The Stone Table Sacrifice
Aslan's death on the Stone Table in Edmund's place, and his return.
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Aslan gives his life to save Edmund, who had betrayed his brother and sisters to the White Witch. Susan and Lucy secretly follow him to the Stone Table and watch from a distance as the Witch kills him; mice later gnaw through his bonds, and the next morning he is alive again.
Quick Facts
- Book
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
- Place
- The Stone Table
- Witnesses
- Susan and Lucy
Lore & Background
The scene is the book's clearest Christian allegory: Aslan is shaved, bound and stabbed on a stone altar, much as Jesus was beaten, humiliated and crucified. Lewis's version differs in places: Aslan dies to save Edmund alone rather than all of Narnia, and he is dead for one night rather than until the third day. The freeing of his body by mice recalls Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum", where rats gnaw through a prisoner's bonds.
More in Mythos & History
Elsewhere in Narnia
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