Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre

Lucy: Peter, what time is our train supposed to arrive?

Peter: Half past.

Lucy: Will Susan and I have a compartment to ourselves?

Peter: That depends upon how crowded the train is, Lucy. Are you nervous?

Lucy: I've been on trains before.

Peter: I mean about going to boarding school for the first time.

Lucy: No. Well, it's not so bad since Susan and I will be near each other.

Peter: Yes, that helps.

Susan: Don't worry, Lucy. I'll be there whenever you need me.

Lucy: Thank you.

Edmund: It's torture having to sit around on a train station like this. Carting our luggage and boxes all over the platform. I wish we could just get on with it.

Edmund: How long before our train, Peter?

Peter: A half an hour after Susan and Lucy's train.

Peter: Look, everyone, try not to be so fidgety. It's bad enough that our holidays are over and we have to return to school, but this is just...

Lucy: What's wrong, Lu?

Susan: What on Earth?

Peter: Susan, let me go! What are you doing? Where are you dragging me to?

Susan: I'm not touching you. Someone is pulling me.

Lucy: Oh, stop it!

Edmund: I feel just the same as if I'm being dragged along.

Lucy: I feel both pulled.

Edmund: It's beginning again.

Peter: You've gone pale. You've all gone pale.

Lucy: I can't bear it!

Peter: Look sharp. All catch hands and keep together. This is magic. I can tell by the feeling. Quick.

Susan: Yes.

Lucy: Hold hands. I do wish it would stop.

Susan: Ah!

Guest (Male): "Drawn into Narnia" was the original title of the story we're about to hear. The author, C.S. Lewis, wanted the reader to sense immediately the idea of being drawn or pulled into another world.

That title was ultimately changed to include the name of the story's main character, Prince Caspian. But Lewis insisted on maintaining the original theme in the rarely acknowledged subtitle, "The Return to Narnia."

Doug Gresham: Hello, I'm Douglas Gresham, your host for Focus on the Family Radio Theatre.

Guest (Male): Jack Lewis observed that in so many fantasy stories, it seemed as if characters were summoned by magic, and the stories were told from the point of view of the magician, or the one who had done the summoning.

Jack then wondered what it would be like to be on the receiving end of the summons. To suddenly be pulled from our world into another world. That was the beginning of the idea for Prince Caspian.

And since it was our heroes and heroines from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe who are summoned, a theme of return became a key part of the story.

Jack didn't look at a return in the obvious physical sense, but went deeper to consider a restoration. A restoration of those things that are true: true life, true leadership, and mostly, true faith.

Prince Caspian tackles that idea and broader themes of the battle between good and evil, spiritual obedience and discernment, and ultimately, joy. A festive joy, when what was wrong has been put right again.

Of course, one could argue that these are themes that pervade all of the Chronicles of Narnia. Maybe they do, but no more so than in this marvelous story of Peter, Edmund, Susan, Lucy, and their return to Narnia in Prince Caspian.

Guest (Male): The classic adventure series loved by children of all ages, now brought to glorious life.

Lucy: It's a magic wardrobe. There's wood inside it and it's snowing and it's called Narnia. Look.

Guest (Male): Step through the wardrobe and into a world filled with marshwiggles, unicorns, and animals that talk. Best of all, you'll meet the most incredible lion in literature, Aslan.

Guest (Male): Oh, children!

Guest (Male): C.S. Lewis's classic Narnia series, available for you to cherish. From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to The Last Battle. This complete set, produced by Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre, can now be yours. For more information, the number is 1-800, the letter A, Family, or visit our website at radiotheatre.org. Focus on the Family Radio Theatre. Get ready for adventure.

Guest (Female): Chat GPT and AI can offer you ideas and attempt to give you answers, but it can't listen with compassion, pray with you, or offer biblical wisdom. Real connection is what brings true hope.

Focus on the Family offers a free, confidential consultation with a Christian counselor to guide you and help you find hope with whatever you're facing. Go to focusonthefamily.com/gethelp or call 1-800-A-Family. That's 1-800, the letter A, the word family.

Guest (Male): Once, there were four children, whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. And it's been told in another story, called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, how they had a remarkable adventure.

They opened the door of a magic wardrobe and found themselves in a quite different world from ours, and in that different world, they had become kings and queens in a country called Narnia.

While they were in Narnia, they seemed to reign for years and years. But when they came back through the door and found themselves in England again, it all seemed to have taken no time at all.

That had all happened a year ago. And now, all four of them were sitting at an empty, sleepy country railway station, on their way back to school. Well, they were, but as you just heard, something strange happened, and the luggage, the seat, the platform, and the station completely vanished.

Edmund: Wood?

Lucy: How have we...

Peter: Oh, Peter.

Lucy: Do you think we've got back into Narnia?

Peter: It might be anywhere. I can't see a yard in all these trees. Let's try to get into the open. If there is any open.

Edmund: Come on.

Guest (Male): The wood was so thick and tangled that they could hardly see into it at all. And nothing in it moved. Not a bird, not even an insect. They walked and walked and walked. The children's feet soon felt hot and heavy until...

Lucy: Look! What's that over there?

Susan: What?

Edmund: Are my eyes playing tricks, or...

Lucy: Or...

Peter: It's a stream!

Lucy: Oh, at last, I'm so thirsty.

Edmund: Oh, hurrah!

Lucy: Oh.

Edmund: Oh.

Susan: I'm hungry too.

Peter: You're always hungry.

Susan: What are we to do? We have no idea where we are, or how long we'll be here.

Peter: We must try to do something.

Susan: We'll follow the stream to see where it leads.

Edmund: Come on.

Susan: Let's go.

Edmund: Come on. This way.

Guest (Male): So they began to follow the stream. It was very hard work. They had to stoop under branches and climb over branches, and they blundered through great masses of stuff like rhododendrons, and tore their clothes and got their feet wet in the stream, and still there was no noise at all. They were beginning to get very tired of it, when they noticed a delicious smell, and then a flash of bright color high above them, at the top of the right bank.

Susan: I say, I do believe that's an apple tree.

Lucy: Yes.

Peter: It is.

Edmund: They're delicious too.

Edmund: And this is not the only tree.

Susan: Look there and there! Why, there are dozens of them.

Susan: This must have been an orchard a long time ago.

Edmund: Before the place went wild and the wood grew up.

Edmund: And what's that? By Jove, it's a wall. An old stone wall.

Susan: It's terribly broken down.

Lucy: Look how high it goes.

Edmund: It's almost as tall as these trees.

Peter: Over this way. I see an arch of some sort.

Edmund: It must have had a gate at one point.

Peter: Looks as if this apple tree has taken over.

Susan: It's the biggest of them all, isn't it?

Edmund: Shall we push through? It's brighter through there.

Peter: We can try it.

Edmund: Come on.

Lucy: Oh.

Susan: It's like a secret garden.

Lucy: Oh. But it's so quiet. It seems rather sad to me.

Susan: Hmm. This wasn't a garden.

Lucy: Huh? It was a castle.

Susan: And this must have been the courtyard.

Peter: I see what you mean. Yes. That is the remains of a tower. And there is what used to be a flight of steps going up to the top of the walls.

Lucy: Yes.

Susan: And do you see those other steps? The broad shallow ones, going up to that door there.

Lucy: Yes.

Susan: It must have been the door into the Great Hall.

Edmund: Oh.

Lucy: Oh.

Edmund: Ages ago by the look of it.

Peter: Yes, ages ago. I wish we could find out who the people were that lived in this castle and how long ago.

Lucy: It gives me a strange feeling.

Peter: Does it, Lou? Because it does the same to me.

Lucy: Really?

Peter: I wonder where we are and what it all means.

Edmund: What do you suppose is that doorway?

Peter: Let's see.

Susan: Yes, come on.

Edmund: Hmm.

Lucy: Except for the missing roof, I'd say it was once some sort of Great Hall.

Susan: Oh yes.

Lucy: But what is that terrace kind of thing?

Peter: Why don't you see? That was the dais where the high table was. Where the king and the great lords sat. Anyone would think you had forgotten that we ourselves were once kings and queens, and sat on a dais just like that in our Great Hall.

Lucy: In Cair Paravel at the mouth of the Great River of Narnia. How could I forget?

Lucy: Oh yes. This hall must have been just like the Great Hall we feasted in.

Edmund: But unfortunately without the feast. It's getting late, you know.

Peter: We shall need a campfire if we've got to spend the night here. I've got matches. Let's go and see if we can collect some dry wood.

Susan: Good idea.

Peter: Come on. Let's go. This way.

Susan: That's a good fire. Well done, Peter and Edmund.

Edmund: I wish I could say the same for these apples. I may never complain about school suppers again.

Lucy: I'm so glad we found that well in the back. The water is awfully good.

Edmund: Speaking of which, I thought Susan had gone to fetch some water.

Edmund: Susan!

Susan: I'm here.

Edmund: I thought you were going to the well for water, not all the way back to the mouth of the stream.

Susan: Look, Peter, I found this by the well.

Peter: Well, I'm... I'm jiggered.

Susan: What is it?

Peter: A little chess knight.

Susan: It's pure gold, isn't it?

Peter: Yes. And you see the eyes are made of rubies.

Lucy: Yes, it's exactly like one of the golden chessmen we used to play with when we were kings and queens at Cair Paravel.

Susan: Oh, it brings back such lovely memories.

Peter: Right, and it's about time we four started using our brains.

Susan: What about?

Peter: Have none of you guessed where we are?

Susan: What?

Lucy: I've felt for hours that there was some wonderful mystery hanging over this place.

Edmund: Far ahead, Peter, we're all listening.

Peter: We're in the ruins of Cair Paravel itself.

Edmund: But, I say, how do you make that out? This place has been ruined for ages. Anyone could see that no one has lived here for hundreds of years.

Peter: I know, that's the difficulty. But this hall is exactly the same shape and size as the hall at Cair Paravel. Just picture a roof on this, and a colored pavement instead of grass, and tapestries on the walls, and you get our royal banqueting hall.

Lucy: Oh.

Peter: The castle well is exactly where our well was. A little to the south of the Great Hall. And it's exactly the same size and shape. And Susan has found one of our old chessmen, or one identical to it.

Edmund: But look here, Peter. This must all be rot. To begin with, we didn't plant an orchard slap up against a gate.

Peter: No, but we did plant the orchard, remember? We planted it the very day before the ambassadors from the Tisroc of Calormen came.

Lucy: Oh.

Edmund: But it still doesn't make sense. It's only a year ago since we came back from Narnia, and you want to make out that in one year, castles have fallen down, great forests have grown up, and little trees we planted ourselves have turned into big old orchards. It's impossible!

Lucy: And there's another thing. If this is Cair Paravel, there ought to be a door at this end of the dais.

Susan: Yes. In fact, we ought to be sitting with our backs against it at this moment. You know, the door that led down to the treasure chamber.

Lucy: Oh yes.

Peter: We don't know that there isn't a door behind all this Ivy.

Edmund: We can soon find out. Please hand me that stick, Susan.

Susan: Here.

Edmund: Thank you. Now.

Edmund: Oh.

Lucy: Good Scott!

Susan: Oh!

Peter: Let's clear this ivy away. I still have my pocket knife.

Edmund: I have mine.

Peter: You start clearing on that side, and I'll start here.

Susan: Right. Come on.

Edmund: Oh! Oh, do let's leave it alone. We can try it in the morning.

Lucy: Yeah.

Susan: If we've got to spend the night here, I don't want an open door at my back.

Lucy: No.

Susan: And a great big black hole that anything might come out of.

Lucy: Oh. Look! It is a door.

Peter: And here's the door handle.

Susan: Try it.

Peter: Locked, of course.

Lucy: Oh. But the wood's all rotten.

Susan: We can pull it to bits in no time. And it'll make extra firewood. Come on.

Dr. Greg Smalley: Hey, this is Dr. Greg Smalley from Focus on the Family. If you're married, you know it takes work for two lives to become one. And your wins and losses are often tied to who you are and how you work together. The Focus on the Family Marriage Assessment provides a combined report that considers your individual strengths and areas of growth, and how unique people like you can better come together. To get started, visit focusonthefamily.com/marriageassessment. That's focusonthefamily.com/marriageassessment.

Guest (Female): The seasons of your life are always moving forward. Singlehood, marriage, parenting, aging well. And through it all, Focus on the Family is alongside you with encouragement from a biblical perspective. And now, we have a tool that gathers our trusted guidance and support together in one place: the enhanced Focus on the Family app. With it, you can listen to the Focus on the Family broadcast, engage our social media, find a counselor, or make a donation, all on the Focus on the Family app. Download it today from the App Store or Google Play.

Guest (Female): Parenting is a work in progress. Every day comes with a new problem and opportunity. That's why I listen to Practice Makes Parent, a podcast from Focus on the Family. It has the practical help I need right now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Guest (Male): Focus on the Family Radio Theatre is made possible through the generous donations of listeners like you. For more information, visit radiotheatre.org or contact Focus on the Family at 1-800-A-Family.

Lucy: Oh.

Peter: Now for a torch. Maybe we can make something out of one of these sticks.

Edmund: Oh, I say. My birthday present. Where's my coat? Here it is.

Peter: What birthday present?

Edmund: The one father gave me last week. It's an electric torch. See? The battery's brand new. Shall we go in?

Peter: Of course.

Susan: Oh, what's the use?

Peter: Oh, cheer up, Susan. It's no good behaving like kids now that we're back in Narnia. You're a queen here. And anyway, no one could go to sleep with a mystery like this on their minds. We'll follow you, Ed.

Edmund: Huh? Right.

Peter: Go on then.

Edmund: I'm going. Here's the top of the staircase, and I see 16 steps to the bottom.

Susan: Oh. Do be careful.

Peter: Come on.

Edmund: Ah.

Lucy: This must be Cair Paravel. There were 16 steps to the treasure chamber.

Lucy: Then if Peter's theory is right, then...

Lucy: Ah.

Guest (Male): There was no doubt about it. This was indeed the ancient treasure chamber of Cair Paravel, where Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy had once reigned as kings and queens of Narnia. There was a kind of path up the middle, and along each side at intervals, stood rich suits of armor like knights, guarding the treasures. In between the suits of armor, and on each side of the path, were shelves, covered with precious things. Necklaces and arm rings and finger rings, and golden bowls and dishes and brooches and coronets, and chains of gold, and heaps of unset stones lying piled up. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, topazes, and amethysts. Under the shelves, stood great chests of oak, strengthened with iron bars, and heavily padlocked.

Lucy: It's the treasure!

Susan: But it's all covered in dust. Oh, I don't like this. I don't like it at all.

Lucy: It's so sad to think that, I don't know what to think.

Edmund: Our coronation rings!

Lucy: Oh.

Susan: Lucy, do you remember the first time we wore these brooches?

Lucy: I thought they were lost.

Edmund: I say, Peter, isn't that the armor you wore at the great tournament in the Lone Islands?

Peter: Yes.

Lucy: And that chalice. We drank out of it at the feast after Peter returned from battling the giants of the North.

Susan: We mustn't get carried away. We'll waste the battery. And goodness knows how often we shall need it. Hadn't we better take what we need and then get out?

Peter: Good idea. We must take the gifts that Father Christmas gave us when we first arrived. They're right over here.

Susan: Yes.

Peter: The cordial for you, Lucy.

Lucy: Thank you.

Peter: Susan, your bow and arrows, and the, oh, where's the enchanted horn?

Lucy: The horn is gone?

Susan: Oh, bother. I remember now. I lost it.

Peter: You lost the enchanted horn?

Susan: I took the horn with me on our last day here when we went hunting for the white stag. And then we got lost and blundered back through the wardrobe.

Susan: It's too bad. It was just the sort of thing that might have come in handy in a place like this. Never mind. I've still got the bow.

Peter: What about your gift, Peter?

Peter: Right. It's here. My shield and Royal Sword.

Susan: Put it on. We have to make sure it's not rusty.

Peter: It is my sword, Rhindon. With it I killed the wolf.

Edmund: High King Peter. It is good to make your acquaintance again.

Peter: It is good to be back, isn't it?

Lucy: Yes, but not like this. Not to this ruin. It's late. Let's get out of here and get some sleep.

Peter: Good idea.

Guest (Male): The worst of sleeping out-of-doors is that you wake up so dreadfully early, and when you wake, you have to get up because the ground is so hard that you're uncomfortable. And it makes matters worse if there's nothing but apples for breakfast, and you've had nothing but apples for supper the night before. When Lucy had said...

Lucy: What a glorious morning!

Guest (Male): It didn't seem to be anything else nice to be said. Edmund said what everyone was really feeling.

Edmund: We've simply got to get out of here.

Peter: Now that we know this is Cair Paravel, it shouldn't be too difficult to find our way into the rest of Narnia. You'll remember that the sea is to the east and the country to the west.

Susan: Yes.

Lucy: Are you certain, Peter? Wouldn't it have changed in the same way that Cair Paravel has changed?

Edmund: Castles and trees may change, Lucy, but surely the land itself hasn't? Let's follow the stream further into Narnia.

Peter: Come on.

Edmund: Come on.

Guest (Male): So they drank from the castle well and splashed water on their faces and followed the stream. After a few hours, they came upon a surprise.

Edmund: Oh, bother, it's a beach! We've reached the sea.

Susan: Did we go the wrong way?

Susan: We must have, though I can't imagine how.

Peter: We came the right way.

Edmund: How? This is the sea.

Susan: But it isn't. Look over that way. Don't you see it? Another shore with woods.

Edmund: Oh! Is that an island?

Peter: I don't think so. You know how you said that the land doesn't change?

Susan: Yes.

Peter: It does change. Cair Paravel was a, oh, what do you call it, a peninsula. Jolly nearly an island by itself.

Susan: Oh.

Peter: I'll wager that since our time, somebody has dug a channel between Cair Paravel and the mainland of Narnia.

Susan: Oh.

Edmund: We'll have to swim.

Peter: It would be all right for Susan. She's won all the prizes for swimming at school. But I don't know about the rest of us.

Susan: Anyway, there may be currents. Father says it's never wise to swim in a place that you don't know.

Lucy: But, Peter, I know I can't swim very well at home, but couldn't we all swim when we were kings and queens in Narnia? We could ride then too and do all sorts of things. Don't you think that...

Peter: But we were sort of grown up then. We reigned for years and years and learned to do things. Now we're back to our proper ages again.

Lucy: Oh!

Edmund: What, Edmund?

Edmund: I just worked it out. You know, what we were puzzling about last night. How it was only a year ago since we left Narnia, but everything looks as if it's been hundreds of years.

Lucy: Well, what about it?

Edmund: Don't you see? However long we seem to have lived in Narnia, when we got back through the wardrobe, it seemed to have taken no time at all.

Lucy: Oh yes.

Edmund: And that means once you're out of Narnia, you have no idea of how Narnian time is going. Why shouldn't hundreds of years have gone past in Narnia while only one year has passed for us in England?

Peter: By Jove, Ed, I believe you've got it. In that sense, it really was hundreds of years ago that we lived in Cair Paravel.

Lucy: Yes.

Peter: And now we're coming back to Narnia, just as if we were crusaders, or ancient Britons, or someone coming back to modern England.

Lucy: How excited they'll be to see us.

Susan: Wait.

Edmund: Look over there.

Susan: It's a rowboat. Shall we signal for help?

Susan: Yes.

Peter: No. Wait. Those are soldiers in it.

Susan: How do you know that?

Peter: See their steel caps and chainmail. Quickly. Back into the wood. We'll watch them until we can tell whether they're friends or foes.

Susan: Oh, come on, hurry up.

Peter: Quick!

Guest (Male): A boat came around the mainland a little to their right, just beyond the point they all felt sure must be the mouth of the river. When it had cleared the point, it turned and began coming along the channel towards them. There were two soldiers on board, one rowing, the other sitting in the stern and holding a bundle that twitched and moved as if it were alive. Their faces were bearded and hard.

Guest (Male): That'll do.

Guest (Male): What about tying a stone to his feet, corporal?

Guest (Male): Oh, go on. We don't need that.

Guest (Male): And we haven't brought one anyway. He'll drown sure enough without a stone as long as we've tied the cords all right.

Guest (Male): Dwarves aren't known for their swimming abilities.

Peter: They're going to drown that poor dwarf. We have to do something.

Susan: I can't.

Susan: I can't do it, Peter. We can't reach it from here.

Guest (Male): There was a decisive twang. And all at once the soldier threw up his arms, dropping the dwarf into the bottom of the boat, and fell over into the water. He floundered away to the far bank, and Peter knew that Susan's arrow had struck on his helmet.

Peter: Well done, Susan.

Susan: Oh, I just hope my aim is as good for the second arrow.

Guest (Male): But the second arrow wasn't needed. As soon as he saw his companion fall, the other soldier with a loud cry, jumped out of the boat on the far side, and he also floundered through the water, apparently just in his depth, and disappeared into the woods of the mainland.

Peter: Quick! Catch the boat before she drifts.

Guest (Male): Next time on Prince Caspian, The Return to Narnia...

Guest (Male): Here is something far better.

Guest (Male): A horn?

Guest (Male): This is the greatest and most sacred treasure of Narnia.

Guest (Male): First of all, I'm a messenger of King Caspian's.

Guest (Male): Who's he?

Guest (Male): Caspian the Tenth, King of Narnia.

Guest (Male): Here, Prince, you must leave this castle at once and go to seek your fortune in the wide world. Your life is in danger here.

Guest (Male): Prince Caspian, The Return to Narnia from The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, is a production of Focus on the Family.

Doug Gresham: I'm Doug Gresham. Thank you for listening.