The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Chapter 15 Summary

Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time

  • With Aslan dead, the Witch calls her followers to her and they move in a wild mob toward Aslan's army, intending to carry out a surprise attack. Lucy and Susan, still hiding in the bushes, are briefly in danger as the evil creatures pass close by them.
  • Once the Witch's army is gone, Lucy and Susan go to the Stone Table and weep over Aslan's body. They cry and mourn for a long time.
  • Eventually, when they seem to have run out of tears, Lucy suggests that they take off Aslan's muzzle. They do, and it sets them crying again.
  • Susan suggests that they untie Aslan's body from the table, but the knots are so tight that they can't.
  • For a long time, Susan and Lucy wait, quiet and shocked. Nothing seems to matter anymore. Time passes. It gets colder.
  • Lucy notices that it's beginning to get light outside. She also notices something moving in the grass – mice!
  • The mice crawl up onto Aslan's body. Susan tries to shoo them away, but Lucy points out that the mice are eating through the cords that tie Aslan's body to the Stone Table.
  • It gets brighter; the sunrise has almost started. Only one star is visible, a big bright star on the Eastern horizon. The mice finish eating through all of Aslan's bindings and creep away.
  • It continues to get brighter. Birds start to sing.
  • Susan and Lucy feel cold and decide to walk around a little bit. They go to the edge of the hill and look east. The large star is no longer visible.
  • Susan and Lucy pace between Aslan's body and the edge of the hill, trying to stay warm. They feel cold and tired.
  • Finally, while the girls are looking east toward the castle of Cair Paravel, the edge of the sun peeks up over the horizon. At the same moment, behind them there is an enormous cracking, thunder-like noise.
  • Lucy and Susan assume that the evil creatures are mutilating Aslan's corpse and run back toward the Stone Table. When they get there, the Stone Table is broken completely in half and Aslan's body is gone!
  • Susan wonders if this is more magic, and a voice from behind her says that it is. The girls turn around, only to see Aslan, alive and larger than before, standing behind them.
  • The girls are both happy and scared. Aslan assures them that he was dead, but isn't anymore, and that he is not a ghost.
  • Susan and Lucy hug and kiss Aslan with great joy.
  • Once the girls calm down, Susan asks Aslan to explain. Aslan tells her that the Witch's knowledge only goes back to the Dawn of Time, but that there is a deeper magic from before the Dawn of Time that she didn't know about. According to this deeper magic, when an innocent, willing victim was executed in the place of a traitor, the Stone Table would crack and Death would work backwards.
  • For a while, Aslan frolics and leaps about, enjoying his returning strength. Lucy and Susan play a strange game of tag with him, in which they all run around and sometimes Aslan catches them and tosses them gently in the air, and sometimes they roll around on the ground and wrestle. At the end of the game, the girls no longer feel hungry or thirsty or tired.
  • Next, the girls plug their ears while Aslan lets out a terrible roar.
  • Aslan invites Lucy and Susan to ride on him. Once they are mounted, he rushes down into the forest. For hours, they enjoy the ride, as Aslan runs swiftly through the beautiful Narnian countryside.
  • Around the middle of the day, they arrive at the Witch's castle. Aslan leaps over the walls into the courtyard.