The Great Snow Dance, a ball where you dodge the snowballs
In Narnia, on the first moonlit night when snow lies on the ground, Fauns, Dryads and Dwarfs gather for a dance that doubles as a game of skill.
Near the end of The Silver Chair, Jill pokes her head out of a small hole in a bank and finds a snowy glade lit by the moon. Fauns and Dryads are dancing an intricate round to the music of four fiddles, three flutes and a drum. Around them, a ring of Dwarfs in their best clothes, mostly scarlet, keeps up a steady stream of snowballs.
The narrator makes clear they are not aiming at the dancers. They throw through the dance, in time with the music, so that nobody gets hit as long as everyone is in the right spot at the right moment. This is the Great Snow Dance, held every year in Narnia on the first moonlit night with snow on the ground. A dancer who misses a step gets a snowball in the face and everyone laughs; on fine nights the dancing can go on until daybreak.
Jill catches one squarely in the mouth just as she tries to shout the good news. She doesn't mind in the slightest: she is back in Narnia.
See also
Sources
- C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, ch. 15 “The Disappearance of Jill”.