The Toffee Tree

What are you doing here? — I was hiding in the wardrobe in the spare room…. — Spare Oom, is that in Narnia? — Narnia? What’s that?

All my seven Narnian books, and my three science-fiction books, began with seeing pictures in my head. At first they were not a story, just pictures. The Lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: “Let’s try to make a story about it.”

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.

Or, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself

Aslan gives Jill four signs, and she bungles all but one. The first sign (getting Caspian’s help) is missed entirely. The natural question, I think, is whether such signs were necessary at all, particularly in the form in which they were given. If Aslan, like Jesus, is sovereign and omniscient, wouldn’t he know that Jill would arrive to Narnia too late to tell Eustace to talk to Caspian and thus give her three signs instead? In fact, why give signs at all, rather than clear, step-by-step instructions? Doesn’t Aslan want the quest to succeed?

As Rilian says, “we are all between the paws of the one true Aslan.” I’ve characterized HHB in the past as a book about God’s sovereignty; I think SC is primarily about the relationship between faith and God’s faithfulness. Jill was meant to miss the first sign; as Eustace remarks, “I was only here about a minute before you [… Aslan] must have blown you quicker than me.” Aslan was completely in control of the time at which both Eustace and Jill arrived in Narnia, and if he chose, he could have caused Jill to arrive even earlier. The fact that he didn’t points to the fact that the first sign was meant to be muffed.

So why give it? There are a number of reasons one can come up with, but the one I find most compelling is so that Jill will begin the journey from a place of weakness and failure. Jill and Eustace get the help they need from the Owls and ultimately Puddleglum, but they begin their quest with one failure under their belts and the knowledge that more could follow. They are inadequate to the task before them.

Signs two and three are both missed in pursuit of Harfang, and it’s the third sign that most strongly indicates the nature of the signs. It’s possible that our trio could have recognized the ruins of the city for what they were while stumbling through them (and indeed Puddleglum nearly does), but UNDER ME could not be read except from above. Even if they had realized that the trenches were letters, which I’ll grant might have been possible if they had been both attentive to the signs and willing to make a substantial leap in logic, getting to a vantage point from which they could be read would have been tricky. If Aslan had wanted, he could have just as easily told Jill to look for trenches and then to climb a hill. He didn’t. I don’t think it’s a terribly great leap to the assumption that Aslan intended for the trio to end up in Harfang, to see the city and the letters from the window, and then to be chased down into the Underland. So again, why give signs at all if they were meant to be muffed, at least temporarily?

The fact that the trio, and particularly Jill, mess up the first three signs ends up demonstrating their inadequacy to the task they are given. Furthermore, it puts paramount importance on the name of Aslan and on the act of faith its invocation requires of them. I also think there’s a direct connection between the fourth sign and Puddleglum’s speech after stomping on the fire. As Puddleglum remarks, “Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do.” Aslan told Jill what to do, and she failed three times. They will not fail a fourth. And so, “live or die, Aslan will be our good Lord.”

The fact that the trio find Rilian and hear the fourth sign in spite of messing up the previous three points emphatically to Aslan’s faithfulness in spite of their own faithlessness. According to 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” Aslan’s very nature is faithfulness, even when Jill stops reciting the signs. Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum are brought to the fourth sign in spite of all their failures and faithlessness, because Aslan is their good lord. And necessarily, the faithfulness of God teaches us faith.

The Silver Chair contains two of the greatest acts of faith in the Chronicles, one right after the other, from characters who have spent the entire book up until this point messing up. It’s no accident that “the name of Aslan” is the one sign they get right. It’s only by the name of Aslan that they are able to accomplish their task. Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum are grown into faith through the failure that Aslan led them both into (by giving them signs that he knows they will fail) and through (by bringing them to their destination nevertheless). 

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by J Su

Narnia fan art by Blu Pieraccioli