I Hope This Makes It In The Movie

There are several pages of my copy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that are dog-eared, choice passages waiting to be re-read. Here is one of my favorites, that I hope makes it into the movie.

The setting is this: the Pevensie children have just stumbled into Narnia together (Lucy and Edmund have been there already), and they have spotted Mr. Beaver hiding in a thick stand of trees. Curious, they investigate, and Mr. Beaver tells them the sad story of Mr. Tumnus’ demise and the instructions given to him concerning the children:

“That’s right,” said the Beaver. “Poor fellow, he got wind of the arrest before it actually happened and handed this over to me. He said that if anything happened to him I must meet you here and take on to–” Here the Beaver’s voice sank into silence and it gave one or two mysterious nods. Then signaling to the children to stand as close around it as they possibly could, so that their faces were actually tickled by its whiskers, it added in a low whisper–

“They say Aslan is on the move–perhaps has already landed.”

And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feel as if it had some enormous meaning–either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain fo music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.

(pp. 67-68)

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