How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #1
"Why were you so near the edge, Human Child?"
"I was showing off, Sir."
"That is a very good answer, Human Child. Do so no more." (2.24-26)
Jill's first encounter with Aslan teaches her that only telling the absolute truth will do in his country. She has a harder time with this in Narnia, but she learns a lot about owning up to the truth and making amends when she is at fault.
Quote #2
Jill thought that when, in books, people live on what they shoot, it never tells you what a long, smelly, messy job it is plucking and cleaning dead birds, and how cold it makes your fingers. (6.83)
Jill has a serious reality check when she finally gets to go on her longed-for adventure. It's not too long before she's tired of rough living on Ettinsmoor and ready for the comfort of Harfang. Difficulties like this make it hard for Jill and Eustace to believe in the truth of Puddleglum's good judgment and to trust in Aslan's signs.
Quote #3
"Only tell them," answered the Lady, "that She of the Green Kirtle salutes them by you, and has sent them two fair Southern children for the Autumn Feast." (6.89)
We love the double meaning in the Lady's message to the giants of Harfang. Technically, she's telling the truth—the children want to attend the Autumn Feast—but she really knows how the man-pie loving giants will interpret it.
Quote #4
"I'd give a good deal to know where she's coming from and where she's going. Not the sort you expect to meet in the wilds of Giantland, is she? Up to no good, I'll be bound." (6.90)
Puddleglum has the Lady of the Green Kirtle all figured out and knows that they have to be careful of her advice. But the children are tired of sleeping on the ground and freezing at night, so they choose to believe in her beauty rather than the reality that she is an evil witch.
Quote #5
"You were thinking how nice it would have been if Aslan hadn't put the instructions on the stones of the ruined city till after we'd passed it. And then it would have been his fault, not ours. So likely, isn't it? No. We must own up to it. We've only four signs to go by, and we've muffed the first three." (8.120)
It's hard for Jill to admit that she's messed up pretty royally, but if they're going to move on and keep their trust in Aslan, she has to take responsibility for the predicament they find themselves in (i.e., about to made into man-pies at Harfang).
Quote #6
"We're so longing for tomorrow night! And we do love being here. And while you're out, we may run over the whole castle and see everything, mayn't we? Do say yes." The Queen did say yes, but the laughter of all the courtiers nearly drowned her voice. (8.125)
Jill is applying some deception here so that she can find a way out of Harfang. Too bad she misses the truth about the Autumn Feast revealed by the laughter of the giants.
Quote #7
How often they woke and slept and ate and slept again, none of them could ever remember. And the worst thing about it was that you began to feel as if you had always lived on that ship, in that darkness, and to wonder whether sun and blue skies and wind and birds had not been only a dream. (10.148)
This is the beginning of losing the truth about Overland, Narnia, and Aslan, and it's something the Queen of Underland will use later when she tries to enchant them all. The children and Puddleglum are feeling muddled because of sensory deprivation—when the senses are not stimulated—which plays tricks on their minds.
Quote #8
"Those words meant nothing to your purpose. Had you but asked my Lady, she could have given you better counsel. For those words are all that is left of a longer script, which in ancient times, as she well remembers, expressed this verse: Though under Earth and throneless now I be/Yet, while I lived, all Earth was under me." (10.153)
Enchanted Rilian tries to convince Puddleglum and the children that they've been led on a wild goose chase by re-interpreting the letters carved on top of the ruined city of the giants. It really makes them think that Aslan made a mistake, and that Rilian and the Lady truly understand the meaning of the letters.
Quote #9
"There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan; and he was there when the giant King caused the letters to be cut, and he knew already all things that would come of them; including this." (10.154)
Puddleglum is a tough bird and won't let the enchanted Rilian convince them that Aslan has had them on a stupid errand. He won't be talked out of believing in their mission or in the existence or goodness of the Lion.
Quote #10
"That was the worst thing the Witch did to us. We were going to be led out into the open—into the outside of the world. They say there's no roof at all there; only a horrible, great emptiness called the sky." (14.203)
At the end of their adventures in Underland, the travelers learn the truth about the Earthmen and their purpose. Golg the gnome also offers an amusing interpretation of what it would be like to live in Overland for them—an alternative way of looking at reality for Rilian and his crew.