Stone Table

From WikiNarnia, the Narnian Encyclopedia

The Stone Table was a great slab of rock supported on four smaller rock pillars located in the central Narnian mainland.The stone structure with numerous symbols and characters carved into it, was used by the White Witch during the Hundred Year Winter as an altar on which to sacrifice important victims. She claimed the characters on it described the rules of the Deep Magic. It is unknown if it was her who built it or someone else.

During the Winter Revolution, Aslan was bound to the Stone Table and executed by the White Witch using her Stone Knife. It seems that she also intended to sacrifice Edmund there.

Susan and Lucy Pevensie spent that night keeping a vigil at the Table over Aslan's body. At dawn when they witnessed Aslan's resurrection, the Table split in two right down the middle. This may have been because the Deep Magic, inscribed in the Stone Table, was reversed by Aslan's sacrifice, according to the rules of the Deeper Magic.

In later centuries, the remains of the cracked Stone Table were protected by a mound of earth with tunnels in it, known as Aslan's How.

[edit] Symbolic meaning

In viewing the story as a Christian allegory, the Stone Table can be regarded as symbolizing the Mosaic law of the Old Testament. Just as Mosaic law, written on stone tablets, promised inflexible punishment for sin; so the Deep Magic written on the Stone Table said that for every treachery the Witch had the right to a kill. Just as in Christian theology Jesus transcended the rule of Mosaic law by dying on the Cross, allowing forgiveness of sins; so Aslan transcended the rule of the Deep Magic by dying on the Stone Table, allowing the forgiveness of Edmund's treachery. This is symbolized by the stone table cracking.