The Magician’s Nephew: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

As the little bell stops trembling, the children hear a soft noise. They turn to see the beautiful, robed queen standing up, revealing herself to be quite tall. She approaches the children, asking who has broken the spell and awakened her. When Digory admits to it, the Queen wonders how a child like him, obviously “common,” could even have dared to enter the house. Polly, feeling ignored, explains that they journeyed here by magic.

The Queen studies Digory for a long moment, then declares that he is no magician, as he lacks the “Mark.” Digory explains that their coming here was Uncle Andrew’s doing. Just then, the palace begins to shake, and the Queen calmly leads the children out of harm’s way. Polly sulks when the Queen takes her hand, sensing that she’s a “terrible woman” who must not be told about the magic rings. Digory is enthralled by the Queen’s fearlessness as she guides them quickly through the collapsing building.

When they come to a massive, heavily barred door, the Queen casts a spell, causing the doors to crumble. Impressed, Digory whistles. The Queen tells him that he should remember what he’s seen, because “this is what happens to things, and to people, who stand in [her] way.”

They stand in the light of a huge, weary-looking red sun, overlooking the ruins of a once-great city. The Queen says that it is Charn, once the greatest wonder of the world. Reflectively, the Queen says that she, Jadis, the last Queen, blotted out Charn forever. But this was her sister’s fault, because she pridefully refused to yield her throne to Jadis. Because her sister broke her promise, Jadis then had no choice, she says, but to break her own promise not to use magic, and so she used the Deplorable Word.

Jadis explains that the Deplorable Word was an ancient secret which was meant to destroy all living things, except for the one who spoke the Word. But the ancient kings were too “soft-hearted” in their oaths to never speak such a word. Jadis learned the Word at a terrible cost and spoke it only when forced to do so, she claims.

After three days of terrible battle in Charn, the Queen had spent all her soldiers. When her sister approached with rebels in tow, the Queen declared victory and spoke the Deplorable Word. In horror, Polly asks what became of “all the ordinary people.” The Queen replies, “What else were they there for but to do my will?”

To Digory’s reply of distress, the Queen explains that what’s wrong for commoners isn’t wrong for a great Queen like herself, because, with the weight of the world on her shoulders, she must be free from rules. Digory remembers Uncle Andrew saying something very similar.

The Queen explains that she then cast a spell on herself, that she would sleep in the hall of her ancestors until someone came and woke her by striking the bell. When Digory happens to mention that the sun looks different in his own world, the Queen suddenly looks as greedy as Uncle Andrew had once done—she realizes that the children come from a younger world. She tells them that they will leave the end of the ages behind and visit the children’s world instead. The children look at each other in horror.

The Queen says that it won’t be long before she has Polly and Digory’s world at her feet. She assures them that she has no intention of fighting Uncle Andrew, however, because he is clearly a great magician. When she asks about Uncle Andrew’s realm, Digory explains that he isn’t a king. The Queen refuses to believe that a common person could be a magician—such a thing is unheard of. Obviously, she says, Andrew used his magic arts and saw her own beauty from afar, sending the children to fetch her back to his own world.

When Polly calls the Queen’s assumptions “absolute bosh,” the Queen furiously seizes Polly’s hair, freeing Polly’s hands. At once, both children grab their magic rings, and Charn disappears.