Summer Challenge Sharing Thread - 2023 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'

[Ajnos]

So Ajjie got sick Wednesday night and fell behind. But I managed these last night. Ch 5 was hard as I was hoping there would be a new character or Island each chapter. But her goes. I wasn't finished Ch 6 at the tine so Eustace had just found out he was a dragon. Blame brainfog for the silliness.

Chapter 5
There came up a very great storm
The mast from the ship was torn
There were creakings and groanings
And snappings and moanings
And the ship came out rather forlorn.

Chapter 6
There was a young knave known as Eustace
The books that he read were all useless
He knew not of dragons
Would care more for wagons
The armband he found proved a nuisance.

I'm finished with 7 so will try get more tomorrow.

[Swanwhite]

Ch. 5-6

The storm drives the ship to the island
The rain drives the boy to the cave
to gather up gold by the handful
and dream by the old dragon's grave.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

I like your Gumpas limerick, Aj, and your Eustace poems, Lily!

Chapter 5:
For some reason, it never really clicked in my mind before that Lucy got new clothes!
"For his mind was full of forlorn hopes, death-or-glory charges, and last stands." Feeling a little melancholy, Reep? "Forlorn hopes" doesn't seem like you.
Being a landlubber, I've never truly appreciated just how terrible a stormy sea is. This sounds horrible. And for twelve days (everybody but Eustace says twelve, so that's probably correct). And in uncharted waters. They're really at the mercy of the sea, and there's only so much they can do to weather the storm.
Pre-dragon Eustace would really fit into current western mindset of making oneself the victim....
Infuriating as it is, it's also sad that he only sees Lucy's attempt to share her as an action done "for some reason". He doesn't even try to frame it as pity or even self-serving mollification. Similarly his view of Caspian's empathy as patronizing behaviour. Between these and his "unselfish" act of not waking anyone to ask for water, he's very much proving that perception colours one's view of the world and that it can be that easy to convince yourself of something you want to believe.

Chapter 6:
Here the chapter opens with everybody else enjoying what Eustace wishes he could have: a good meal, all the water they could want, and truly restful rest. (Of course, the latter gets spoiled in their alarm over his absence, while he gets a good nap in.)
I realized some years ago that, similar to HHB though not as overtly, Aslan has his paw in the proceedings throughout the book. Eustace's "amazing luck" in sliding down the one and only safe way to the valley floor is reminiscent of Aslan shielding Shasta from the edge of the mountain path. In this case, Aslan isn't physically here, nor does Eustace later attribute it to him, but it did lead Eustace to the dragon treasure, his dragoning, his lesson, and then his undragoning. It wasn't luck, as Eustace supposes here: it was grace that leads him to redemption.

[Lily of Archenland]

Chapter 7
Claws and Water

Sand-scrawling has its disadvantages
When you are trying to write your own story,
And you don't know how to write a story,
And you've only your claws to write with
And compete against the surf.
You're scrambling to show new vantages,
Stripped of all close-held vainglory–
For this monstrous hide can hold no glory–
Wanting only to speak again to your kith,
Even mediated by wet earth.

Then moonlight meets you where it should not be
And charts a jungle path to set you free.

You can finally speak with your tongue of your rebirth
Although it sounds to your own ears like dream or myth.
Another's claws wrote deep in your hide
And stripped you clean til you couldn't hide,
And you were thrown into a well of living water
That un-wrote your fearful story,
Like your sandy faltering script.
Old skin and new heartsong are all you kept.

[Ajnos]

I love your Chapter 6 reflections, Ariel. Aslan the irony of Eustace's actions and Aslan's paw in everything.

Here's a selection of some of my favourite lines from your poems, Lily (I shared some of these on my phone the other day and lost them when the page refreshed):
"They came ashore for a lark/(And it was singing!)"
"In the harsh schools of Paravel's ruins"
"Change doesn't come on your schedule"
"These jolly folk rewritten in your mind/As "fiends..." "
"There sounds a giant heartbeat…"
"You've crawled farther outside your frame/Of reference than any mere/Magic picture-frame could shift you"
"And you were thrown into a well of living water"

Your Chapter 6 poem is my favourite so far, but Ch 7 is also beautifully told and gives me happy-feels

[Lily of Archenland]

Thanks much for the input, Ajjie!

My 8th is rather small...

Chapter 8
Deadly Beauty

Glitter and gleam of strangely shining things –
Curses can be beautiful, it seems.
Serpents of the deep shimmer
With vivid rainbow mail,
And golden treasure bares its teeth
Until dazed victims set their sail.

---

Chapter 9
Coerced Quest

Strangely familiar,
The clipped green lawn stretches on
Across foreign soil.

Silence is king here
Beneath deep garden shadows
Until babble comes.

The deep uncanny peace is broken now
By thumping, cheering, eager enemies.
A spear is thrown, sweat gathers on your brow.
There's just one this to do if you would please:

Invisible men
Require enchantment lifted
By a braver girl.

A fine country house
Shelters fell magician's book
In bright summer heat.

The quest and spell are frightful for the child they mean
To recruit, but perhaps old hat for a titled valiant queen.

---

Chapter 10
Magic's Mystery

Screw up your courage now, child queen,
For magic is a mazey thing.
It deals in silver and moonlight,
And masks and mirrors, beauty bright.

It whispers lures the world would rue
And tells secrets slantwise but true.
It summons, sings, reveals, and mocks.
It slides between the ticks and tocks.

It drums along to your heartbeat.
It knows what you'd like most to eat.
It stretches out the corridor
And waits behind the last left door.

It sparkles up your hands and spine
And explicates the laws Divine.
But it can be quite joyous, too.
A tale told will kindly haunt you.

It binds up Love by Love's own laws
And lets you hear the hidden paws.
You know not where your journey leads:
What's casting shadows, planting seeds.

[Ariel.of.Narnia]

@Lily: I like how you paralleled the claws and writing for chapter 6, and the line "A tale told will kindly haunt you" for chapter 10! (I liked all of your poem for chapter 10, but especially that line!)

Chapter 7:
There tends to be a focus (rightfully so) on Reep's kindness to Eustace, but can you imagine how it must have felt for Eustace when "several" said they'd stand by him and "many" said they'd "have him right as rain in a day or two"? It's not even been a full day since he was last making a nuisance of himself, and yet there's at least a level of goodwill displayed toward him now when it would have been so easy to do otherwise.
I think most folks would consider being liked a greater pleasure than liking others (possibly because we have greater control over one than the other) -- presumably Eustace would have thought so as well -- but he's learned that the latter is actually the greater prize. He'd been so poisoned by the way he approached life with others, it soured everything.
"I want to tell you how I stopped being one." The words of a testimony! And though his verb here is active -- that is, he performed the action of stopping --, his testimony really is actually passive -- that is, he was acted upon. Sure, he tried to "undress" himself, but he was still a dragon; he only stopped being one when Aslan ripped that form off him and healed him.
(His comments about his own arms are amusing, not gonna lie.)
"Well -- he knows me." Short and simple, but so very beautiful.
Lewis said he wouldn't focus on Eustace's relapses, but I did briefly... in a story more about someone else. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13809624/1 ... -Should-Go

Chapter 8:
Funny that Eustace has Caspian's second-best sword. I'd have thought Edmund would have had it. Though now that I think of it... I wonder if Caspian might have given his best to Edmund, and then his second-best to Eustace? His behaviour in the first chapter prompts me to think this could be the case.
Narration seems to suggest luck in the choice of stream to water at, but this is another place where I see Aslan at work. He's not visible and present, as he will be by Deathwater Lake, but the coming rain prompted the natural desire of not "getting wetter than we need", which drove the landing party to go to the safe stream instead.
Does anyone by chance have a coloured illustration of Deathwater? I'm curious to know about Eustace's outfit. I'm not sure I've noticed before, but he looks like he might be in something similar to Caspian's outfit. (If so, then I'm rather bummed that that did not carry through to the illustration of the three with the Lamb, where Eustace is clearly back in his English clothes, which should have disappeared.)
The most beautiful statue Lucy had ever seen? Either Narnian sculptors don't have the skill of Michelangelo or else Lord Restimar had a seriously impressive physique.
"It shall be called Goldwater Island. And I bind all of you to secrecy." Caspian. My dude. With a name like that, there's not much of secret to keep now, is there?


Well, for all my intentions of doing more than two chapters to catch up, here I am again, stopping at two. Guess I'll just have to run late this year!

[Lily of Archenland]

Chapter 11
Meeting the Magician

He isn't the Tyrant they say he is –
or at least, he isn't now.
What sins a starry exile make
Are only a Star's to know.

He conjures English food for guest,
Cold lamb and peas for tea;
He napped through her little quest,
And governs, it seems, unseriously.

He collects so many wonders
As would widen up your eyes,
And punishes the stubborn blunders
With monopods' surprise.

Still he's a well-intentioned sort,
It doesn't do to whine.
He keeps well with a little sport
His books, his gardens, his red wine.

[Ajnos]

Love your Chapter 10 poem Lily. I'm struggling with my limerick for that because I want it to be all about Lucy and include her fear and temptations but I'm limited by word count and rhyme (my own fault, I know).

Great thoughts as usual, Ariel. Esp. your thoughts on Aslan guiding every step. Even though I knew it was coming, Aslan's words to Lucy in Ch 10 "I have been here all the time" hit me differently this time for some reason. I think because he does often appear physically in Narnia, it's easier to think that he comes and goes (like is hinted at at the end of LWW). But in some mysterious way he is also omnipresent, because he's a Christ figure and Christ is omnipresent. If we could make unseen things in our world seen, there would be some scary stuff. But Christ would appear at once too because he's with us. (This is something we've been considering in my Bible Study Group lately and Aslan's appearance just made it feel more real.)

Okay, now onto less deep stuff:

Chapter 7
Octesian was a most noble Lord
Met his end on a great dragon hoard
Was he eaten or cursed?
Not sure which is worst
(And they found not a big glowing sword)

Chapter 8
There once was an isle called Deathwater
Like the tale of that king and his daughter
Seems Lord Restimar
Only travelled thus far
They returned a pair of shoes shorter

[Lily of Archenland]

This... was a hard one.

Chapter 12
The Dark Island

They pushed into the Dark with their eyes wide open.
It swallowed their ship like a long black mouth.
Only pale greasy lights gave their hope any token.

In unnatural Night walked all fears unspoken.
When the scream came they couldn't tell North from South.
They pushed into the Dark with their eyes wide open.

The heavy air by no wind was broken
When they learned why to break their terrible trouth:
Only pale greasy lights gave their hope any token.

Panic swarmed in as fears were spoken.
The distant sun had lost all scouth.
Only pale greasy lights gave their hope any token.

"If ever you'd loved"-- the prayer was spoken
And in flew the light, with a song in its mouth.
They pulled out of the Dark with their eyes wide open,
When the Albatross gave to their hope better token.