Terror and Temptation: Voyage of The Dawn Treader Part 3

After leaving Dragon Island, we sail to Burnt Island and then face a sea serpent that nearly crushes the Dawn Treader. On land again, we find a pool that turns all that touches it to gold. Pride flares between Caspian and Edmund until Aslan’s presence breaks the spell of greed.

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Transcript

Cold Open

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Everyone was cheerful as the dawn treader sailed from Dragon Island. They found fair winds as soon as they were out of the bay and came early next morning to the unknown land which some of them had seen when flying over the mountains while Eustace was still a dragon. It was a low green island inhabited by nothing but rabbits and a few goats. But from the ruins of stone huts and from blackened places where fires had been, they judged that it had been peopled not long before. There were also some bones and broken weapons. Pirates' work, said Caspian. Or the dragons, said Edmund. The only other thing they found here was a little skin boat, or coracle on the sands. It was made of hide stretched over a wicker framework. It was a tiny boat, barely four feet long, and the paddle which still lay in it was in proportion. They thought that either it had been made for a child, or else the people of that country had been dwarves. Repacheep decided to keep it as it was just the right size for him, so it was taken on board. They called that land Burnt Island. They sailed away before noon. Today we continue our voyage after having an incredible learning experience on Dragon Island. We continue on to find the five remaining Lost Lords of Narnia. And after finding the Lord Burn on the Lone Islands, we assume that Lord Octesian was either eaten by or turned into a dragon on Dragon Island, but either way, we assume that he has passed and did not make it any farther than that. Now, before we get into this, we got another comment on Spotify. And remember, guys, if you leave a comment, you have the chance for me to read it on a future episode. And so this this comment comes from Susan who writes, Keep up the good work. And she added a smiley face on there. Thank you for your comments. I really do appreciate that. And if if you want your comment read, make sure that you leave a comment and also make sure to leave a rating as well as it helps get the show in front of more people. That being said, let's get into this. So in the opening of this episode, I read how we leave Dragon Island and we go to another island that is only one day's sailing away from Dragon Island. And we're all cheerful that we left Dragon Island, which is encouraging after all we went through there. Eustace uh and others saw this island when he was still a dragon and he was flying around. And on this island, we see that it is a low green island that is inhabited by rabbits and a few goats. And as we explore a little more, we see that there are some ruins there that look like they were stone huts, and we see some blackened fire pits where fires once were. And then we venture on to see broken weapons and some bones as well that we assume are human. And Caspian suggests that it is the work of pirates, and Edmund suggests that it was a dragon, but that either way, we realize that people once inhabited this island and it has since become desolate. We find a small coracle on the island which would fit Reapachip perfectly, so we give it to him. And a coracle basically is any wicker skin clad fishing boat, and so it fit him perfectly, we bring that along with us. And so basically that's it. We just kinda walk on this island a little bit and we decide to call it Burnt Island, and we sail away again before noon. For some five days they ran before a south southeast wind, out of sight of all lands and seeing neither fish nor gull. Then they had a day that rained hard till the afternoon. Eustace lost two games of chess to Reapicheep and began to get like his old and disagreeable self again, and Edmund said he wished they would have gone to America with Susan. Then Lucy looked out of the stern windows and said Hello, I do believe it's stopping. And what's that? They all tumbled up to the poop at this and found that the rain had stopped, and that Drinian, who was on watch, was also staring hard at something astern, or rather at several things. They looked a little like smooth rounded rocks, a whole line of them with intervals of about forty feet in between. But they can't be rocks, Drinian was saying, because they weren't there five minutes ago. And one's just disappeared, said Lucy. Yes, and there's another one coming up, said Edmund. And nearer, said Eustace. Hang it, said Caspian, the whole thing is moving this way. And moving a great deal quicker than we can sail, sire, said Drinian. It'll be up with us in a minute. They all held their breath, for it was not at all nice to be pursued by an unknown something either on land or sea. But what it turned out to be was far worse than anyone had suspected. Suddenly, only about the length of a cricket pitch from their port side, an appalling head reared itself out of the sea. It was all greens and vermilions with purple blotches, except where shellfish clung to it. And shaped rather like a horse's, though without ears. It had enormous eyes, eyes made for staring through the dark depths of the ocean, and a gaping mouth filled with double rows of sharp fish-like teeth. It came up on what they first took to be a huge neck. But as more and more of it emerged, everyone knew that this was not its neck, but its body, and that at last they were seeing what so many people have foolishly wanted to see. A great sea serpent. The folds of its gigantic tail would be seen far away, rising at intervals from the surface. And now its head was towering up higher than the mast. Well, that was intense. Like camping. Um sorry. Um over the next five days from leaving Burnt Island, there's nothing in sight. And one day it's raining pretty hard. Eustace is playing chess with Reaper Cheap, and he lost two games to to them. And glimpses of his old self had started to come out once again. And remember, the sanctification process takes time and he will still mess up. And and so we're still seeing growth from Eustace. It's just it's gonna take some time. And Edmund wishes that they had just gone to America with Susan. And so there is some doom and gloom happening once again, and I'm sure that the rain isn't helping. Lucy notices the rain letting up, and Drinian sees smooth, rounded rocks about forty feet between each other, all in a line. But wait, they can't be rocks because they weren't there five minutes ago and now they're all moving our way. Drinian points out that whatever it was just was moving towards us and faster than we could sail away from it. And so suddenly, on the port side, only about a cricket pitch away, which I looked it up, is about twenty two yards or sixty-six feet, we see a head come out of the sea. It was all greens and vermilions with purple blotches. It had enormous eyes, and makes sense that they were made for staring through the depths of the ocean, and had sharp fish like teeth. And so we realize that it is in fact what some of our, for some reason, what some of our crew members wanted to see the whole time, which was a great sea serpent. Not sure why they'd wanted I actually I do understand wanting to see it, but not realizing that like seeing it would actually be not so good. Uh yeah, no, I get that. I think that that's a guy thing for sure, I think. Um but now this giant head or the giant sea serpent really is now uh towering over the mast of the Dawn Treader. It gets to the point where the sea serpent is now arching over the Dawn Treader, and we're all underneath it. So, you know, something very strange happens here, something very unexpected, where Eustace, who had been borrowed a sword by Caspian, began to or begins to hack at the beast with the sword. And other than breaking Caspian's second best sword to bits, this accomplished nothing. But on the other hand, this was the first brave thing that Eustace had ever done. And C.S. Luce Lewis mentions that it was a fine thing for a beginner to have done. And honestly, when I read that, I thought that was very encouraging too. We're like, I mean, we saw how this kid was in the earlier chapters of the book. He would have not done something like this. And so we really see that because of what he's been through and what and the work that Aslan has done in his life and is doing in his life, he's now braver, he's more courageous, and he might be an idiot. You know, that wasn't terribly smart, but at least he's trying to do something to help. And while we were trying to figure out exactly what to do, we are surprised that Repacheep, of all people, suggests not to fight the sea serpent. Instead, he decides to push his body against the sea serpent's body to try to save the ship from being destroyed by the sea serpent. Because you see, the sea serpent is making a loop around the ship with its body and it's drawing in tight. And so when we see this, we all decide to join him in doing this. And as we're doing this, Caspian decides to call for an axe. Not sure what he wants to do with it, but he's probably gonna start hacking away or something, and and Lucy goes to get the axe, but on her way back, the stern of the ship actually breaks off, and the ship is free from the grasp of the sea serpent. Now, I don't know if it was our efforts of pushing on the body or not, but whatever happened, the we're lucky. Usually we wouldn't say we're lucky that the stern broke off the ship, but in this case we were. And as the sea serpent swims away from the Don Treader, Lucy looks at it and she thinks she sees a look of idiotic satisfaction on the face of the creature. And after this, rightfully so, we all praise the valor and the bravery of both Eustace and Repacheep as well. So after this, we sail another three days, again with now a broken ship, and we still see nothing except for the sky and the sea. And now on the fourth day, the sea rises and the wind changes. It changed so much actually that it has almost become a gale, and so luckily we see some land and uh yeah, we see some land on the port bow. And so Caspian decides to anchor there until the wind and the sea die down, but since it's dark, none of us go on shore until morning. In the morning, we see that we are in a green bay of, as the book puts it, a rugged, lonely looking country which sloped up to a rocky summit. The lower the boats or sorry, we lowered the boats with the empty water casks. That was one of the big things is we had we were low on water and we needed to get more, so we lower the boats with the empty water casks, and Caspian asks Drinian which stream we should get the water at, because there were two streams coming down into the bay. So Drinian advises that we use the eastern stream. But Edmund suggests that since it is raining pretty hard right now, that we take the western stream because there are trees there and it would provide some shelter for us. Caspian agrees and instructs Drinian to take us to the Western Stream. Now Drinian is anxious because of the weather yesterday, and he really didn't like taking advice from landsmen such as ourselves and Caspian and Edmund, but he did as the king instructed him. Now, after the water casks were filled up, Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, and Repacheep go to the top of a hill to see what could be seen. And what they see is well what they experience really is that it's a tough climb to the top of this hill. There is a lot of coarse grass, and there is no man or beast in sight except for the seagulls. Once at the top of the mountain, they see that we are on a very small island. Now it might not be a mountain. I wrote mountain in my notes, it's probably a hill. But anyways, it's a very small island. The wind is still blowing pretty strong from the north, and naturally they get cold, so they decide to go back, but Lucy suggests that they go the other way than the way that they came. So they go the other way, and as they're going, Edmund finds a sword that looks like it must have been there for ages, and they can see that it is a Narnian sword. Lucy finds that she is now actually sitting on a chainmail shirt, and so they decide to search a little more, and they end up finding a helmet, a dagger, and some lost coins that actually had Narnian crescents of lions and trees on it. And these were coins that would typically be seen at the marketplace at Beavers Dam, for example. And Eustace assumes that all of these items must have belonged to one of the lost lords. And he points out that whoever these things belonged to couldn't have died because there were no bones, uh like from a body, like no bones around. So the man, whoever he was, must have been here on a hot day, took his clothes off, and his clothes either rotted away or were taken by birds to line their nests with. And we will in a later episode we will learn this for sure, but this lost lord, or this was in fact a lost lord, the Lord Restamar. But the characters in the story don't know this for sure yet, but spoiler. Anyways, then Lucy suggests that maybe an animal killed the person, but Edmund points out that the male shirt had been taken off. So it's uh yeah, and and after what we experienced on Dragon Island, Caspian suggests that it was a dragon, but Eustace says no, it couldn't have been a dragon, and that he ought to know, which makes I would trust his opinion on that too. Uh there happened to be a pool or a lake, which however you want to say it, uh nearby. As they look into the pool, they see what looks like the body of a man made of gold. And Caspian wants to fish it out. Now luckily Edmund has his spear, and he checks the depth of the water with his spear. Now, as the spear was in the water, it now also looked like it was that same gold color, and suddenly it became so heavy that he couldn't hold on to it anymore. But Edmund, who appeared to be having some trouble with his boots, at least he was bending down and looking at them, straightened himself all at once and shouted in a sharp voice which people hardly disobeyed. Get back! Back from the water, all of you, at once. They all did and stared at him. Look, said Edmund, look at the toes of my boots. They look a bit yellow, began Eustace. They're gold, solid gold, interrupted Edmund. Look at them, feel them. The leather's pulled away from it already. And they're as heavy as lead. By Aslan, said Caspian. You don't mean to say. Yes I do, said Edmund. The water turns things into gold. It turned my spear into gold. That's why it got so heavy. And it was just lapping against my feet. It was a good thing to do. I wasn't barefoot, and it turned the toe caps into gold. And that poor fellow on the bottom, well, you see. So it wasn't a statue at all, said Lucy, in a low voice. No, the whole thing is plain now. He was here on a hot day, he undressed on top of the cliff where he was sitting, the clothes have rotted away or been taken by birds to line their nests with. The armor's still there. Then he dived and don't, said Lucy. What a horrible thing. And what a narrow shave we'd we've had, said Edmund. Narrow indeed, said Repecheep. Anyone's finger, anyone's foot, anyone's whisker, or anyone's tail, might have slipped into the water at any moment. All the same, said Caspian, we may as well test it. He stooped down and wrenched up a spray of heather. Then, very cautiously, he knelt beside the pool and dipped it in. It was heather that he dipped. What he drew out was a perfect model of heather made of the purest gold, heavy and soft as lead. The king who owned this island, said Caspian, slowly, and his face flushed as he spoke, would soon be the richest of all the kings of the world. I claim this land forever as a Narnian possession. It shall be called Goldwater Island, and I bind all of you to secrecy. No one must know of this, not even Drinian, on pain of death. Do you hear? Who are you talking to? said Edmund. I'm no subject of yours. If anything, it's the other way round. I am one of the four ancient sovereigns of Narnia, and you are under allegiance to the high king, my brother. So it has come to that, King Edmund, has it? said Caspian, laying his hand on his sword hilt. Oh stop it, both of you, said Lucy. That's the worst of doing anything with boys. You're all such swaggering, bullying idiots. Oh her voice died away into a gasp, and everyone else saw what she had seen. Across the grey hillside above them, grey, for the heather was not yet in bloom, without noise, and without looking at them, and shining as if he were in bright sunlight, though the sun had in fact gone in, passed with a slow pace the hugest lion that human eyes have ever seen. In describing the scene, Lucy said afterward, he was the size of an elephant, though at another time she only said the size of a cart horse. But it was not the size that mattered. Nobody dared to ask what it was. They knew it was Aslan. And nobody ever saw how or where he went. They looked at one another like people waking from sleep. What were we talking about? said Caspian. Have I been making rather an ass of myself? Sire, said Repacheep, this is a place with a curse on it. Let us get back on board at once, and if I might have the honor of naming this island, I should call it Deathwater. And I think one thing to note is just how serious this was. So Edmund had a sharp voice that people hardly disobeyed. You know, he means business here, and it is a serious situation. Uh it turns out that it's not a statue that they see in the water. This water actually turns things into gold. And so, as hypothesized before, whoever that is in the water likely was hot, took their clothes off, and wanted to just dip in the water to cool off. But yeah, I guess we see how that turned out. And, you know, Caspian realizes that if a king were to own this island, that king would be the richest in the world. And he quickly claims it for Narnia and binds the others to secrecy. And Edmund takes offense to this and says that he is not Caspian's subject. He is in fact one of the four ancient sovereigns, and if anything, Caspian is under allegiance to the High King, of course, Edmund's brother Peter. These two are ready to fight each other, and all of a sudden, Lucy stops them. They all see a giant lion the size of an elephant, and they all know that's that it's Aslan. They didn't have to ask, they didn't have to try to figure it out, they just knew it. But in typical Aslan style, he disappears without them knowing where he goes, and Caspian forgets what they were even talking about. The memory of what happened during the last hour becomes confused, and even back on the Dawn Shredder, Drinian thinks that they are all bewitched based on how they were acting. I think a lesson that we can learn from this is similar to the lesson that we can learn from Dragon Island, and that is the lesson that greed is an evil thing. We see that Caspian and Edmund are both suddenly acting very greedy and selfish, and they are willing to fight each other not only over who has more authority than the other, but also who would be the owner of the magical pool as a result of that authority. Now, I found a verse in the Bible that I think is actually very fitting to this, and it comes from 1 Timothy or chapter six, verse 9 to 10 that says, But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through many sorrows, through with many sorrows, there we go. Just like Caspian and Edmund, Lord Restamar fell into the temptation possibly to be rich. I mean, there is that theory that he was just dipping into the pool to cool off, but we also don't know. We I mean maybe maybe he knew somehow that it turned things gold. We can only speculate that part. But like the verse says, i i it actually says that it will drown men in destruction. And Lord Restamar literally drowned, if he was tempted by it, literally drowned in the very thing that tempted him. The love of money is a route to all kinds of evil. And as we see here, because the love of gold caused Caspian and Edmund to want to fight each other over and possibly to the death, which would have caused many sorrows, also as it says in the verse. And if we go to the next verse, verse eleven, it says, But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. This is what the presence of Aslan did for everyone there. His presence made them flee from the evil they were doing. They were confused about what happened over that hour, and they were able to pursue righteous things instead. I mean, at least now in the future, now that they had gotten over this greediness. And this was good news for Caspian and Edmund, but unfortunately not for Lord Restamar, who died potentially in his greed and sin in a magical pool that turned him into a solid gold naked corpse. Repacheep says that this island has a curse on it and suggests to name the island Deathwater, and Caspian agrees. Now we're all back on board of the Don Treader and sailing away once again. Drinian tells Rince, and I quote, something happened to them in that place. The only thing I could get clear was that they think they've found the body of one of these lords we're looking for. Now Rince says that we now only have four more lords to find, and that at this rate we might all be home shortly after the new year. Of course, that's what he thinks. As we sail away, I want to talk about what would have happened if when we got to Deathwater Island, we took the eastern stream instead of the western stream. So as we pulled into Deathwater Island, we saw two streams coming down into the bay. The stream that we took ended up being the right option, as we know the other stream, or as we now know, I should say, the other stream, had we taken the eastern stream, flowed from that magical pool, and could have also carried the same curse. Had we not altered course at the last minute like we did, we could very well have sailed directly into the Deathwater stream, turning the Dawn Treader into solid gold. And this would have no doubt sank the ship, and we would have all died, so luckily we avoided this and sailed on. Now I I was thinking about this and how we knew to change course. I mean of course we didn't know, but because there was no way of knowing. However, the situation or sorry, the suggestion to change course came about because it was pouring rain and we wanted more shelter in the trees. Now, I don't know this for sure, but I wonder if maybe Aslan was looking out for us and he sent he was sending the rain our way so that we would ch you know be more convinced to choose the other stream instead. Of course that is all speculation. I I don't know, but it is curious to think about because we very well could have ended up in a bad place if we had gone the other way, and really there was no way of knowing. So maybe it was Aslan, I'm not sure, but we're very lucky that we went the way we did. Well, that is all the time we have for today. It is a shorter episode, but I want to thank you for tuning in to Faithful Fables. You know, we went through a lot in this episode, from an attack by a sea serpent, and you know, barely escaping an unfortunate end in a magical pool that turned everything it touched into gold. We go from panic and anxiety to bravery and courage, from temptation to and greed to seeing Aslan in a way that changes us and the situation. There's a lot of lessons to be learned here, and I'm happy that you're all along with me on this journey. Don't forget to support the show by getting your Christian bracelets that give you daily Bible verses at freeluma.com by using your code STAYFAITFUL, all one word, capital S Capital F at checkout to save 15%. You can also click the support the show link in the description as well. Of course, you don't have to, please don't feel obligated. I would appreciate it, but that's all good. I'm just glad you're listening. Remember to comment, you know, leave a rating, and with all of this said, I want to wish you a fantastic time. And until the next episode, my friends, stay faithful.