Stories of heroes, battles, and risk-takers inspire us.

This is one of the reasons in my weekly newsletter I share a story of strength every week… hearing a story of someone’s feat of strength and courage helps us get off the couch and get into action.

This week’s story is about a character who bravely takes action when his friends needed him most. His strength of conviction swelled up and brought much needed encouragement to his friends.

This is the story of Puddleglum the Marsh-wiggle. 

In C.S. Lewis’ book The Silver Chair, Aslan sends two unlikely heroes, Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb, on a mission to track down the missing Prince Rilian and bring him home.

And Jill and Eustace pick up an even more unlikely hero along the way… a Marsh-wiggle named Puddleglum.

A Marsh-wiggle is a creature that lives in the marshy north of Narnia… with webbed feet and hands, weed-like hair, and lanky limbs.

Puddleglum is a character that grows on you in the book. On one hand, he’s brave, loyal, and committed to the mission… while on the other he’s often dreary, and he reliably points out the worst possible scenario in pretty much every circumstance.

But when the group needs him the most, he bravely and boldly stands on his convictions.

Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum find Prince Rilian in the Underland. The prince had been there for 10 years, under a spell from the Queen of the Underland, the Lady of the Green Kirtle.

The trio frees Rilian from the silver chair he was bound to, and as they plot their escape, the Queen of the Underland walks in.

The Queen calmly walks over to the fireplace, throws magic green powder into it, takes out a musical instrument, and in the magical and smoky haze she tries to cloud the thinking of the three heroes by lying to them.

• When the Prince expresses his desire to go to Narnia, she laughs like a schoolteacher listening to a 5-year old talking about a silly dream, and tells him no place exists.

• When Jill tries to describe the world her and Eustace came from, the Queen chides them both for believing foolish lies.

• When the three try to describe the sky and the sun from the world they came from, the Queen successfully dismantles their arguments.

The Queen lulls them into a stupor where they doubt the existence of Narnia, the Overworld, and Aslan. Her deceptive magic seems to work.

But not on Puddleglum. Once she starts to make them doubt the existence of Aslan, something snaps in the Marsh-wiggle.

Puddleglum walks over the to fire and stamps most of it out with his bare foot. This stopped the hazy atmosphere of the room and replaced the sweet smell with something entirely different – burnt Marsh-wiggle.

As Lewis describes it –

“For though the whole fire had not been put out, a good bit of it had, and what remained smelled very largely of burnt Marsh-wiggle, which is not at all an enchanting smell.”

Puddleglum walks boldly over to the Queen, now revealed to be a witch, and he delivers one of the best speeches in the series. Here’s a snippet of it from this bold and burnt Marsh-wiggle. 

“Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one… a play-world licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play-world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

This rouses Jill, Eustace, and Rilian, but it has a vile effect on the Queen. She reveals her true self by transforming into a green serpent, and the beast turns to attack.

The Prince and Puddeglum strike it’s neck with their swords, and after a few more hacks, they decapitate the snake.