Aslan's Country
Aslan's Country is a fictional location from C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia series. It is the home of Aslan, the great lion. It is described as a series of mountains, thousands of feet high, but without snow or ice. Instead, Aslan's Country has a clear blue sky, lush green grass, colourful birds, and beautiful trees. There are entrances to Aslan's Country from all worlds, including Narnia and Earth. It is located beyond Narnia's rising sun at the eastern edge of the world, and indeed rings around the whole Narnian world.
References in the books
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third published book of the series, King Caspian X of Narnia set out to the eastern edge of the world to find seven lost lords of Narnia. The crew must also find the swords of all seven lords and return them to Aslans' table. By doing so the darkness and evil that roams Narnia will cease to exist and peace will be returned to Narnia. At the end of the voyage, Reepicheep, a talking mouse, went directly to Aslan's Country. (VDT Ch. 16)
The Silver Chair
At the beginning of The Silver Chair, Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole escape from bullies at a boarding school in England and find themselves in Aslan's Country, where they meet Aslan. They are then blown to Narnia by Aslan's breath. At the end of the book they find themselves back in Aslan's Country, where they meet the resurrected King Caspian and are sent back to England. (SC Ch. 1,16)
The Last Battle
At the end of The Last Battle, there is a stable door that leads to Aslan's country. Initially, it only led to a stable used by Shift and the Calomeres as means to control Narnians by claiming it to hold the false god "Tashlan". But after the final battle before Narnia's end, the stable door becomes a site of final judgment for all Narnians, living and dead. For those who have faith in Aslan—including the deceased Pevensie children (excluding Susan), Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer—the door leads to Aslan's country. However, Narnians who abandoned their belief in Aslan and acted in evil are sent to an unmentioned place, the animals in that category losing their ability to speak. Once the final judgment is complete, Narnia's end comes full circle when the country is then reduced to a tundra wasteland after its plant life is eaten away and the land flooded while the heavens are undone.
From there, Aslan's country is explained to be the "Real Narnia", identical to the old one yet without any imperfections with elements of the Calomene homeland and London mixed into it. It is also discovered that there are several more worlds that pop out from the mountains of Aslan's Country. It is also home to creatures from other worlds who came to live there after their death or the end of their world.
Commentary
Because, as Lewis wrote, "He [Aslan] is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like, if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?'" (Martindale & Root 1990) it is natural to associate Aslan's Country with the Christian heaven. It is where Narnians who love Aslan go at death (Lewis 1953, pp. ch16) and where all Narnians who "looked in the face of Aslan and loved him" arrive at the end of the world (Lewis 1956, pp. ch14). The representation of Heaven as a mountain is Biblical: "Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord?"
Aslan's Country also represents Plato's World of Ideas, of which the physical world and the ideas in our minds are alike copies. In The Last Battle it is explained that all worlds, including the Narnia world and our own, are spurs from Aslan's Mountain, and Professor Kirke comments "All in Plato, all in Plato".
References
- Martindale, Wayne; Root, Jerry (1990), The Quotable Lewis, Tyndale House, ISBN 0-8423-5115-9
- Lewis, C.S. (1952), The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, London: Geoffrey Bles
- Lewis, C.S. (1953), The Silver Chair, London: Geoffrey Bles
- Lewis, C.S. (1956), The Last Battle, London: Geoffrey Bles
