The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Edmund steals away to the White Witch's castle, which is filled with statues of Narnian victims she has turned to stone. The Witch is furious when Edmund appears alone and angrier still to learn that Aslan may have returned. She takes him on her sledge to intercept the others. Meanwhile, Mr. Beaver realizes that Edmund has betrayed them, and they set off at once to seek Aslan at the Stone Table. As they travel, the Witch's spell over Narnia begins to break: Father Christmas (who has not been seen in Narnia for a hundred years) arrives with magical presents: a
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe young Lewis much about thinking and communicating clearly, skills that would be invaluable to him later. Narnia is caught in endless winter that has lasted a century when the children first enter. Norse tradition mythologizes a "great winter", known as the Fimbulwinter, said to precede Ragnarök. The trapping of Edmund by the White Witch is reminiscent of the seduction and imprisonment of Kay by The Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's novella of that name. The dwarves and giants are found in Norse mythology; fauns, centaurs, minotaurs and dryads derive from Greek mythology. Father Christmas, of course, was part of