The Magician's Nephew

Having fled the garden after refusing Jadis's temptations, Digory returns to Aslan with the apple meant for Narnia, not for himself or his dying mother. He admits that Jadis followed him into the garden and ate one of its apples herself. Aslan explains that the garden's fruit always gives the eater their heart's desire, but in a form that turns to bitterness for anyone who steals it: Jadis is now immortal, but her immortality will only prolong her eventual misery and defeat. Digory plants his apple in the soil of Narnia, and it immediately grows into a large, fragrant tree whose very scent will be a horror to Jadis and a protection for Narnia, keeping her at bay for centuries to come.

Aslan then turns to the matter of the newly made world's governance. He confirms Frank the cab-driver and his wife Helen, both brought from London, as the first King and Queen of Narnia, charging them to rule wisely and kindly and to guard against the witch's return. The rogue iron bar that Jadis hurled at Aslan earlier, which bounced off him harmlessly, has taken root in Narnia's freshly made soil and grown into a lamp-post that will stand in that spot indefinitely.

Aslan allows Digory to pick one apple from the newly grown protective tree to take home to Earth, since Digory did not take one for selfish reasons in the garden. Aslan, Polly, and Digory part on good terms, and Aslan sends the two children and Uncle Andrew back to London using the magic rings. At home, Digory feeds the apple to his dying mother, and she makes a full recovery. Uncle Andrew, shaken by his experiences and encounter with Aslan, gives up magic for good. Digory buries the apple's core along with the magic rings in the back garden of his aunt's London house, and from that core grows another large tree.

Years pass. Digory's family inherits a country house, and the tree in London is eventually blown down in a storm. Digory, by then a grown man and a professor, has the fallen tree's wood carved into a wardrobe, which he keeps in his country house. Digory and Polly remain close friends for the rest of their lives, carrying the secret of Narnia's creation and their part in it with them.

By the end of this book, Narnia has just been created. Digory Kirke and his friend Polly Plummer, two London children from the year 1900, were drawn into events by Digory's Uncle Andrew, an amateur magician who tricked them into using magic rings to travel between worlds. Exploring another dead world called Charn, Digory accidentally woke an ancient and immensely powerful witch-queen, Jadis, who had long ago wiped out all life in her own world using a forbidden spell called the Deplorable Word. Jadis followed the children back to London and caused chaos before they managed to drag her, along with Uncle Andrew, a London cabman named Frank, and Frank's horse Strawberry, into the Wood Between the Worlds and from there into an empty void.

In that void, the group witnessed the lion Aslan singing the world of Narnia into existence, calling up stars, plants, and animals, and granting speech to some of the beasts. Jadis, terrified, hurled an iron bar at Aslan; it bounced off him and grew into a lamp-post. Aslan crowned Frank and his wife Helen (brought over from London) as the first King and Queen of Narnia. Because Digory was responsible for bringing Jadis into this new world, Aslan charged him with a task of atonement: traveling, with Polly's help, on the newly winged Strawberry to a walled garden to retrieve a protective apple.

In the garden, Digory found Jadis had already eaten one of the garden's apples to make herself immortal. She tried to tempt Digory into eating one himself, or into stealing one to selfishly heal his dying mother back on Earth, but he resisted and returned the apple to Aslan as instructed. Planted in Narnia's soil, the apple grew instantly into a large tree whose presence would guard the young country against Jadis's return for a very long time. Jadis herself fled toward the uninhabited north of Narnia, her fate and whereabouts left open at the book's close — she is immortal but, per Aslan, doomed to eventual misery, though nothing more specific about her is resolved.

Aslan allowed Digory to take one apple home, which healed his mother, and sent Digory, Polly, and Uncle Andrew back to London. Uncle Andrew gave up magic entirely. Digory buried the apple's core and the magic rings in his aunt's garden, and years later, after his family inherited a country house, the tree that grew from that core blew down in a storm; Digory, now an adult professor, had its timber made into a wardrobe. Open threads heading forward include Jadis's unresolved presence somewhere in Narnia's wilderness, the significance of the lamp-post that grew where the iron bar landed, and the wardrobe itself, kept in Professor Kirke's country house.