Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C S Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is usually read as the 5th of the 7 titles which make up the Chronicles of Narnia.
Why should I read this book?
It’s a great story and important component of the Chronicles of Narnia. And since the story is something of an odyssey as the group travel East aboard ship, the different settings they encounter provide opportunities for C S Lewis to put his prodigious imaginative talents to good use. There are penetrating spiritual insights too.
The story in a few sentences
The book opens with the memorable line “There was boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” The book describes the adventures of two of the children we met earlier in the series, Lucy and Edmund, who, along with their initially odious cousin Eustace, are sucked from our world into Narnia to join King Caspian aboard his ship, the Dawn Treader at the start of a great adventure
Together they sail east looking for seven good lords who had been loyal to Caspian’s father but who were driven away by the wicked King Miraz. One of the party, the talking mouse, Reepicheep, is also longing for something more – for “Aslan’s own country”. They have many adventures on the way....
There is a lot in the book for the reader to enjoy and mull over:
1. Un-dragoned:
The story of how Eustace becomes a dragon but then is restored and changed for the better after an encounter with Aslan is, for me, the best picture anywhere outside of the Bible of repentance and conversion.
He had turned into a dragon while he was asleep. Sleeping on a dragon’s hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.
In Chapter 8, Eustace tells Edmund how Aslan restored him by taking him to a large well in the mountains and telling him to undress. With difficulty Eustace manages to shed a layer of his dragon skin, but then finds another layer beneath. He repeats the exercise twice more, but, each time, with the same result. By now, Eustace is desperate for help, so he accepts the lion’s offer to help undress him. This is how Eustace described what happened next:
Then the lion said... “you will have to let me undress you”. I was rather afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So, I just lay flat down on my back and 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....
Well he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times... And there was I smooth and soft 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 become perfectly delicious.... I’d turned into a boy again.
2. A retired star (as in a sun, not a celebrity)
In Chapter 14 they meet a remarkable old man called Ramandu who tells them he is a retired star. This sets Eustace thinking about what a star is in our world.
“In our world”, said Eustace, “a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.”
Ramandu replies:
“Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is but only what it is made of....
There is a tantalising hint here of a different attitude to the natural world. Western, materialistic cultures do indeed tend to view nature in terms of its composition. But those who believe in God sense that the natural world has something to say about its Creator. Thus, a star is indeed more than a ball of flaming gas.
3. As valiant as a mouse
Reepicheep is a glorious example of someone who longs for a better world and pursues that doggedly and delightedly. Early in the book we learn that while Caspian’s purpose is to find his father’s friends, Reepicheep set his sights even higher:
Why should we not come to the very Eastern end of the world? And what might we find there? I expect to find Aslan’s own country.
He cherishes a verse spoken over him in the cradle and longs passionately for its consummation.
I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life.
This longing in his heart is powerful and comes to the fore again in Chapter 14 when the group discusses the final stage of their odyssey. Reepicheep declares:
My own plans are made. While I can, I sail East in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise...
Reepicheep’s perseverance and determination are in stark contrast to that of one of the crew of the Dawn Treader who was decidedly reluctant and never made it to the end of the World. Lewis describes what happened to that crew member:
He deserted on the voyage home at the Lone Islands and, and went and lived in Calormen, where he told wonderful stores about his adventures at end of the World, until at last he came to believe them himself. So you may say, in a sense, that he lived happily ever after. But he could never bear mice.
The believer’s longing for their true home – for somewhere good and true and beautiful is a subject C S Lewis developed elsewhere, for example in Weight of Glory. And it’s a rich theme in both the Old and New Testaments.
4. Reaching the end of the road, joyfully
C S Lewis often wrote and spoke about life after death, heaven and hell. Indeed, he had rather more to say about these topics than is common today even amongst those who are pretty orthodox in their Christian beliefs. And he does this with poetry and imagination and desire. Thus, he avoids the common pitfall of claiming to believe in heaven whilst at the same time, not really conveying much joy at the prospect....
As Reepicheep reaches the end of his journey in his world, he expresses a desire for Aslan’s own country which is exuberantly joyful.
Then he bade them goodbye, trying to be sad for their sakes; but he was quivering with happiness...
I think Paul who wrote in Philippians that he longed to be with Christ “which is better by far” would have enjoyed Reepicheep!
5. Discovering Aslan in our world
Of course, at one level, the Narnia books are simply good stories to be enjoyed and savoured by children and adults. But there is clearly more going on. Lewis intended the books to be a medium for faith, a way of smuggling spiritual truth past the “sleeping dragons” of the world, the flesh and the devil. Lewis is explicit about this in the Dawn Treader where, towards the very end of the book Aslan gives Lucy and Edmund some bad news:
“Dearest,” said Aslan very gently, “you and your brother will never come back to Narnia.”
“Oh, Aslan!!” said Edmund and Lucy both together in despairing voices.
... “It isn’t Narnia, you know,” sobbed Lucy. “It’s you. We shan’t meet you there. And how can we live never meeting you?
But you shall meet me, dear one,” said Aslan.
“Are – are you there too. Sir?” said Edmund.
“I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
I’ve enjoyed “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, what’s next?
The next (and sixth) book in the Chronicles of Narnia, is The Silver Chair.....
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Christopher Simpson
Chris Simpson lives in Sheffield, UK, with his wife where they are members of Meadowhead Christian Fellowship. Chris is well-known for his interest in C S Lewis.