The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis, 1952 Geoffrey Bles

     Edmund and Lucy have traveled to Narnia twice before, but when they and their cruel cousin Eustace Scrubb are drawn through a photograph at their aunt's home it is Eustace's first trip into the fantastical world. They find themselves on a ship, the Dawn Treader, with King Caspian X, whom they had helped regain his throne. Caspian has left Narnia in the capable hands of the dwarf Trumpkin and is sailing to the Eastern edge of the world searching for the Noble Lords. Lords Revilian, Bern, Argoz, Mavramorn, Octesian, Restimar, and Rhoop were sent away by Caspian's Uncle Miraz after his father's death.
     Reepicheep, however, joined the voyage in search of Aslan's land beyond the end of the world. Reepicheep is a Mouse, a talking mouse with a vindictive edge and the sword to back it up.
     Caspian, Reepicheep, and the children decide to explore one of the smaller Lone Islands (some of Narnia's tribute states), but before they get very far they are captured by slave dealers. Before they can be loaded onto the slave-ship a well dressed man buys Caspian. He reveals himself to be Lord Bern and Caspian reveals his own identity--together they work to get Edmund, Lucy, Eustance, and Reepicheep back. Caspian goes to the governor and finds him lacking; he requires the previous 150 years' unpaid tribute and abolishes slavery. When the governor cannot fulfill his obligations, Caspian replaces him with Lord Bern.
     The Dawn Treader and her passengers move beyond the Lone Islands. When a two-week storm empties their stores, tempers become short. The crew spots an island and go ashore to replenish their supplies. Eustace goes into the mountains to avoid work and becomes lost, he falls into a valley where he discovers a dragon. The dragon keels over and dies, to Eustace's relief, and a rainstorm drives Eustace into his treasure-filled cave. Eustace fills his pockets with gold and slips an arm-ring up his arm, then falls alseep. When he wakes he is a dragon. Eustace discovers he can fly and goes to the ship for help, startling the Dawn Treader's crew. Caspian recognizes the arm-ring as Lord Octesian's and the group accepts Eustance-the-dragon rather than fighting him. Aslan himself comes to help change the repentant Eustace back into a boy and the Dawn Treader departs Dragon Island.
     Eustace begins to become a more friendly as his changed attitude is noticed and praised. They encounter another Lord turned to gold in a pool, Reepicheep names the island Deathwater Island and they move on. The next landing is the island of the Dufflepods. Caspian, Lucy, Eustace, Reepicheep, and Edmund go ashore and Lucy discovers a race of creatures turned invisible when they refused to do work for a magician. They need Lucy to read the spell to make them visible again because it was one of their young girls who made them invisible. Lucy makes them visible, and Aslan brings her to meet the magician: a star fallen from the sky, who shows her the creatures she made visible again--one legged creatures bouncing around the yard. Coriakin, the star, repairs damage done to the Dawn Treader and makes a magical map of the lands Caspian has already explored. Coriakin also shares that seven years before a ship with the Lords Revilian, Argoz, Mavramorn, and Rhoop had continued beyond his island, naming the golden lord as Restimar.
     After some time, the Dawn Treader encounters a misty shape of an island. As the ship drew closer the skies became dark as if by magic. A mysterious man appears and reveals the island is a land where dreams come true, even the nightmares. He identifies himself as Lord Rhoop, and when the crew looks back to where the island was, it has vanished.
     The Narnians continue beyond the site of the vanished island and find another land, when Caspian, Reepicheep, Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace go ashore they find a table laden with foods of all sorts. At the table are three men in an enchanted sleep, the group assumes it was a result of eating the food, but a young woman appears and says it was a quarrel in which one of them touched the knife Aslan used at the Stone Table that caused their deep sleep. When Caspian asked how to remove the enchantment the young woman's father appeared. The woman and her father sang the dawn, and the old man introduced himself as Ramandu, another former star. He explained the group must sail to the end of the world and leave a member of their party there: Reepicheep is delighted.
     The Dawn Treader and her passengers continue on toward the much-larger sun. When Reepicheep dives overboard to battle a mer-king he discovers the sea is sweet rather than salty. He takes it to mean they are near to Aslan's land: Reepicheep's ultimate goal. They sail through miles and miles of lilies, and Aslan appears to Caspian telling him to send Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, and Reepicheep on, but to return home to Narnia. The children and Rat continue on and run aground before a giant wave, and Reepicheep continues over the ever moving wave never to be seen again.
     The children encounter Aslan and learn Lucy and Edmund are growing too old to return. When Lucy asks if Eustace will return, Aslan says it is not hers to know. They are transported back to the room in England, and Caspian returns to Narnia with Ramandu's daughter where they marry and have many sons who become kings.
     The journey shows how Narnia changes Eustace. Lucy and Edmund have already been changed by the land, becoming more confident and assured. Caspian has grown and changed since their last journey to Narnia. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was aimed toward eight-year-olds, but the reach stretches to readers of all ages.