The Silver Chair: Chapter 7 “The Hill of the Strange Trenches”
C.S. Lewis Read-Along, Vol. 4, Issue 8
Background: “The Hill of the Strange Trenches” describes the ramifications of the children’s decision to follow the Lady of the Green Kirtle’s advice instead of Puddleglum’s. We also see what happens when Jill and Eustace are focused on possible comforts while dealing with actual challenges.
Quote: “Puddleglum’s question annoyed her because deep down inside her, she was already annoyed with herself for not knowing the Lion’s lesson quote so well as she felt she ought to have known it. This annoyance, added to the misery of being very cold and tired, made her say, ‘Bother the signs.’ She didn’t perhaps quite mean it.”
“The Hill of the Strange Trenches” describes the ramifications of the children’s decision to follow the Lady of the Green Kirtle’s advice instead of Puddleglum’s. We also see what happens when Jill and Eustace are focused on possible comforts while dealing with actual challenges.
As they make their way to Harfang, snowflakes begin to fall until the children and Puddleglum are trudging through a freezing, blinding snowstorm. Being the land of giants, they’re forced to climb up four-foot tall ledges before reaching a plateau. While they’re done with climbing, they’re now forced to deal with the full brunt of the driving wind.
The trio walking against the strong winds brings to mind one of Lewis’ famous quotes about Jesus and temptation from Mere Christianity:
“You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — the only complete realist.”
Unfortunately, this chapter does not give us an example of the children standing firm against temptation.
