Two children, six magic rings, and the birth of a world.
Who drives the story
A boy carrying two heavy things: a dying mother and a burning curiosity. His impulsive ring of the bell dooms Narnia to a Witch; his obedience in the garden partly redeems it. He grows up to be the Professor in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Digory's sensible next-door friend, the first to vanish and the first to say don't. She is the voice of caution in every bad decision Digory makes, and his friend for life.
A minor magician who experiments on children because he assumes they don't count as people. Dragged through worlds by his own rings, he ends the book reformed and magic-free.
Empress of Charn, giant and terrible, who killed her whole world with a word to avoid losing a war. She becomes the White Witch of the later books, immortal and miserable in the north.
The lion whose song sings Narnia into existence, stars first and talking beasts after. He assigns Digory the apple task and turns a cab-horse into a winged one.
A London cabby and his wife, swept into Narnia by accident and crowned its first King and Queen, ancestors of the Archenlanders.
Digory's gravely ill mother, the reason he's in London and the bait in Jadis's temptation. The apple Aslan permits heals her.
Also in the story
Formerly Strawberry the cab-horse; Aslan makes him wings and he carries Digory and Polly to the western garden.
How they are connected
Digory's sensible next-door friend, the first to vanish and the first to say don't.
He assigns Digory the apple task and turns a cab-horse into a winged one.
Formerly Strawberry the cab-horse; Aslan makes him wings and he carries Digory and Polly to the western garden.
Formerly Strawberry the cab-horse; Aslan makes him wings and he carries Digory and Polly to the western garden.
Formerly Strawberry the cab-horse; Aslan makes him wings and he carries Digory and Polly to the western garden.
Digory's gravely ill mother, the reason he's in London and the bait in Jadis's temptation.
Digory's gravely ill mother, the reason he's in London and the bait in Jadis's temptation.
The apple Aslan permits heals her.
Go deeper
Temptation and the forbidden fruit · Heart's desire, badly gotten · Creation and natural order · Curiosity and responsibility
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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