The gnomes return to Bism

The gnomes’ return to Bism is the liberation and homeward flight of a people whom the Witch had drawn from their deep country, compelled to work, and made to forget who they were. The Witch’s death and the opening chasm restore their memories and their will: they abandon her work, gather at the breach, and descend toward Bism. Their return is a release from enchantment, but it is also a decisive separation, as the closing rift seals the travellers in Underland while the gnomes go home.

Enchantment and recovered identity

Golg explains that the gnomes had been going about the Witch’s work in sadness and silence for years. They had forgotten their origins in Bism and could neither act nor think beyond what the Witch put into their heads; her influence filled those years with glum and gloomy thoughts. The abrupt crash and the opening of the chasm break that condition. With the spell gone, each gnome recognizes the imposed labor as something he need not continue, and the company throws down its sacks, bundles, and tools.

The change is not simply an escape from a place of work. The gnomes recover the knowledge of who they are and where they belong. Golg identifies their present country as the Shallow Lands, too close to the surface for their liking, and contrasts it with Bism, a lovely country far below. The opening offers a visible way home: a red glow rises from the Really Deep Land, a thousand fathoms beneath them. Memory, choice, and a direction of travel return together.

The march toward Bism

Once the gnomes understand that the Witch’s spell has broken, they set off for the crack as quickly as they can. Their relief becomes public celebration: Golg describes gnomes sending up rockets and standing on their heads for joy. Jill is glad that cutting off the Witch’s head has freed the gnomes as well as the travellers, and she recognizes in their transformation a parallel with the Prince, who had also seemed unlike himself under enchantment.

Their first movements, however, look less like an unguarded flight than a military formation. Puddleglum questions Golg directly about whether the gnomes were preparing to fight. Golg confirms that they were: unaware that the Witch was dead, they believed she remained in the castle and were trying to slip away without being seen. When they encountered the armed Overlanders on horseback, they expected a battle and were prepared to fight rather than give up their hope of returning to Bism. The apparent threat is therefore a consequence of captivity and mistaken expectation, not evidence that they intend to serve the Witch.

The Prince accepts Golg as honest and recognizes the likeness between their situations: he too has only just remembered himself after enchantment. When the Prince asks about the new diggings that the sorceress intended as a route for an army against the Overworld, Golg agrees to show where the road begins but refuses to accompany them, saying he would die rather than go. The party sets out with Golg as guide: the Prince rides his charger, Puddleglum climbs behind Jill, and Golg leads on foot. As they go, he calls out that the Witch is dead and that the four Overlanders are not dangerous. The news spreads from hearer to hearer until Underland rings with cheers; hundreds and then thousands of gnomes celebrate around the horses, and the Prince repeatedly recounts his enchantment and deliverance.

The chasm and the threshold to Bism

At the chasm’s edge, the travellers dismount and look down. The breach is about a thousand feet long and perhaps two hundred wide. Heat rises into their faces with a sharp, rich smell unlike any they have known; the brightness first dazzles them, then resolves into what seems to be a river of fire bordered by fields and groves of brilliant color. Blue, red, green, and white light mingle in a spectacle compared to stained glass under a tropical midday sun. Against that radiance, hundreds of Earthmen climb the rugged sides, dark as flies.

The view makes Bism a real destination, not merely the name of a forgotten homeland. The gnomes’ movement toward it is also a passage into a country whose heat, color, and depth sharply contrast with the dim, enclosed world above. Golg points out that lamps mark the road on the far side of the chasm. Puddleglum asks how long they will burn, but the route is about to close before the question can have practical use.

A hissing, scorching voice rises from the depths of Bism, warning everyone to reach the cliffs because the rift is closing. The rocks begin to move while the party watches. Gnomes still on the upper sides rush toward the opening; rather than climb down, they throw themselves into it and float downward like leaves, as hot air blasts up from below. Their dark shapes thicken until they nearly obscure the fiery river and the groves of living gems. Golg calls goodbye to the travellers and dives after his people.

The gap narrows from a broad chasm to a stream, then to a slit and finally a brilliant thread. The rock lips crash shut with a force compared to a thousand trains colliding with buffers. The heat and strange smell vanish, and the travellers are left alone in an Underworld that seems darker than before. Fading lamps still mark the road. The gnomes have reached the opening toward home, but the breach that made their return possible has closed behind them.

Aftermath and narrative significance

The return resolves the gnomes’ captivity by restoring both memory and agency. They do not merely stop laboring for the Witch: they recover an identity, choose their own destination, and accept the danger of fighting rather than abandon the hope of going home. Their apparent hostility toward the armed party is corrected when Golg explains what they believed, turning a possible confrontation into an encounter between newly freed people and travellers who had mistaken their retreat.

The departure also changes the travellers’ position. Their guide has gone down into Bism, and the bright opening through which the gnomes vanished is no longer available. The party must continue through the dark Underworld by the lamps, which Puddleglum fears will soon go out. Thus the gnomes’ successful homecoming coincides with the Overlanders’ renewed exposure to danger: one community finds its way back as the route that revealed its freedom seals shut.