Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to Narnia and CS Lewis! For this weeks review, we will be looking at CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair !
Book Title:The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair
Author: CS Lewis
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Publisher: HarperCollins
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060764937
ISBN-13: 978-0060764937
Summary of the book:
Some Possible Spoilers. (Please Highlight to read)
The holidays are over and Eustace is back in school. A young girl named Jill Pole is hiding behind the gym because she is being tormented by bullies. Eustace finds her and she worries he’ll rat her out. He says he won’t do that. She is surprised, as he used to be one of the bullies.
This leads to her commenting on how he changed since the holidays. Eustace said the reason was because of Narnia. He tells her more about Narnia, except for one thing: he isn’t sure how to get there. They hear the bullies coming and run, they tumble down the hill and find themselves flying in the air.
They land on a cliff. When Jill starts to loose her footing, Eustace tries to grab her. She accidentally pulls him and sends him tumbling off the side. It is then that she meets Aslan. He tells her that she and Eustace must find Prince Rilian son of King Caspian, who has been missing for years. He gives her very specific instructions or signs, that she must remember. He also informs her that Eustace is safe and sound. Then he sends her into Narnia where she and Eustace meet up at Cair Paravel.
After making acquaintance with Glimfeather the owl, they tell him they have been sent by Aslan to help find the Prince. They see an aged man boarding a ship. Eustace discovers to his horror that it is Caspian. Jill also realizes she has messed up with the first sign: Eustace will see an old friend.
Glimfeather takes them to the aged dwarf Trumpkin, who is of no help to them at first as the dwarf is now so old and deaf he can barely hear. After a long time they are finally taken into Cair Paravel where they hear what happened to Caspian’s son.
Ten years earlier Rilian had been out Maying with his mother, who is known only as “The Star’s Daughter.” His mother lies down and while he and the rest of the party are off, a serpent comes and bites her. She screams and Rilian runs to her rescue, but arrives too late as she is already dead. The serpent slithers off and Rilian chases after it and isn’t seen again. Caspian sent many warriors to find him to no avail.
Because of this, Trumpkin would not send them off. In the night Glimfeather takes the two children to the parliament of the owls to discuss what to do. They take them to the North eastern marshes where they meet the pessimistic Marshwiggle, Puddleglum. He agrees to help the children.
They journey north where they meet a beautiful lady dressed in Green who is aided by a Black Knight. They inform the lady of their errand and she tells them to head to the House of Harfang where some giants live. She tells them they are gentle giants and if they want to get in all they have to do is knock on the door and say they are there for the Autumn Feast.
They do as they are told and are taken in. After she is cleaned up and in her room, Jill notices out the window that she missed another clue. Beneath them is a ruinous city that spells out the words “ Under Me.” She informs Eustace and Puddleglum of this when they come to visit her, and they make plans to escape.
After they sneak out they go under the ruins where they encounter a gnome who leads them down into the Underworld. They are led to the palace of the queen, where they are entertained by the Black Knight ( who with out his armor looks like Hamlet.) He informs them that they must leave him for a while so he can be bound to the silver chair as he is under an enchantment .
SPOILERS!
They return to him and discover that he is Prince Rilian. It was when he is tied to the chair that he is in his right mind. He pleads with them in the name of Aslan to set him free. Jill points out that this is the final sign. They untie him. Rilian destroys the chair and thanks them for rescuing him.
The Lady of the Green Kirtle returns, and attempts to enslave them all with a magical song and a fire. Puddleglum breaks the enchantment by stomping his foot in the fire, putting it out, and forcing them to smell burnt Marshwiggle. The lady transforms into a serpent and Rilian, Eustace and Puddleglum draw swords and kill her.
The four of them mount horses and begin to leave the Underworld. They discover that the creatures are celebrating as they are finally free of the power of the Lady of the Green Kirtle. A crack has opened in the ground, leading to the land of Bism. They are invited by one of the creatures to join them. The four of them decline the invite and continue heading up while the caves are flooding.
They make it to the surface and Jill is pulled out of a hole first, the rest follow after. Puddleglum’s foot is tended to and Rilian returns to his father. Centaurs come and take Jill and Eustace back to Narnia where they watch the funeral of Caspian.
Aslan appears to the children and says it is time for them to leave. They first go to his country where they watch as Aslan resurrects Caspian. Not only is he brought back to life, but his youthfulness is restored. Eustace and Caspian are reunited.
While Aslan returns Eustace and Jill to their own world, He and Caspian help them teach the bullies some well deserved lessons.END SPOILERS! From then on Eustace and Jill were good friends, and all was well in Narnia.
Review.
The Silver Chair is a dark book in a very literal way. Much of the story is set within the caverns and depths of Narnia. It is typical in a fantasy story for the heroes to descend into the depths at some point to conquer their own fears and doubts. It is in these depths that strange things occur and we meet even stranger creatures. This descent just doesn’t apply to going into the Underworld, but the hopelessness inNarnia with the abduction of Rilian, and the despair of the King.
Further darkness is brought by the new character of Puddleglum the Marshwiggle. The name suits him well as he is an extraordinarily pessimistic character. He very clearly subscribes to Murphy’s law as he believes the worst can and will always happen. He is part of a trend seen in 20th century literature and film in which a writer will bring a pessimistic character into the fold of the heroes to juxtapose the constant optimism that the heroes may have. He is similar in some respects to the likes of Eeyore in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, Ian Malcolm in Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Marvin the Paranoid Android in Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and even C-3P0 in the Star Wars series.
The character of the pessimist is needed as he is not afraid to confront one thing. The doubts that others may not be willing to voice. While seen as a “wet blanket”,SPOILERS! it’s Puddleglum who helps free all of them from the witch. When she tells them that all there is, is Underworld, even his pessimistic attitude can’t except it and settles for that which he can’t see as even a pretend good world is better then a real bad one in his mind.
We also discover the next king of Narnia, Prince Rilian. His story is almost like that of Persephone in Greek mythology in which he is stolen from the surface world by the ruler of the Underworld. His appearance is described as looking a bit like Hamlet. A fitting comparison as in the play they make reference to the River Lethe, one of the many rivers within Tartarus, in which those who drink of it forget everything, and he has forgotten his life in Narnia.
He is a different type of prince then most. He is the one placed under enchantment and needing to be set free and rescued. With an exception of stories like Beauty and the Beast, and the Frog Prince, that role is typically assigned to the princess. Lewis mixes things up with this story in that regard. He shows sometimes even men need help.
The Lady of the Green Kirtle herself is much like Morgain Le Fay in some versions of the Arthur legends as she wishes to take control of the kingdom that is not her own, while the king is at his weakest, by use of the King’s heir. She also presents to the characters an inverted form of Plato’s allegory of the Cave and his ideas of the higher forms, when she tells them that all they know is an illusion, and the underworld is the real world.END SPOILERS!
We also meet Jill Pole. At the outset she is only Eustace’s classmate and not his friend. She has noticed a changed in him since the holidays and notes it is quite curious. It is because of this that she gains interest in Narnia. She is also very different from the other children in regard to the fact that she is one of the few characters who is not part of the Pevensie family who goes to Narnia. Unlike Lucy and Susan she shows far greater strength and is given a leadership role when Aslan gives her the instructions.
We see growth in the character of Eustace from our first encounter. He is far braver, and kinder than when we first met him. He realizes that he had been a bully and is attempting to make up for it. He continues to parallel CS Lewis’s own faith journey as he pursues Narnia more intellectually, then emotionally like his cousins did. He wants to know more about it and is asking questions and trying to figure out how to get there and trying his best with his limited understanding to explain it to those who may not know of it, such as Jill.
In “The Silver Chair” we confront issues of doubt, faith and trust. We also learn how important it is to remember any instructions that are given to us and not to listen to lies. Children can even get a crash course in the ideas of one of the originators of Western thought. We also deal more with ideas of aging, and even death.
And where would we be in the story with out Lewis as our narrator? He is clearly as mesmerized as his readers by the Underworld and all that lies in it. He knows how to tell a good story for children as well as adults.
While the four Pevensies are all absent from this book, it doesn’t at all detract from one’s enjoyment of the story. Fans of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy can find many more new friends in this one, and learn just as much as they did before. The Pevensies journey has ended, but ours only continues.
Five out of Five shields