Aslan Leaps Over the Castle Wall

Aslan Leaps Over the Castle Wall is the decisive entry of the great Lion into the White Witch's stronghold, an action that transforms the fortress from a prison of stone into a place of resurrection and signals the final turning of the war. Carrying Susan and Lucy on his back, Aslan does not pause at the gates but gathers himself for a leap that defies the castle's defenses, landing the three of them in the midst of the courtyard filled with the Witch's petrified victims.

The Approach and the Leap

After his resurrection and the joyful romp on the Hill of the Stone Table, Aslan announces that they have a long journey to go and tells the children they must ride on him. Susan sits first, holding tightly to his mane, and Lucy sits behind holding tightly to Susan. With a great heave, Aslan rises underneath them and shoots off, faster than any horse could go, downhill and into the thick of the forest. The ride carries them across Narnia in spring, through solemn avenues of beech and sunny glades of oak, past roaring waterfalls and mossy rocks, up windy slopes and across heathery mountains. It is nearly midday when they find themselves looking down a steep hillside at a castle that seems a little toy castle from where they stand, all pointed towers. But the Lion rushes down at such speed that it grows larger every moment, and before they have time to ask themselves what it is, they are already on a level with it. It no longer looks like a toy castle but rises frowning in front of them, with no face over the battlements and the gates fast shut. Aslan, not slackening his pace, rushes straight as a bullet towards it. Crying "The Witch's home! Now, children, hold tight," he gathers himself together for a greater leap than any he has yet made and jumps—or flies rather than jumps—right over the castle wall.

Landing in the Courtyard

The next moment, the whole world seems to turn upside down, and the children feel as if they have left their insides behind them. Breathless but unhurt, they find themselves tumbling off Aslan's back in the middle of a wide stone courtyard full of statues. Lucy exclaims, "What an extraordinary place! All those stone animals—and people too! It's—it's like a museum." Susan hushes her, noting that Aslan is doing something. The courtyard, previously a silent gallery of the Witch's cruelty, becomes the stage for the Lion's restorative power.

The Restoration Begins

Aslan immediately bounds up to the stone lion and breathes on him. Without waiting, he whisks around and breathes also on the stone dwarf standing a few feet from the lion with his back to it. He pounces on a tall stone Dryad, turns aside to deal with a stone rabbit, and rushes on to two centaurs. The restoration spreads like a tiny streak of gold running along white marble, then licking all over the figures as flame licks paper. The stone lion shakes his mane, the heavy stony folds rippling into living hair, and gives a prodigious yawn. The courtyard no longer looks like a museum but more like a zoo, with creatures running after Aslan and dancing round him, the deadly white replaced by a blaze of colors: glossy chestnut sides of centaurs, indigo horns of unicorns, dazzling plumage of birds, and the bright greens and silvers of tree spirits. The whole place rings with happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, and laughter. Aslan joyously shouts, "Once the feet are put right, all the rest of him will follow," as he breathes on the stone giant's feet. The giant, Giant Rumblebuffin, awakens, rubs his eyes, and asks where the "dratted little Witch" has gone.

Significance

This leap is the physical and symbolic breach of the Witch's last stronghold. By entering not through the gates but over the wall, Aslan demonstrates that no barrier—stone, magic, or death—can contain him. The courtyard, which had been a museum of the Witch's power, becomes the first site of her undoing, as the liberated statues will soon join the final battle. The leap also completes the children's journey from passive observers to active participants in the liberation of Narnia, landing them at the very heart of the enemy's domain.