The white stag, in Celtic mythology, symbolizes mystery and a spiritual quest. In Celtic tales, the white stag leads visitors to Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld, a fairy land where no one gets hurt or dies.
According to Jones’s Celtic Cyclopedia, the white stag is also a component of Hungarian mythology, French lais, and even Christian iconography[1]. Hildegard of Bingen depicts Christ as a red stag[2]. In later Christian iconography, Christ is depicted as a white unicorn, which more directly reflects the Celtic white stag.
The white stag of Celtic mythology is known for its elusiveness and its regenerative powers. The stag can be chased but never caught. The Celts believed that worlds can exist simultaneously, and that certain animals, namely the white stag, can pass between worlds.
The white stag, who can move freely between worlds, acts as a guide during the hero’s transformative journey[3]. In Arthurian tales, the Mabinogian, and the legend Fionn mac Cumhaill, the stag leads the hero to an Otherworld. The hero’s courage is tested as he follows this mythical creature into the forest.
In the last chapter of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis appropriates the white stag symbol. Instead of going towards a supernatural realm, however, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, are leaving one behind. They are crossing from a magical world back into the ordinary world.
Unlike other animals, a stag’s antlers reappear every season; and, thus, they are representative of spiritual renewal. In Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the stag is not just a liminal beast that can move between the seen and unseen world. In Lewis' novel the stag represents a spiritual transformation that the children have undergone.
