The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Lucy and Susan hear the Witch calling out to her minions to follow her as she tracks down and crushes “the human vermin” and all the traitors who sided with Aslan, who now lies dead on the Stone Table. Once they are gone, the girls creep out onto the hilltop and approach the table. They kneel in the grass and kiss Aslan’s face. They cry over his corpse, and, troubled by the horrible way he has been bound and muzzled, try to remove his binds.

The sky begins to lighten, and Susan and Lucy, freezing cold, walk to the edge of the hill. As dawn rises around them, they hear an enormous crack—they turn to look at the table, and find that it has cracked from end to end; Aslan’s body is gone. The girls begin to cry, fearing that the Witch’s minions returned for it so that they could desecrate it even further, but then they hear Aslan’s voice behind them.

Aslan has been restored to life—his mane has grown back, and he looks stronger than ever. Susan and Lucy are amazed to see Aslan resurrected; they run to him and cover him in kisses. Susan asks how he came back, and Aslan reveals that he is alive due to a magic deeper than the kind even the Witch knows—when a willing victim who has committed no treachery is killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table cracks, and Death itself begins working backward.

Aslan rejoices in having regained his strength, and begins running and leaping around the hill. Susan and Lucy romp with him. Aslan warns the girls that he is going to roar, and advises them to plug their ears. They do so, and he lets out a terrible, triumphant cry. Aslan tells the girls to climb up on his back, and then begins running through the forest. After several hours’ ride, Aslan, Susan, and Lucy find themselves at the hill above the Witch’s home. Aslan leaps down the mountainside and glides over the castle wall. Susan and Lucy tumble off his back and find themselves in a wide courtyard full of statues.