Aslan represents a lion in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia stories. He is a talking lion and the central divine and royal figure of the Chronicles of Narnia, described as the son of the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea.
Aslan’s character draws heavily on Christian imagery, especially in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, where he willingly dies in Edmund’s place and returns to life. Lewis explained that Aslan was not a direct allegory in which every character maps neatly onto one theological counterpart; instead, he imagined how Christ might appear in a world such as Narnia.
Readers sometimes call Aslan simply the “Christian character,” but the books present him as a ruler, creator, guide, judge, and protector as well. His name is derived from the Turkish word for “lion,” a detail that fits both his nature and his authority.