Journey to the Utter East

sweet water

PrinceOfTheWest said:
...Here's an example: the sweet water. Sailing east from Ramandu's Island, the voyagers get to a point where the water isn't salt any more, but "sweet" - i.e. not bitter. Reepicheep is naturally excited by this because it confirms the dryad's rhyme: that they are approaching the easternmost end of the world.

But to me, the most significant thing about the water isn't that it's potable, but the effect it has upon those who drink it. In Narnia, where one can truly sail "to the sunrise", the heavenly attributes such as light are actually more powerful as one draws near them. That power seems to somehow convey itself into the Narnian world. Consider this exchange:

The King took the bucket in both hands, raised it to his lips, sipped, and then drank deeply and raised his head. His face was changed. Not only his eyes but everything about him seemed to be brighter.
"Yes," he said, "it is sweet. That's real water, that. I'm not sure that it isn't going to kill me. But it is the death I would have chosen - if I'd known about it till now."
"What do you mean?" asked Edmund.
"It - it's more like light than anything else," said Caspian.
"That is what it is," said Reepicheep. "Drinkable light. We must be very near the end of the world now."​

Lewis goes out of his way to elaborate on how drinking the water affects the crew. Here's a summary:
  • They stop needing to eat common food
  • They can bear the much greater intensity of the light
  • They became bright themselves
  • The older ones became a bit younger, or at least lost some of their "old age"
  • They were filled with joy and excitement, but it was a "quiet" joy - they talked less

It seems to me that the sweet water of the eastern Narnian seas was sacramental. It wasn't just water without salt, it was water infused with light. Furthermore, it had the power to convey that light to those who drank it. They became more and more like what they consumed. I noticed another interesting parallel with lembas in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings - the more the travellers depended upon them and them alone, the more sustaining they were. Likewise with the sweet water: it not only sustained those who drank it, but displaced common food. (In fact, imagine the disappointment that the sailors must have had sailing back westward when then passed back into the common water and had to once again eat ship's rations!)

This is precisely how the Christian Church has classically understood sacraments, particularly the Eucharist. As we feed upon Christ, eating His Body and drinking His Blood, we become more like Him. We come into union with Him, even as the Narnians came more into union with the light as they drank the water which conveyed it.

Did anyone else notice this? I wish I could say I'd noticed it sooner - I've lived my whole life knowing about the sweet waters but have only just recently put together the significance. I think it interesting that Lewis' imaginative vision saw this aspect of the Narnian world. There are other examples of this sacramental outlook, even within Dawn Treader, but this is the one that really jumped out at me. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insights connecting the sweet water with lembas and the sacraments. I just reread VDT too and the image of the sweet water was one of the most beautiful and powerful images in the book. It made me think of the invitations to drink living water from the Bible:

Isaiah 55:1-3
1 Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live...

John 4:11
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

John 7:37-39
37...Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
38"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"

When we drink H2O our bodies are refreshed, but when we drink of Christ our souls are refreshed and satisfied with new life :)
 
Kind of silimar to a part in Lewis' Parelandra when Ransom drinks the water for the first time. The effects were similar, he said it was like 'meeting pleasure for the first time'


"It was hardly at all flavored with salt; it was drinkable--like fresh water and only,by an infinitesimal degree, less insipid"
 
I reread The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a few months ago and it was breathtaking. Going into it I was thinking how great the different islands are where various adventures unfold, but if only there were more! How short-sighted I was! Do you remember how many islands the Dawn Treader courses its way through on its voyage from Cair Paravel to the Utter East?

Some belong to a groups of islands, and all but five have name(s). Interestingly, exactly the grand total is divided evenly, with the same number of islands being encountered before Edmund, Lucy and Eustace joined ship as are afterward.

There are also some ways to remember what became of various Narnian lords. I was thinking about it this morning. Some of these may be my own idea while others seem vaguely familiar and may have been devised by other forum members in the past. Here's how I remember: 1) Lord BERN said be STERN with Gumpas and his men, 2) Lord OCTESIAN, "OCT"= eight/ate, Octesian probably ate or was eaten by a dragon, 3) Lord RESTIMAR found his final "rest"ing place at the bottom of the sea ("mar"), 4) Lord RHOOP must have been pooped or couped up, 5) ARM = Argoz, Revilian, Mavramorn, they fell into an enchanted sleep when one of them raised their ARM to pick up the knife of stone.
 
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