‘“The crowd and dance round Aslan (for it had become a dance once more) grew so thick and rapid that Lucy was confused. [...] One was a youth, dressed only in a fawn skin, with vine leaves wreathed in his curly hair. His face [...] looked so extremely wild. [...] He seemed to have a great many names – Bromios, Bassareus, and the Ram were three of them. There were a lot of girls with him, as wild as he. [...] And everybody was [...] shouting out, ‘EUAN, EUAN, EU-oi-oi-oi.’”

Those strange words EUAN, EUAN, EU-oi-oi-oi are an ancient witches’ chant used to invoke the power and presence of the god of drunkenness and addiction, who is named Bacchus. But wait, as the story goes on, it gets worse as the witchcraft increases and becomes more obvious. […] [Paragraph spacing added.]

(Photo: A bonfire on a midsummer festival. Source.)

“[…] Then the whole party moved off – Aslan leading. Bacchus and his Maenads leaping, […] Then three or four Red Dwarfs came forward […] and set light to the pile, […] and [it] finally roared as a woodland bonfire on midsummer night ought to do. And every-one sat down in a wide circle around it . Then Bacchus and Silenus and the Maenads began a dance, far wilder than the dance of the trees, not merely a dance for fun and beauty (though it was that too), but a magic dance of plenty , and where their hands touched, and where their feet fell, the feast came into existence. Sides of roasted meat that filled the grove with delicious smell, and wheaten cakes and oaten cakes…”





