Puddleglum and Marsh-Wiggle...What Great Words

Woohoo, I actually finished a book this week, given it was a reread, and I know how much I love it, but still a sense of accomplishment non the less.  The Silver Chair is the most quest like of stories in the Chronicles of Narnia and continues the adventures of Eustace Scrubb whom we met in the last book and is joined by Jill Pole in this adventure.

Eustace and Jill (or Scrubb and Pole as they call each other for most of the book) are being tormented by bullies at an experimental school both children are attending.  In desperation they try a gate in a wall that is always locked, of course that would be no fun in an adventure book, so of low and behold the door opens.  The children find themselves in a completely different land, high atop an impossibly tall mountain.  Jill shows of for Eustace by walking the edge of a cliff, but loses her balance.  Eustace grabs her but ends up falling
over the edge himself.  Jill is understandably distraught, between being stuck in this strange land and now her only companion plunging to his doom, and to top it all off a giant lion is between her and the only source of water.  The lion of course turns out to be Aslan, who gives Jill several signs to aid her on her quest to find the missing prince, for that is why Aslan called the children to Narnia.  Aslan sends Jill down the mountain on his breath (he did the same for Eustace, so no smashed children in this story).  They are immediately taken to the castle and told the tragic story of the missing prince.  The King (who is the now elderly Caspian of earlier stories) and his beloved Queen had a son Rilian who was the crown Prince of Narnia.  One day about 10 years prior, the Queen, Prince and a group of people went out for a picnic.  The Queen was tired so they moved away from a little fountain in a glade so she could rest.  The Queen while resting was bitten by a vile green snake and died from the poison.  Rilian vowed revenge and started to seek the snake.  After several weeks of going out on his own the Prince appeared to start acting strangely, claiming to have met a beautiful woman, and then he disappeared and no trace of him appeared in the 10 years hence.  King Caspian and many brave men searched high and low for the missing Prince, but none of them men who sent off to find him ever returned.  With no heir for the kingdom, the elderly King Caspian has set sail for the utter East to ask Aslan who should be King when he is gone.  The children are given to the care of a Marsh-Wiggle named Puddleglum (I just want to say these are

the best type of words ever!)  Puddleglum is a morose frog like man who lives in the cold northern marshes.  While he may be a wet blanket, he proves himself brave, smart and loyal on many occasions.  The group travels north, led by the signs that Aslan has given to Jill.  The farther north they travel, the colder and harder it gets.  They pass by crude giants having rock fights and eventually come to a massive bridge that spans the chasm.  On this bridge they meet a fair lady in a green dress and a knight in who is covered from head to toe in black armour.  The lady tells the group to go to the castle Harfang and present themselves for the Autumn Feast compliments of the Lady of the Green Kirtle.  The children are very excited about the prospect of a warm meal and a bed to sleep in, because no matter how great adventures sound in books, the reality of sleeping on the hard ground in the middle of winter with nothing but the food you hunt to eat is actually kind of miserable.  Puddleglum has his reservations but sticks with the children.  They arrive at the castle and are treated like pets (this is one of my favorite chapters for the descriptions of all the ways they use the giant things for little people).  Eventually they discover that they are actually meant to be made into pie for the feast...to be eaten.  They make their escape and end up very deep underground, captives of the Earthmen, various beings who live deep in the earth.  They are brought to an underground castle and greeted by a human man.  The young man seems odd to the children and he tells them that he is under an enchantment that turns him into a raving madman for one hour every day and that he must be bound to the silver chair to help ease the enchantment.  When the time comes the young man is bound to the chair, but

during his "madness" the group discovers that he is actually the lost Prince Rilian.  They loose the Prince, who promptly destroys the Silver Chair, freeing him from the witches enchantment.  The witch (who turns out to be the fair lady who sent them to the giants to be eaten) returns and is defeated by the group which now includes the Prince. The group quickly makes their way up through the earth, stopping to watch the Earthmen return to their even deeper under ground homes (in which jewels are living and can be squeezed into a juice...awesome!)  The group breaks through to Narnia and Rilian returns just in time to say good-bye to his dying father.  Aslan allows the children to scare the bullies just enough to keep them from hurting anybody else and then returns them to their own home.

Another great entry in the Chronicles of Narnia.  As I said earlier, this is the most traditional "quest" type story, with a very specific set of instructions to follow, and consequences when they are messed up.  I love how CS Lewis shows you the whole world, not just the part that is considered Narnia proper, but the everything surrounding it, this is even more apparent in the next book.  My favorite parts of this book were the idea of being floated down on the breath of Aslan, taking hours to safety reach the ground, it was a trick I used to get myself to sleep when I was younger, imagining I was floating down the mountain.  I love the scenes at the giants castle, mostly 'cause I love stories about giants and how little people adapt to that environment.  I also loved the idea of living jewels and viable metals, great visuals.  I hope you are all enjoying my walk down nostalgia lane, and thank you for bearing with my long-winded ramblings.  Happy Reading!