Final Battle with the White Witch

The Final Battle with the White Witch is the decisive military engagement that ends the White Witch's tyrannical rule over Narnia and fulfills the ancient prophecy that the reign of evil would end when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit on the four thrones at Cair Paravel. The battle is the culmination of the war between Aslan's forces and the Witch's army, and it is marked by the direct intervention of the resurrected Aslan, the breaking of the Witch's wand, and the death of the Witch herself, which together shatter her power and restore Narnia to its rightful order.

Background and Stakes

The battle is the direct consequence of the Deep Magic and the Deeper Magic that governs Narnia. The White Witch, invoking the Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time, claimed the right to kill Edmund Pevensie as a traitor. Aslan, knowing that a willing victim who had committed no treachery could die in a traitor's stead, offered himself in Edmund's place. The Witch killed Aslan on the Stone Table, believing this would appease the Deep Magic and secure her victory. However, a Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time meant that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, Death itself would start working backwards, and the Stone Table would crack. Aslan's resurrection broke the Witch's apparent triumph and set the stage for the final confrontation. The stakes were absolute: if the Witch won, she would maintain her eternal winter and her petrifying reign; if Aslan's forces won, the prophecy of the four thrones would be fulfilled, and Narnia would be free.

The Course of the Battle

Aslan, having been resurrected, gathered his forces and led them to the battlefield. The Witch's army, which included ogres, werewolves, spirits of evil trees, ghouls, boggles, minotaurs, hags, spectres, and the people of the toadstools, was already engaged with Peter Pevensie's army. Peter, Edmund, and the Narnian forces were fighting desperately, and the Witch was using her wand to turn Aslan's troops into stone. Edmund, in a crucial act of bravery, fought his way through three ogres to reach the Witch and smashed his sword down on her wand, breaking it. This act turned the tide, as without her wand the Witch could no longer petrify her enemies. Aslan, with Lucy and Susan Pevensie on his back, arrived at the battlefield. He ordered the children off his back and then, with a roar that shook all Narnia from the Western lamp-post to the shores of the Eastern sea, flung himself upon the White Witch. Lucy saw the Witch's face lifted towards him for one second with an expression of terror and amazement. Then Lion and Witch rolled over together, with the Witch underneath. At the same moment, all the war-like creatures whom Aslan had led from the Witch's house rushed madly on the enemy's line: dwarfs with their battle-axes, dogs with teeth, the giant with his club, unicorns with their horns, centaurs with swords and hoofs. Peter's tired army cheered, and the newcomers roared, and the enemy squealed and gibbered till the wood re-echoed with the din of that onset.

Consequences and Aftermath

The battle was all over a few minutes after Aslan's arrival. Most of the enemy had been killed in the first charge of Aslan and his companions; when those who were still living saw that the Witch was dead, they either gave themselves up or took to flight. The death of the White Witch was the decisive blow. With her wand already broken by Edmund, she was powerless against Aslan's direct assault. After the battle, Peter reported to Aslan that it was all Edmund's doing, that they would have been beaten if it hadn't been for him, and that Edmund was terribly wounded. Lucy used the cordial given to her by Father Christmas to heal Edmund, and Aslan made him a Knight on the field of battle. The victory cleared the way for the coronation of the four children as Kings and Queens of Narnia at Cair Paravel, fulfilling the prophecy that when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit on the four thrones, the evil time would be over and done. The battle thus represents the final overthrow of the White Witch's reign and the establishment of a new, golden age for Narnia under the rule of Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy.