Book # 50

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
by C.S. Lewis

So its been ages since I've read the Narnia series to my boys. My younger ones probably weren't even born yet when I read them last, so it's time. I'm not going to say anything about the first two books, except that they are quite different from the movies. I can see why they changed things; our dear Mr. Lewis lived in a different time, when children hadn't been exposed to every kind of stimulation and violence possible, and thus needed more stimulation in order for it to be interesting. 

Anyway, we are nearly finished with the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and it is very different as well, which is fine, but there was one scene which I would have loved to have stayed the same. It was regarding how Eustace, that horrid cousin of the Pevensies, was changed back to a boy after being a dragon. In the movie he remains a dragon until nearly the end of the movie and is changed back to a boy in a fairly un-dramatic way. In the book he is changed back not even halfway through the story. And how he is changed back is so beautiful to me. I keep reading it, and every time I read it, I cry.

It begins while they are still on Dragon Island, the place where Eustace becomes a dragon. Edmund wakes up in the middle of the night because he hears a noise. He looks around, and sees a person moving in the distance. When he goes to investigate he discovers it is Eustace, who is a boy again. Eustace tells him how he was changed back....

"Well last night I was more miserable than ever. And that beastly arm ring was hurting like anything--"

"Is that all right now?"

Eustace laughed, a different laugh from any Edmund had heard him give before, and he slipped that bracelet easily off his arm. "There is is," he said, "and anyone who likes can have it as far as I'm concerned. Well, as I say, I was lying awake and wondering what on earth would become of me. And then-- but, mind you, it may have been all a dream, I don't know"

"Go on," said Edmund, with considerable patience.

"Well anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly toward me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and neared. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid  of it--if you can understand. Well, it came closer up to me and looked straight into my eyes . And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it."

"You mean it spoke?"

"I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it. And it led me a long way into the mountains. And there was always this moonlight over and round the lion where ever we went. So at last we came to the top of a mountain that I'd never seen before and on the top of this mountain there was a garden--trees and fruit and everything. In the middle of it there was a well."

"I knew it was a well because you could see the water bubbling up from the bottom of it: but it was a lot bigger than most wells--like a very big, round bath with marble steps going down into  it. The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. But the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not."

"I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe."

"But just as I was going to put my foot into the water I looked down and saw that it was all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as it had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this under skin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.

Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good."

"Then the lion said--but I don't know if it spoke-- You will have to let me undress you. I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it."

"The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know-- if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away."

"I know exactly what you mean," said Edmund.

"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off-- just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt-- and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me--I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on-- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd  think me simply phoney if I told you  how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's but I was so glad to see them."

"After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me---"

"Dressed you. With his paws?"

"Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes-- the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. And then suddenly I was back here. Which makes me think it must have been a dream."

"No it wasn't a dream," said Edmund.

"Why not?"

"Well there are the clothes, for one thing. And you have been--well, un-dragoned, for another." 

"What do you think it was, then?" asked Eustace.

"I think you've seen Aslan," said Edmund.

"Aslan!" said Eustace. "I've heard that name mentioned several times since we joined the Dawn Treader. And I felt--I don't know what---I hated it. But I was hating everything then. And by the way, I'd like to apologize. I'm afraid I've been pretty beastly."

"That's all right," said Edmund. "Between ourselves, you haven't been as bad as I was on my first trip to Narnia. You were only an ass, but I was a traitor."

"Well, don't tell me about it, then," said Eustace. But who is Aslan? Do you know him?"

"Well---he knows me," said Edmund. "He is the great Lion, the son of the Emperor over Sea, who saved me and saved Narnia. We've all seen him. Lucy sees him most often. And it may be to Aslan's country we are sailing to....