The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe rises, the Stone Table breaks and Aslan is restored to life. He tells Lucy and Susan that Jadis was unaware of the "deeper magic from before the dawn of time" that will resurrect an innocent killed in place of a traitor. With Lucy and Susan on his back, he hurries to the Witch's castle to restore the stone statues to life. Meanwhile, Peter and Edmund lead the Narnians against the Witch. Edmund breaks her wand, preventing her from turning more Narnians into stone, but he is seriously wounded. Aslan arrives with the former statues as reinforcements. The Narnians rout the
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe finishing the first novel. He completed the sequel by end of 1949, less than a year after finishing the initial book. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" had few readers during 1949 and was not published until late in 1950, so his initial enthusiasm did not stem from favourable reception by the public. While Lewis is known today on the strength of the Narnia stories as a highly successful children’s writer, the initial critical response was muted. At the time it was fashionable for children's stories to be realistic; fantasy and fairy tales were seen as indulgent, appropriate only