"And what...pray, are you?" "Erm..." "My name's Edmund." "Is that how you address a queen?" "I beg your pardon, I didn't know." "Your Majesty." "Not know the Queen of Narnia?" "You shall know us better hereafter." "(Chuckling)" "Well!" "Answer my question, what are you?" "Please, Your Majesty, I don't know what you mean." "I'm at school, at least I was." "It's the holidays now." "But what are you?" "What are you?" "!" "Are you a great overgrown dwarf that has cut off its beard?" "Oh, no, Your Majesty." "I've never had a beard." "I'm a boy." "(Gasps)" "A boy!" "Do you mean you are a son of Adam?" "I see you are an idiot, whatever else you may be!" "Answer my question once and for all or I shall lose my patience!" "Are you...human?" "Oh, yes, Your Majesty." "And how, pray, did you come to enter my dominions?" "Please, Your Majesty, I came in through the wardrobe." "What do you mean?" "I Just opened the door and found myself here, Your Majesty." "(Gasps)" "A door!" "A door from the world of men." "I have heard of such things." "This may wreck all!" "He's only one, easily dealt with." "Ha!" "Yet...he might know something." "My poor child." "How cold you look." "Come." "Sit by me on my sledge and I will wrap a mantle around you." "And we will talk." "Mr. Tumnus?" "Mr. Tumnus!" "Y..." "Lucy!" "How brave of you to come back." "Come in, come in." "Do you feel a little better?" "Perhaps something hot to drink." "Should you like that?" "Oh." "Yes, please." "—Your Majesty." "—Hmm." "(Gasps)" "Ahh!" "You like it?" "Oh, yes, Your Majesty." "It makes me feel warm, right down to my toes." "But it is dull, son of Adam, to drink without eating." "What would you like to eat best in all the world?" "—Turkish delight." "—Turkish delight it shall be." "—Delicious?" "—Mm!" "Good!" "But this is a cold place for talking." "Let us adjourn." "(Edmund gasps)" "Come." "And the White Witch has done nothing to you for letting me go?" "Hasn't done a thing, which can only mean she hasn't found out." "What can be the matter with her spies?" "Unless..." "You don't think they've been waiting for me to come back?" "To catch both of us?" "Now, son of Adam," "I am eager to know all about you." "You are here alone?" "There are no others with you?" "I'm not sure, Your Majesty." "I have this sister." "Well, in fact I have a brother and two sisters." "Two, three, four..." "Four?" "!" "Mm." "And where are they, these other three humans?" "Can't say for sure." "One of them — Lucy — you see, nobody believed her when she told us she'd been here and had tea with a faun." "(Gasps)" "Anyway, we're the only ones in the whole human world who know anything about..." "What do you call it?" "Narnia." "Four of them." "The prophecy of Cair Paravel." "It's all gone." "—What?" "—I could eat twice as much!" "(Sighs)" "Son of Adam, I should so much like to see your brother and sisters." "You must bring them to me." "All right." "I'll try." "Because if you brought them to me," "I should give you more Turkish delight." "Oh, give it to me now!" "But I can't!" "The magic will work only once." "It would be another matter if you were in my house." "My magic house." "I want to go there now." "I want more Turkish delight!" "It is a lovely place, my house." "Except for one thing." "I have no children." "(Sighs)" "I would so much like a nice boy I could bring up... as a prince." "He would be King of Narnia when I'm gone." "He would wear a gold crown and eat Turkish delight all day long." "And as you are much the cleverest and handsomest young man I have ever met," "I wish to make you the Prince... when you bring the others to visit me." "Why can't we go there now?" "Oh, but if I took you there now, I shouldn't see your brother and sisters!" "You must have courtiers and nobles!" "I will make your brother a Duke and your sisters Duchesses." "I shouldn't bother." "There's nothing special about them." "I could bring them another time?" "But once in my house you will forget everything!" "No!" "No, no, no, no, no, no." "You must go back to your own country now and come to me another day." "With them." "Otherwise..." "But I don't even know the way back to my own country." "Why, that is easy." "Do you see that lamp?" "I think somewhere beyond that lamp lies the world of men and now look the other way." "—Do you see those two hills?" "—Yes." "My house is between those hills." "So, next time remember, lamppost, wood, hills, my house." "But you must bring the others with you." "I might have to be very angry if you came alone." "And by the way, don't tell the others about me." "Make it a lovely surprise." "If your sister has met one of those fauns, she may have heard nasty stories about me... that might make them afraid to come." "Fauns will say anything, you know." "So, let's keep it a secret." "Can't I have just one piece of Turkish delight to eat on my way home?" "No!" "No." "You must wait till next time." "Just think how good it will taste then." "(Whip cracks)" "Next time!" "Next ti—i—i—i—ime!" "(Sighs)" "Edmund!" "You got in too!" "Isn't it wonderful?" "All right, you were right." "It is a magic wardrobe." "I'll say I'm sorry if you like." "But where on earth have you been?" "I've been looking everywhere for you." "With Mr. Tumnus the faun, and the White Witch has done nothing to him for letting me go, so perhaps...perhaps everything is going to be all right after all." "The White Witch?" "Who's she?" "A perfectly terrible person." "She calls herself the Queen of Narnia although she has no right to, and all the fauns and dryads and naiads and dwarfs and other animals — at least all the nice ones — simply hate her." "She does all kinds of horrible things!" "This is her doing." "She made a magic so it is always winter in Narnia." "Always winter but never Christmas." "What does this witch look like?" "She drives about on a sleigh with a crown on her head and her magic wand in her hand." "Lucy... who told you all this stuff about a White Witch?" "Mr. Tumnus the faun." "Oh." "Well, you know fauns, they'll say anything." "Can't believe what they say." "—Who said so?" "—Everybody knows that." "Ask anybody you like." "Edmund, I am glad you got in there too." "The others will have to believe in Narnia now that both of us have been there." "—Won't it be fun?" "—Fun for you." "I'll have to admit, before all the others, that you were right." "And I suppose they'll be on the side of the fauns and the dryads and those whatsits." "Well, whose side could you be on?" "They're the only people we know there." "You look awful, Edmund." "You look as though you're going to be sick." "Oh, come on." "They could be anywhere." "They're still playing hide—and—seek." "Oh, don't go so fast!" "(Laughing) Found you!" "Your turn." "—Found the others yet?" "—No." "Peter!" "Susan!" "What's the matter with you two?" "It's all true." "Edmund has seen it too." "There is a country you can get to through the wardrobe." "Edmund and I both got in." "It's all true." "Go on, Edmund, tell them." "Well, Ed?" "What's it all about?" "Tell us, Edmund." "Uh..." "Oh, yes, Lucy and I have been playing a silly game, pretending that her story about the country in the wardrobe was all true." "Nonsense, of course." "There's nothing there at all really." "Oh...!" "What's the matter with her?" "That's the worst of these young kids." "Look here, shut up!" "First you're perfectly beastly to Lucy about her wardrobe nonsense, but now you go playing games and setting her off again!" "But it's all rubbish!" "Of course it is!" "That's just the point." "Lucy was perfectly all right when we left home." "But down here..." "she seems to be going off her head." "Or else turning into the most frightful liar." "Whichever it is, what good do you think you'll do by jeering and nagging at her one minute" "—and then encouraging her the next?" "—But I thought..." "You didn't think at all!" "It was just spite!" "Do stop." "It's not going to make things any better having a row between you two." "Let's go to find Lucy." "I don't care what you think and I don't care what you say!" "You can tell the Professor or you can write to Mother!" "You can do anything you like!" "I know I've been in there and I know I've met a faun!" "And I wish I'd stayed there!" "It was much nicer there with him than it is here with you!" "I don't think we should worry Mother." "Certainly not." "(Knocking)" "Come." "Well!" "How nice." "Peter and Susan." "We don't mean to interrupt." "Oh, I'm always, I'm afraid, absolutely delighted to be interrupted." "If one were never interrupted, life would be nothing but work and study." "No fun at all." "I am at your disposal." "Pull up some chairs." "(Door clicks)" "I did see him." "You know I did." "—And so we wondered if you could advise us." "—Because we don't know what to do." "Hmm." "How do you know your sister's story is not true?" "But..." "Edmund said they'd only been pretending." "Well, that is a point which certainly needs consideration, very serious consideration." "But if you'll excuse my asking the question, does your experience lead you to regard your brother or your sister as the more reliable?" "I mean, which is the more truthful?" "Well, that's just the funny thing, sir." "Up to now, I'd have said Lucy every time." "—Mm?" "—In general I'd say the same as Peter." "But, well, this couldn't be true." "A magic country, and a wood, and a faun." "Well, that is more than I know." "But a charge of lying against somebody you have always found truthful is a very serious thing, a very serious thing indeed." "We were afraid it mightn't even be lying." "We thought there must be something wrong with her." "Madness, you mean?" "Oh, make your minds easy about that." "One only has to look at her and talk to her to know that she is not mad." "—But then..." "—Oh, logic!" "Why don't they teach logic at these schools!" "There are only three possibilities." "Either you're sister is one, telling lies, or two, she is mad, or three, she is telling the truth." "One, you say that your sister never lies, two, it is perfectly obvious she is not mad, so for the moment, until any further evidence turns up, we must assume three — she is telling the truth." "But...how could it be true, sir?" "Why do you say that?" "Well, for one thing, if it was real, why doesn't everybody find this country every time they look into the wardrobe?" "When we looked, there was nothing there." "Even Lucy didn't pretend there was." "What has that to do with it?" "Sir, if things are real, they are there all the time." "Are they?" "But Lucy had no time to have gone anywhere, even if there was such a place." "She came running after us the moment we were out of the room." "It was less than a minute but she pretended she'd been away for hours." "That is the very thing which makes her story most likely to be true." "If there really is a door in this house that leads to some other world —" "I must warn you, this is a very strange house, even I know very little about it —" "I would not be at all surprised if that other world had a time of its own." "However long you stayed there, it would never take up any of our time." "But I don't think many girls of Lucy's age would invent such an idea themselves." "You mean there really could be other worlds all over the place?" "Well, nothing is more probable." "Oh, I wonder what they do teach them at these schools." "But what are we to do?" "My dear young lady, there is one plan which no one yet has suggested," "—which is well worth trying." "—What's that?" "We might all try minding our own business." "So, no jeering, no sarcasm, we're none of us to say a word to Lucy about it." "And in my opinion, we should all keep away from that room and that wardrobe." "—Agreed?" "—A lot of fuss about nothing." "All right, agreed." "(Susan) Where did you leave it?" "(Lucy) I don't know." "(Mrs. Macready) We'll go upstairs." "I have told you you are to keep out of the way whenever I have people in the house." "Shoo!" "(Sighs)" "Evacuees." "From London!" "—Look out!" "—What is it?" "Here comes the Macready and a whole gang of people." "Sharp's the word!" "(Whispering and giggling)" "—(Door rattles) —It's no good." "Come on!" "(Mrs. Macready) Watch your step here." "Nothing for it." "(Lucy giggling)" "There's nowhere else to hide." "Quick!" "Never shut yourself in a wardrobe, stupid!" "Oh, isn't it cold in here?" "(Peter) Yes." "—Put these on." "—Oh, yes." "(Peter) It is cold." "Hang it all, it's wet too." "What's the matter with this place?" "—Let's get out, they've gone." "—Oh!" "There are trees here." "And it's getting lighter over there." "By Jove, you're right!" "This wet stuff is..." "Snow!" "We've got into Lucy's wood after all." "Come on!" "—I'm sorry I didn't believe you." "—I am, too." "—What shall we do now?" "—Go and explore the wood, of course." "—Not before you put these boots on." "—What?" "They were in the wardrobe." "—But these things aren't ours." "—No." "But it is cold." "And it isn't as though we're taking them out of the house." "We shan't even be taking them out of the wardrobe." "(Peter) I suppose that this whole country is in the wardrobe." "Are we going the right way?" "Shouldn't we be bearing a little more that way if we're heading for the lamp...post?" "(Peter) So you were here." "And all the time you made out Lucy was telling lies." "Of all the poisonous little beasts!" "I'll pay you all out for this!" "You pack of stuck—up self—satisfied prigs!" "(Susan) Where are we going, anyway?" "(Lucy) To see Mr. Tumnus the faun, of course." "(Glass tinkles)" "This place is cold and damp." "It hasn't been lived in for days." "Not since the last time I was here." "(Peter) Hang on, what's this?" "—Is there a message on it?" "—Yes, there is." "But I can't read it in this light." ""The faun Tumnus is under arrest" ""and awaiting trial on a charge of..." ""high treason" ""against Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia..."" "..Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands, et cetera." "Also of comforting Her Majesty's enemies of harboring spies and, above all, of fraternizing with humans!" "Signed by me, Maugrim, Captain of the Secret Police." "Long live the Queen!" "(Roars)"