Aslan Restores the Statues

Aslan Restores the Statues is the decisive act of liberation that follows directly from Aslan's own resurrection. Having broken the White Witch's power over death itself, Aslan turns his attention to the countless victims she has petrified and imprisoned in her castle courtyard. This action is not merely a display of power but the practical fulfillment of the deeper magic he has just enacted: the reversal of the Witch's petrification, the restoration of community, and the gathering of the army that will win the final battle.

The Setting and the Act of Restoration

Aslan, carrying Susan and Lucy on his back, leaps over the high wall of the White Witch's castle and lands in the wide stone courtyard. The courtyard is filled with statues—stone satyrs, wolves, bears, foxes, cat-a-mountains, tree spirits, a centaur, a winged horse, a dragon, and a giant—all standing perfectly still and lifelike in the moonlight. Lucy describes it as a museum. Aslan immediately begins his work. He bounds up to a stone lion and breathes on it. The effect is gradual but unmistakable: a tiny streak of gold runs along the white marble back, then spreads like a flame licking over paper, until the stone ripples into living hair, the lion opens a great red mouth and yawns, and then goes bounding after Aslan, frisking around him with delight. Aslan then breathes on a stone dwarf, a tall stone Dryad, a stone rabbit, and two centaurs, each time the same transformation occurring. The courtyard ceases to be a museum and becomes a zoo, a blaze of colors—chestnut centaur sides, indigo unicorn horns, dazzling bird plumage, reddy-brown foxes, yellow dwarf stockings, and the silver and green of tree-girls. The dead silence is replaced by happy roarings, brayings, yelpings, barkings, squealings, cooings, neighings, stampings, shouts, hurrahs, songs, and laughter.

The Liberation of the Giant and the Search for Prisoners

Aslan breathes on the feet of a stone giant, explaining that once the feet are put right, all the rest will follow. The change creeps up the giant's legs, he moves his feet, lifts his club off his shoulder, rubs his eyes, and asks where the dratted little Witch has gone. When the situation is explained to him, he bows down, touches his cap repeatedly to Aslan, and beams with an honest, ugly face. Aslan then commands everyone to search the inside of the house, leaving no corner unsearched, for there may be poor prisoners concealed. The liberated creatures rush into the dark, fusty castle, opening windows and calling out. The best moment comes when Lucy rushes upstairs shouting that she has found Mr. Tumnus. She and the little Faun hold one another by both hands and dance round and round for joy; he is none the worse for having been a statue.

The Escape and the Gathering of the Army

With the castle ransacked and every door and window open, the liberated statues surge back into the courtyard. The problem of escape arises, as Aslan entered by a leap and the gates are still locked. Aslan calls up to Giant Rumblebuffin, who strides to the gate and smashes it with his club—the gates creak at the first blow, crack at the second, and shiver at the third. He then tackles the towers on each side, bringing them and a good bit of the wall thundering down in rubble. Through the gap, the liberated creatures see the grass, waving trees, sparkling streams, blue hills, and the sky. Aslan then organizes the company for the final battle, declaring that those who cannot keep up—children, dwarfs, and small animals—must ride on the backs of those who can—lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants, and eagles. The most pleased of the lot is the other lion, who keeps running about saying, "Us lions. That means him and me." Aslan loads him with three dwarfs, one Dryad, two rabbits, and a hedgehog to steady him. They set out through the gap in the castle wall, the dogs and lions nosing about until a great hound picks up the scent, and they race off to join the battle.

Thematic and Narrative Significance

This action is the direct consequence of the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time, which Aslan explains to Susan and Lucy: when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards. The restoration of the statues is the visible, physical manifestation of that reversal—death and petrification undone. It also fulfills the prophecy that Aslan would put all to rights, as Mr. Beaver had earlier declared: "Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight." The liberation of the statues transforms a collection of the Witch's trophies into a living army, directly enabling the victory in the final battle. Furthermore, the restoration of Mr. Tumnus, the first Narnian Lucy befriended, completes a narrative arc that began with his arrest and imprisonment, demonstrating that Aslan's power extends to every individual victim of the Witch's tyranny. As Aslan later tells the newly crowned kings and queens, "Once a king or queen in Narnia, always a king or queen," a principle of enduring identity that mirrors the permanence of the restoration he has just performed.