S7E26 – Narnia – “The Last Battle (Part I)”, After Hours with Dr. Christin Ditchfield-Lazo

Dr. Christin Ditchfield-Lazo joins the gang for the beginning of the final Narnian Chronicle, The Last Battle.

S7E26: “The Last Battle (Part I)” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote-of-the-week

In the last days of Narnia, far up to the west beyond Lantern Waste and close beside the great waterfall, there lived an Ape.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter One)

Biographical Information

The episode’s special guest was Dr. Christin Ditchfield-Lazo, also known as:

• “Lazo Major”
• “Lazo Magnus”
• “Lazo the Greater”
• “Lazo the human Biblical concordance”

Chit-Chat

The hosts discussed Narnia adaptations, including one from David’s childhood, The Chronicles of Narnia BBC TV Series (1988), as well as an adaptation from Focus on the Family Radio Theatre.

Some of Andrew’s parishioners are listening to different seasons of Pints With Jack.

Toast (spot the Brit)

• Andrew was drinking CAFE Olé by H‑E‑B Medium Roast Taste of San Antonio Ground Coffee
• Matt was drinking coffee from Cafe Tossi.
• Dr. Lazo had coffee with cream
• David was drinking tea (rather than a bowl of wine)

Matt discovered that it was David who bought him a Henri Nouwen mug.

They toasted Tim VanDeWalker: “May the truth be your guiding light, and may you always be in the (paws) of Aslan. And may there be no monkey business.”

Discussion

01. “Matt’s Reaction”

Matt really loved this Chronicle and it ay well be his favourite.

02. “Planet Narnia”

David mentioned Planet Narnia, which states that The Last Battle is based on Saturn/Kronos whom they discover in the underworld of The Silver Chair.

Dr. Michael Ward was interviewed about the “Planet Narnia” theory in S4E41. David suggests starting with the more popular and accessible version of the book, The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens.

03. “Disclaimer”

For a more in-depth analysis of The Last Battle, check out The Lamp-post Listener (Season 7), or “The Last Battle” Series with Rev. Brian McGreevy.

04. “By Cauldron Pool (Chapter 1)”

We open “In the last days of Narnia, far up to the west beyond Lantern Waste and close beside the great waterfall”. “Shift” the ape sees a lion skin in the water and sends a “Puzzle” the donkey in to get it for him. He then turns it into a “winter coat” for Puzzle. Once it is strapped to the donkey, Shift suggests that Puzzle could pretend to be Aslan and “set everything right in Narnia”. Puzzle hates this, but Shift is adamant, even interpreting a sudden thunderclap and an earthquake as a sign of Aslan’s approval for their plan.

Last Battle Summary (Chapter 1)

Christin notes how you can find biblical principles throughout Narnia, including the creation narrative in The Magician’s Nephew, and the crucifixion and resurrection in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Christin believes today’s book depicts the Antichrist and his prophet in the end of days.

David asked Andrew about the literary significance of the animals “ape” and “donkey.” Andrew mentioned The Nativity poem:

Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Saviour where I looked for hay;
So may my beastlike folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.

C.S. Lewis, The Nativity

David sees the mention that the ape has a weak chest as a nod to The Abolition of Man:

“Wanting me to go into the water,” said the Ape. “As if you didn’t know perfectly well what weak chests Apes always have and how easily they catch cold!”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 1)

We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise.

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

David asked Matt what he makes of Puzzle and Shift’s relationship.

Christin quoted St. Paul:

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:3

“Very well. I will go in. I’m feeling cold enough already in this very cruel wind. But I’ll go in. I shall probably die. Then you’ll be sorry.” And Shift’s voice sounded as if he was just going to burst into tears.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 1)

“You look wonderful, wonderful,” said the Ape. “If anyone saw you now, they’d think you were Aslan, the Great Lion, himself.”

“That would be dreadful,” said Puzzle.

“No it wouldn’t,” said Shift. “Everyone would do whatever you told them.”

“But I don’t want to tell them anything.”

“But you think of the good we could do!” said Shift.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 1)

David mentions that Shift’s rationale is notable and quoted a Lewis essay found in God in the Dock:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. 

C.S. Lewis, The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment

Andrew compares this scene to The Lord of the Rings, and the disposition of the character Sam, who accepts his position in life:

…He had only to put on the Ring and claim it for his own, and all this could be. In that hour of trial it was his love of his master that helped most to hold him firm; but also deep down in him lived still unconquered his plain hobbit-sense: he knew in the core of his heart that he was not large enough to bear such a burden, even if such visions were not a mere cheat to betray him. The one small garden of a free gardener was all his need and due, not a garden swollen to a realm; his own hands to use, not the hands of others to command. ‘And anyway all these notions are only a trick, he said to himself.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

David noted how Puzzle see dignity in all lions because of The Lion, Aslan:

“I wonder who killed the poor lion,” said Puzzle presently. “It ought to be buried. We must have a funeral.”

“Oh, it wasn’t a Talking Lion,” said Shift. “you needn’t bother about that. There are no Talking Beasts up beyond the Falls, up in the Western Wild. This skin must have belonged to a dumb, wild lion.”…

“All the same, Shift,” said Puzzle, “even if the skin only belonged to a dumb, wild lion, oughtn’t weto give it a decent burial? I mean, aren’t all lions rather – well, rather solemn? Because of you know Who. Don’t you see?”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 1)

David points to one of the stories in Aesop’s Fables and notes that the conditions are listed under which someone could actually mistake Puzzle for a lion:

No one who had ever seen a real lion would have been taken in for a moment. But if someone who had never seen a lion looked at Puzzle in his lion-skin he just might mistake him for a lion, if he didn’t come too close, and if the light was not too good, and if Puzzle didn’t let out a pray and didn’t make any noise with his hoofs.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 1)

David beats Andrew to the punch and notices how the self-deception of Orual in Till We Have Faces mirrors how Shift reinterprets the sign in how he would like it to be:

At that moment there came a great thunderclap right overhead and the ground trembled with a small earthquake…

“There!” gasped Puzzle, as soon as he had breath to speak. “It’s a sign, a warning. I knew we were doing something dreadfully wicked. Take this wretched skin off me at once.”

“No, no,” said the Ape (whose mind worked very quickly). “It’s a sign the other way. I was just going to say that if the real Aslan, as you call him, meant us to go on with this, he would send us a thunderclap and an earth-tremor. It was just on the tip of my tongue, only the sign itself came before I could get the words out. You’ve got to do it now, Puzzle.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 1)

05. “The Rashness of the King (Chapter 2)”

Three weeks later “not far from the Eastern end of Lantern Waste”, we meet King Tirian, relaxing at a hunting lodge with his best friend, Jewel the Unicorn, and discussing the rumour that Aslan has returned. 

Roonwit the Centaur arrives and says the stars declare that Aslan has not returned and that Narnia is in great peril. 

A dying Dryad arrives lamenting that the trees are being cut down.

While Roonwit fetches an army, Tirian and Jewel head to Lantern Waste. There they meet a water rat taking wood to the Calormens and Tirian and Jewel kill some Calormen beating a talking horse.

Last Battle Summary (Chapter 2)

Christin and Andrew draw the biblical parallels to the Exodus story of Moses witnessing a Hebrew being beaten, and slaying the Egyptian, as well as to King David neglecting his duties as King.

“They are the most wonderful tidings ever heard in our days or our fathers’ or our grandfathers’ days, Sire,” said Jewel, “if they are true.”

“How can they choose but be true?” said the King.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 2)

David acknowledges that Christians might not like the astrology from Roonwit, and Christin notes the stars guiding others in the Bible.

[Roonwit said] “The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do. If Aslan were really coming to Narnia the sky would have foretold it. If he were really come, all the most gracious stars would be assembled in his honour. It is all a lie.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 2)

Surely the Lord God does nothing,
    without revealing his secret
    to his servants the prophets.

Amos 3:7

Andrew points out Lewis’ favourite psalm:

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
    and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Psalm 19:1

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

Matthew 10:34

Lewis saw the “pagan” figures as under the authority of Christ, as explained by Lewis himself in An Experiment in Criticism:

My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented.

C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism

David adds a quote from The Four Loves:

Emerson has said, “When half-gods go, the gods arrive.” That is a very doubtful maxim. Better say, “When God arrives (and only then) the half-gods can remain.” Left to themselves they either vanish or become demons. Only in His name can they, with beauty and security, wield their little tridents.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

David also mentions the beauty and intimacy of the relationship between Tirian and Jewel.

“Jewel,” he said, “what lies before us? Horrible thoughts arise in my heart. If we had died before today we should have been happy.”

“Yes,” said Jewel. “We have lived too long. The worst thing in the world has come upon us.” They stood like that for a minute or two and then went on.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 2)

06. “The Ape in Its Glory (Chapter 3)”

David asks Andrew and Matt if Tirian and Jewel were wrong to kill the Calormenes. Andrew explains that they broke an Arthurian code of honor.

Andrew connects the scene to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where the incarnation and encroachment of evil causes the fragmentation of the wizarding world. Andrew also noted the biblical passage from the gospel of Matthew:

And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold.

Matthew 24:12

Matt underlined Tirian’s statement, where he forgets the inherent goodness of Aslan:

“But Sire, how could Aslan be commanding such dreadful things?”

“He is not a tame lion,” said Tirian. “How should we know what he would do?”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

David noticed that Shift has changed considerably…

The Ape was of course Shift himself, but he looked ten times uglier than when he lived by Cauldron Pool, for he was now dressed up. He was wearing a scarlet jacked which did not fit him very well, having been made for a dwarf. He had jeweled slippers on his hind paws which would not stay on properly because, as you know, the hind paws of an Ape are really like hands. He wore what seemed to be a paper crown on his head. There was a great pile of nuts beside him and he kept cracking nuts with his jaws and spitting out the shells. And he also kept on pulling up the scarlet jacket to scratch himself.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

Andrew notes that Shift’s red colors mirror Peter’s.

Andrew alluded to Till We Have Faces, saying if we don’t see correctly and clearly, we will make wrong turns. Christin points out that the Narnians are led astray easily because their faith is purely cultural, not personal.

David quotes Shift, who is clearly communist in his vision for Narnia:

[Shift said] “Now attend to me. I want—I mean, Aslan wants—some more nuts. These you’ve brought aren’t anything near enough. You must bring some more, do you hear? Twice as many. And they got to be here by sunset tomorrow, and there mustn’t be any bad ones or any small ones among them.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 3)

“I hear some of you are saying I’m an Ape. Well, I’m not. I’m a Man. If I look like an Ape, that’s because I’m so very old: hundreds and hundreds of years old. And it’s because I’m so old that I’m so wise. And it’s because I’m so wise that I’m the only one Aslan is ever going to speak to.”

C.S. Lewis, Shift, The Last Battle (Chapter 3)

“I hear some of the horses are saying, Let’s hurry up and get this job of carting timber over as quickly as we can, and then we’ll be free again. Well, you can get that idea out of your heads at once. And not only the Horses either. Everybody who can work is going to be made to work in the future… You’ll be paid—very good wages too. That is to say, your pay will be paid in to Aslan’s treasury and he will use it all for everybody’s good… There’ll be oranges and bananas pouring in—and roads and big cities and schools and offices and whips and muzzles and saddles and cages and kennels and prisons—Oh, everything.”

C.S. Lewis, Shift, The Last Battle (Chapter 3)

Andrew mentions Meditations in a Toolshed, and how sometimes we view experiences through the wrong lens. Matt mentioned Emily LaPorte’s thesis on analytical versus experiential frameworks in a prior episode.

David asked what is Aslan’s relationship to Tash, because according to Shift…

“Tash is only another name for Aslan. All that old idea of us being right and the Calormenes wrong is silly. We know better now. The Calormenes use different words but we all mean the same thing. Tash and Aslan are only two different names for you know Who. That’s why there can never be any quarrel between them. Get that into your heads, you stupid brutes. Tash is Aslan: Aslan is Tash.”

C.S. Lewis, Shift, The Last battle (Chapter 3)

Andrew related this to Sir James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, where all mythology is the same. Christin responded with a quote from Tirian:

“Ape,” he cried with a great voice, “you lie. You lie damnably. You lie like a Calormene. You lie like an Ape.”

He meant to go on and ask how the terrible god Tash who fed on the blood of his people could possibly be the same as the good Lion by whose blood all Narnia was saved. If he had been allowed to speak, the rule of the Ape might have ended that day; the Beasts might have seen the truth and thrown the Ape down. But before he could say another word two Calormenes struck him in the mouth with all their force, and a third, from behind, kicked his feet from under him.

C.S. Lewis, Tirian, The Last Battle (Chapter 3)

Andrew connected this back to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with the outward attack on Aslan, as opposed to the subversive ones made by Shift.

David asked, what to make of Ginger?

“Assuredly,” said the Calormene. “The enlightened Ape—Man, I mean—is in the right. Aslan means neither less nor more than Tash.”

“Especially, Aslan means no more than Tash?” suggested the Cat.

C.S. Lewis, Ginger, The Last Battle (Chapter 3)

07. “What Happened that Night (Chapter 4)”

David notes the types of animals that minister to Tirian, the small and insignificant. The mice reminded Andrew of Aesop’s Fables again, as well as Trufflehunter from Prince Caspian:

“I tell you, we don’t change, we beasts,” said Trufflehunter. “We don’t forget. I believe in the High King Peter and the rest that reigned at Cair Paravel, as firmly as I believe in Asian himself.”

C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

David notes of echos of The Horse and His Boy, who considers himself unlucky. He also recognised Lewis’ allusion to Calvary in Tirian’s predicament:

And he called out “Aslan! Aslan! Aslan! Come and help us Now.”

But the darkness and the cold and the quietness went on just the same.

“Let me be killed,” cried the King. “I ask nothing for myself. But come and save all Narnia.”

And still there was no change in the night or the wood, but there began to be a kind of change inside Tirian. Without knowing why, he began to feel a faint hope.

C.S. Lewis, Tirian, The Last Battle (Chapter 4)

Matt interjects to tie in The Horse and His Boy again, as well as The Screwtape Letters, where it seemed that darkness was falling, but in the end there is hope, and “Aslan” reveals himself again.

He thought of other Kings who had lived and died in Narnia in old times and it seemed to him that none of them had ever been so unlucky as himself.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 4)

Andrew connects Tirian’s plea to Eustace’s in The Silver Chair and the book of Isaiah:

And he began, “Aslan, Aslan, Aslan!”

C.S. Lewis, Eustace, The Silver Chair (Chapter 1)

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

The absence of God is also a subject in The Four Loves:

If we cannot ‘practice the presence of God’, it is something to practice the absence of God, to become increasingly aware of our unawareness till we feel like men who should stand beside a great cataract and hear no noise, or like a man in a story who looks in a mirror and finds no face there, or a man in a dream who stretches out his hand to visible objects and gets no sensation of touch. To know that one is dreaming is to be no longer perfectly asleep.

C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Christin quoted Acts 16, where Paul follow’s God’s direction:

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Acts 16:9-10

David observed that Tirian is the protagonist of the story, not a child from a prior book. The book where all things end requires maturity.

David said that God likes to use toast, and quotes Mere Christianity:

‘I’ve never had the sense of being helped by an invisible Christ, but I often have been helped by other human beings.’ That is rather like the woman in the first war who said that if there were a bread shortage it would not bother her house because they always ate toast. If there is no bread there will be no toast. If there were no help from Christ, there would be no help from other human beings.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book IV, Chapter 7)

08. “How Help Came to the King (Chapter 5)”

Much time has passed since Eustace was last in Narnia. Christin highlighted that this shows the generational gap between past believers and those in the current day.

“Nay,” said Tirian, “I am the seventh in descent from him. He has been dead over two hundred years.”

C.S. Lewis, Tirian, The Last Battle (Chapter 5)

Andrew quoted Mere Christianity regarding the habit of faith:

Consequently one must train the habit of Faith.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book III, Chapter 11)

David asked Matt what he thought of Eustace and Jill’s plan to dig up the rings. Matt thought that while we might try to make our own plans, ultimately God works on his own time. Andrew added that “Aslan” might not use the things he has in the past. Matt referenced He Leadeth Me, where Fr. Walter Ciszek explains the depth of surrender he had to go to.

• “That’s funny looking mail, Sire,” said Eustace.

David moves on to Eustace and Jill disguising themselves:

“Aye, lad,” said Tirian. “No Narnian dwarf smithied that. ‘Tis mail of Calormen, outlandish gear. I have ever kept a few suits of it in readiness, for I never knew when I or my friends might have reason to walk unseen in the Tisroc’s land. And look on this stone bottle. In this there is a juice which, when we have rubbed it on our hands and faces, will make us brown as Calormenes.”

“Oh hurrah!” said Jill. “Disguises! I love disguises.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 5)

The children describe their martial prowess, showing how they have matured since The Silver Chair…

“Nothing worth talking of,” said Jill blushing. “Scrubb’s not bad.”

“Don’t you believe her, Sire,” said Eustace. “We’ve both been practicing archery ever since we got back from Narnia last time, and she’s about as good as I now. Not that either of us is much.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 5)

Lewis wrote an essay in his copy of Othello, where he describes how he thinks Othello and blackness in general should be portrayed.

This final quote reminded David of other episodes:

“I wish we’d brought a packet of tea,” said Jill.

“Or a tin of cocoa,” said Eustace.

“A firkin or so of good wine in each of these towers would not have been amiss,” said Tirian.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 5)

09. “A Good Night’s Work (Chapter 6)”

The Narnian air changes the children.

He was surprised at the strength of both the children: in fact they both seemed to be already much strong and bigger and more grown-up than they had been when he first met them a few hours ago. It is one of the effects which Narnian air often has on visitors from our world.

C.S. Lewis, Tirian, The Last Battle (Chapter 6)

The plan was to rescue Jewel and meet up with the army.

All three of them agreed that the very first thing they must do was to go back to Stable Hill and try to rescue Jewel the Unicorn. After that, if they succeeded, they would try to get away Eastward and meet the little army which Roonwit the Centaur would be bringing from Cair Paravel.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 6)

Tirian is also an experienced warrior…

An experienced warrior and huntsman like Tirian can always wake up at the time he wants. So he gave himself till nine o’clock that night and then put all worries out of his head and fell asleep at once. It seemed only a moment later when he woke but he knew by the light and the very feel of things that he had timed his sleep exactly.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 6)

Tirian can apparently go to sleep whenever he wants to…

“If he moves, rive him to the heart.” Then in a few seconds Tirian cut the ropes. With the remains of them he bound the sentry hand and foot. Finally he made him open his mouth, stuffed it full of grass and tied him up from scalp to chin so that he could make no noise, lowered the man into a sitting position and set him against the wall.

“I have done thee some discourtesy, soldier,” said Tirian. “But such was my need. If we meet again I may happen to do thee a better turn. Now, Jewel, let us go softly.”

And Jill is starting to shine in this chapter. Andrew mentioned that she is taking on the role of Lucy, and Tirian is becoming like Peter.

It was Jill who set them right again: she had been an excellent Guide in England. And of course she knew her Narnian stars perfectly, having travelled so much in the wild Northern Lands, and could work out the direction from other stars even when the Spear-Head was hidden. As soon as Tirian saw that she was the best pathfinder of the three of them he put her in front. And then he was astonished to find how silently and almost invisibly she glided on before them.

“By the Mane!” he whispered to Eustace. “This girl is a wondrous wood-maid. If she had Dryad’s blood in her she could scarce do it better.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 6)

It’s just business…

“Stand here, sentry, with your back to the wall. So. Now, Jewel: set the point of your horn against this Calormene’s breast.”

With a good will, Sire,” said Jewel.

“If he moves, rive him to the heart.” Then in a few seconds Tirian cut the ropes… “I have done thee some discourtesy, soldier,” said Tirian. “But such was my need. If we meet again I may happen to do thee a better turn.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 6)

Matt acknowledged that God redeems imperfect plans, and connected it to Puzzle. Andrew agreed, and added a quote from Mere Christianity:

It is, of course, quite true that God will not love you any less, or have less use for you, if you happen to have been born with a very second-rate brain.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book III, Chapter 2)

Moving on, Jill finds Puzzle in the stable…

“Of course it was pitch-black inside and smelled like any other stable. Then I struck a light and—would you believe it?—there was nothing at all there but this old donkey with a bundle of lionskin tied onto his back. So I drew my knife and told him he’d have to come along with me. As a matter of fact I needn’t have threatened him with the knife at all. He was very fed up with the stable and quite ready to come—weren’t you, Puzzle dear?”

C.S. Lewis, Jill, The Last Battle (Chapter 6)

10. “Mainly About Dwarves (Chapter 7)”

The Dwarfs fall into nihilism and cynicism, a reference to Till We Have Faces:

“Well,” said the Black Dwarf (whose name was Griffle), “I don’t know how all you chaps feel, but I feel I’ve heard as much about Aslan as I want to for the rest of my life.”

“That’s right, that’s right,” growled the other Dwarfs. “It’s all a trick, all a blooming trick.”

We’ve been fooled once and we’re not going to be fooled again…

We’re on our own now. No more Aslan, no more kings, no more silly stories about other worlds. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs…

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 7)

Andrew warned against self-segregation and othering different groups, because Christ becoming incarnate makes us all a part of his family.

Yet, there was one Dwarf that followed:

“Who goes there!” shouted the King.

“Only me, Sire,” came a voice. “Me, Poggin the Dwarf. I’ve only just managed to get away from the others. I’m on your side, Sire: and on Aslan’s.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 7)

Tirian criticises Eustace for not cleaning his sword…

[Tirian] inspected Eustace’s sword and found that Eustace had put it back in the sheath all messy from killing the Calormene. He was scolded for that and made to clean and polish it.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 7)

The group asks for the latest news, and explain Tirian’s escape. There’s also been a power shift; Ginger the cat has filled the power vacuum left by Shift.

“What devilish policy!” said Tirian. “This Ginger, then, is close in the Ape’s counsels.”

“It’s more a question by now, Sire, if the Ape is in his counsels,” replied the Dwarf. “The Ape has taken to drinking, you see. My belief is that the plot is now mostly carried on by Ginger or Rishda—that’s the Calormene captain.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 7)

Many now don’t believe in Aslan nor Tash, and they plan to bring more people into their confidence…

…the Beasts who really believe in Aslan may turn at any moment: and will, if the Ape’s folly betrays his secret. But those who care neither for Tash nor Aslan but have only an eye to their own profit, and such reward as the Tisroc may give them when Narnia is a Calormene province, will be firm.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 7)

Andrew recalls the worldly-wise friends in The Screwtape Letters.

The chapter ends on a cliffhanger, with the sky clouding over and a foul smell appearing…

While the Dwarf had been speaking the day seemed to have changed. It had been sunny when they sat down. Now Puzzle shivered. Jewel shifted his head uneasily. Jill looked up.

“It’s clouding over,” she said.

“And it’s so cold,” said Puzzle.

“Cold enough, by the Lion!” said Tirian, blowing on his hands. “And faugh! What foul smell is this?”

“Phew!” gasped Eustace. “It’s like something dead. Is there a dead bird somewhere about? And why didn’t we notice it before?”

With a great upheaval Jewel scrambled to his feet and pointed with his horn.

“Look!” he cried. “Look at it! Look, look!”

Then all six of them saw; and over all their faces there came an expression of uttermost dismay.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 7)

We discover in chapter 8 that the thing they are looking at is Tash…

11. “What News the Eagle Brought (Chapter 8)”

The group sees Tash for the first time…

In the shadow of the trees on the far side of the clearing something was moving. It was gliding very slowly Northward. At first glance you might have mistaken it for smoke, for it was grey and you could see things through it. But the deathly smell was not the smell of smoke. Also, this thing kept its shape instead of billowing and curling as smoke would have done. It was roughly the shape of a man but it had the head of a bird; some bird of prey with a cruel, curved beak. It had four arms which it held high above its head, stretching them out Northward as if it wanted to snatch all Narnia in its grip; and its fingers—all twenty of them—were curved like its beak and had long, pointed, bird-like claws instead of nails. It floated on the grass instead of walking, and the grass seemed to wither beneath it…

“And this fool of an Ape, who didn’t believe in Tash, will get more than he bargained for! He called for Tash: Tash has come.”

“Ho, ho, ho!” chuckled the Dwarf, rubbing its hairy hands together. “It will be a surprise for the Ape. People shouldn’t call for demons unless they really mean what they say.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 8)

Christin talked about the reality of demons, and and warned against calling on things we do not believe in, or making light of them, pointing to Acts 19:

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Acts 19:13-16

The group tries and work out what to do next – go to the stable and discredit the Ape or meet up with Roonwit’s army. They decide on the latter. They take off their disguises, but Puzzle is made to keep the lion skin a while longer. There’s a change of tone as well…

It was a little after two in the afternoon when they set out, and it was the first really warm day of that spring. The young leaves seemed to be much further out than yesterday: the snowdrops were over, but they saw several primroses. The sunlight slanted through the trees, birds sang, and always (though usually out of sight) there was the noise of running water.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 8)

There are lots of stories from Jewel…

He spoke of Swanwhite the Queen who had lived before the days of the White Witch and the Great Winter, who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards. He spoke of Moonwood the Hare, who had such ears that he could sit by Caldron Pool under the thunder of the great waterfall and hear what men spoke in whispers at Cair Paravel. He told how King Gale, who was ninth in descent from Frank the first of all Kings, had sailed far away into the Eastern seas and delivered the Lone Islanders from a dragon and how, in return, they had given him the Lone Islands to be part of the royal lands of Narnia for ever. He talked of whole centuries in which all Narnia was so happy that notable dances and feasts, or at most tournaments, were the only things that could be remembered, and every day and week had been better than the last.

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 8)

David said Lewis inflates our hope just to snatch it away, just as Oraul claims of the gods in Till We Have Faces:

“The gods never send us this invitation to delight so readily or so strongly as when they are preparing some new agony. We are their bubbles; they blow us big before they prick us.”

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Book I, Chapter 9)

“Oh, I do hope we can soon settle the Ape and get back to those good, ordinary times. And then I hope they’ll go on for ever and ever and ever. Our world is going to have an end some day. Perhaps this one won’t. Oh, Jewel—wouldn’t it be lovely if Narnia just went on and on—like what you said it has been?”

“Nay, sister,” answered Jewel, “all worlds draw to an end; except Aslan’s own country.”

“Well, at least,” said Jill, “I hope the end of this one is millions of millions of millions of years away—hullo! what are we stopping for?”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 8)

We’re heading for a fall… Farsight the Eagle arrives with news…

“Two sights have I seen,” said Farsight. “One was Cair Paravel filled with dead Narnians and living Calormenes: the Tisrocs banner advanced upon your royal battlements: and your subjects flying from the city—this way and that, into the woods. Cair Paravel was taken from the sea. Twenty great ships of Calormen put in there in the dark of the night before last night.”

No one could speak.

“And the other sight, five leagues nearer than Cair Paravel, was Roonwit the Centaur lying dead with Calormene arrow in his side. I was with him in his last hour and he gave me this message to your Majesty: to remember that all worlds draw to an end and that noble death is a treasure which no one is too poor to buy.”

“So,” said the King, after a long silence, “Narnia is no more.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 8)

Narnia the country has come to an end, and so will Narnia the world soon. Matt mentions the wisdom of death from Out of the Silent Planet:

“[Humans are] wise enough to see the death of their kind approaching but not wise enough to endure it.”

C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

“Die before you die. There is no chance after.”

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (Book II, Chapter 2)

Wrap-Up

Concluding Thoughts

• Andrew preached about death being an unshakable reality.
• Christin reminded that while we are grieved by our current circumstances, we need to keep hope, because we were told that this would happen.

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