What happens in Chapter 15 of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Susan and Lucy sit beside Aslan's body on the Stone Table, keeping watch through the cold, dark hours before dawn. Overwhelmed with grief and exhaustion, they stroke his mane and lean against his warm fur. As the sky starts to brighten, the ground shakes, and the Stone Table splits with a thunderous crack. Aslan is gone. The girls turn to see him standing behind them—alive, larger, and more golden than ever, his mane fully restored. He tells them that the White Witch knew the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time, which called for a traitor's blood, but she didn't understand the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time: when an innocent victim willingly dies in place of a traitor, Death itself reverses course. Aslan then invites Susan and Lucy to climb onto his back, and he gallops joyfully across the countryside with them, arriving at the Witch's castle. There, he breathes life back into the stone statues—including Mr. Tumnus—restoring them to life, and the newly freed Narnians prepare to march to assist Peter on the battlefield.
Analysis
C. S. Lewis crafts this chapter as a clear contrast to the despair of the previous one, and the skill lies in how effectively he reverses the tone. The Stone Table—introduced earlier as a site of sacrifice—shatters at the moment its role is surpassed, illustrating Lewis's theological point: the old law isn't just broken; it's made irrelevant by a greater one. Instead of declaring the tonal shift, Lewis uses sensory details to convey it. The girls' sorrow is expressed through small, tactile actions—stroking fur, touching cold stone—and the announcement of the resurrection comes not with a flourish but through a crack and a void, making the reader share in the disorientation felt by Susan and Lucy before the joy unfolds.
Lewis also uses pace as a narrative technique. The vigil unfolds slowly, heavy with cold and silence, while the resurrection scene races into a sprint across Narnia, with Lewis employing lively, almost breathless prose to reflect the release of built-up sorrow. The theme of breath is significant here: Aslan breathes life back into the statues just as, in a deeper sense, the Deeper Magic has restored life to him, connecting resurrection with creation.
Additionally, the chapter subtly positions Susan and Lucy as the main witnesses to the novel's essential mystery, a decision that grants them narrative authority at the theological peak of the story and prevents them from being sidelined in a plot that otherwise centers on war.
Key quotes from Chapter 15
“It means that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation.”
Aslan explains to Susan and Lucy the principle that has undone the White Witch's calculation, articulating the novel's central theological conceit.
“Death itself would start working backwards.”
The climactic phrase of Aslan's explanation, distilling the logic of substitutionary sacrifice into a single, arrestingly simple sentence.
“Oh, children, I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!”
Aslan's invitation to play immediately after his resurrection, marking the tonal break from solemnity into exuberant, physical joy.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter 15
- Deeper Magic
- A more ancient law than the Deep Magic, predating the dawn of time, which decrees that a willing, innocent sacrifice will undo death itself.