Aslan and Pain

[Lady Rosalia]

Interesting discussion.
In reading part of a collection of C.S. Lewis's letters to children, I read a letter from a little girl, asking him what Aslan's other name is.
Unfortunately, I'll have to paraphrase, but he asked about if there was anyone else who had arrived at the same time Father Christmas did,
said He was the Son of the Great Emperor, given Himself to be jeered at and killed by wicked individuals, risen again, and is sometimes called a Lamb?
To me, not only does this show that these books certainly have parallels in them, but the reference to the LWW passages (to me, at least) strongly suggests that C.S. Lewis intended Aslan to point to Christ.

[7chronicles]

I also think that Aslan could will his pain.

As I'm thinking more on the thought, it seems only Aslan accepts pain when it is for others, to bring others a sense of comfort (well, that's a given, but hear me out). When Aslan gets hit by the iron post, it is because the White Witch is trying to cause him harm- no one else is involved, therefore Aslan needs not to feel it. In the case of the Stone Table, the witch is again trying to do harm, but Aslan accepts because it will save others (not to mention taking the fear away from the other three Pevensies and bringing them comfort). Another example is when Aslan shows the emotional pain for Digory's mother in MN- it provides comfort to Digory to know that Aslan cares about his own mother even more than Digory does himself.

I could not have said this better!
Very good observations Lion's Emblem!
I hadn't realized before that it was when it was for others that Aslan was in pain. That makes a lot of sense to me.

[Varnafinde]

I think that, in LWW, Aslan was not meant to "be" Christ, he was simply a character who was giving his life in a Christ-like way, knowing that "the Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time" would bring him back to life. There are references to him being "the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea" but we don't get to find out any more about who this Emperor is; he isn't identified as being God the Father (in LWW at least).

I couldn't disagree more. Lewis may not have had the entire series planned out, but Edmund's betrayal, Aslan's sorrow concerning his sacrifice, his resurrection, Edmund's redemption. . . . . it's all too similar to say that Aslan is not supposed to be portrayed as a Christ character in the first book. This is especially true considering Lewis' deep faith.

Aslan wasn't planned from the start to be a part of the books (nor were the books all planned), but once he was there, he was clearly meant to be a Christ character.

In It All Began With a Picture C.S. Lewis says:
At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him.

But he gets his characterisation in the very first book written. He isn't meant to be too obviously a Christ figure, though - in that letter to a child, Lewis doesn't give her the straightforward answer, but encourages her to understand the answer for herself. A friend of mine says that he didn't realize that Aslan was a Christ-figure until he had become a Christian himself.

[Dernhelm_of_Rohan]

While this discussion is certainly interesting, we have to keep in mind that as with all allegories (and partial allegories, which is the category I place Narnia under), no comparison is perfect. And it's certainly not a basis for theology in the real world. I'm sure Lewis wanted these stories to be an entertaining, poignant way of teaching Biblical truths, but we have to be careful not to take the good thing (Narnia) and make it the best thing (the Bible).

That said, I think there's a possibility that no one has brought up yet. Remember that the event of the iron bar happened during the creation of the world of Narnia. The magic that brought that world to life was so powerful, it could take the crossbar and make it grow into a lampost. Is it possible that in a world so young, so untainted and pure, pain could not yet be felt? The later passage which describes how Strawberry/Fledge joined the other animals mentions him being perked up and looking young again. The very new air of Narnia had not yet had any evil done in it, although Jadis was already in the world.

Another option is that Aslan simply ignored it. He is a powerful Lion, and completely focused on the task at hand (he didn't spare the humans a glance when he passed right by them). Maybe the Creation was just so all-absorbing that he chose to ignore the pain?

Also, in DiGoRyKiRkE's first post in this topic, he said-

First of all, Aslan is described as being a huge lion (taller than a horse in HAHB) so an iron bar being chucked for hundreds of feet might not have even been traveling fast enough to hurt very much to begin with.

This is an error - the narrator of MN says that Jadis threw the iron bar twelve feet and that "nobody, least of all [her] could have missed at that range". This makes me doubt that Aslan just ignored the pain, but I think it's still a possibility.

-Dernhelm

[Ithilwen]

I think Aslan, by default, probably didn't feel pain. As a fictional character who represents Christ, I think feeling pain the way we do would make him too vulnerable.

Having said that, I don't think he was unable to feel pain, particularly if the situation called for it. Such as the sacrifice scene in LWW. I do think he felt pain there, purposely. After all, if he didn't feel the pain of the killing, it wouldn't have been much of a sacrifice on his part.


~Riella