The Magician's Nephew

The Magician's Nephew was the sixth book published in the The Chronicles of Narnia. It was originally published in 1955 by The Bodley Head, a publishing establishment in England. In more recent editions of The Chronicles of Narnia, the books have been re-ordered with The Magician's Nephew as the first book.

Arc Advancement
A crucial book in terms of Narnian history, of course, as all of Narnia is created in this book. The reader is also introduced to young Digory and the witch Jadis, both of which will prove to be important characters in other books.

Controversy
In the 1990s, book publishers started putting this one first in sequence, since it's the first story to happen chronologically. However, many fans disagree with this numbering, arguing that readers should start instead with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (the first published book), since many surprises are revealed in Magician's that would later pay off in Lion.

Characters

 * Polly Plummer


 * Digory Kirke


 * Andrew Ketterley


 * Jadis


 * Letitia Ketterly


 * Sarah


 * King Frank


 * Queen Helen


 * Fledge


 * Aslan


 * Jackdaw
 * Mabel
 * Mrs. Lefay mentioned only.

Plot
Young Digory Kirke lives in a house in London around 1900 with his sick mother, his Aunt Letty, and his mysterious Uncle Andrew, while his father is off in India. One day while exploring the back passages of the house with his friend Polly Plummer, they open a door and find themselves in Uncle Andrew’s study. Uncle Andrew offers Polly a yellow ring, but when she touches it, she disappears.

Andrew then explains to the astonished Digory that the ring was a magic ring, able to transport a person to another world. Rather than try it himself, he has tricked Polly into going. The only way for Polly to get back is for Digory to go there himself and take Polly a green ring, which can transport them back. Furious at his uncle’s cowardly and manipulative behavior, Digory nevertheless realizes he must rescue Polly, so he puts two green rings in his pocket before picking up another yellow ring, and vanishes.

He materializes standing in a pool of water, in a quiet forest dotted with other pools. Polly is nearby. He explains how they got there, and they are about to use the green rings to return when Digory has an idea. Maybe each of the pools in the forest is a magic portal to another world, like their pool is a portal to Earth. They experiment and find that the green rings can transport them to other worlds, including back to Earth, while the yellow rings transport them back to the Wood between the Worlds. Assured that they can get back home again, they try exploring one of the other pools.

The release of Jadis
They materialize outside a ruined palace on a lifeless world with a red sun. They explore the palace and find a hall of very human-like statues of kings and queens. There is a bell with an inscription inviting travellers to ring it, which Digory does, against Polly's vociferous objections. The statue of a tall, cruel queen comes to life. She tells them her name is Jadis, the last Empress of the empire of Charn. She explains how her world became lifeless: long ago she and her sister were rivals, and fought a worldwide civil war for the throne of Charn. When Jadis lost, she used a magical ‘weapon of mass destruction’, an evil incantation called the Deplorable Word, which destroyed all life on Charn except her. She has been waiting in suspended animation for millenia for travellers to come by, and demands that they take her back to Earth with them.

Digory and Polly try to escape her by using the rings, but Jadis grabs Polly’s hair and transports with them, first to the Wood between the Worlds, then back to Earth. Back in Uncle Andrew’s study, she begins ordering people around, and planning to take over the world. She leaves with Uncle Andrew to get clothes. Meanwhile, Digory and Polly hatch a plan to get Jadis off Earth. Jadis returns, driving a hansom cab like a chariot. Digory grabs Jadis, while Polly, holding his hand, touches her ring. They are successful, and all three are teleported to the Wood between the Worlds. Unfortunately, everyone else touching Jadis – Uncle Andrew, Frank the cabbie, Strawberry the horse, and even the cab – is transported with them. In the Wood, Strawberry walks into another pool to drink, and the group is accidently transported to a new world.

The creation of Narnia
This world is dark, and bare, and they witness it’s ‘creation’. A Voice begins singing, and as it sings the contents of the world come into being; first the stars, moon, and sun, then plants and animals spring up from the ground. The Singer is revealed to be a lion, Aslan. Spirits such as Naiads and Dryads, and dwarves, appear. Aslan breathes intelligence into some of the animals and they become talking animals. Aslan tells them, "I give you this land of Narnia forever".

The children love Aslan instantly, but Andrew and Jadis hate him. Jadis throws an iron bar, which she had torn off a lamp-post in London, at Aslan, but it doesn’t hurt him at all. Terrified, she runs off into the wilderness. Under the influence of Aslan’s song, the bar lying on the ground grows into a full sized Lamp-post.

The quest for the apple
Meanwhile, Aslan calls a council of the inhabitants of Narnia. He calls the children over and explains that they have brought an evil witch, Jadis, into his innocent new world, and that trouble will come of it, but the trouble won't happen for many years, and he will take the worst of it on himself. He asks the children if they are willing to try to amend the evil that they have caused. They are to travel north into Narnia and find a garden, with a magical apple tree in it, and bring him back an apple from it. To help them, he turns the cabbie’s horse, Strawberry, into a flying horse, and renames him Fledge.

Digory and Polly ride on Fledge’s back far into the northern wilderness of Narnia, and find the garden, and Digory goes in. However he finds Jadis has gotten there first, and eaten an apple. She tempts him to eat also, saying that they give eternal life, but Digory refuses. Then the witch offers a far worse temptation. An apple from the tree, taken back to Earth, would cure his mother of her illness. How could he forgive himself, if he didn’t take one for her? Digory finally decides to obey Aslan, and refuses, but is struck to the heart with guilt and misery.

They return to Aslan with the apple, and he praises them. He has them plant it in the ground, where it quickly grows into a full sized tree, the Tree of Protection. Aslan tells them that the apple Jadis ate will indeed give her endless life, but she will hate the smell of the apples forever after, so the tree will protect Narnia from her for hundreds of years. He invites the cabbie Frank to stay in Narnia and makes him the first king, King Frank, after bringing his wife Helen from Earth to join him.

Aslan tells Digory that stealing an apple without permission, as Jadis tempted him, would indeed have cured his mother, but that the resulting evil would have made them eventually wish that she had died. As reward for his obedience, he gives Digory permission to take an apple to his mother. Digory picks an apple from the tree, then he and Polly return to Earth, bringing Uncle Andrew with them. They destroy the magic rings so Andrew can’t do any more mischief with them. Digory feeds his mother the apple, and she recovers from her illness.

On impulse, they plant the seeds from the magic apple in Digory’s back yard, and a magnificent apple tree grows up. Many years later when it blows down, the adult Digory has it cut up and made into a wardrobe. This is the origin of the wardrobe that was the access portal to Narnia for the Pevensies in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.