Reepicheep: Bravery at the Dark Island

By Don

July 12, 2024

Blog

Reading Time: 2 minutes

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 one of the most consistently brave characters in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series.

He is courageous, sincere, well-mannered, and poised. Sometimes he annoys those around him, but he reliably steps up to the plate when a dangerous situation presents itself.

And he’s a mouse.

Of course C.S. Lewis would pack all the world’s courage into a talking mouse.

This is the story of Reepicheep in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader

In the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Reepicheep the mouse plays a central role in the story’s plot. King Caspian sails from Narnia to discover what happened to the seven lords who left Narnia, and the crew encounters all types of dangers along the way.

And in each danger, Reepicheep rises to the occasion with admirable bravery.

  • When a dragon approaches their camp, Reepicheep immediately offers to take it on in 1/1 combat.

  • When a sea serpent coils around the boat, Reepicheep immediately tries pushing the serpent’s body off, nearly killing himself in the process.

  • When the crew encounters what seems to be enchanted food, Reepicheep immediately offers to take the first sip of a drink to test it for the crew.

His impulse is to confront fear head on and deal with the problem. And this was especially helpful during the crew’s encounter with the Dark Island.

The Dawn Treader approaches what looks at first to be land, but it turns out to be utter blackness. Lewis describes this blackness like the darkness seen in the middle of a train tunnel… and this darkness was hovering over the ocean, waiting for any ship to come in.

The ship’s captain advises against going in. The rest of the ship agrees.

But the courage of the mouse wins the heart of King Caspian. Reepicheep calls the King to bravery, and reminds him that they didn’t set out for ease or comfort, but for honor and adventure.

“So far as I know we did not set sail to look for things useful but to seek honor and adventure. And here is as great an adventure as ever I heard of, and here, if we turn back, no little impeachment of all our honours”

– Reepicheep

With Reepicheep’s encouragement, the ship enters the blackness… and they find one of the lost lord’s of Narnia in there.

Without that courage, their mission would have failed.

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