S7E27 – Narnia – “The Last Battle (Part II)”, After Hours with Dr. Christin Ditchfield-Lazo

The great finale is here… Lazo Major returns to wrap-up the final chapter of the Chronicles of Narnia.

S7E27: “The Last Battle (Part II)” (Download)

Show Notes

Introduction

Quote-of-the-week

All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (Chapter 16)

Chit-Chat

• Dr. Ditchfield-Lazo recommends that people at least read “The Silver Chair” and “The Last Battle”, because of what they have to say about the times we are living in.

Toast

• Matt had a morning mug of coffee.
• Andrew had a cup of coffee.
• David was drinking a Best Day Brewing Kölsch.
• Dr. Ditchfield-Lazo also had a cup of coffee.

• They toasted Patreon supporter, Cole Parker:

As we go through the series, may the content draw you further up and further in!

Patreon Toast

Discussion

01. “The story so far…”

Discovering a lion’s skin, Shift the Ape convinces Puzzle the Donkey to pretend to be Aslan. Three weeks later, King Tirian and Jewel are brought before the Ape as prisoners. Tirian spends the night tied to a tree and he cries out for help. Eustace and Jill arrive and free him, and eventually Jewel and Puzzle as well. A group of dwarfs descend into cynicism after seeing Puzzle, with only one of them, Poggin, joining the King. Witnessing the Calormen god Tash enter Narnia, they plan to meet another Narnian army, only to discover Cair Paravel taken by the Calormen.

One Hundred Word Summary of “The Last Battle,” Part I

02. “…”

• The last episode ended on quite a dark note! Here is how Jewel responds after hearing of the invasion of Cair Paravel, and the death of Roonwit the centaur…

“There is now no need of counsel. We see that the Ape’s plans were laid deeper than we dreamed. Doubtless he has been long in secret traffic with the Tisroc, and as soon as he had found the lionskin, he sent him word to make ready his navy for the taking of Cair Paravel and all Narnia.”

C. S. Lewis, Jewel, The Last Battle, The Great Meeting of Stable Hill

• Q. Do you think Jewel is right?

• This reminded David of the invasion of Narnia in “The Horse and His Boy”, though it was of a different kind.
• The book does seem to have little spurts of hope, only to have them dampened by more darkness. It sharpens the longing in the heart for a newer, better world. This reminded Andrew of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians…

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.

2 Corinthians 4:16

• Likewise, this theme reminded Matt of “The Screwtape Letters”. The entire book is darkness, plotting and grit, only to end in the victory of the good. He also recalled a line from Lewis’ “Latin Letters”, as he is overcome with tranquility.

• With such a dire situation, the group talks about what they might do. Jewel offers a grim plan:

Nothing now remains for us seven but to go back to Stable Hill, proclaim the truth, and take the adventure that Aslan sends us. And if, by a great marvel, we defeat those thirty Calormenes who are with the Ape, then to turn again and die in battle with the far greater host of them that will soon march from Cair Paravel.

C. S. Lewis, Jewel, The Last Battle, The Great Meeting of Stable Hill

• Tirian tries to send the children back and they refuse. So, they decide to follow Jewel’s plan to go to Stable Hill.

• Q. What do you think of their plan?

• Matt saw that displayed here is a deep surrender to Aslan, and a respect for one’s mortality, a theme taken from “Out of the Silent Planet”.
• This concept reminded Dr. Lazo of 2 Corinthians…

For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.

2 Corinthians 4:11

• Coincidentally, as the group heads towards Stable Hill, Eustace and Jill have a conversation about death and its relationship to them in Narnia and our world.

“I was going to say I wished we’d never come. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t. Even if we are killed. I’d rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home and perhaps go about in a bathchair and then die in the end just the same.”

“Or be smashed up by British Railways!”

“Why d’you say that?”

“Well when that awful jerk came—the one that seemed to throw us into Narnia—I thought it was the beginning of a railway accident. So I was jolly glad to find ourselves here instead.”

C. S. Lewis, Eustace and Jill, The Last Battle, The Great Meeting of Stable Hill

• Q. Matt, did you have any suspicion about what had happened to them?

• Matt did not understand what was going on.
• Lewis most likely based the railway accident on a real life event. This event is used in “The Inkwell Chronicles” series. David had a conversation with author J. D. Peabody; to listen to their full conversation, click here.

• They arrive at Stable Hill, Tirian demonstrates his sleeping ability once again to sleep whenever possible! As the light falls, Rishda Tarkaan, Ginger the cat and a very hung-over Shift arrive. What yarn will they spin now?

“At this very moment, when the Terrible One himself is among us—there in the stable just behind me—one wicked Beast has chosen to do what you’d think no one would dare to do even if He were a thousand miles away. It has dressed itself up in a lionskin and is wandering about in these very woods pretending to be Aslan.”

C. S. Lewis, Shift, The Last Battle, The Great Meeting of Stable Hill

• The cleverness of Shift reminded Matt of “The Return of the Prodigal Son”. When the world tells you a false thing, you have to fight the voice, no matter how enticing it is.

• Lewis understands that these books are often being read as bedtime stories. As such, he uses analogies that pull children out of their fear, and relate it to something that they know.

The bonfire had not been lit for long and was just beginning to blaze up. It was only a few feet away from them, and the great crowd of Narnian creatures were on the other side of it, so that Tirian could not at first see them very well, though of course he saw dozens of eyes shining with the reflection of the fire, as you’ve seen a rabbit’s or cat’s eyes in the headlights of a car.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, The Great Meeting on Stable Hill

03. “Who Will Go into the Stable?”

• Obviously, hearing what the Ape has said, Jill immediately goes and removes the lion skin from Puzzle. The Ape says that Aslan (I mean “Tashlan”) is angrier than ever:

“He says he’s been a great deal too good to you, coming out every night to be looked at, see! Well, he’s not coming out any more.”

C. S. Lewis, Shift, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• The dwarfs immediately start mocking the Ape, suggesting that he’s lost his lion, but the Ape comes back with a very dark response:

“You Dwarfs think you’re very clever, don’t you? But not so fast. I never said you couldn’t see Tashlan. Anyone who likes, can see him… But he’s not coming out. You have to go in and see him… Anyone can go in,” he said. “But, one at a time. Who’ll go first? He didn’t say he was feeling very kind. He’s been licking his lips a lot since he swallowed up the wicked King the other night. He’s been growling a good deal this morning. I wouldn’t much like to go into that Stable myself tonight. But just as you please. Who’d like to go in first? Don’t blame me if he swallows you whole or blasts you into a cinder with the mere terror of his eyes. That’s your affair. Now then! Who’s first? What about one of you Dwarfs?”

C. S. Lewis, Shift, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• Once again the dwarfs see through the plan. While there isn’t a lion or a donkey in the stable any more, that doesn’t mean that something dangerous hasn’t taken its place…But then Ginger volunteers to go in!

• Q. What was meant to happen and what actually takes place?
• Everyone gathered thinks that it is a rouse, but it is not.
• Ginger encounters the god that he has been calling on (Tash), and does not believe.

• The cat was going to say what he was told to say…

“Mark their subtleties, Sire,” said Poggin to the King. “This curst cat is in the plot, in the very centre of it. Whatever is in the Stable will not hurt him, I’ll be bound. Then Ginger will come out again and say that he has seen some wonder.”

C. S. Lewis, Poggin, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• …but something goes wrong…

“Aii-aii-aouwee!——” The most horrible caterwaul you ever heard made everyone jump. You have been wakened yourself by cats quarrelling or making love on the roof in the middle of the night: you know the sound…

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• …and Ginger has lost the ability to speak…

“Look, look!” said the voice of the Boar. “It can’t talk. It has forgotten how to talk! It has gone back to being a dumb beast. Look at its face.” Everyone saw that it was true. And then the greatest terror of all fell upon those Narnians. For every one of them had been taught—when it was only a chick or a puppy or a cub—how Aslan at the beginning of the world had turned the beasts of Narnia into Talking Beasts and warned them that if they weren’t good they might one day be turned back again and be like the poor witless animals one meets in other countries. “And now it is coming upon us,” they moaned.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• This is a real point of fear, losing sentience. It is a sign that something really bad has happened spiritually.
• Dr. Lazo pointed out that the dwarves might have discernment, but they watch as cynics. This reminded David of a quote from “The Abolition of Man”…

You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.

C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

• Andrew recorded one of the season closing episodes for the Lesser-Known Lewis Podcast on the essay “Meditation in a Toolshed”, found in the book “God in the Dock“. Click here to give it a listen.
• Now we’re introduced to Emeth, one of the Calormen. He wants to go into the stable (since Aslan and Tash are the same). He argues with his father, Rishda Tarkaan, until he allows him.

Then, just as Ginger had done, Emeth came walking forward into the open strip of grass between the bonfire and the Stable. His eyes were shining, his face very solemn, his hand was on his sword-hilt, and he carried his head high. Jill felt like crying when she looked at his face. And Jewel whispered in the King’s ear, “By the Lion’s Mane, I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though he be. He is worthy of a better god than Tash.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• After Emeth goes in, a Calormen falls through the doorway as though dead… but though the other Narnians cant tell, it is not Emeth.
• Shift sends the Calormen to try and drag Narnians into the stable Here, Tirian and the others jump out…

“Here stand I, Tirian of Narnia, in Aslan’s name, to prove with my body that Tash is a foul fiend, the Ape, a manifold traitor, and these Calormenes, worthy of death. To my side, all true Narnians. Would you wait till your new masters have killed you all one by one?”

C. S. Lewis, Tirian, The Last Battle, Who Will Go into the Stable?

• The scene, reminded Andrew of Aragorn and Boromir in “The Fellowship of the Ring”; even though the line of kings has lessened, there still remains a noble blood within them, as with Tirian here.
• The chapter made Dr. Lazo recall

 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the sufferings. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.”

Matthew 24:7-14

04. “The Pace Quickens”

• Tirians actions create a massive split. Some of the Narnians join him, but others join the Calormen, and some even sit on the fence. Tirian takes hold of the ape and tosses him into the stable. But the result is dramatically different…

…as the Dwarf banged the door shut again, a blinding greenish-blue light shone out from the inside of the Stable, the earth shook, and there was a strange noise—a clucking and screaming as if it was the hoarse voice of some monstrous bird.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, The Pace Quickens

• All of the talking dogs take Tirian’s side, and the mice fetch the horses. But many don’t move. The armies face off, and the battle begins…

Three dogs were killed and a fourth was hobbling behind the line on three legs and whimpering. The Bear lay on the ground, moving feebly. Then it mumbled in its throaty voice, bewildered to the last, “I—I don’t——understand,” laid its big head down on the grass as quietly as a child going to sleep, and never moved again.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, The Pace Quickens

• Lewis is likely drawing on his own experiences on the battlefield in France.

• Because Tirian had the upper hand, the dwarfs start mocking the Calomen:

“Had enough, Darkies?” they yelled. “Don’t you like it? Why doesn’t your great Tarkaan go and fight himself instead of sending you to be killed? Poor Darkies!”

“Dwarfs,” cried Tirian. “Come here and use your swords, not your tongues. There is still time. Dwarfs of Narnia! You can fight well, I know. Come back to your allegiance.”

“Yah!” sneered the Dwarfs. “Not likely. You’re just as big humbugs as the other lot. We don’t want any Kings. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs. Boo!”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, The Pace Quickens

• The Calormen start hitting a drum, calling for reinforcements, but then…

With a thunder of hoofs, with tossing heads, widened nostrils, and waving manes, over a score of Talking Horses of Narnia came charging up the hill. The gnawers and nibblers had done their work. Poggin the Dwarf and the children opened their mouths to cheer but that cheer never came. Suddenly the air was full of the sound of twanging bow-strings and hissing arrows. It was the Dwarfs who were shooting and—for a moment Jill could hardly believe her eyes—they were shooting the Horses. Dwarfs are deadly archers. Horse after horse rolled over. Not one of those noble Beasts ever reached the King.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, The Pace Quickens

• The two sides come to a head again, but the Calormen’s reinforcements arrive. Tirian is forced into a retreat.

• Matt was reminded of his favourite book, “He Leadeth Me”. Fr. Ciszek felt a vocational calling, but things did not go the way that he expected.
• Dr. Lazo thought of Hebrews, as some received good earthly rewards, while others perished.

And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated— of whom the world was not worthy—wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Hebrews 11:29-40

For His anger endureth but a moment, and in His favor is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

Psalm 30:5

• Andrew recalls “The Great Divorce”, where Lewis portrays humans of every disposition and need, while showing how they need to overcome their sin and pursue the higher good. The characters are like the Dwarfs, who say ‘yes’ to themselves.
• Lewis was once asked whether fairytales were too dark for children. In an essay called “On Fairy Stories”, he said:

“Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker…Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book”

C. S. Lewis, On Fairy Stories

05. “Through the Stable Door”

• Things go from bad to worse. Eustace is snatched up and thrown into the stable.
• Once the Dwarfs have finished off the horses, they start shooting the Calormen.

Whatever else you may say about Dwarfs, no one can say they aren’t brave. They could easily have got away to some safe place. They preferred to stay and kill as many of both sides as they could, except when both sides were kind enough to save them trouble by killing one another. They wanted Narnia for their own.

…Rishda Tarkaan’s voice cried out: “Thirty of you keep watch on those fools by the white rock. The rest, after me, that we may teach these sons of earth a lesson.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Through the Stable Door

• The Calormen overcome the dwarfs , capturing several and tossing them into the stable as well.
• There’s then a really poignant moment from Poggin:

“I feel in my bones,” said Poggin, “that we shall all, one by one, pass through that dark door before morning. I can think of a hundred deaths I would rather have died.”

“It is indeed a grim door,” said Tirian. “It is more like a mouth.”

“Oh, can’t we do anything to stop it?” said Jill in a shaken voice.

“Nay, fair friend,” said Jewel, nosing her gently. “It may be for us the door to Aslan’s country and we shall sup at his table tonight.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Through the Stable Door

And He said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Luke 23:43

• The king engages the Calormen again. Tirian draws near to the stable and, as he’s fighting the Tarkaan, he grabs him and pulls him in.

“Come in and meet Tash yourself!”

There was a deafening noise. As when the Ape had been flung in, the earth shook and there was a blinding light.

The Calormene soldiers outside screamed, “Tash, Tash!” and banged the door. If Tash wanted their own Captain, Tash must have him. They, at any rate, did not want to meet Tash.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Through the Stable Door

• The reader then follows Tirian and the Tarkaan into the stable. There is an important dichotomy. As Tirian goes through the door, he enters a place of light. However, the Tarkaan sees Tash…

With a sudden jerk—like a hen stooping to pick up a worm—Tash pounced on the miserable Rishda and tucked him under the upper of his two left arms. Then Tash turned his head sidewise to fix Tirian with one of his terrible eyes: for of course, having a bird’s head, he couldn’t look at you straight.

But immediately, from behind Tash, strong and calm as the summer sea, a voice said:

“Begone, Monster, and take your lawful prey to your own place: in the name of Aslan and Aslan’s great Father, the Emperor-over-sea.”

The hideous creature vanished, with the Tarkaan still under its arm. And Tirian turned to see who had spoken. And what he saw then set his heart beating as it had never beaten in any fight.

Seven Kings and Queens stood before him, all with crowns on their heads and all in glittering clothes, but the Kings wore fine mail as well and had their swords drawn in their hands. Tirian bowed courteously and was about to speak when the youngest of the Queens laughed.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Through the Stable Door

• One of the queens is Jill. One of the kings is Eustace. They’ve been transformed, and Tirian likewise. They introduce him to the friends of Narnia.

• The royals in order are: Tirian, Peter, Polly, Diggory, Edmund, Lucy, Jill, and Eustace.
• It is like the communion of saints.

• The following scene is one of the more controversial: the fate of Susan.

“Sir,” said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. “If I have read the chronicles aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?”

“My sister Susan,” answered Peter shortly and gravely, “is no longer a friend of Narnia.”

“Yes,” said Eustace, “and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'”

“Oh Susan!” said Jill, “she’s interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.”

“Grown-up, indeed,” said the Lady Polly. “I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Through the Stable Door

• There is an episode dedicated to this scene, S5E45 – “Sexism and Racism in Narnia”, After Hours with Dr. Devin Brown. David also recently interviewed Kat Coffin about this particular scene.

Matt recalled Lewis’ quote about growing into adulthood…

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C. S. Lewis

• Dr. Lazo recalls a note from Lewis that was written to a concerned child…

The books don’t tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at the end, having by then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there is plenty of time for her to mend, and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s country in the end – in her own way.

C. S. Lewis, Letters to Children

• Polly’s remarks reminded Andrew of the dedication of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, where Lewis says to his Goddaughter…

My Dear Lucy,
        I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say but I shall still be

        Your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis, Dedication to Lucy Barfield, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

• The chapter comes to a close with the friends of Narnia drawing near to a group of fruit trees.

06. “How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In”

• The friends of Narnia go to pluck the fruit, but second guess themselves.
• What do you make of Peter’s comment that “I’ve a feeling we’ve got to the country where everything is allowed,”? One can read more about this concept in our post about “The Great Divorce” in The Genius of C. S. Lewis: The Great Divorce.
• It is a proper sense of who we are in light of God.

• The kings and queens speak of how they arrived in the new land.

[Edmund said] “It wasn’t at all like that other time when we were pulled out of our own world by Magic. There was a frightful roar and something hit me with a bang, but it didn’t hurt. And I felt not so much scared as—well, excited. Oh—and this is one queer thing. I’d had a rather sore knee, from a hack at rugger [ruby]. I noticed it had suddenly gone. And I felt very light. And then—here we were.”

“It was much the same for us in the railway carriage,” said the Lord Digory, wiping the last traces of the fruit from his golden beard. “Only I think you and I, Polly, chiefly felt that we’d been unstiffened. You youngsters won’t understand. But we stopped feeling old.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• Tirian turns his attention to the Stable door. In what way is it rather like Doctor Who’s Tardis?

“It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.”

“Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.”

“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” It was the first time she had spoken, and from the thrill in her voice Tirian now knew why. She was drinking everything in more deeply than the others. She had been too happy to speak.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• Dr. Lazo noted Lucy’s Marian response to Heaven.

But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Luke 2:19

• Lucy tells what has happened on their side of the stable door since arriving, how the door opened and a Calormen sentry stood there with his sword, ready to cut down anyone who came through. They tried to talk to him, but he was blind to their presence.
• The door swings open and the sentry looks to see who opened it, but then Tash suddenly appeared and pounced at the Ginger cat. The sentry turned pale and bowed before the monster. Then Tash disappeared. 
• Lucy then describes the appearance of Emeth:

At last the door opened for the third time and there came in a young Calormene. I liked him. The sentinel at the door started, and looked very surprised, when he saw him. I think he’d been expecting someone quite different…

…They had a fight. He killed the sentry and flung him outside the door. Then he came walking slowly forward to where we were. He could see us, and everything else. We tried to talk to him but he was rather like a man in a trance. He kept on saying, ‘Tash, Tash, where is Tash? I go to Tash.’ So we gave it up and he went away somewhere—over there. I liked him. And after that … ugh!” Lucy made a face.

“After that,” said Edmund, “someone flung a monkey through the door. And Tash was there again. My sister is so tender-hearted she doesn’t like to tell you that Tash made one peck and the Monkey was gone!”

…And after that,” said Edmund, “came about a dozen Dwarfs: and then Jill, and Eustace, and last of all yourself.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• The royals visit the dwarfs to attempt to convince them that they’re not in the stable any longer, but are unsuccessful. Just then…

… the earth trembled. The sweet air grew suddenly sweeter. A brightness flashed behind them. All turned. Tirian turned last because he was afraid. There stood his heart’s desire, huge and real, the golden Lion, Aslan himself, and already the others were kneeling in a circle round his forepaws and burying their hands and faces in his mane as he stooped his great head to touch them with his tongue. Then he fixed his eyes upon Tirian, and Tirian came near, trembling, and flung himself at the Lion’s feet, and the Lion kissed him and said, “Well done, last of the Kings of Narnia who stood firm at the darkest hour.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• This might be the latest that Aslan has ever appeared in the Chronicles.
• David referenced Doubting Thomas, and how Tirian held his faith despite never seeing Aslan…

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

John 20:29

• Andrew went back to Lucy’s imploring to visit the unbelieving Dwarfs:

“I hope Tash ate the Dwarfs too,” said Eustace. “Little swine.”

“No, he didn’t,” said Lucy. “And don’t be horrid. They’re still here. In fact you can see them from here. And I’ve tried and tried to make friends with them but it’s no use.”

“Friends with them!” cried Eustace. “If you knew how those Dwarfs have been behaving!”

“Oh stop it, Eustace,” said Lucy. “Do come and see them. King Tirian, perhaps you could do something with them.”

“I can feel no great love for Dwarfs today,” said Tirian. “Yet at your asking, Lady, I would do a greater thing than this.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• When Aslan arrives, Lucy asks Aslan to help the Dwarfs…

“Aslan,” said Lucy through her tears, “could you – will you – do something for these poor Dwarfs?”

“Dearest,” said Aslan, “I will show you both what I can, and what I cannot, do.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• Dr. Ditchfield-Lazo unveiled the many scripture references buried in this chapter…

“This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says:

‘You shall indeed hear but never understand,
    and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
    and their ears are heavy of hearing,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should perceive with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
    and turn for me to heal them.’”

Jesus Christ, Matthew 13:13

Hell begins with a grumbling mood, always complaining, always blaming others… but you are still distinct from it. You may even criticize it in yourself and wish you could stop it. But there may come a day when you can no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood or even to enjoy it, but just the grumble itself, going on forever like a machine. It is not a question of God “sending us” to hell. In each of us there is something growing, which will BE hell unless it is nipped in the bud. 

C. S. Lewis

• This seems to be the case with the Dwarfs, because Lucy asks Aslan him to help, but when Aslan provides them with good things, the Dwarfs refuse to be taken in, ending in a quarrelling mess over food.

“You see,” said Aslan. “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they can not be taken out…”

C. S. Lewis, Aslan, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

• Andrew turned to “The Great Divorce” again, because, like the Dwarfs, most of the characters refuse to be guided into Heaven. A similar thing happens in “Till We Have Faces”, where Orual is granted vision to see the love that is before her, after she humbles herself, and falls silent, like Lucy in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. She is overwhelmed with love.
• Matt remembered a sobering thought that Lewis wrote down in his Latin Letters…

Is it not a frightening thought that the free will of a bad man can resist the will of God? For He has, after a fashion, restricted His own Omnipotence by the very fact of creating free creatures.

C. S. Lewis, The Latin Letters

• One of Dr. Ditchfield-Lazo’s brothers invited the family to read through “The Screwtape Letters”. We do not see the full picture until we are beyond the veil.

• The chapter ends with the group going to the door…

[Aslan] raised his head and roared “Now it is time!” then louder “Time!”; then so loud that it could have shaken the stars, “TIME.” The Door flew open.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken In

07. “Night Falls on Narnia”

Father time awakes. Aslan says these cryptic words:

“Yes,” said Aslan, though they had not spoken. “While he lay dreaming his name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Night Falls on Narnia

• Time’s new name is Eternity. Andrew noted that this is a reference to Greek and Roman mythology and the god Kronos, which gives way to Zeus or Jupiter. This is pulled from Michael Ward’s “Planet Narnia”.

• Aslan calls the stars home, and they all fall from the sky. Creatures of every sort appear and gather near to Aslan…

…as they came right up to Aslan one or other of two things happened to each of them. They all looked straight in his face; I don’t think they had any choice about that. And when some looked, the expression of their faces changed terribly—it was fear and hatred: except that, on the faces of Talking Beasts, the fear and hatred lasted only for a fraction of a second. You could see that they suddenly ceased to be Talking Beasts. They were just ordinary animals. And all the creatures who looked at Aslan in that way swerved to their right, his left, and disappeared into his huge black shadow, which (as you have heard) streamed away to the left of the doorway. The children never saw them again. I don’t know what became of them. But the others looked in the face of Aslan and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Aslan’s right. There were some queer specimens among them. Eustace even recognised one of those very Dwarfs who had helped to shoot the Horses. But he had no time to wonder about that sort of thing (and anyway it was no business of his) for a great joy put everything else out of his head. Among the happy creatures who now came crowding round Tirian and his friends were all those whom they had thought dead. There was Roonwit the Centaur and Jewel the Unicorn, and the good Boar and the good Bear and Farsight the Eagle, and the dear Dogs and the Horses, and Poggin the Dwarf.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Night Falls on Narnia

• At the end of “Till We Have Faces”, Oraul writes:

“I know now, Lord, why you utter now answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice? Only words, words; to be led out to battle against other words. Long did I hate you, long did I fear you.”

C. S. Lewis, Oraul, Till We Have Faces

• The God of love had been calling to her, and she finally surrendered, saying “yes” to love, just like the soul with the lizard of lust in “The Great Divorce”. Lewis clearly has love on his mind, as he also contemplates these things in “Surprised by Joy” and “The Four Loves”.

• We’re told that Dragons and Giant Lizards started to tear apart Narnia. Floods come and the sun dies; it’s squeezed like an orange.

“Peter, High King of Narnia,” said Aslan. “Shut the Door.”

Peter, shivering with cold, leaned out into the darkness and pulled the Door to. It scraped over ice as he pulled it. Then, rather clumsily (for even in that moment his hands had gone numb and blue) he took out a golden key and locked it.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Night Falls on Narnia

• Lucy weeps for Narnia and this shocks Peter.

“So,” said Peter, “Night falls on Narnia. What, Lucy! You’re not crying? With Aslan ahead, and all of us here?”

“Don’t try to stop me, Peter,” said Lucy, “I am sure Aslan would not. I am sure it is not wrong to mourn for Narnia. Think of all that lies dead and frozen behind that door.”

“Yes and I did hope,” said Jill, “that it might go on for ever. I knew our world couldn’t. I did think Narnia might.”

“I saw it begin,” said the Lord Digory. “I did not think I would live to see it die.”

“Sirs,” said Tirian. “The ladies do well to weep. See I do so myself. I have seen my mother’s death. What world but Narnia have I ever known? It were no virtue, but great discourtesy, if we did not mourn.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Night Falls on Narnia

• This scene is reminiscent of “Letters to an American Lady”…

By the way, don’t ‘weep inwardly’ and get a sore throat. If you must weep, weep: a good honest howl!

C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

• Jesus himself found it more than appropriate at times to cry. This occured at the grave of his friend Lazarus.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 

John 11:33-37

• St. Paul tells Christians not to mourn like others, but he does not say not to mourn.

But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13

• Next in the tale, the group meets Emeth…

“Sir,” he said to Peter, “I know not whether you are my friend or my foe, but I should count it my honour to have you for either. Has not one of the poets said that a noble friend is the best gift and a noble enemy the next best?”

“Sir,” said Peter, “I do not know that there need be any war between you and us.”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Night Falls on Narnia

• Then Emeth begins to tell them his story…

08. “Further Up and Further In”

• Emeth begins the chapter with recounting his timeline of events:

Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of Thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.

C. S. Lewis, Emeth, The Last Battle, Further Up and Further In

• David stated that Lewis goes into this topic with more depth in “Mere Christianity”. David and Matt discussed this in an episode all the way back in Season One, called “Nice People or New Men?”.

• The group runs into a renewed Puzzle the donkey and they begin travelling westward to constant cries of “Further up and further in!” They are trying to figure out just where exactly they are. It’s basically Platonism, as suggested by Professor Diggory.

“The Eagle is right,” said the Lord Digory. “Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different; as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from a dream.” His voice stirred everyone like a trumpet as he spoke these words: but when he added under his breath “It’s all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!”

It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed and then cried:

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-hee-hee! Come further up, come further in!”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Further Up and Further In

• Matt discussed Platonism with Dr. Louis Marko in an After Hours episode.

09. “Farewell to the Shadowlands”

• And now we come to the final chapter of The Last Battle. “Don’t stop! Further up and further in”, the voices encourage.
• Lucy realises that there are a few impossible things in this new place…

 “Have you noticed one can’t feel afraid, even if one wants to? Try it.”

C. S. Lewis, Lucy, The Last Battle, Farewell to the Shadowlands

• Their joy increases further with their next meetings…

…a great horn, wonderfully loud and sweet, blew from somewhere inside that walled garden and the gates swung open.

Tirian stood holding his breath and wondering who would come out. And what came out was the last thing he had expected: a little, sleek, bright-eyed Talking Mouse with a red feather stuck in a circlet on its head and its left paw resting on a long sword. It bowed, a most beautiful bow, and said in its shrill voice:

“Welcome, in the Lion’s name. Come further up and further in.”

Then Tirian saw King Peter and King Edmund and Queen Lucy rush forward to kneel down and greet the Mouse and they all cried out, “Reepicheep!”

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Farewell to the Shadowlands

• In turn, Tirian meets his father, the group runs into Fledge the flying horse, and the Pevensie children see their parents. this new country is a new Narnia, Tashbaan, and England, all rolled up into one!

• Then, we come to the final words of the book:

“You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be.”

Lucy said, “We’re so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often.”

“No fear of that,” said Aslan. “Have you not guessed?”

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.

“There was a real railway accident,” said Aslan softly. “Your father and mother and all of you are—as you used to call it in the Shadow-Lands—dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Farewell to the Shadowlands

• What a glorious picture of Heaven.

Wrap-Up

Concluding Thoughts

• C. S. Lewis wrote in a letter to Ruth Pitter taht the Narnia series was regrettably over. ut he gave her some parting advice:

If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you will always do so.

C. S. Lewis, Letter to Ruth Pitter

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