The Beavers' Hospitality and Prophecy

After following a robin through the winter wood, the four Pevensie children—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy—are led by a mysterious, whiskered face to a hidden spot among four close-growing trees. There they meet a beaver who, after producing Lucy's handkerchief as a token from the arrested Faun Tumnus, whispers the electrifying news that "Aslan is on the move—perhaps has already landed." The name strikes each child differently: Peter feels suddenly brave and adventurous, Susan senses a delicious smell or strain of music, Lucy feels the joy of a holiday morning, and Edmund experiences a sensation of mysterious horror. The Beaver, having been entrusted by Tumnus to guide the children, leads them through the thickest parts of the forest for over an hour until they emerge onto the edge of a steep, narrow valley where a frozen river is crossed by a dam. On the dam stands a funny little house shaped like an enormous beehive, with smoke rising from a hole in the roof—the Beavers' home.

A Warm Welcome and a Feast

Mrs. Beaver, a kind-looking old she-beaver working busily at her sewing machine, greets the children with outstretched wrinkled paws, exclaiming, "At last! To think that ever I should live to see this day!" While Mr. Beaver and Peter go out onto the ice to catch fresh trout through a hole kept open daily with a hatchet, the girls help Mrs. Beaver fill the kettle, lay the table, cut bread, and draw a huge jug of beer from a barrel. The Beavers' snug home is lined with bunks like those on a ship, hung with hams and onions, and stocked with gum boots, oilskins, hatchets, fishing rods, and nets. The meal that follows is a feast of fresh trout, potatoes with deep yellow butter, and a great, gloriously sticky marmalade roll steaming hot from the oven, followed by tea. As they eat, the snow falls again, which Mr. Beaver notes with satisfaction: "That's all the better, because it means we shan't have any visitors; and if anyone should have been trying to follow you, why he won't find any tracks."

The Prophecy of Aslan and the Four Thrones

After dinner, with his pipe lit, Mr. Beaver reveals the full scope of the conflict. He confirms that Tumnus has been taken by the Secret Police to the White Witch's house, a place from which few return—only statues. But the Beaver insists that rescue lies not with the children but with Aslan, the King of the whole wood, the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, who has now come back to Narnia. When Susan asks if Aslan is a man, Mr. Beaver replies sternly, "Aslan a man! Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the Lion, the great Lion." To Lucy's question of whether Aslan is safe, Mrs. Beaver answers that anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking is either braver than most or just silly, and Mr. Beaver adds the famous declaration: "'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you." The Beaver then recites an old rhyme: "Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, / At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, / When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death / And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again." He reveals that the children are to meet Aslan the next day at the Stone Table, and he explains a second prophecy: "When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone / Sits at Cair Paravel in throne, / The evil time will be over and done." The White Witch, Mr. Beaver explains, is no true human but descends from Lilith and the Jinn on one side and from giants on the other—"there isn't a drop of real Human blood in the Witch." The four thrones at Cair Paravel, the castle at the mouth of the river, are the key: when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit in them, the White Witch's reign and her life will end.

Edmund's Disappearance and the Revelation of Betrayal

During the conversation, the children have been so absorbed that they fail to notice Edmund's absence. When Lucy suddenly asks, "I say—where's Edmund?" a dreadful pause follows. They search in the falling snow, calling until they are hoarse, but find no trace. Mr. Beaver, already putting on his snow boots, declares that there is no point in searching: "He's gone to her, to the White Witch. He has betrayed us all." Lucy whispers that Edmund had been in Narnia before, alone, and Peter recalls that Edmund had asked whether the Witch couldn't turn Aslan into stone—a question that reveals he had already met her and eaten her enchanted food. Mr. Beaver explains that the Witch will keep Edmund alive as bait to lure the other three, and that their only hope now is to reach Aslan before she can cut them off. Mrs. Beaver, practical even in crisis, insists on packing food for the journey, and the three remaining children, along with the Beavers, flee into the night, leaving the warm house behind as the snow falls and the Witch's sledge bells threaten to sound at any moment.