The Last Battle
LC Class PZ8.L48 Las[3] | | |
Preceded by | The Magician's Nephew | |
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Text | The Last Battle online |
The Last Battle is a
The Last Battle is set almost entirely in the Narnia world and the English children who participate arrive only in the middle of the narrative. The novel is set some 200 Narnian years after The Silver Chair and about 2500 years (and 49 Earth years) since the creation of the world narrated in The Magician's Nephew.[a] A false Aslan is set up in the north-western borderlands and conflict between true and false Narnians merges with that between Narnia and Calormen, whose people worship Tash. It concludes with termination of the world by Aslan, after a "last battle" that is practically lost.
Lewis and The Last Battle won the annual
Plot
In the western regions of Narnia, the clever and greedy ape
King Tirian, a descendant of
Awaiting judgment, Tirian recognizes the farce that Shift has fabricated in league with Rishda and the talking cat Ginger. When he accuses Shift of lying, Tirian is tied to a tree for the night to face judgment the following morning. While the woodland creatures are sympathetic to his suffering, they cannot bring themselves to defy "Aslan".
Tirian calls upon Aslan for help, and sees High King Peter and several others in a vision. He asks them to come to his aid. Shortly afterwards Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb arrive in Narnia from Earth. They relate that Peter and Edmund Pevensie went to London to dig up the magic rings from the old house of Professor Kirke (mentioned in the previous story) in hopes that Jill and Eustace can use them to get to Narnia. But feeling a shock in their railway carriage on Earth, Eustace and Jill find themselves in Narnia without ever seeing the rings. Tirian gives Eustace and Jill a warm welcome.
They release Tirian and rescue Jewel. In the stable, Jill finds Puzzle, who comes to understand his folly and joins Tirian's side. A band of Dwarfs are also rescued, but their faith in Aslan has been shattered and they renounce their allegiance, proclaiming "the Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs". Only one Dwarf named Poggin remains faithful to Aslan and joins the group. Tirian learns that Shift and Rishda have inadvertently summoned the real Tash to Narnia when he and the others see him travelling north towards the stable.
Farsight the Eagle arrives bearing grim news: Roonwit and the Narnian army loyal to Tirian have all been massacred by the Calormenes who have taken
Outside the stable, Tirian's group engages Shift and the Calormenes, but most of the remaining Narnians on either side are all either killed or sacrificed to Tash by being thrown into the stable. Tirian throws Shift into the stable and Tash devours Shift. Realising that real danger lies in the stable, the terrified Rishda offers the remaining Narnians as sacrifices to avoid the wrath of Tash. Tirian, left alone and fighting for his life, drags Rishda into the stable and finds himself in a vast and lush plain. Tash seizes Rishda and advances on Tirian, but is stopped by the "Friends of Narnia":
is absent as she has ceased to believe in Narnia. Peter orders Tash to return to his realm and Tash vanishes with Rishda in his clutches.The real Aslan appears and praises Tirian for his valiant struggle in defense of Narnia. The faithless Dwarfs are present but cannot see they are in Aslan's country; they perceive themselves to be locked in an actual stable. Aslan demonstrates that, without their faith, even he cannot help them. The Friends ask Aslan to heal Narnia, but he admits that even he cannot undo the evil that has been sown and he brings the world to an end:
Aslan takes the Friends to a "true" version of Narnia, the previous Narnia having been an imperfect and corruptible shadow. As they advance, the Friends meet and reunite with characters from previous adventures who have been dead for centuries; Aslan reveals that the Friends may also stay as they had died in a train accident on Earth. Aslan sheds his lion form ("And as He spoke He no longer looked like a lion"), and the series ends with the revelation that this was only the beginning of the true story, "which goes on for ever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before".[8]
Main characters
- Tirian, the last king of Narnia, who leads the fight of Narnia against the Calormenes.
- Eustace Scrubb, a friend of Narnia and cousin to the Pevensie siblings, who fights for the Narnians.
- Jill Pole, a friend of Narnia, who fights for the Narnians.
- Jewel the Unicorn, retainer to King Tirian, also his best friend.
- Shift, an ape who allies with Calormen and creates the "Tashlan" hoax. (The Narnian form of the False Prophet and the Antichrist.)
- Puzzle, a donkey who is tricked by Shift. (The Narnian form of the Beast and an allusion to "The Ass in the Lion's Skin".)
- Rishda Tarkaan, Calormene captain leading the battle against Narnia, taken away by Tash during the destruction of Narnia.
- Ginger, a cat, in league with Rishda Tarkaan.
- Tash, the patron God of the Calormenes and evil counterpart to Aslan.
- Griffle, a black Dwarf, leader of a group of Dwarfs who have lost faith in both Aslan and Tash.
- Emeth, a righteous soldier of Calormene, who discovers his true devotion to Aslan.
- Aslan, the God of Narnia, son of the Emperor-over-the-Sea, who takes the form of a lion.
Reception
Notes
- ^ In England, it is 1949, seven years after The Silver Chair and 49 years after The Magician's Nephew. A manuscript by Lewis, the "Outline of Narnian History", dates major events in the Narnia world and simultaneous events in England. Since his death, it has been published in books about Narnia.
References
- ^ a b
"Bibliography: The Last Battle". ISFDB. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
- ^ "Scholastic Catalog – Book Information". Retrieved 23 June 2014.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c
"The last battle, a story for children" (first edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record.
"The last battle" (first US edition). LCC record. Retrieved 2012-09-08. - CILIP. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
- ISBN 0-8262-1407-X.
- ^ p. 359, fn. Paul Ford. 1986. Companion to Narnia. New York: Collier Books.
- ^ p. 55. David Downing. 2005. Into the Wardrobe. Jossey-Bass
- ISBN 0007640218.
- ^ Gale, Floyd C. (June 1957). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 107–110. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
Sources
- Caughey, Shanna (2004). Revisiting Narnia: Fantasy, Myth and Religion in C. S. Lewis' Chronicles. Benbella Books. ISBN 978-1-932100-63-1.
- Downing, David C. (2005). Into the Wardrobe: C. S. Lewis and the Narnia Chronicles. San Francisco: ISBN 978-0-7879-7890-7.
External links
- The Last Battle at Faded Page (Canada)
- The Last Battle in libraries (WorldCat catalog) —immediately, the full-colour C. S. Lewis centenary edition
- The Last Battle title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB)