Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.
The Silver Chair“Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.” is Aslan’s decisive instruction to Jill Pole before sending her from the mountain into Narnia. It turns the signs from information to be recalled into a rule for action: appearances and confusion must not displace the guidance she has been given.
The instruction and its conditions
Aslan tells Jill to repeat the signs to herself at the start and end of each day, and even when she wakes during the night. The repetition is meant to make them dependable under pressure, not merely familiar. He warns that strange events may try to turn her mind away from following them, and that the signs will not look as she expects once she encounters them in Narnia.
That discrepancy is central to the command. On the mountain, Aslan says, the air and Jill’s mind are clear; as she descends into Narnia, the air will thicken and may confuse her. Because the signs’ outward appearance may change, she must know them by heart and refuse to judge their meaning by appearances alone. The instruction therefore anticipates not just forgetfulness, but misrecognition: she is to hold to what she has learned when circumstances make it harder to recognize.
The moment of departure
The command comes as Aslan prepares to send Jill away at once. She remembers that the lack of time is partly her own fault: if she had not made a fool of herself, Eustace Scrubb would have accompanied her and heard the instructions too. She nevertheless obeys Aslan and walks toward the cliff, while he follows behind her without making a sound on his soft paws.
Before Jill reaches the edge, Aslan stops her and gives the warning and charge. His voice fades as he says farewell. Jill then looks back and sees that the cliff is already more than a hundred yards behind her, with Aslan reduced to a speck of bright gold at its edge. The gentle breath carrying her away is so slight that she does not notice the moment she leaves the earth. The departure gives the instruction immediate force: she is already moving beyond the clear mountain setting in which she received it.
Meaning and narrative function
The phrase binds memory to trust. Jill is not asked to treat each new appearance as a fresh authority; she is told in advance that appearances may mislead and that the signs remain the measure to follow. The repeated imperative, reinforced by the assurance that nothing else matters, establishes a standard against which later choices can be understood: the challenge is not simply to encounter guidance, but to keep faith with it when the world seems to offer reasons for distraction or doubt.
