TCN05 - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Part 01 of 09

King Caspian: My friends, you do a great honor to Narnia, but mostly to our noble race of Telmarines. No one has ever dared to take on the adventure you are about to take: to sail beyond the Eastern Ocean, to discover new lands, and to bring great tribute to our country. For these things, you will always be remembered. I am not your king, but merely the Lord Protector of Narnia. Will you grant me the honor of commissioning you as the chosen head of this country?
Lords: Yes, of course, Lord Caspian!
King Caspian: Lord Revilian, Lord Burn, Lord Argoz, Lord Mavramorn, Lord Octesian, Lord Restimar, and Lord Rhoop. I send you now in the name of Narnia and all its territories and people. Remain true, brave, and honorable in all your efforts and return to us in glory. Go now, my lords, knowing the hearts of all go with you.
Doug Gresham: Hello, I’m Doug Gresham, your host for Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Imagine, if you will, a notebook. In it, writer and teacher C.S. Lewis, or Jack as his friends called him, has scribbled down possible story ideas for a series he's started called The Chronicles of Narnia. He writes: "Ship. Two children somehow got on board a ship of ancient build. Approach islands. Attack by enemies. Children captured." It sounds like it was going to be a very green and pearly story. And then he writes: "Picture. A magic picture. One of the children gets through the frame into the picture." What Jack Lewis wrote in his notebook was the beginning of the idea for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the story we're about to hear. Jack had been interested in writing a seafaring adventure, and Narnia gave him the place to do it. The idea changed between the time he wrote the note and when he actually wrote the book, of course. For one thing, he made it three children rather than two. And then he added some of the most memorable characters we've met in Narnia thus far. But to treat this as only a sea adventure would be to miss the point. As with all of the stories about Narnia, Jack mixed some very thoughtful and perceptive ideas in with his tale of sea monsters, dragons, Dufflepuds, magicians, stars, and end of the earth encounters. With that said, please join us in a moment as Focus on the Family Radio Theatre presents The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Guest (Male): The most beloved children's series brought to glorious life. C.S. Lewis’s classic Narnia series, available for you to cherish in your own home. Produced by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre, stories like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader now can be yours. Call our toll-free number at 1-800-A-FAMILY or visit our website at radiotheatre.org. Focus on the Family Radio Theatre: set sail for adventure.
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Doug Gresham: Once, there was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence, and teachers called him Scrubb. I can’t tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none. He didn't call his father and mother "Father" and "Mother," but "Harold" and "Alberta." They were very up-to-date and advanced people. They were vegetarians, non-smokers, teetotalers, and wore a special kind of underclothes. In their house, there was very little furniture and very few clothes on the beds, and the windows were always open. Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card. He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools. Eustace Clarence disliked his cousins, the four Pevensies: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. But he was quite glad when he heard that Edmund and Lucy were coming to stay, for deep down inside him he liked bossing and bullying. And though he was a puny little person who couldn't have stood up even to Lucy, let alone Edmund in a fight, he knew that there are dozens of ways to give people a bad time if you're in your own house and they are only visitors.
Edmund: It’s not fair, Lucy. It simply isn't.
Lucy: Oh, don't go on, Edmund. You’ve been complaining ever since they left for America.
Edmund: Do you think it's fair? I'm glad Father was invited to lecture there, and Mother certainly needed a holiday. But for Susan to get to go...
Lucy: Mother said she would get far more out of a trip to America than we would. Look, it isn't as if Peter went as well and we were the only two left behind. Peter has to study for exams with that professor, which is a dreadful way to have to spend your summer holidays, far worse than what we're going to do.
Edmund: I’m not so sure.
Lucy: Oh, do cheer up. At least you'll have a room of your own. I shall have to share a bedroom with that rotten stinker, Eustace.
Doug Gresham: Our story begins on an afternoon when Edmund and Lucy were stealing a few precious minutes alone together in Lucy's room at Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta’s. They were sitting on the edge of her bed and looking at the only picture in the house that they liked. Aunt Alberta didn't like it at all. That was why it was put away in a little back room upstairs. It was a picture of a ship.
Lucy: Ah, I believe it’s a Narnian ship.
Edmund: It could be, I suppose. A prow shaped like the head of a dragon with its mouth open.
Lucy: Though I don’t remember our ever having a ship with only one mast or a purple sail. Look at the green hull. Didn’t one of the ships in our fleet have a green hull?
Edmund: Yes. Oh, I don't remember the name. This may be a picture from a completely different age. You know that Narnian time doesn’t run at the same speed as ours. This boat may belong to a king or queen who came long after our reign. Oh, I do wish...
Lucy: Perhaps we should stop looking at this picture. I mean, doesn't it make things worse to look at what may be a Narnian ship when we can't get there?
Edmund: Even looking is better than nothing. And I think she's such a very Narnian ship.
Eustace: A Narnian ship! Oh, I see. You’re still playing your old game.
Edmund: Shouldn't you knock before entering, Eustace?
Lucy: And we’re not playing a game.
Eustace: I’m trying to think of a limerick. Something like this: "Some kids who played games about Narnia got gradually barmier and barmier."
Edmund: Narnia and barmier don’t rhyme.
Eustace: It's assonance.
Lucy: What’s so...
Edmund: Oh, don't ask, Lucy. He only wants you to. Say nothing and perhaps he'll go away.
Eustace: But do you like that picture of the ship, Lucy?
Lucy: Yes, I do. I like it very much.
Eustace: I think it’s a rotten picture. The only reason we've got it is because it was a wedding present from someone Alberta didn't want to offend.
Edmund: If you leave the room, then you won't have to look at it.
Eustace: Why do you like it, Lucy?
Edmund: Well, for heaven's sake, don't answer him or he’ll get started about art and all that.
Lucy: I like it because the ship looks like it's going somewhere, as if it's on a great adventure on the high sea. It looks as if... as if it's really moving, and the water looks as if it's really wet, and the waves look as if they're really going up and down.
Eustace: Oh, that’s your expert artistic opinion, is it? The waves look like they're going up and down. Ha!
Edmund: But they do look as if they’re going up and down. Whoa! I say, Lucy, you're right. Barmy, you're both barmy!
Lucy: No we aren't! Look!
Eustace: I'm not falling for that old trick.
Edmund: Do you feel that, Lucy? The wind's kicking up.
Lucy: I feel it!
Eustace: This is absurd! Close the window!
Edmund: The window is closed.
Lucy: Can't you smell the sea, Eustace? It's magic! Oh, Edmund, is it possible?
Eustace: Stop it! It's some silly trick you're playing on me. Stop it or I'll tell Alberta! Whoa!
Lucy: Look, here comes another wave!
Eustace: What are we first to do? I'll smash the rotten picture! That's what I'll do!
Edmund: No, Eustace, don't go near it!
Lucy: Edmund, be careful! Don't panic!
Edmund: Keep your mouth closed and kick off your shoes! Swim for the ship!
Lucy: I... I can't swim! Eustace, help!
Eustace: Calm down! I can't swim! Save me! No! No, Eustace! No!
Doug Gresham: Eustace clutched at Lucy in a panic, and down they both went. When they came up again, Lucy saw a white figure diving off the ship's side. Edmund was close beside her now, treading water, and had caught the arms of the howling Eustace. Then someone else whose face was vaguely familiar slipped an arm under her from the other side. There was a lot of shouting going on from the ship. Ropes were thrown into the water. Edmund and the stranger fastened ropes around her. After that followed what seemed a very long delay during which her face got blue and her teeth began chattering. In reality, the delay was not very long. They were waiting until the moment when she could be got on board the ship without being dashed against its side. Even with all their best endeavors, she had a bruised knee when she finally stood, dripping and shivering, on the deck. After her, Edmund was heaved up and then the miserable Eustace. Last of all came the stranger, a golden-headed boy some years older than herself.
Lucy: Caspian!
King Caspian: Queen Lucy and King Edmund. Oh, this is a wonderful surprise. How are you? Oh, good to see you again. Welcome aboard! This is Lord Drinian, the captain of our ship. Lord Drinian, our royal majesties, King Edmund the Just and Queen Lucy the Valiant.
Lord Drinian: Your Majesties.
King Caspian: Pleased to meet you. And who's your friend?
Edmund: It’s Eustace, I'm afraid.
King Caspian: Eustace, it's a pleasure to have you.
Eustace: No, stay away from me! I want to go back! I don't like it!
Lord Drinian: Go back, but to where?
Eustace: I want to go home right this minute!
Lucy: Oh, Eustace!
King Caspian: Hey, Rynelf! Bring spiced wine for their majesties in my cabin. You'll need something to warm you after that dip, and we'll find you some dry clothes. Come along to my cabin.
Lucy: Thank you, Captain.
King Caspian: This way. Are you coming, Eustace?
Eustace: No! I want to go home!
King Caspian: Oh, and how are you going to do that?
Eustace: I don't know, but you know this whole thing is your fault somehow.
Lucy: Oh, do come along, Eustace.
Edmund: Yes, and try not to be such a baby about it.
Eustace: If I catch a bad cold, you're going to be sorry.
Edmund: I'm sorry already.
Eustace: Ugh! What is this awful tasting stuff?
King Caspian: Spiced wine. I brought it especially from the castle at Cair Paravel.
Lucy: Cair Paravel!
Eustace: Haven't you got anything else helpful, like Plumtree's Vitaminized Nerve Food? It's what my parents always give me for a shock.
Edmund: No, Eustace, you'll just have to drink what they have on board.
Eustace: And how long am I going to have to wear these ridiculous clothes?
King Caspian: Until yours have dried in the galley. It feels good to be in Narnian-made clothes again, even if they don't fit very well. This uniform’s a bit big for me. Though I must say, Queen Lucy, you look splendid.
Lucy: Thank you. Caspian, please tell us everything that's happened since we last saw you. It was a year by our time since we left you just before your coronation.
King Caspian: Well then, it's been three years by our time.
Edmund: Oh, all going well?
King Caspian: You don't think I'd have left my kingdom and put to sea unless all was well. No, it couldn't be better. There's no trouble at all now between Telmarines, dwarves, talking beasts, fauns, and the rest.
Eustace: Ugh! What's all this nonsense you're saying? Dwarves, talking beasts? There are no such things.
Edmund: Ignore him, Caspian. What about the giants?
King Caspian: We gave them such a good beating last summer that they pay us tribute now. And I had an excellent person to leave as regent while I'm away: Trumpkin the Dwarf.
Lucy: Dear Trumpkin! You couldn't have made a better choice.
King Caspian: He's as loyal as a badger, ma'am, and valiant as a... oh, enter!
Reepicheep: You sent for me, Captain?
Eustace: Agh! What on earth is that? Take it away, the horrid thing!
Lucy: Calm down, Eustace.
Eustace: But it's a mouse!
Edmund: Eustace, can't you see this is no ordinary mouse?
King Caspian: He certainly isn't. The biggest mouse I’ve ever seen. Go!
Doug Gresham: And so it was. Standing on its hind legs, the mouse was at least two feet high. A thin band of gold passed round its head under one ear and over the other, and in this was stuck a long crimson feather. As the mouse's fur was very dark, almost black, the effect was bold and striking. Its left paw rested on the hilt of a sword very nearly as long as its tail. Its balance, as it moved gravely along the swaying deck, was perfect.
Eustace: Agh! Make it go away! Shoo! Shoo!
Edmund: Stop it, Eustace! Stop it at once! You happen to be addressing Reepicheep, the most valiant of all the talking beasts of Narnia.
King Caspian: And the Chief Mouse. He won undying glory in the second battle of Beruna.
Lucy: How good to see you again, Reepicheep.
Reepicheep: My humble duty to your majesty.
Eustace: Oh, it talks!
Reepicheep: Greetings, Reepicheep. And to you, King Edmund. Nothing except your majesty's presence was lacking to this glorious adventure.
Eustace: It's more than I can stand! Performing animals, they're silly and vulgar and sentimental.
Reepicheep: Queen Lucy, am I to understand that this singularly discourteous person is under your majesty's protection? Because if not...
Lucy: I'm sorry to say he is with us, Reepicheep. I apologize for his bad manners.
Reepicheep: It is not for you to apologize, your majesty.
Eustace: Well, don't look at me! I'm not about to apologize to a rodent.
Lucy: Eustace!
Lord Drinian: Captain, I am here at your request.
King Caspian: Ah, yes. King Caspian would like you present while we explain to King Edmund and Queen Lucy the purpose of our voyage, since it's as much to do with you as any of us.
Reepicheep: Of course.
Eustace: I don't want to know why you're on this voyage. I don't want to know any of it! I feel tired and achy and I want to go home.
King Caspian: Edmund, perhaps your friend would like to lie down for a while. We could put him in my cabin.
Edmund: Eustace, a nap?
Eustace: Yes, then maybe I can wake up and this nightmare will be over.
King Caspian: Rynelf!
Rynelf: Yes, Captain?
Lord Drinian: Please escort our guest to King Caspian’s cabin. See to it that he's made comfortable.
Rynelf: Aye, Captain.
Eustace: Made comfortable, that's hardly likely. This way.
Lord Drinian: Well, this is a merry shipmate you've brought us, King Edmund.
Edmund: Not for the last time, do I apologize.
Lucy: You were going to explain why you're on this voyage, Caspian.
Edmund: Yes, where are we heading for?
King Caspian: Well, that's rather a long story. Perhaps you'll remember that when I was a child, my usurping uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my father's who might have helped me, by sending them off to explore the unknown Eastern Seas beyond the Lone Islands.
Lucy: Yes, and none of them came back.
King Caspian: Right. Well, on my coronation day with Aslan's approval, I swore an oath that once I established peace in Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and a day to find my father's friends or to learn of their deaths and avenge them if I could.
Edmund: What were the names of the lords?
King Caspian: There's the Lord Revilian, the Lord Burn, the Lord Argoz, the Lord Mavramorn, the Lord Octesian, the Lord Restimar, and... oh, that other one who’s so hard to remember.
Lord Drinian: The Lord Rhoop, sire.
King Caspian: Rhoop, of course. That is my main intention. But Reepicheep here has an even higher hope. Don't you, Reepicheep?
Reepicheep: As high as my spirit, though perhaps as small as my stature, that we may come to the very eastern end of the world on this voyage. And what might we find there? Aslan's own country. It is always from the east across the sea that the Great Lion comes to us.
Edmund: Oh, I say! That is an idea.
Lucy: But do you think Aslan's country would be that sort of country? I mean, the sort that you could sail to?
Reepicheep: I do not know, madam, but there is this. When I was in my cradle, a wood-woman, a dryad, spoke this verse over me: "Where sky and water meet, where the waves grow sweet, doubt not, Reepicheep, to find all you seek. There is the utter East." I do not know what it means, but the spell of it has been on me all my life.
Lucy: And where are we now, Caspian?
Lord Drinian: The captain can tell you better than I. If you'll look at this chart... We began there at Cair Paravel and stood a little north for Galma, which we made on the next day. We reached Terebinthia on the fourth day from Galma. In five days more, we were in sight of Muil, which, as you know, is the westernmost of the Seven Isles. Then we rode through the straits and came about sundown into Redhaven on the Isle of Bren. We left Redhaven six days ago and have made marvelously good speed, so I hope to see the Lone Islands the day after tomorrow. The sum is we are now nearly 30 days at sea and have sailed more than 400 leagues from Narnia. That's our position, or it was at noon today.
Lucy: And after the Lone Islands?
Lord Drinian: No one knows, your majesty, unless the Lone Islanders themselves can tell us.
Edmund: They couldn't in our days.
Reepicheep: No. And it is after the Lone Islands that the adventure really begins.
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Eustace: Now that my notebook has finally dried out, I can chronicle this nightmare properly. I've now been on this ghastly boat for days and days. I use the word boat in its broadest possible sense, of course. It's little more than a toy, not much bigger than a lifeboat, and of course, absolutely primitive indoors. No proper saloon, no radio, no bathroom, no deck chairs. I've tried to tell the captain what real ships are like, but he's too thick. Edmund and Lucy, of course, didn't back me up. I suppose a kid like Lucy doesn't realize the danger, and Edmund's buttering up Caspian as everyone does here. They call him a king. I said I was a Republican, but he had to ask me what that meant. He doesn't seem to know anything at all. Oh, nearly forgot to say that there's also this kind of mouse thing that gives everyone the most frightful cheek. The others can put up with it if they like, but I'm tired of it. I gave its tail a playful tug the other day, and it nearly ran me through with its toy sword. Everyone took its part, of course. Oh, and the food is frightful too.
King Caspian: I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention about sleeping arrangements. Oh, look! There's that overgrown mouse. What's he doing?
Lord Drinian: Looking out to sea as he often does. Dreaming of distant lands to the east, I expect.
Eustace: Wouldn't it be funny to sneak up behind him and swing him around by that long tail of his?
Edmund: It wouldn't be funny at all, Eustace. You have no sense of humor. Watch!
Lucy: No, Eustace, stop! Oh, dear!
Eustace: Gotcha! Agh! Stop! Stop it! Let me go! Stop it! Hey! Let me go! Stop it! Agh! Jabbed me!
Reepicheep: I shall jab you and more! Why do you not draw sword, poltroon?
Eustace: It was a joke!
Reepicheep: Draw and fight, or I shall beat you black and blue with the flat of my sword!
Eustace: Stop it! I'll have you muzzled and tied down!
Reepicheep: Then take that! And that! Help, somebody stop it! I'll teach you manners! I'll make you respect a knight, and a mouse, and a mouse's tail!
King Caspian: Reepicheep, enough!
Eustace: Yes, you little brute! I insist on it being kept under control! I could bring an action against you, Caspian! I could order you to have it destroyed!
Reepicheep: Destroyed?
King Caspian: Now, now, let's not get carried away. We have time-honored traditions for settling this sort of thing. A duel should do the trick.
Eustace: A duel?
King Caspian: I could lend you a sword, Eustace.
Eustace: But I don't want a sword! I'm a pacifist. I don't believe in fighting.
Reepicheep: Do I understand that you do not intend to give me satisfaction?
Eustace: I don't know what you mean. If you don't know how to take a joke, I shan't bother my head about you.
Reepicheep: You will not fight me in a duel?
Eustace: Of course I won't!
Lucy: But you have to, Eustace. It's not fair.
King Caspian: True, it isn't fair. We'll have to handicap Reepicheep somehow, being the better swordsman.
Lucy: No! The only way to get out of it, Eustace, is to apologize.
Eustace: Apologize to it?
King Caspian: Right, it'll be a duel at sunrise then.
Reepicheep: I'll look forward to it.
Eustace: Wait! No. I... I'm sorry for pulling your tail and swinging you around. Will that suffice, Reepicheep?
Reepicheep: Yes, your majesty... for the moment.
King Caspian: Good. Then let's put it behind us and have some supper.
Lucy: Come along, Eustace. I'll bathe and bandage your hand.
Eustace: It's not my hand that hurts.
Guest (Male): Now that my notebook has finally dried out, I can chronicle this nightmare properly. I've now been on this ghastly boat for days and days. I use the word boat in its broadest possible sense, of course. It's little more than a toy, not much bigger than a lifeboat, and of course, absolutely primitive indoors. No proper saloon, no radio, no bathroom, no deck chairs. I've tried to tell the captain what real ships are like, but he's too thick. Edmund and Lucy, of course, didn't back me up. I suppose a kid like Lucy doesn't realize the danger, and Edmund's buttering up Caspian as everyone does here. They call him a king. I said I was a Republican, but he had to ask me what that meant. He doesn't seem to know anything at all. Oh, nearly forgot to say that there's also this kind of mouse thing that gives everyone the most frightful cheek. The others can put up with it if they like, but I'm tired of it. I gave its tail a playful tug the other day, and it nearly ran me through with its toy sword. Everyone took its part, of course. Oh, and the food is frightful too.
Guest (Male): Next time on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: "Land in sight!" "Are you staying with us?" "I thank you all the same, but we'll continue on." "Ah, but you won't. You're our captives now! We'll take you out in Narrowhaven tomorrow where we are going to sell you!" "How much do you want for that boy?" "300 crescents, my lord!" "150 then." "Done!"
Doug Gresham: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is a production of Focus on the Family. I'm Doug Gresham. Thank you for listening.