions of each child. In one exchange between the children, Lewis establishes the character of each child. For example, when Peter is discussing the wonders of nature that he expects to encounter in the mountains surrounding Professor Kirke's house, he says, "'Did you see those mountains as we came along? And the woods? There might be eagles. There might be stags. There'll be hawks.' 'Badgers!' said Lucy. 'Foxes!' said Edmund. 'Rabbits!' said Susan." At first glance, this is a rather unremarkable exchange. In the context of the entire novel, however, this exchange is a powerful prediction of each child's personalities. The children are each excited about a different animal near the house and the animal they choose is indicative of his or her personality. Peter thinks of hawks, which are noble, strong birds. Lucy thinks of badgers, generally perceived as faithful, friendly hardworkers. Edmund thinks of foxes, which are sly and not wholly trustworthy. Susan thinks of rabbits, which are shy, sweet animals. These descriptions could apply equally well to each child, respectively. Lewis spends little time on the setting, background and character development. Instead, he chooses to concisely describe the children, and then illustrate their personalities through their actions in the book. Thus, Lewis begins to write the main adventure of the book in the first ten pages.

Chapter 2 introduces us to the faun Tumnus. Historically, the scene between Tumnus and Lucy in a snowy wood under an umbrella is the essence of the whole book. In writing this book, Lewis said that he had certain images in his head whose origin he could not explain. The picture of a faun and a young girl under a snow-covered umbrella had been with him since he was roughly sixteen. Lewis created stories or books based on these pictures. Although Tumnus will not develop to be a main character of the book, he is not exactly a minor character either. Tumnus, however, is important as he is at the core of Lewis's creativity.

Most of the novel is set in Narnia, a land of talking animals and mythical creatures that is ruled by the evil White Witch. In the frame story, four English children are relocated to a large, old country house following a wartime evacuation. The youngest, Lucy, visits Narnia three times via the magic of a wardrobe in a spare room. Lucy's three siblings are with her on her third visit to Narnia. In Narnia, the siblings seem fit to fulfil an old prophecy and find themselves adventuring to save Narnia and their own lives. The lion Aslan gives his life to save one of the children; he later rises from the dead, vanquishes the White Witch, and crowns the children Kings and Queens of Narnia.

Lewis wrote the book for (and dedicated it to) his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield. She was the daughter of Owen Barfield, Lewis's friend, teacher, adviser and trustee.[4] In 2003, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was ranked ninth on the BBC's The Big Read poll.[5] Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time,[6] as well as its list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.[7]

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are evacuated from London in 1940, to escape the Blitz, and sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke at a large house in the English countryside. While exploring the house, Lucy enters a wardrobe and discovers the magical world of Narnia. Here, she meets the faun named Tumnus, whom she addresses as "Mr Tumnus". Tumnus invites her to his cave for tea and admits that he had intended to report Lucy to the White Witch, the false ruler of Narnia who has kept the land in perpetual winter, but he repents and guides her back home. Although Lucy's siblings initially disbelieve her story of Narnia, Edmund follows her into the wardrobe, finds himself in a separate area of Narnia and meets the White Witch, who calls herself the Queen of Narnia. The Witch plies Edmund with Turkish delight and persuades him to bring his siblings to her with the promise of being made a prince. Edmund reunites with Lucy and they return home. However, Edmund denies Narnia's existence to Peter and Susan after learning of the White Witch's identity from Lucy.

The children and the Beavers reach the Stone Table and meet Aslan and his army. The White Witch's wolf captain Maugrim approaches the camp and attacks Susan, but is killed by Peter. The White Witch arrives and parleys with Aslan, invoking the "Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time" which gives her the right to kill Edmund for his treason. Aslan then speaks to the Witch alone, and on his return he announces that the Witch has renounced her claim on Edmund's life. Aslan and his followers then move the encampment into the nearby forest. That evening, Susan and Lucy secretly follow Aslan to the Stone Table. They watch from a distance as the Witch puts Aslan to death, as they had agreed in their pact to spare Edmund. The next morning, Aslan is resurrected by the "Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time", which has the power to reverse death if a willing victim takes the place of a traitor. Aslan takes the girls to the Witch's castle and revives the Narnians that the Witch had turned to stone. They join the Narnian forces battling the Witch's army. The Narnian army prevails, and Aslan kills the Witch. The Pevensie children are then crowned kings and queens of Narnia at Cair Paravel.

After a long and happy reign, the Pevensies, now adults, go on a hunt for the White Stag who is said to grant the wishes of those who catch it. The four arrive at the lamp-post marking Narnia's entrance and, having forgotten about it, unintentionally pass through the wardrobe and return to England; they are children again, with no time having passed since their departure. They tell the story to the Professor, who believes them and reassures the children that they will return to Narnia one day when they least expect it.

At the beginning of the Second World War, many British children were evacuated from London and other cities to the countryside to escape bombing attacks by Nazi Germany. On 2 September 1939, three schoolgirls, Margaret, Mary and Katherine,[10][11] came to live at The Kilns in Risinghurst, Lewis's home 3 mi (4.8 km) east of Oxford city centre. Lewis later suggested that the experience gave him a new appreciation of children, and in late September[12] he began a children's story on an odd sheet that has survived as part of another manuscript:

How much more of the story Lewis then wrote is uncertain. Roger Lancelyn Green thinks that he might even have completed it. In September 1947, Lewis wrote in a letter about stories for children: "I have tried one myself, but it was, by the unanimous verdict of my friends, so bad that I destroyed it."[14]

In August 1948, during a visit by an American writer, Chad Walsh, Lewis talked vaguely about completing a children's book he had begun "in the tradition of E. Nesbit".[16] After this conversation, not much happened until the beginning of the next year. Then everything changed. In his essay "It All Began With a Picture", Lewis continues: "At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him."[17]

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