Prince Caspian recap

A year after coming home from Narnia, the four Pevensie children are pulled off an English railway platform into a wood, and find that they are on an island that was once the headland of Cair Paravel, their own ruined castle. Centuries have passed in Narnia. They rescue a dwarf, Trumpkin, who tells them that Telmarine invaders have ruled for generations and driven the Talking Beasts into hiding, and that the rightful heir, Prince Caspian, has fled his usurping uncle Miraz and raised the Old Narnians in revolt. Besieged, Caspian blew Queen Susan's magic horn, which is what brought the children back. Journeying to join him, the party goes astray because only Lucy can see Aslan, and they follow him at last only after losing a day and a fight. Aslan wakes the woods; Peter challenges Miraz to single combat; Miraz is murdered by his own lords, and the Telmarine army is broken by the trees and cut off at the ruined bridge. Caspian is crowned, the Telmarines are offered a passage back to the world their pirate ancestors came from, and the children return to England, where Peter and Susan learn they are too old to come back.

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, four children sent out of wartime London, once found their way into Narnia through a wardrobe in an old professor's house. There they met the Lion Aslan, who broke the White Witch's spell of endless winter at the cost of his own life and returned alive, and the four were crowned kings and queens at Cair Paravel. They ruled for many years, grew up, and then rode back through the wood after a white stag and tumbled out of the wardrobe as children again, with no time at all having passed at home. A year of English time has gone by since. Narnian time runs at its own rate and quite independently of ours, so there is no telling from this side how long it has been there.

Waiting on a country railway platform at the end of the holidays, the four children feel themselves pulled sideways out of England and land in a wood by the sea. They find fresh water and fruit, and discover they are on a small island. Exploring a ruin among the trees, they slowly realise what it is: the island was once a headland, and the ruin is Cair Paravel, their own castle. The treasure chamber beneath it is still sealed, and their gifts are still there, Peter's sword and shield, Susan's bow and quiver, Lucy's cordial that heals any wound. Susan's horn is missing, left behind on the day they rode after the white stag. Centuries must have passed in Narnia since they left. Looking out at the water, they see a boat with two soldiers rowing a bound dwarf out to drown him, and they scatter the soldiers with an arrow shot and a rush, and bring the dwarf ashore.

The dwarf, Trumpkin, tells them what has happened to Narnia. Telmarines from the west conquered the country generations ago, drove the Talking Beasts, dwarfs and tree-spirits into hiding, and taught that they never existed, fearing the woods and the sea and letting the coast go wild. The heir, Prince Caspian, was brought up by his uncle King Miraz, who had murdered Caspian's father to take the throne. Caspian's nurse told him the old stories and was dismissed for it; his new tutor, Doctor Cornelius, secretly half a dwarf, taught him at night that Old Narnia was real and still hiding in the woods. When a son was born to Miraz, Cornelius woke Caspian in the small hours, gave him Queen Susan's lost horn, and sent him away for his life. Caspian rode for the woods, was knocked from his horse in a storm, and woke in a cave being argued over by a badger and two dwarfs.

Trufflehunter the badger, who holds that a son of Adam belongs on the throne, wins the argument over the suspicious dwarf Nikabrik, and Caspian is taken to meet the hidden creatures of Old Narnia one by one: bears, mice under the mouse Reepicheep, a company of centaurs under the star-gazer Glenstorm, giants, fauns, and less reputable folk as well. Doctor Cornelius arrives with the news that Miraz's army is on the march. At a great council Caspian is accepted as king, and the war begins badly: the Old Narnians are beaten back and besieged at Aslan's How, the mound raised long ago over the Stone Table. With supplies failing, Caspian is persuaded to blow Susan's horn and ask for help, though no one knows what form it will take. Messengers are sent to meet whatever comes, and Trumpkin, who believes in none of it, volunteers for the Cair Paravel road. He was captured on the way, which is how he came to be in the boat.

Trumpkin, having tested Susan's shooting and Edmund's swordplay and been beaten at both, accepts that the four are who they say and agrees to guide them to Aslan's How. They row round the coast and up the Glasswater creek, then strike inland through country that has changed out of recognition in the centuries since they knew it. At a gorge the route is disputed. Lucy sees Aslan standing among the trees on the far side, beckoning them upward and away from the river; nobody else can see him, and the others vote against her and take the easier downhill way. It leads them into arrow fire from a Telmarine post at the ford, and they lose a day struggling back the way they came.

In the night Lucy wakes, finds Aslan, and is told that she must follow him even if the others will not come. She wakes them; they come, grumbling. As they go, one after another begins to see him, Edmund first, then Peter, then Susan, and last of all Trumpkin, who is picked up and shaken like a toy before he is set down again as a believer. Aslan leads them along the gorge in the dark to Aslan's How, sends Peter, Edmund and Trumpkin inside to deal with what is happening there, and then roars. The woods wake; trees come loose from their places and follow him, and Bacchus, Silenus and their wild company arrive to join the girls at his side.

Inside the dark mound Peter and Edmund arrive in the middle of an argument. Nikabrik, out of patience with waiting for a lion out of old stories, has brought in a hag and a werewolf and is urging Caspian to call the White Witch back from the dead, on the grounds that her power at least was real and lasted a hundred years. Caspian, Trufflehunter and Doctor Cornelius refuse, the lamps go out, and in the fight in the dark Nikabrik, the hag and the werewolf are killed. Peter takes command of the war. Rather than let the Old Narnians be worn down by a larger army, he sends Edmund with a formal challenge to Miraz for single combat, to settle the quarrel between the two of them. Miraz is inclined to refuse, but two of his own lords, Glozelle and Sopespian, taunt him into accepting for reasons of their own.

Peter and Miraz fight before both armies. Miraz stumbles over a tussock, and Glozelle and Sopespian stab him where he lies and shout that the Narnians have killed him under a truce, sending the Telmarine army into the attack. The woken trees come down on them and the army breaks; the survivors run for the river and find the bridge at Beruna gone, thrown down by Aslan and the river god, and are penned against the water and surrender. Caspian is made king, with Cornelius as his counsellor and Trumpkin as Lord Regent. Aslan spends the next days going through the country, freeing the ill-treated, healing the sick and ending the fearful schooling of the towns, and then tells the Telmarines what they had forgotten: their ancestors were pirates from our world who fell through a gap on a South Sea island. He opens a door in the air; those who choose it pass through to an empty country of our world to begin again. The children go through the same door and land back on the railway platform, and Peter and Susan are told privately that they are now too old ever to return to Narnia.

Peter fights Miraz in single combat before both armies while Aslan, with Susan and Lucy, wakes the woods and the rivers behind them. Miraz stumbles, and two of his own lords stab him and shout that the Narnians have murdered him, so the Telmarine army charges. The woken trees and the Old Narnians rout it, and the retreat over the river is cut off because Aslan has thrown down the bridge at Beruna. Caspian is confirmed as King Caspian the Tenth, with Doctor Cornelius as his counsellor and Trumpkin as Lord Regent, and Aslan tells him he will do well because he knows he is not fit for it. Aslan spends the following days restoring the country: freeing prisoners, healing the sick, and putting an end to the schools and towns where fear of the woods was taught. He then explains the Telmarines' own history, which they had lost: they came originally from our world, pirates who fell through a gap on an island in the South Seas. He opens a door in the air, and those who wish to leave Narnia pass through it into an empty country of our world where they may start again. The children go home through the same door, and Peter and Susan are told privately that they are now too old to return to Narnia. They arrive back on the railway platform with their luggage, a few seconds after they left.