Digory Kirke

After Digory's long journey by pegasus, he arrives with Polly to find that Jadis has already arrived. Jadis eats an apple to become immortal, and tempts Digory to eat one himself and take another to save his ill mother. Digory overcomes his moral conflict and takes the apple to Aslan, instructed by the lion to plant it by the river so it would become a tree whose magic will keep Jadis, who will later be known as the White Witch, at bay for many centuries. With Aslan's permission and blessing, Digory is allowed to take an apple from this tree back to his world to cure his mother. With Polly's help, Digory then buries all the magic rings and the apple core behind the Ketterlys' house. Over time, a seed from the apple core grows into a new tree with special but non-magical fruit.

Soon afterwards, Digory's father returns from home in India, able to retire from the army having inherited a fortune and a large house in the country from a recently deceased uncle. Digory, his parents, and Uncle Andrew go and live there. He and Polly remain lifelong friends.

In later years, the mature tree is blown down by a storm and Digory uses the wood to build the wardrobe that becomes the portal to Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

40 years later, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie stay with the now 52-year-old Professor Kirke at his house in the country during the Blitz of London. He lives at the great house with his housekeeper, Mrs. Macready.

The four children discover Narnia via a wardrobe, revealed at the end of The Magician's Nephew to have been made from the wood of the tree which grew from the apple Digory had fed to his sick mother (by this stage deceased). After Lucy visits Narnia for the first time and her siblings do not believe her story, Kirke speaks to them wisely and shows them that she is logically likely to be telling the truth. In particular, he points out that the idea of an alternate reality having a course of time completely separate to ours is unlikely to have been made up by a child Lucy's age. At the end of the story, he reassures the children that they will return to Narnia one day. The text does not reveal his first name or surname, and instead refers to him simply as the Professor.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, it is mentioned in passing that Professor Kirke has lost his fortune and has had to downsize to a cottage with only one spare bedroom. (This explains why Edmund and Lucy, at the beginning of the book, are forced to stay with their cousin Eustace Scrubb when their parents and Susan go abroad, with only Peter being able to stay with the professor so as to be tutored for his upcoming university examinations.)

The Last Battle

In The Last Battle, Digory dies in a train accident and is pulled into Narnia, with the other listed major characters. He and Polly (age 60 and 61), both become young again, and are dressed as royalty (and referred to as Lord Digory and Lady Polly). They are thus allowed to take up eternal lives in New Narnia. The Last Battle also notes that, prior to the events of the book, Digory, Polly, the Pevensie siblings (with the exception of Susan, who has come to believe that Narnia was a youthful fantasy, and thus was not on the train), Eustace, and Jill Pole had been gathering on occasion as "friends of Narnia", to reminisce about their various adventures.

Portrayals

• ISBN 0-06-079127-6