82 pages • 2 hours read
C. S. LewisPrince Caspian
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1951A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “The Return of the Lion”
Trumpkin and the Pevensie children continue hiking, finding the woods and the gorge difficult terrain to navigate. Tired and irritated, they realize that they will not reach Prince Caspian by evening and consider setting up a camp by the river. The boys recognize the place where they fought the Battle of Beruna, and this motivates them. Suddenly, the group is under attack by flying arrows, and they quickly crawl back along the way they came, finding safety under a large boulder. Trumpkin and the children agree that they should hike back up the gorge as Lucy originally suggested. Peter and Edmund admit that their ideas were wrong, which pleases Lucy.
The children and the dwarf roast their bear meat for supper and happily fall asleep in their open-air camp. Hearing a deep voice, Lucy wakes up. She notices that the trees seem to be moving, and she walks over to them. Lucy realizes that the trees are half-awake and keeps walking through the woods to find the voice. She is overjoyed to see Aslan and runs to greet him with a hug. She blames the others for wasting the day going in the wrong direction, and Aslan tells her that she should have ignored them and walked to him by herself. Aslan instructs Lucy to find the other children and convince them to come to him. While she is upset at having to do this alone, Lucy agrees and returns to camp, where she wakes up her siblings. Peter and Susan ignore her and keep sleeping, but Edmund believes Lucy even though he cannot see Aslan himself.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Lion Roars”
Having now managed to wake up Susan and Peter, Lucy tells her tired siblings about Aslan and is met with “blank silence.” Very reluctantly, Susan, Peter, Trumpkin, and Edmund get up and follow Lucy, who is still the only one who can see Aslan. Aslan leads the group along the edge of the gorge and down a narrow path to the bottom. As the children descend, Peter and Edmund begin to see Aslan’s shadow. Aslan leads the group over the hill and toward Aslan’s How. At this point, Susan can finally see Aslan, and she apologizes to Lucy for not believing her before. Aslan warmly greets the children and forgives them; he then roars at Trumpkin before gently giving him a shake and setting him down again. Trumpkin, who has never believed in talking lions, is awestruck. The trees are now fully awake and surround Aslan, dancing and talking. Other creatures emerge from the woods, and the children feast and dance with them until sunrise.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance”
Trumpkin, Peter, and Edmund arrive at the entrance to the mound to meet Prince Caspian. The badger troop admits them, and the boys follow Trumpkin through dark tunnels, marveling at how old and different everything seems. Nearing the central chamber of the mound, they hear loud voices arguing: Nikabrik, Trufflehunter, and Prince Caspian are deliberating about how to proceed. Nikabrik argues that Prince Caspian’s horn did not work and that no help will come to them. Nikabrik urges Prince Caspian to trust the two creatures he brought to court, one of whom is a “hag” who boasts that she can use hateful spells against her enemies; the other is a wer-wolf. Nikabrik says that they should try to summon the White Witch since she was the most powerful ruler of Narnia (as evidenced by her killing of Aslan) and a friend to the dwarfs. Trufflehunter strongly disagrees and argues that although the White Witch did kill Aslan, he rose from the dead. Nikabrik threatens to abandon the group if Prince Caspian cannot help the dwarfs, and Caspian asks him if he intends to commit treason. Doctor Cornelius reminds everyone that the White Witch is dead, but the hag says that witches can never really die.
As Nikabrik and the dark creatures prepare to summon the Witch, Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin burst into the room and fight with them: “It was all swords, teeth, claws, fists, and boots for about sixty seconds. Then silence” (1916). Prince Caspian greets the boys and is grateful for their help. They see the bodies of the “hag” and the wer-wolf and lament that Nikabrik (now dead as well) decided to collude with evil creatures and dark magic. After cleaning their wounds, the boys, Trumpkin, and Trufflehunter eat a simple breakfast together in the cellar.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
As the Pevensies journey to Aslan’s How, the effects of Telmarine rule on Narnia’s natural world become more apparent, developing the theme of Spirituality and Humanity’s Relationship to Nature. The novel has previously referenced the material consequences of the Telmarines’ destructiveness—Truffle speaks of them “felling forests” and “defiling streams”—but in Narnia, these physical actions have a spiritual impact as well. Alone in the forest, Lucy sees firsthand the “dormant” state that the trees (as well as the rivers) have fallen into, which involves a loss not only of sentience but of individual personality. In depicting nature as conscious, Lewis draws in part on pagan beliefs; dryads and naiads, for instance, are nature spirits from Greek mythology. However, Lewis places these spirits in a Christian context, recasting them as expressions of God’s creative power and will. When Lucy goes to meet Aslan, the trees have therefore begun to “wake up” in response to Aslan’s presence and even resemble human men. In much the same way that the biblical God breathes independent life into Adam and Eve, Aslan restores independent life to Narnia’s natural world.
These chapters also highlight how the Pevensie children have changed since The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Peter and Susan are more obstinately closed-minded, with Susan being “the worst”; she chastises Lucy for being “downright naughty” and threatens not to accompany the group when Lucy persuades them to follow Aslan. Peter also trusts “reason” and his senses rather than his sister or his loyalty to Aslan. Meanwhile, Edmund’s continued willingness to acknowledge that Lucy “has been right before” shows growing maturity and humility based on his first experiences in Narnia (1648).
The conflict surrounding Lucy’s sighting of Aslan develops the theme of The Triumph of Faith and Courage. Aslan’s disappointment that Lucy lacked the bravery to leave her siblings and follow him by herself teaches her to prioritize her devotion to him above her dependence on her siblings. He likewise chastises Susan for “listen[ing] to fears” instead of her instinctive belief in Lucy (1694). Both passages depict faith as an act of courage in the face of doubt, but Lewis also suggests that faith can make people braver, as Aslan’s presence makes both Lucy and Susan less fearful. The scene with Nikabrik deepens Lewis’s exploration of faith, as Nikabrik doubts both Aslan’s existence and his goodness: He does not trust Aslan to deliver justice for the dwarfs, which leads him, ironically, to seek help from forces who have no interest whatsoever in his or his people’s well-being.
In Chapter 12, the boys and girls separate: Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin meet Prince Caspian and fight Nikabrik and the evil creatures, whereas Susan and Lucy depart with Aslan. This aspect of the plot reflects the traditional gender roles that were common in the 1950s; Peter and Edmund engage directly in violent conflict while the girls serve as Aslan’s companions in his mission to heal and restore the land. Despite Susan’s prowess as an archer, she does not expect to fight in the battle, while both the boys do.
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