The Silver Chair

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis, 1953 Geoffrey Bles

     Eustace Scrubb has returned to school after his first trip to Narnia. When he and his friend Jill Pole are running from bullies they suddenly find themselves in Narnia, but in a place Eustace has never seen: Aslan's land near a cliff. Jill tries to show off, but Eustace falls off the cliff. Aslan appears and tells Jill they have been summoned to find the heir Prince Rilian. He tells her the task was made the more difficult when Eustace fell, now she'll have to remember the Four Signs on her own. Aslan then blows her to meet Eustace in Narnia proper with a gust of breath.
     Eustace is taken to the Owl Council who decide that if the children are going to go on such a dangerous journey someone needs to go with them. Puddleglum, a marsh-wiggle, is chosen to join them. They leave from the Narnian marshes North to Ettinsmoor where the giants live.
     They encountered a woman in a fluttering green dress accompanied by a knight in dark armor who remained silent. The woman introduced herself as the Lady of the Green Kirtle and sent the children to a castle where friendly giants supposedly lived. The group rushed there, heedless of the Signs Aslan had given them, in their desire for a warm bath and comfortable bed. When they were trying to escape Jill found a cookbook open to the page for "Man" and a section on Marsh-wiggle, the trio hurried to make plans to escape. They managed to get free, but were trapped in the Underland.
     Lost, Jill, Puddleglum, and Eustace run into Earthmen, natives of Underland. The Earthmen take them across a sunless sea and to a dark castle where they find the Lady of the Green Kirtle again: the queen of Underland. The dark knight sits with them while they wait for the Lady, but Earthmen come into the room and tie him to a Silver Chair warning the travelers to leave him there regardless of what he says. When the knight speaks the words of the last sign the children release him, for fear of messing up the fourth sign like the first three. The knight rises and destroys the chair, then introduces himself as Prince Rilian of Narnia.
     When the Lady does arrive she tries to enchant the group with sweet-smelling smoke and a stringed instrument. They do not give in, angering the witch. She turns into a green serpent and attacks Rilian; he fights her off and though she was coiled around Rilian, the group manages to kill her. A chasm opens to the land of Bism and the disenchanted Earthmen go home through it.
     The four hurry through the tunnel the Lady commanded the Earthmen to dig, a passage of conquest leading to Narnia. Rilian is able to arrive at the castle at Cair Paravel in time to see his father, Caspian X whom Eustace and his cousins had traveled with. Caspian recognizes his son and Rilian is able to take his proper place as king. The children return home and, with the help of Aslan and Caspian, frighten off the bullies chasing them.

     This is one of the less busy of Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, with much of the novel taken with travel. However, the story has important themes of identity, persistence, and faithfulness to purpose. The story is written to middle elementary, but some of the themes are better geared toward older readers--eleven to thirteen years.