The Chronicles of Narnia

Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, 1956.

This is the last book in The Chronicles of Narnia series, and this is the book that shows the final days of the land of Narnia.

In Narnia, a wily old ape called Shift lives with a donkey called Puzzle. Shift is more clever than Puzzle and often tricks Puzzle into doing all his work for him. One day, they find an old lion skin in a pool. They think that it probably belonged to a non-talking lion that a hunter killed, but talking animals still show respect to lions because of Aslan. Puzzle thinks they should give the old lion skin a decent burial, but Shift says that he will use the lion skin to make a winter coat for Puzzle. Puzzle doesn’t think that sounds like a good idea because he wouldn’t like to have people thinking that he was trying to look like Aslan. Shift says that sounds like nonsense and makes the lion skin into a coat for Puzzle. Of course, sly Shift has a more diabolical plan in mind.

When Puzzle tries the coat on, he does look like a lion. Shift says that Puzzle looks like Aslan, and if people saw him, he could tell them what to do, and everyone would do it. Puzzle is alarmed at the idea, but Shift insists that Puzzle pretend to be Alsan with him advising him about what to say. Puzzle worries that Aslan would be angry, but Shift isn’t concerned because Aslan hasn’t appeared for a long time. At that moment, there is a thunder clap and a small earthquake. Puzzle is convinced that’s a warning sign from Aslan, but Shift tries to convince Puzzle that it’s actually a sign of approval.

The last king of Narnia is King Tirian. He is a young man, and he has a unicorn friend named Jewel. Word has reached him that Aslan has reappeared in the land, and he is very excited. A centaur wants him that this story much be false because the centaurs study the stars and have not seen the signs that should precede Aslan’s arrival. He is sure that the story about Aslan appearing is an evil lie. Jewel says that it’s difficult to say because Aslan is known to not be a tame lion, and that would make him unpredictable.

Before they reach any conclusions, a dryad stumbles toward them, wailing because the talking trees are being cut down, and her kind are dying. She falls dead at their feet because her own tree is cut down in the forest. The king is appalled and horrified! He insists that he and Jewel immediately go to the forest and find out what is happening and put a stop to it. The centaur urges caution, but the king doesn’t want to wait, telling the centaur to return to Cair Paravel to assemble his troops and follow him to the forest.

When King Tirian and Jewel come to a river, they are horrified to see a river rat with a newly-built raft, floating logs down the river. The king demands to know what he’s doing and by whose authority. The river rat says that he’s taking the logs to sell in another kingdom and that he’s doing it because Aslan the lion commanded it. King Tirian and Jewel find that alarming and difficult to believe, so they continue on to the forest. There, they see men from another country, known to be cruel, chopping down trees. They have also enslaved talking horses to help them. When the king and Jewel witness a couple of men abusing a horse, they kill them on the spot. They ask the horse how he was taken captive, and the horse says that it was at the command of Aslan.

The other men and talking animals realize that the king and Jewel have killed two of their people and turn on them. The king jumps on Jewel, and they run away, but they feel guilty about the men they killed. King Tirian realizes that this impulsive killing was murder because they had not needed to defend themselves. They also worry about whether they have violated Aslan’s command. They are not sure whether the Aslan who commanded these terrible deeds is the real Aslan. None of what has happened sounds like anything Aslan would want to happen, but Aslan is known to be wild and unpredictable, so they can’t be sure. What if they have become sinners for interfering with some grand plan of Aslan’s? Although they are afraid and feel guilty, they decide that the only thing they can do is surrender themselves to the horrible band and ask to be taken before Aslan, both to see if this Aslan is the real Aslan, and if necessary, submit themselves for punishment for killing the men, even if it means their lives.

When they are captured by the men, they are taken before Shift the ape. Shift has dressed himself as a king with a paper crown, and he tells everyone that he’s a human, just that he looks like an ape because he’s very old. He refuses to let anyone see Aslan up close, saying that he will deliver any messages Aslan has for them. He threatens the other animals with dire consequences if they don’t obey all of “Alsan’s” commands. He says that Aslan will turn the country into something amazing with lots of oranges and bananas (the things Shift wants more than anything) and roads and whips and kennels. The other animals try to say that they don’t want all those things, but Shift says that they should want what Aslan wants. A small lamb wants to know why they have to work with the men of the other nation when they know that they worship a different god, one who requires human sacrifices, instead of Aslan. Shift tells the lamb he’s stupid and these other people worship Aslan as well, just under a different name. Some of the animals are fooled by this logic, but others protest. Shift has a cat who protests taken away.

The mice are nice to the captive King Tirian, bringing him food and water. They want to help him, but they are afraid to help him too much because they are afraid of opposing Aslan. King Tirian asks them if it is the real Aslan, and the mice think it is. They say that “Aslan” is in the stable. As King Tirian watches “Alsan” appear by a bonfire on the hill, he notices that the “lion” doesn’t move like a lion should, and when he thinks about what the ape said about Alsan being the same as the cruel god who wants sacrifices, he sees through the fraud. He thinks about the past king and queens of Narnia and calls out to the Pevensies to return to Narnia and help him. To his surprise, he has a vision of the Pevensies at a dinner table, and he realizes that they can see him. The High King Peter calls out to him to speak, but then, the vision fades. Still, he has managed to let the Pevensies know that Narnia is in danger and needs them one more time.

The next morning, a strange boy and girl appear before him, and he recognizes them from his vision because they were at dinner with the Pevensies. The boy is the Pevensies’ cousin, Eustace, and his friend, Jill. Eustace and Jill untie King Tirian and help him escape. When they are safe, Eustace and Jill explain some things about their past adventures. King Tirian recognizes them as the children who rescued an ancestor of his. They also explain to him about the magic rings (which were introduced in The Magician’s Nephew and which they retrieved in his book). They were going to use the rings to reach King Tirian in Narnia, but they were on a train on their way to reach them when they felt a terrible jerk and suddenly found themselves in Narnia anyway.

With the past saviors of Narnia on his side, King Tirian recruits them to help him save Jewel. Jill finds Puzzle in the stable with the lion skin tied to him. She thinks that’s hilarious, but she convinces Puzzle to come with her. At first, King Tirian wants to kill Puzzle for his deception, but Jill persuades him not to because this situation isn’t Puzzle’s fault. Puzzle explains how Shift convinced him that Aslan wanted him to do this, and he says that he doesn’t know much about what’s been happening lately because Shift doesn’t let him out of the stable much. King Tirian agrees to spare Puzzle, and he is sure that many people will change their minds about Shift and what he’s been doing once they see Puzzle in his lion disguise.

King Tirian and the others begin showing Puzzle to everyone and explaining how Shift lied to them and tricked them. Some of the dwarfs find Puzzle as laughable as Jill did, but the humans from the cruel country are angry and fight them. They end up having to kill one of them. Some of the dwarfs disbelieve King Tirian and the children. The dwarfs explain that, yes, they see that the ape’s story about Aslan was a lie, but since they’ve been fooled once already, they’re not prepared to believe anybody else about anything. They don’t want to believe that King Tirian serves the real Aslan or that the real Aslan sent the children to Narnia to help. They don’t want to hear anything more about Aslan being real from anyone, and after the ape king, they don’t want anymore kings of any kind. They know that they were used by the ape, but what’s to say that King Tirian didn’t rescue them from the ape just to use them for some selfish purpose of his own. Having been fools once, they don’t want to risk being fools again by believing in anyone or anything else again. King Tirian and his allies realize that one fake Aslan, even one that was such an obvious fake, has damaged everyone’s faith in the real one because the fraud damaged everyone’s trust. The dwarfs say that they will now be entirely for themselves first and won’t listen to anyone else.

King Tirian thought that once people saw the truth, they would go back to being the way they were before, but he had underestimated the ways people can react when they find out they’ve been tricked. Not everyone will agree that they’ve been tricked, even when presented evidence, and even those who agree that they’ve been tricked may not have faith in the people telling them the truth. Also, now that the ape’s ruse has been exposed, others have seen how trickery can help them gain power and influence over others. Before King Tirian and his friends can tell others about the fake Aslan, Shift’s cronies start spreading their own fake stories about King Tirian and Aslan. Shift accuses Puzzle of being the deceiver because he’s the one who is wearing the lion skin, and it’s difficult to prove that Shift was the one who started all this in the first place. (What’s the best way to survive a witch hunt? Be the one who starts it. Bonus points if you can accuse other people of starting it later and blame them for victimizing you.) When King Tirian and the children try to tell people the truth, they’ve already heard so many lies and conflicting stories, many either aren’t convinced of the truth or are just so confused that they don’t know what to think. Some people realize that Shift has been playing them with the entire time and turn against him, while others still listen to Shift’s explanations and try to follow the convoluted logic and the scary things he promises them if they refuse to listen to them. Some people ally with King Tirian, while others stay loyal to Shift and his cronies, and others don’t want to trust either side and prefer to just try to look out for themselves.

When news reaches them that their enemies have already taken Cair Paravel and killed everyone there, they realize that the end of Narnia is close at hand. There is only one thing left to do: face down the enemy in a final battle for truth and the very souls of Narnia.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

I was not looking forward to this book because I don’t like apocalyptic stories, and it was difficult for me to get through. I knew that this story would be about the end of Narnia, and in the Biblical tradition, the end of Narnia’s days are full of horrible things. It’s depressing to go into a story knowing that horrible things are going to happen, followed by the end of the world, at least a world that we’ve come to like through the other books in the series. I also knew that most of the characters we’ve come to know and love get killed in this story. Still, I decided to suffer through the story just to finish off the series and discuss my feelings about it.

It is also important to realize that the last battle of Narnia isn’t really about armies facing each other so much as the battle for truth against falseness, a subject of much debate in real life. Readers of this story are in on the objective truth of the situation along with our main characters, and they see how their enemies play tricks with lies and half-truths to manipulate other people. Their aim is to confuse people so they don’t know what to think, and then, everyone will follow them because they act like they are certain they are on the side of right. People who are insecure and uncertain in themselves will follow people who act confident, regardless of whether that confidence is real or deserved or not. That is the major theme that runs through the entire book. I think it’s an important lesson, but one that also makes me angry because I have seen people doing these things in real life, especially in recent years. I don’t really think that the end of our world is immediately at hand, although I’ve seen some people speculating about that because of things that have been happening.

Life is Unpredictable, and So Is History When You Live It

I was truck by the scene with Tirian remembering past glories of Narnia and its rulers, when there were bad times, but things went right in the end. He thinks how things like that don’t happen anymore, and it seems like there is no happy ending to this story. It reminds me of people who feel nostalgic and patriotic about things like World War II, when the Allied nations united and defeated a great evil and how it seemed like all of society agreed on the vision of victory and achieved it. Some people now, in the 21st century, almost seem like they wish they could return to those days. The only reason why those times provide any comfort now is because we are looking at them in hindsight.

We know what eventually happened and that the world wasn’t destroyed, but the people who actually lived during those times didn’t know that. They had no guarantees that they were going to survive, many of them didn’t. Many people died during WWII, in combat, in bombings, in concentration camps, etc. I’m sure that none of it seemed glorious at the time. At times, it must have seemed like the end of world to the survivors. Knowing the resolution of that conflict gives the false impression that people back then knew what outcome they wanted and were united behind that vision. They weren’t. There were some people who felt like the Nazis were in the right or at least couldn’t be opposed. Even in the United States, there was a pro-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. (Video footage on YouTube, courtesy of PBS.) If someone had told the people at that rally on the day the rally was held what was going to eventually happen, they probably would have felt that the defeat of the Nazis would be the end of the world because they were convinced that they were the ones in the right and everyone else was in the wrong. Whether they still felt that way by the time the war actually ended is debatable, but from where they stood at that moment, what was best for the rest of the world would have seemed terrible to them.

Even in Britain, there was sympathy and support for the Nazis among the aristocracy, like the Mitfords and even members of the royal family. C. S. Lewis would have been aware of people like that during his time, and the Mitfords are a good example because they were well-known for their scandalous political views. (P. G. Wodehouse’s character, Roderick Spode, was a parody on the husband of one of the Mitford sisters, who was the leader of the British Union of Fascists during the 1930s.) Their support for Nazis changed some of their lives for the worst, and some of them probably wouldn’t have wanted everyone to remember their earlier stances after the war was over, but while the entire situation was unfolding, they were certainly very sure of themselves. They may have thought that they knew what they wanted and what was going to happen, but outcomes were never guaranteed for anyone.

Life is unpredictable, like an untamed lion. While many of us have a sense of when things are going wrong or seem unreasonable, we’re not always right, and even when we are, it can be difficult convince others of that if they think they have reason to believe otherwise. The truth is that we have never had any guarantees at any point in our history. While we like to think that God will carry us through any situation, bad things do happen along the way, often to good or normal people. Outcomes are not completely assured for anybody. Every disaster, while not bringing about the total end of the world just yet, have been the end of days for some individual people, who didn’t live through them.

The only moral I can think of from that is not to envy people from the past too much. Their problems don’t seem as bad now because we know that the survivors survived, and the world went on. But, the world didn’t go on for everyone caught up in those situations, and survival wasn’t guaranteed for everyone in the middle of the crisis. Even those who did survive in the end couldn’t know for sure whether they would or not while they were struggling along. They didn’t even always have the comfort of knowing absolutely, for certain that they were on the side of right or not not or if they were carrying out their missions in the right way. While I’m sure that they tried to do what they thought was right in spite of everything, there were voices in their ears trying to tell them that they were in the wrong and it was time to give up at every step and stage. Of course, I would argue that Nazi supporters were the ones who really needed to be told that and that they should have taken it to heart, but while the situation was in motion, everyone just had to keep playing out their chosen parts to the end. You can’t rewrite people or situations while they’re in the middle of writing their own histories themselves.

The same is also true of the rest of us. I’ve said before that history is not written by “winners” but by writers, and actions are a form of writing history. We all do it, all the time. Nothing is guaranteed for us. Whatever you stand for and whatever sides you pick to follow are the parts you’ve written for yourself by your choices. Our outcomes will all be determined by the parts we’ve chosen to play and the way we’ve written them for ourselves to act out, and unfortunately, what others choose to act out upon us. We can’t control everyone’s decisions, only our own, and that’s part of what makes life and history unpredictable.

“Fake News!”

When C. S. Lewis wrote the Narnia books, he had already lived through WWII and knew the power of propaganda. From the beginning of the story, propaganda, or more simply, lies, play a major role. It starts with Shift’s plan to put his donkey stooge into a lion costume and use him to get bananas and oranges (or, more generally, wealth that can be used to buy these things). However, along the way, Shift himself becomes a stooge for other people who see the power of his lies and want to use lies for their own purposes. As the situation spirals out of control, the concept of truth itself loses meaning for people, and many people struggle with what to believe. Oh, gee, where have I heard that before about a million times over the last several years? They think they’ve gamed the system, but their own system of lies have gamed them, and none of them are bright enough to notice until it’s far too late. From there, it’s just a slow, excruciating train wreck to watch. (By the end of that book, the metaphor is disturbingly real.)

Yeah, I know that’s a political statement these days, but if you recognize what I’m criticizing without being told directly, you must know what I’m complaining about and why. (I’m sure I’ve complained about this before somewhere on this site because I never suffer anything in silence, and I’m my only editor.) In the story, when King Tirion tries to reveal the truth about the Aslan donkey hoax to everyone, it proves harder than he expected because everyone has been so inundated with lies that they either don’t know what to think or just don’t want to think anything about anything anymore. The villains in the story start spreading their lies faster than our heroes can explain the truth to everyone, and all the villains have to do is to accuse our heroes of being the liars or let others think that they’re just as bad as everyone else telling tales. (“Fake news!”, “Election fraud!”, “All politicians lie” and “Who cares if our favorite ones lie when it benefits us and makes us feel good?” – I could go on and on, but what would be the point? People who have seen the problems with all of this already understand, and those who say they don’t have already made a decision.) Everyone is left to make up their own mind, which wouldn’t be so bad except what some of them decide to do is to let the villains make up their minds for them. When they don’t know who or what to trust, they trust in what they’re accustomed to, and some of them have become accustomed to listening to Shift and his pals because they were the ones who started the whole situation and have been yelling the loudest since.

Puzzle the donkey keeps saying that the reason why he keeps letting Shift talk him into doing things is that he knows he’s not as clever as Shift, so he thinks that he’d better let Shift make the decisions. It’s not unlike those people who assume that someone with a lot of money or a high position must have gotten there through brains. It’s not always true. Sometimes, they don’t have to be bright or talented if they just convince other people that they’re not. Puzzle is sure that Shift is smarter than he is, but actually, Shift is just more manipulative. Yes, he knows how to sew, but it’s the only talent he uses other than lying and manipulation. He wouldn’t have even half of what he’s got if he didn’t routinely talk Puzzle and others into doing things for him or giving him things. Ultimately, he’s a conman. Of course, most of the reason why Puzzle thinks he can’t be clever or competent by himself is that Shift has been telling him that and insisting on making the decisions. Puzzle doesn’t have the confidence to stand up to him, even when he knows that Shift is asking him to so something wrong. Eustace gets frustrated with Puzzle’s attitude and tells him that he wouldn’t have to worry so much about how clever he is if he just focused on being as clever as he knows how to be. If you know better, do better! It’s a Christian concept, and the Narnia stories have Christian themes. Eustace is trying to get Puzzle to listen to those doubts that he has about Shift and what Shift wants, to take them seriously, and recognize that he can say “no” to Shift when he’s asking for something unreasonable.

So, what can you actually do in a situation where you’re not sure who’s telling the truth or what the best thing to do is? There are no hard and fast answers to that, but my answer is … don’t depend on hard and fast answers at all. Never be so married to any particular stance that it would be like ripping out a part of your soul to simply change your mind and change course. Again, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Be open to incoming information and feedback that lets you know how you’re doing and if you’re really understanding the situation correctly. The way I look at it, all humans are capable of being fooled, but those who aren’t afraid to back up or change their minds and are open to updating the information and understanding in their own minds are likely to spend less time continuing down a wrong course, even if they were wrong before.

Also, make sure that you have personal limits. Know when someone is pushing you to your limits or over them, and know when it’s time to back off. Puzzle the donkey has no boundaries whatsoever. Shift can talk him into anything, even things that are personally risky or harmful to him or downright immoral because, while there are things that Puzzle thinks are morally wrong, there is nothing in Puzzle’s moral view that is so far wrong that it would cause Puzzle to stop listening to the person telling him what to do. The only thing Puzzle is sure of is that Shift is smarter than he is, and he clings to that in spite of all evidence to the contrary. In the end, Puzzle is a major part of what brings down all of Narnia because he was the one person who could have stopped its destruction before it started, if he had only said no when he had misgivings. He didn’t invent the scheme, but he’s the one who chose to carry it out, even when he really knew he shouldn’t.

Trains Crash, Everyone Dies

This whole book was like a slow train wreck. It’s well-written, but it’s a well-written slow train wreck. There is the figurative train wreck, where everything spirals out of control in Narnia, and the world ends. Then, there is the literal train wreck that kills most of the characters we’ve come to know and love.

Eustace and Jill die in England at the moment they enter Narnia to help Tirian. Since time in Narnia works differently from time in our world, they don’t find out that they are dead or in the middle of being killed in a train accident until they reunite with the rest of their friends in the “true” Narnia, which is part of Aslan’s Country, which represents heaven. Although the Narnia they all knew before is gone, all the best parts of it and the friends that they knew from past eras of Narnia in their previous adventures are all alive again in True Narnia. The True Narnia is also one of all the “true” versions of all of the other worlds, including ours. The Pevensie children’s parents were also on the train when it crashed, so they appear in the True England that is also part of Aslan’s Country.

The only young Pevensie who isn’t killed in the railway accident on Earth is Susan, who was more worldly than the others and wasn’t on the train. We don’t see her reaction to the deaths of her parents and siblings or learn what the rest of her life on Earth is like. Her siblings say that she has stopped believing in Narnia, remembering it only as a game that the siblings used to play. Her main interests now are parties and fashion, much like other young women. The other characters think that she has become “silly” and has lost sight of what’s important. She may have, but this part of the book gets a lot of criticism because, from the description we have of her, she is just going through a normal phase of life where she wants to have fun, make friends, and date. She might be kind of silly in the way she’s going about it, but by itself, it’s not something abnormal or deserving of scorn. As I said, we also don’t know what the rest of Susan’s life will be like. I think there is an implication that she will someday come to True Narnia, too, because she was also once a Queen of Narnia, and once someone is a King or Queen in Narnia, they will always be a King or Queen there.

The rest of the characters who died in the train accident and are now in True Narnia spend the rest of eternity exploring Aslan’s Country and having endless adventures. It’s framed as a positive because it means that they get to be young forever in the True Narnia, having amazing adventures with the people they love, but it’s still upsetting to me. It bothers me because it occurs to me that they were destined for True Narnia eventually in any case, and I would have liked for them to have lived their full lives on Earth to old age first. Yes, True Narnia is wonderful, and they will get to enjoy eternity there, but it just seems to me kind of sad that they couldn’t have put it off for a few more decades anyway. Polly and Digory are elderly when they are killed, and Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie had the chance to enjoy their marriage and children before the accident, and it just seems like a shame that the young Pevensies didn’t have those opportunities. It’s also sad to think of Susan, mourning the loss of her entire family.

Another Problem

One other thing that bothered me about this book is that the Calormenes are described as being darker physically than the human Narnians. During the final battle of the book, Narnians jeer at them and call them “Darkies.” I don’t like the idea that that the light-colored people are described as being the good ones and the dark ones as the bad ones, especially not when paired with a known racial slur. These people are set in another world, but it just echoes the racism of this world too much for me.