Lucy's Cordial



"In this bottle, there is a cordial made of the juice of the fire-flowers that grow in the mountains of the sun. If you or any of your friends are hurt, a few drops will restore them."

- Father Christmas

Queen Lucy's Cordial was the prize possession of Lucy Pevensie when she reigned in Narnia as Queen Lucy the Valiant. It was a small bottle filled with a very powerful medicinal potion, and it proved extremely valuable on many Narnian adventures.

Background
The cordial was made from the juice of Fire-Flowers that grew in the mountains of the Sun. A few drops would cure almost any illness or wound, and could even bring people back from the brink of death. It was carried by Lucy in a pouch whose strap slung over her shoulder like a purse. The bottle apparently contained a limited amount of cordial, so it had to be used sparingly; during the time the Pevensies ruled Narnia, Lucy was ordered by Peter not to carry it commonly to war, but to save it for great extremities.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Lucy received the cordial, along with her dagger, from Father Christmas in 1000 NY, at the end of the Age of Winter. She carried it with her during the First Battle of Beruna, where she used it to heal many people, including her brother Edmund who was near death.

After she was crowned Queen Lucy the Valiant, she did not always carry the cordial with her, evidenced by her not having it during the Battle of Anvard.

Lucy apparently left the cordial in Narnia when the Pevensies returned to England fifteen years later.

The Horse and His Boy
When the dwarf Thornbut fell and sprained his ankle while brawling with prince Corin, Lucy said "If I had but my cordial with me, I could soon mend this. But the High King has so strictly charged me not to carry it commonly to the wars and to keep it only for great extremities!".

Prince Caspian
Lucy recovered the cordial from the royal treasure vault in Cair Paravel when the children returned to Narnia some thirteen centuries later to aid Caspian X. The bottle was still more than half full of the cordial, and she used in to heal a painful wound sustained by Trumpkin the Dwarf. The cordial also saw use after the Second Battle of Beruna, specifically to heal Reepicheep's many battle wounds. She left it in Narnia again when the Pevensies returned home. Afterward, it was regarded by Caspian as a royal treasure.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Caspian took the cordial with him when he sailed on the Dawn Treader, and he returned it to Lucy when she, Edmund and Eustace returned to Narnia via a magic picture. Eustace ended up suffering from seasickness after only a short time aboard the ship, so Lucy used a drop of the cordial to cure him of his ailment.

As a dragon, Eustace had a gold ring stuck on one foreleg. Lucy used her cordial on his leg to ease the pain, but it could not help with the ring still cutting into his flesh. When the trio and Reepicheep traveled to the Utter East, she gave it back to Caspian, where it remained a Narnian treasure supposedly until the end of the world.

Description
Different adaptions have portrayed the cordial in different ways: In the BBC versions, the bottle was cone-shaped and small enough to be carried on a fine golden chain around Lucy's neck, like a pendant.

In the films by Disney/Walden Media, the bottle was somewhat larger and elaborately decorated with engraving. The pouch was made of red leather and attached to the same belt that held Lucy's dagger.

Uses in films
In the Disney/Walden Media films, the cordial was used in much the same manner as it was in the books. The one exception was that it was not used to heal the wound caused by the gold ring that Eustace had stuck on his leg when he was a dragon. Lucy was able to remove that ring without any help, and his leg was not hurt.

Also, Trumpkin's wound in the Prince Caspian movie was a lot more severe than it was in the book, since he was near death.