LITERARY ANALYSIS
Son of Adam can sit on Narnia’s throne. For King Caspian to fail
to return from his adventure would certainly cause problems in
this newly reformed kingdom.
This seems to be the best explanation for seeing how The Voy-
age of the ‘Dawn Treader’ fits in the scheme mentioned before.
There is, however, a problem with this theory. It suggests that
Narnia is “stirred and upset” whenever there is merely a poten-
tial for such unrest. But under this standard, Narnia would con-
stantly be in a state that would fit Jewel’s description. This is
nonsense. So what is it in The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ that
causes unrest in Narnia?
Narnia, in fact, does nearly lose its king in another way. It would
have been one thing for Caspian to have been killed liberating the
Lone Islands, drowned in the storms, slain by a dragon, crushed
by the sea serpent, or fallen prey to any of the other calamities he
and his crew narrowly escape from. Under such circumstances,
seeking to fulfill his oath to solve the mysterious disappearance
of the seven Narnian lords, any of these deaths would have been
glorious and part of the risk of the voyage. But the gravest danger
to Narnia comes at the tail end of the ship’s eastward journey.
Narnia is under a form of peace, but unrest bubbles under the
surface in the person of Caspian, Narnia’s head.
Caspian tries to leave Narnia behind and to go on with Reep-
icheep to the end of the world. At this, his comrades call him out
and tell him that he must not abdicate his position as king. Reep-
icheep drives this home by saying that he must not break faith with
Trumpkin, whom Caspian had left in Cair Paravel as his vicegerent.
‘If it please your Majesty, we mean shall not,’ said Reepicheep with a very
low bow. ‘You are the King of Narnia. You break faith with all your subjects,
and especially with Trumpkin, if you do not return. You shall not please
yourself with adventures as if you were a private person. And if your Maj-
esty will not hear reason it will be the truest loyalty of every man on board
to follow me in disarming and binding you till you come to your senses.’ 4
In all the other stories, the danger or unrest that the children
find Narnia in are all external, evil people and forces working
against the kingdom. But in The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’,
the peril is from the core, or rather the head, of the kingdom
itself. The danger that threatens Narnia is that Caspian would be
allowed to forget and forsake his loyalty.
It could also be said that Caspian was in danger of losing his
first loyalty. As King of Narnia, his allegiance is first and foremost
to Aslan himself. Aslan had set him up as the King of the land
and people of Narnia, and had Caspian abdicated that estab-
lishment, then he would have abandoned Aslan, even under the
pretence of seeking Aslan’s country.
4
5
6
7
In fact, there are hints at this throughout The Voyage of the
‘Dawn Treader’. Many of the adventures over the course of the
quest test the loyalty of one or more members of the party, or
at least focuses on loyalty in some other way. The very first ad-
venture, the retaking of the
Lone Islands, of course is
about Caspian establishing
While there are
his kingdom and the loyalty
of his subjects on the fringes many dangers over the
of his realm. The next clear
course of the voyage,
instance of a test of loyalty
there are none that
is on the island where Eus-
particularly threaten
tace is turned into a dragon.
Eustace is selfish and greedy
the kingdom. So, is
like a dragon, and not at all
The Voyage of the ‘Dawn
loyal to the crew he’s been
placed on (more on this lat-
Treader’ an anomaly?
er). This is contrasted with
the crew’s loyalty to him
when he goes missing. As Reepicheep says, “The creature is no
friend of mine but he is of the Queen’s blood, and while he is
one of our fellowship it concerns our honor to find him and to
avenge him if he is dead.” 5
Later on, the loyalty of Caspian and Edmund to one another
is tested at Deathwater Island, and it is Aslan himself that ap-
pears to remind them of this. And Lucy’s loyalty to is tested twice
in the Magician’s room. When she reads (or rather, watches) the
spell about beauty beyond the lot of mortals, her jealousy to-
wards her sister is made manifest. Is she more loyal to her sister,
her family, or to herself and her selfish desires? It is Aslan’s growl-
ing face in the book that convicts her of her wicked thoughts.
When she discovers through the magical eavesdropping how
Marjorie Preston was talking about her behind her back, she
loses it. She thinks of herself as having been incredibly loyal to
Marjorie (“And I did all sorts of things for her last term, and I
stuck to her when not many other girls would” 6 ), even though
she just betrayed all that through “spying on [her] by magic”. 7
There is also a sense of loyalty in the episode near the Dark Is-
land. Everyone begins to hear his nightmares coming true, and
in desperation, Lucy cries out to Aslan. Aslan comes in the form
of an albatross which leads them out of the darkness. If they stay
true to Aslan, if they follow him instead of succumbing to their
fears, he will lead them through any danger.
All of this leads to the final test of loyalty, and again, this is
where we find the real threat to Narnia’s peace. There have been
murmurs of disloyalty, of not following Aslan, throughout the
Voyage, 261.
Voyage, 94.
Voyage, 170.
Ibid., 167.
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