The Silver Chair: Chapter 6 “The Wild Waste Lands of the North”

C.S. Lewis Read-Along, Vol. 4, Issue 7

Background: If Lewis drew from Deuteronomy 6 when writing about Aslan’s signs, then this chapter shows what happens when we fail to regularly immerse ourselves in God’s Word. We struggle to be who He has created us to be. Not only does His Word guide us, it shapes us as we engage with it.

Quote: “… whatever the Lady had intended by telling them about Harfang, the actual effect on the children was a bad one. They could think about nothing but beds and baths and hot meals and how lovely it would be to get indoors. They never talked about Aslan, or even about the lost prince, now. And Jill gave up her habit of repeating the signs over to herself every night and morning. She said to herself, at first, that she was too tired, but she soon forgot all about it.”

Pauline Baynes illustration

At the beginning of the chapter, the children experience Puddleglum’s unfounded pessimism. Previously, Eustace lashed out at the marshwiggle’s dire pronouncements, but he did so without any real experience outside of the taste of their meal or the comfort of the wigwam.

But in the last chapter, Puddleglum says they’ll have to travel to Ettinsmoor. “But there’s a river between it and us; the river Shribble. No bridges, of course.” After Eustace questions him, Puddleglum admits that the river “has been forded.” Now, as they start their journey, they’re all able to cross the “shallow, noisy stream” with even Jill not getting wet above her knees. They certainly need the marshwiggle’s perspective, but he gives them reason to doubt him by being overly pessimistic.

Eustace thought they could travel by the easy path, but Puddleglum takes them up a steeper path to the top of the gorge. This is where the marshwiggle is needed. They would’ve gone by the way that seemed easier from the outset but would become more dangerous.

Jill still misunderstands adventures. She’s had a nice, if slightly strenuous walk, and says she might now enjoy adventures. Puddleglum reminds her they haven’t had any yet. On cue, their journey becomes more treacherous.

Jill believes she sees rock formations that caused people to tell stories about giants. This is an important presupposition from which Jill is operating. Based on her education, she simply assumed that giants weren’t real, even as she has traveled to this new world with talking animals and creatures called marshwiggles.

This is the perspective the Queen of the Underworld will try to exploit later in the story, tempting Jill and the others to dismiss all they can’t see as a made-up story. Lewis is trying to equip his readers to fight that temptation.