{{Infobox Narnia character
|image=Narnia aslan.jpg
|caption=Aslan in promotional artwork from the 2005 film '''''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'''''.
|name=Aslan
|race=Talking Beast
|nation=[[Aslan's Country]]
|gender=[[Male]]
|birthplace=Aslan's Country
|major1=The Magician's Nephew
|major2=The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
|major3=The Horse and His Boy
|major4=Prince Caspian
|major5=The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
|major6=The Silver Chair
|major7=The Last Battle
|film1=[[The Chronicles of Narnia (TV miniseries)|1988-90 BBC miniseries]]: [[Ronald Pickup]] ([[voice acting|voice]])
|film2=[[The Chronicles of Narnia (film series)|2005-08 Disney film series]]: [[Liam Neeson]] (voice)<ref name="pc-return">{{cite news | title = Caspian to be second Narnia movie | publisher = BBC|date = [[2006-01-18]] | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4625478.stm | accessdate = 2006-12-01 }}</ref>
}}
{{otheruses}}

'''Aslan''' (''[[Turkish language|Turkish]]''), the "Great [[Lion]]," is the central character in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by [[C. S. Lewis]]. He is the titular lion of ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'', and his role in Narnia is developed throughout the remaining books. He is also the only character to appear in all seven books of the series.

He is a talking lion, King of the Beasts, son of the [[Emperor-Over-the-Sea]]; a wise, compassionate, magical authority (both temporal and spiritual); mysterious and beloved guide to the human children who visit; guardian and saviour of Narnia; and ultimately revealed as its creator and destroyer. The author, C.S. Lewis, described Aslan as an alternate version of [[Christ]]—that is, as the form in which Christ might have appeared in a fantastic world.

''Aslan'' is a [[Turkish language|Turkish]] word meaning ''lion''. Lewis came up with the name during a trip to the [[Ottoman Empire]] (modern-day [[Turkey]]), where he was impressed with the Sultan's elite guards also called Aslan because of their bravery and loyalty.

Throughout the series, it is stated that Aslan is "not a tame lion", since, despite his gentle and loving nature, he is powerful and can be dangerous. He has many followers, which include vast numbers of Talking Beasts, [[Centaurs]], [[Fauns]], [[Dryads]], [[Dwarfs]], [[Satyrs]], [[Naiads]], [[Hamadryads]], [[Mermaids]], [[Sylvan|Silvans]], [[Unicorns]], and [[Winged Horses]]. Lewis often capitalises the word Lion, to convey the reverence the characters feel toward him.

==Biography==
===In ''The Magician's Nephew''===

(This is the first story in the chronology of Narnia, and of its human visitors, but the sixth tale Lewis wrote, and for most readers it is not the first meeting with the character.)

Aslan makes his first appearance at the creation of [[Narnia]]. When [[Digory Kirke|Digory]], [[Polly Plummer|Polly]], [[White Witch|Jadis]], [[Uncle Andrew]], [[King Frank|Frank]], and [[Fledge (Narnia)|Strawberry]] inadvertently enter a new world using [[magic ring]]s, they find it an empty void. Aslan appears, and through the power of his singing, calls the world of Narnia into existence.

While all the characters immediately feel awe for Aslan, Jadis expresses this as fear and hatred, and unsuccessfully assaults Aslan with an iron bar before fleeing. Aslan is unperturbed, and continues calling plants and animals into existence. The power of his song is so great that even the iron bar, dropped on fertile earth, grows into a functioning [[lamp post]], and [[toffee]]s sprout into fruit trees.

Aslan then selects certain species from among the dumb beasts his song has called into existence, and gives them the power of speech and reason. He instructs them to look after the dumb animals. He appoints Frank to be King of Narnia, and brings his wife Helen to Narnia from Earth to be Queen.

Aslan explains that Jadis will pose a great threat to the Narnians, and charges Digory and Polly with a quest to acquire a magic fruit to protect the land. He turns the horse Strawberry into a [[Pegasus|winged horse]]. When the quest is complete, he crowns Frank and Helen, and advises Digory on how to care for his sick mother.

At the end of the novel, he takes Digory, Polly and Uncle Andrew back to the [[Wood between the Worlds]], without the use of magic rings, and warns them that their Earth is in danger of a similar fate to the dead world [[Charn]].

===In ''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''===

(This is the second Narnia story chronologically, but the first one Lewis wrote, and for many readers was the first appearance of Aslan.)

With Narnia in the hundredth year of the tyrannical rule of the White Witch (who had condemned the land to "endless winter"), all the Narnians are eagerly anticipating the return of Aslan. "

"Aslan is coming" is repeated, in fearful secrecy, as a message of hope. The Witch has turned hundreds of Aslan's followers to stone — namely those who refused to be in her pay. The Narnians expect Aslan to bring an end to the White Witch's tyrannical reign.

The four human children are given shelter and aid by Mr. Beaver, who intends to lead them to Aslan. But before they set off, Edmund leaves to betray them to the White Witch. The children find Aslan leading a large gathering of Narnians who are preparing for war. Aslan sends some other Narnians to attack the Witch and her small entourage, during which they rescue Edmund. While they are away Aslan makes Peter a knight.

The White Witch reappears and claims from Aslan the right to execute Edmund as a traitor, due to Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time. Aslan offers that the Witch might execute him in Edmund's place, and she accepts. On the StoneTable, as [[Susan Pevensie|Susan]] and [[Lucy Pevensie|Lucy]] watch, the White Witch mocks, abuses, shaves, muzzles, and finally slays Aslan with a knife.

After the Witch leaves with her army to attack the Narnians, Lucy, Susan, and a number of mice remove the bonds from Aslan's body. But as dawn breaks they find that his body is gone, and then Aslan reveals that he is alive once more, thanks to a Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time that the witch was not aware of, as she entered Narnia at its beginning. Aslan explains that "when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward."

Aslan's exact words from chapter 15 do not clearly indicate whether or not it was within the witch's power to see this deeper magic, though they seem to imply that she could not. His language seems to imply that, had Jadis not been ill at ease when she was present at Narnia's creation, she may have understood this deeper magic, an important idea to the Christian metaphors of the series.

Aslan goes to the Witch's palace and breathes on the statues of her petrified enemies, bringing them back to life. He leads them all to aid Peter, Edmund and the Narnian army who are fighting the Witch's army. At the conclusion of the battle, he leaps on top of the witch and kills her.

Aslan crowns the four children as Kings and Queens of Narnia, and then during the celebration he quietly slips away. The children say nothing about it, for Mr. Beaver had warned them, "...one day you'll see him and another you won't."

Mr. Beaver's comments not only appear to contain Christian metaphors, but they also serve as a foreshadowing of Aslan's role in the books to follow.

===In ''The Horse and his Boy''===
Readers are given very few details of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy's reign in Narnia. There is one story, however, that occurs during that timeframe: "The Horse and His Boy."

"The Horse and His Boy" is about finding one's home. For the talking horses in this story (Bree and Hwin), the home they seek is the land of Narnia, where they were born. However, for the two humans that journey with them — Shasta and Aravis — finding their "home" is more a matter of the heart.

Aslan's influence throughout "The Horse and his Boy" is primarily hidden. Secretly, he delivered the infant [[Shasta (Narnia)|Prince Cor]] of [[Archenland]] from his enemies, placing him into the hands of a Calorman fisherman (who gave him the name of Shasta). Later, when Shasta meets Bree it is Aslan, disguised as a "witless" lion, who forces them into joining up with [[Aravis]] and Hwin. Aslan also appears to Shasta in the form of a cat comforting him when he feels abandoned at the Tombs of the Ancient Kings. It is Aslan who chases [[Bree (Narnia)|Bree]] and [[Hwin]] giving them the speed needed to reach [[Archenland]] in time for Shasta to warn their king of an impending attack by the [[Calormene]] army. He gives Shasta the resolve to persevere and help save Archenland and Narnia from the invaders. He also slashes Aravis across her back with his claws. The attack is not terrible, however, and is later compared to the damage of a whipping. (Aslan later explains that his treatment of Aravis is punishment for a previous action. When she ran away from home, she left while her servant was sleeping, with no thought about the punishment the servant would receive. The cuts on her back were equal to the damage done when the servant was whipped.)

Eventually, Aslan shows himself directly to the travellers, addressing their fears, or their selfpity, or their condescension towards others, or their pompousness. In one case, however, he affirms a pureness of heart. Aslan reveals himself to Rabadash, the leader of the Calormen attackers in an effort to free him of his arrogant and violent ways. When kind words and forgiveness fail to soften Rabadash, Aslan resorts to an act of severe kindness: he turns Rabadash into a donkey. He leaves Rabadash with a cure for his "condition," requiring that he humble himself before all of his Calormen people: Rabadash must go to the temple of the Calormen god, Tash (since Rabadash had insulted Aslan in Tash's name). There, he would be turned back into a human. Were he to journey too far from the temple, however, he would turn, forever, back into a donkey.

===In ''Prince Caspian''===

A thousand Narnian years after the events in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," both Aslan and the Pevensie children have become near-forgotten myths. The children, newly returned to Narnia, find their faith tested as Aslan does not appear to them until they really try to see him.

[[Aslan's How]], a burial mound on the site of the Stone Table, is a gathering point for loyal Narnians, where Prince Caspian forms his army. Meanwhile, Aslan re-awakens the spirits of the forest and the river, leading a [[Bacchanalian]] revel through the oppressed towns and fomenting a popular revolution.

When the [[Telmarine]]s are defeated, Aslan creates a door allowing the children to return to Earth. He tells Peter and Susan that they are, hereafter, too old to return to Narnia.

===In ''Voyage of the Dawn Treader''===

While Prince Caspian is seeking seven lost mariners, the mouse [[Reepicheep]] hopes that their voyage will take them to [[Aslan's Country]] in the uttermost East.

On many of the islands where they stop, a brief glimpse of Aslan, or his image, is enough to guide Caspian and his crew away from dangerous folly. When the [[recalcitrant]] [[Eustace Scrubb|Eustace]] is turned into a [[dragon]], Aslan meets with him and pulls the dragon-skin away, leaving him as a human boy and a more pleasant person. At another island, Lucy enters the home of a magician and attempts to perform a spell that would make her dazzlingly beautiful, inspite of her knowledge that performing the spell would cause untold chaos as thousands of men would battle to win her favour. Just as she is about to say the words, however, she sees an image of Aslan snarling at her, frightening her from pronouncing the spell. Aslan appears later and gently reprimands her for having used another spell (one which allowed Lucy to see what her friends were saying about her, showing one of her friends denouncing her friendship with Lucy). Aslan tells Lucy that her friend did love her, but was frightened by an older girl who was present. He also assures Lucy that she will once again read a story-spell that she had read in the magician's house, which Lucy felt was the best story ever. Finally, Aslan answers Lucy's call for help when they are lost in the Island of Dreams and helps them escape.

Eventually, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace and Reepicheep reach the world's end, where Aslan appears as a lamb. He shows Reepicheep the way to his country while helping the children return home. He also finally tells Edmund and Lucy that they are too old to return to Narnia, as he had told Peter and Susan in ''Prince Caspian,'' and that they must instead seek him in their world, a relatively direct reference to the Christian themes of the series.

===In ''The Silver Chair''===

Aslan instructs [[Jill Pole|Jill]] and Eustace to rescue [[Prince Rilian]], following a series of signs.

He makes no further appearance until the end of the story, but his signs are central to the story, and belief in Aslan plays a crucial part in defeating the [[Lady of the Green Kirtle]], who tries to destroy the children's belief in Narnia.

===In ''The Last Battle''===
The ape [[Shift (Narnia)|Shift]] disguises the reluctant donkey [[Puzzle (Narnia)|Puzzle]] as Aslan. They fool the Narnians into thinking Aslan has returned, while issuing commands in his name.

The encroaching Calormenes are encouraged to treat Aslan and their god [[Tash (Narnia)|Tash]] as a single, combined being, "Tashlan". Dissenters are thrown into Puzzle's stable, supposedly to meet "Tashlan", so that they can be murdered by Calormene soldiers.

King Tirian, the remaining loyal Narnians, and Jill and Eustace battle the Calormenes and their allies, but are forced through the stable door along with several dwarves who have lost faith in Narnia. They find themselves not in a stable, but in a [[paradise]]: Aslan's Country. Aslan is there, and they watch through the stable door as the world of Narnia is destroyed. When the dwarves are thrown into the paradise, they are unable to see it and instead are certain that they are inside an ordinary stable. At Lucy's request, Aslan growls at the dwarves and makes food magically appear in their hands; however, this fails to convince them (they think that the growling is a machine and that the food is food that would be found in a stable). Aslan tells the children that the dwarves shut themselves out to him, and therefore cannot be reached (in a similar fashion to Uncle Andrew, from ''The Magician's Nephew'').

Aslan then commands Peter to shut the door on Narnia, and leads them through his country, which is a [[platonic ideal]] of Narnia. He greets Emeth, a devout yet kind Tash-worshipping Calormene, telling him that "I and [Tash] are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him." As they get "further up and further in," the Narnians find Aslan's country getting bigger and better, eventually encompassing Earth as well.

==Influences==
The word ''aslan'' is [[Turkish Language|Turkish]] for "[[lion]]" and is used as a title for [[Ottoman Dynasty|Ottoman]] and [[Seljukids|Seljukid]] rulers. The theory that the figure of Aslan may have been inspired by a mysterious lion which appears and disappears suddenly at key moments in the novel ''[[The Place of the Lion]]'', written by Lewis' close friend [[Charles Williams (UK writer)|Charles Williams]], was specifically denied by Lewis in a paper published later in his life.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}

The word Aslan is also a variation of the Germanic family name Ansell from the time of the Norman Conquest. It is composed of two words, "god" and "protection/helmet." (http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/aslan-family-crest.htm)

===Christian interpretation===
Although Aslan can be read as an original character, many readers see parallels with the character and story of [[Christ]]. In particular, his sacrifice is reminiscent of the accounts of Christ's [[crucifixion]] and [[resurrection]].

According to the author, he is not an [[allegorical]] portrayal of Christ, but rather a different, hypothetical, [[incarnation]] of Christ himself: "If Aslan represented the immaterial [[Deity]], he would be an allegorical figure. In reality however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all." This interpretation is related to [[J. R. R. Tolkien's]] concept of "secondary creation" expounded in his 1947 essay "[[On Fairy-Stories]]," reflecting discussions Lewis and Tolkien had in the [[Inklings]] group.

==Portrayals==
* In the animated adaptation of ''The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe'' distributed by the Children's Television Workshop (now [[Sesame Workshop]]), Aslan is voiced by [[Stephen Thorne]].

* Thorne also makes appearances as the Great Lion in the adaptations made in the mid-1990s by [[BBC Radio]].

* In all three of the [[BBC]] television serial adaptations of the late 1980s and early 1990s (''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'', ''Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'', ''The Silver Chair''), Aslan is voiced by [[Ronald Pickup]] and the costume is operated by [[William Todd Jones]], who also appeared as '''Glenstorm''' the [[Centaur|centaur]].

* In the [[Focus on the Family]] radio adaptations, he is portrayed by [[David Suchet]].

* In the 2005 film, ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe]]'', the [[Computer-generated imagery|CGI]] Aslan is voiced by [[Liam Neeson]]. Neeson will return to voice the character in the sequel, ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian]]'', scheduled for a 2008 release.<ref name="pc-return">{{cite news | title = Caspian to be second Narnia movie | publisher = BBC|date = [[2006-01-18]] | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4625478.stm | accessdate = 2006-12-01 }}</ref>

* In ''[[Epic Movie]]'', [[Fred Willard]] appears as a parody of Aslan. He is a human/lion hybrid known as Aslo. He's constantly drinking and sleeps with anyone who's willing. He helps the heroes get Edward out of the White Bitch's dungeon, kills Silas, and ends up killed by the White Bitch.

* In ''[[South Park]]'', Aslan appears in ''[[Here Comes the Neighborhood]]'' where Token, not quite able to fit in with the rich kids, or the middle class kids, goes to the zoo to join the lions who are led by Aslan, who is, in this case, a lover of cheap practical jokes. He then appears again in [[Imaginationland Episode II]] and [[Imaginationland Episode III]] where he is a leader of Imaginationland, the home of fictional characters. The latter portrayals were far more in line with Lewis' version.

* Aslan appears in the "[[Robot Chicken]]" episode "Robot Chicken's Half-Assed Christmas Special" voiced by [[Seth MacFarlane]]. Appearing in a segment parodying Narnia, he is referred to as "the Jesus-allegory Lion," and is seen talking to a centaur when his head gets cut off by a nerd on a unicorn.

==References==
{{Portalpar | Narnia | Narnia_aslan.jpg | 50}}
<div class=small><references/></div>

==External links==
* [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/lion/section10.rhtml SparkNotes reference to the meaning of Aslan's death]
* [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/010/22.32.html "Aslan is still on the move"] ''Christianity Today'' editorial, [[6 August]] [[2001]].
* [http://www.anamcharabooks.com/ ''Following Aslan''] children's explanation of Aslan's parallels with Jesus

{{Narnia}}

[[Category:The Chronicles of Narnia characters]]
[[Category:Fictional deities|Aslan]]
[[Category:Fictional kings]]
[[Category:Fictional lions]]
[[bg:Аслан]]
[[es:Aslan (personaje literario)]]
[[it:Aslan]]
[[nl:Aslan (Narnia)]]
[[no:Aslan (bokfigur)]]
[[pl:Aslan]]
[[pt:Aslam]]