The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Awe and Amazement Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

Every day and every hour the light became more brilliant and still they could bear it. No one ate or slept and no one wanted to, but they drew buckets of dazzling water from the sea, stronger than wine and somehow wetter, more liquid, than ordinary water, and pledged one another silently in deep draughts of it. And one or two of the sailors who had been oldish men when the voyage began now grew younger every day. Everyone on board was filled with joy and excitement, but not an excitement that made one talk. The further they sailed the less they spoke, and then almost in a whisper. The stillness of that last sea laid hold on them. (16.3)

The kind of awe that Lucy and her friends feel as they approach Aslan's country isn't a loud, passionate, ecstatic joy. It's a solemn feeling that makes them want to be quiet and absorb everything that's happening around them.

Quote #11

Day after day from all those miles and leagues of flowers there rose a smell which Lucy found it very hard to describe; sweet – yes, but not at all sleepy or overpowering, a fresh, wild, lonely smell that seemed to get into your brain and make you feel that you could go up mountains at a run or wrestle with an elephant. She and Caspian said to one another, "I feel that I can't stand much more of this, yet I don't want it to stop." (16.17)

There is a sense of being almost, but not quite, overwhelmed by Aslan's power at the eastern end of the world.

Quote #12

And suddenly there came a breeze from the east, tossing the top of the wave into foamy shapes and ruffling the smooth water all round them. It lasted only a second or so but what it brought them in that second none of those three children will ever forget. It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, "It would break your heart." "Why," said I, "was it so sad?" "Sad! No," said Lucy. (16.53)

As Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace get close to Aslan's country, they also get close to a place where all strong emotions seem to fuse together. Joy is heartbreaking.