The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader"

The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" Summary | Plot Summary

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis is a novel within the series the Chronicles of Narnia. This novel begins when Lucy and Edmund, along with their cousin Eustace, fall into a painting of the Dawn Treader and join King Caspian on an exploratory journey through the Great Eastern Ocean. This is a novel of personal growth for young Eustace, of moral duty for King Caspian, and an adventure in destiny for them all. This novel, like all the others within the series, is a novel of courage, strength, and heroism, and has pleased readers for more than fifty years and will continue to do so for fifty more.

Lucy and Edmund are staying with their aunt and uncle in Cambridge because their father has gotten a job lecturing in America for sixteen weeks. Lucy and Edmund are in Lucy's bedroom talking about Narnia and staring at a picture of a ship that looks like a Narnian ship when their cousin, Eustace, comes into the room. Eustace begins to tease them about their stories about Narnia when something strange happens. The painting has come to life. Suddenly Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace are small and they are balancing on the edge of the painting. Before they know what has happened, they have fallen into the cold ocean.

The people on board the ship quickly pull the three children out of the water. Much to Lucy and Edmund's delight, they find King Caspian on board. Caspian explains that he is on a quest to find seven lords who were friends of his father and were sent from Narnia before Miraz stole the throne. Lucy and Edmund are only too happy to go along on this quest, but Eustace is quite sea sick and unhappy. Lucy cures his illness with her magic cordial, but Eustace continues to be unpleasant to everyone, especially Reepicheep, the talking mouse, simply because he does not understand how a mouse can talk.

Before venturing out into the Great Eastern Sea and uncharted waters, the ship stops at the Lone Islands, a small group of islands that Narnia rules. Lucy wants to walk to the smooth grass of the first island, so Caspian gives the order to let them off and to meet them on the other side. However, Caspian and his companions never make it to the other side because slave traders stop them. The slave traders take them captive and sell Caspian to a local shopkeeper before loading the others onto a ship. Lucky for Caspian, the shopkeeper turns out to be one of the lords for whom he is searching. With the lord's help, Caspian marches into the main city on these islands, relieves the governor of his duties, and frees all the slaves.

Weeks later the Dawn Treader moves on, sailing into uncharted waters. A few days after leaving the Lone Islands, the ship is hit by a terrible storm that damages the ship and breaks the mast. The ship manages to limp to an unexplored island. Eustace, who has been quite disagreeable through the entire ship, is unhappy to learn that their first day on land is to be spent repairing the ship and other work he would rather not do. Eustace sneaks away, climbing a nearby mountain and napping at the summit. Later, when he climbs down, Eustace is lost in a mist and finds himself in a hollow where a dragon lives. The dragon appears to die as Eustace watches it. Eustace goes into the dragon's lair and takes a nap on the dragon's treasure. When he wakes, Eustace discovers he has been turned into a dragon himself.

Eustace goes back to his companions; only he cannot speak and explain to them what has happened. Fortunately, the group figures out he is Eustace and do not harm him. Eustace uses his skills as a dragon to help his fellow travelers, having discovered it is better to have friends and to be friendly, than to be mean and be alone. After Eustace recovers a tree for them to make a new mast and has flown the sailors around the island to find fresh water, Eustace has a dream in which Aslan helps him undress and sits him in a healing bath. When Eustace wakes, he is a boy again. Eustace's attitude is much improved after this experience.

When the ship is back on the ocean, they run into a terrible sea serpent that tries to ruin the ship so that it can make a meal of its inhabitants. However, thanks to Reepicheep's quick thinking, the travelers are able to push the serpent off the ship before it can tighten its hold. Soon after this, the ship lands at another island. Here, while exploring the island, the travelers find a pool with a gold statue at the bottom. Edmund sticks a branch into the pool to test its depth and discovers that anything that goes into the water turns into gold. The statue at the bottom of the pool is really another of the lords. Caspian calls the island Darkwater Island and forbids anyone from stepping foot on it.

After Darkwater Island, the ship's passengers find another island that seems deserted, but in fact has a house built on it. As the group goes exploring the island, Lucy hears a group of invisible men threatening to attack the travelers. Lucy tells Caspian, who decides they will confront this group. The group, it turns out, consists of servants to a magician who turned them all ugly. To keep from having to see each other, the group then read a spell that turned them all invisible. Now they need Lucy to read another spell to make them all visible again. Lucy agrees.

When Lucy looks in the magician's book she is tempted by many of its spells. However, Lucy only reads one she should not have, a spell that enables her to hear what her friends are saying about her. This spell ruins a friendship that would have lasted many years otherwise. Lucy finally finds the correct spell after this and makes all the occupants of the island visible again. Afterward, Lucy meets the magician and Aslan in the hallway. Lucy also meets the invisible servants who turn out to be dwarfs whom the magician made into monopeds. They call themselves Dufflepuds.

After leaving the Dufflepuds, the ship encounters an island that is in complete darkness. The ship sails directly into it and finds another of their lords, Lord Rhoop. Lord Rhoop warns them to turn around quickly as this island brings all dreams to life and this is not as good an idea as one would think. Lucy calls to Aslan for help and they are immediately led out of the darkness by a bird. When they look behind them for the island, they find that it has disappeared.

When the ship finds land again, it is a small island on which they meet a young girl and her father. They are the keepers of Aslan's table, a table that is always set for a feast by Aslan's orders. Here the travelers find three of their lords asleep at the table. The old man, Ramandu, explains that the three were fighting over where to go next when they fell under an enchanted sleep. The only way to wake them is to go to the end of the world and leave one of their party behind. Since the end of the world is said to be Aslan's country and this is what Reepicheep has been searching for since the beginning of the journey, he has agreed that he will stay behind. The party continues and when they reach this country, Caspian decides he will go too. However, Aslan will not allow it. Reepicheep sails off alone to Aslan's country and is never seen again. The children leave the boat as well and find Aslan, who opens a door to their own world for their return. The others still on board the ship return to Ramandu's island where the lords have awaken. Caspian takes Ramandu's daughter back to Narnia with him and makes her his wife. Together they rule Narnia for many years.