A Year with Aslan: Daily Reflections from The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

Magician’s Nephew
    As Aslan calls the animals to “awake,” what three things does he command them to do? Why is this ordering significant? How would you measure yourself by these three commands?

 
    F EBRUARY 7
    Adam’s Flesh and Adam’s Bone
    “When Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone
    Sits at Cair Paravel in throne ,
    The evil time will be over and done.
    “So things must be drawing near their end now [Aslan’s] come and you’ve come[, said Mr. Beaver]. We’ve heard of Aslan coming into these parts before—long ago, nobody can say when. But there’s never been any of your race here before.”
    “That’s what I don’t understand, Mr. Beaver,” said Peter, “I mean isn’t the Witch herself human?”
    “She’d like us to believe it,” said Mr. Beaver, “and it’s on that that she bases her claim to be Queen. But she’s no Daughter of Eve. She comes of your father Adam’s”—(here Mr. Beaver bowed) “your father Adam’s first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn. That’s what she comes from on one side. And on the other she comes of the giants. No, no, there isn’t a drop of real human blood in the Witch.”
    “That’s why she’s bad all through, Mr. Beaver,” said Mrs. Beaver.
    “True enough, Mrs. Beaver,” replied he, “there may be two views about humans (meaning no offense to the present company). But there’s no two views about things that look like humans and aren’t.”
    “I’ve known good Dwarfs,” said Mrs. Beaver.
    “So’ve I, now you come to speak of it,” said her husband, “but precious few, and they were the ones least like men. But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.”
    —The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
    How could Mr. Beaver’s advice about watching out for anything that used to be human or ought to be human be applicable to our world?

 
    F EBRUARY 8
    Do Not Destroy Yourself
    [A RAVIS SAID ,] “ NOW it came to pass that my father’s wife, my stepmother, hated me, and the sun appeared dark in her eyes as long as I lived in my father’s house. And so she persuaded my father to promise me in marriage to Ahoshta Tarkaan. Now this Ahoshta is of base birth, though in these latter years he has won the favor of the Tisroc (may he live forever) by flattery and evil counsels, and is now made a Tarkaan and the lord of many cities and is likely to be chosen as the Grand Vizier when the present Grand Vizier dies. Moreover he is at least sixty years old and has a hump on his back and his face resembles that of an ape. Nevertheless my father, because of the wealth and power of this Ahoshta, and being persuaded by his wife, sent messengers offering me in marriage, and the offer was favorably accepted and Ahoshta sent word that he would marry me this very year at the time of high summer.
    “When this news was brought to me the sun appeared dark in my eyes and I laid myself on my bed and wept for a day. But on the second day I rose up and washed my face and caused my mare Hwin to be saddled and took with me a sharp dagger which my brother had carried in the western wars and rode out alone. And when my father’s house was out of sight and I was come to a green open place in a certain wood where there were no dwellings of men, I dismounted from Hwin my mare and took out the dagger. Then I parted my clothes where I thought the readiest way lay to my heart and I prayed to all the gods that as soon as I was dead I might find myself with my brother. After that I shut my eyes and my teeth and prepared to drive the dagger into my heart. But before I had done so, this mare spoke with the voice of one of the daughters of men and said, ‘O my mistress, do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune but all the dead are dead alike.’