Journey to the Center of the Earth: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Axel quickly sets the document back on the table and Lidenbrock resumes his calculations. Axel watches his uncle work for hours, and he falls asleep on the sofa while Lidenbrock continues to work. When he wakes, Lidenbrock is still at his task, and Axel begins to pity him. He knows that he could ease Lidenbrock’s tension by revealing what he discovered, but he stays silent, convinced that this frenzied labor is better than the certain death that will befall Lidenbrock if he solves the cipher and pursues its message.

When Martha tries to go to market, she finds that Lidenbrock has locked the household inside. Axel recalls that when his uncle is single-mindedly focused on a task, he refuses to eat or to let anyone around him eat. Axel tries to withstand his hunger as a point of honor, but as the hours pass without a meal, he decides that revealing the decrypted message to Lidenbrock might not be so disastrous after all.

Axel reveals to Lidenbrock that the letters he dictated can be read backwards as a message in Latin. The letter instructs the reader to follow Saknussemm’s path through “the crater of the Jokul of Snäfell,” where “the shadow of Scartaris softly touches before the Kalends of July.” This path will lead the traveler to the center of the earth. Lidenbrock jumps for joy, then calms and tells Axel to join him for dinner. After dinner, he says, Axel should pack luggage for both of them.