Aslan is the lion at the center of C.S. Lewis's Narnia stories.
He first appears in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where he is presented as the true ruler of Narnia and the principal opponent of the White Witch. His name is derived from the Turkish word for “lion.”
Aslan returns throughout the seven-book series, though his role and the scale of his appearances vary from book to book. He guides, judges, protects, and restores characters, making him more than a conventional talking-animal hero.
Readers often discuss Aslan in relation to Christian symbolism, especially because of his sacrificial death and return in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lewis resisted reducing his fiction to a simple allegory, but the character’s religious associations are unmistakable and central to many interpretations.