LaGrave Avenue
Christian Reformed Church
The Real C.S. Lewis
Part 3
His Life and Writings: Myth, Narnia (and other writings)
“You’ll never get to the bottom of him.”
J.R.R. Tolkien
Complied by
Paulo F. Ribeiro
MBA, PhD, PE, IEEE Fellow
March 14, 2004, AD
Grand Rapids
1
Evangelical (and Reformed) Christians often lack a
method and a language for addressing the challenges of
our current age.
We have the will and the passion to defend our faith, the
biblical knowledge and charity to support our arguments,
but something is missing in our language/vocabulary. We
seem powerless to convict, engage, and transform the
secular world.
CS Lewis
Precise Thinking
Imagination
2
Lewis spent the first half of his life as an atheist and a materialist
for whom the Gospels shared the same mythic (nonhistorical)
status as Greek and Norse mythology but lacked their aesthetic
beauty and imaginative power. He distrusted thinking that was
either emotionally charged or logically imprecise.
This propensity for intellectual precision and emotional selfprotection grew during the early years of World War I, when the shy,
unathletic Lewis got the chance to study under a private tutor.
William Kirkpatrick was an obsessively rational thinker who beat
into Lewis head the need for clear, rational thinking free from all
subjective speculation and emotion.
Most students would have crumbled under such relentless logic; to
Lewis it was "red beef and strong beer." Lewis committed himself
to absolute clarity of thought and to assessing the assumptions on
which our ideas are based.
3
Had Lewis brought to Christian apologetics only his skills as a
logician, his works would not have been as effective. The
mature Lewis tempered his logic with a love for beauty, wonder,
and magic. His conversion to Christ not only freed his mind
from the bonds of a narrow stoicism; it freed his heart to
embrace fully his earlier passion for mythology.
Nearly all of Lewis's insights into the Christian faith can be
traced back to a comment made by one of the church fathers or
one of the medieval scholastics, but then these commentaries
are seldom read, except by specialists, while Lewis's works
continue to sell, challenge, and convict in the millions.
4
“Human intellect is incurably abstract . . . Yet the only realities we
experience are concrete—this pain, this pleasure, this dog, this
man. While we are loving the man, bearing the pain, enjoying the
pleasure, we are not intellectually apprehending Pleasure, Pain or
Personality. When we begin to do so, on the other hand, the
concrete realities sink to the level of mere instances or examples:
we are no longer dealing with them, but with that which they
exemplify. This is our dilemma—either to taste and not to know or
to know and not to taste—or, more strictly, to lack one kind of
knowledge because we are outside it. As thinkers we are cut off
from what we think about; as tasting, touching, willing, living,
hating, we do not clearly understand. The more lucidly we think,
the more we are cut off: the more deeply we enter into reality, the
less we can think. You cannot study Pleasure in the moment of
the nuptial embrace, nor repentance while repenting, not analyze
the nature of humor while roaring with laughter. But when else
can you really know these things? ‘If only my toothache would
stop, I could write another chapter about Pain.’ But once it stops,
what do I know about pain?
5
“Of this tragic dilemma myth is the partial solution. In the
enjoyment of a great myth we come nearest to experiencing as a
concrete what can otherwise be understood only as an
abstraction. At this moment, for example, I am trying to
understand something very abstract indeed—the fading,
vanishing of tasted reality as we try to grasp it with the discursive
reason. Probably I have made heavy weather of it. But if I remind
you, instead, of Orpheus and Eurydice, how he was suffered to
lead her by the hand but, when he turned round to look at her, she
disappeared, what was merely a principle becomes imaginable.
You may reply that you never till this moment attached that
‘meaning’ to that myth. Of course not. You are not looking for an
abstract ‘meaning’ at all. If that was what you were doing the myth
would be for you not true myth but a mere allegory. You were not
knowing, but tasting; but what your tasting turns out to be a
universal principle. The moment we state this principle, we are
admittedly back in the world of abstraction. It is only while
receiving the myth as a story that you experience the principle
concretely.
6
“When we translate we get abstraction—or rather, dozens of
abstractions. What flows into you from the myth is not truth but
reality (truth is always about something, but reality is that about
which truth is), and, therefore, every myth becomes the father of
innumerable truths on the abstract level. Myth is the mountain
whence all the different streams arise which become truths
down here in the valley; in hac valle abstractionis (‘In this valley
of separation’). Or, if you prefer, myth is the isthmus which
connects the peninsular world of thought with that vast
continent we really belong to. It is not, like truth, abstract; nor is
it, like direct experience, bound to the particular.”
Myth Became Fact
7
[t]he heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old
myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes
down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth
of history. It happens—at a particular date, in a particular place,
followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a
Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a
historical Person crucified (it is all in order) under Pontius
Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is
the miracle. … God is more than god, not less: Christ is more
than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical
radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous
about "parallels" and "pagan Christs": they ought to be there—
it would be a stumbling block if they weren't. We must not, in
false spirituality, withhold our imaginative welcome. If God
chooses to be mythopoeic—and is not the sky itself a myth—
shall we refuse to be mythopathic?
Myth Became Fact
8
“It must not be supposed that I am in any sense putting forward
the imagination as the organ of truth. We are not talking of truth,
but of meaning: meaning which is the antecedent condition both
of truth and falsehood, whose antithesis is not error but
nonsense. I am a rationalist. For me, reason is the natural organ
of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination,
producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of
truth, but its condition. It is, I confess, undeniable that such a
view indirectly implies a kind of truth or rightness in the
imagination itself.”
Selected Literary Essays, Bluspels and Flalanspheres: A Semantic Nightmare
9
C.S. Lewis: Making Pictures
To forbid the making of pictures about God would be to forbid thinking a about God at all, for
man is so made that he has no way to think except in pictures. Dorothy Sayers
". . . When [people] try to get rid of man-like, or, as they are called, 'anthropomorphic,'
images, they merely succeed in substituting images of some other kinds. 'I don't believe in
a personal God,' says one, 'but I do believe in a great spiritual force.' What he has not
noticed is that the word 'force' has let in all sorts of images about winds and tides and
electricity and gravitation. 'I don't believe in a personal God,' says another, 'but I do
believe we are all parts of one great Being which moves and works through us all' -not
noticing that he has merely exchanged the image of a fatherly and royal-looking man for
the image of some widely extended gas or fluid. A girl I knew was brought up by
'higher thinking' parents to regard God as perfect 'substance.' In later life she realized
that this had actually led her to think of Him as something like a vast tapioca pudding.
(To make matters worse, she disliked tapioca.) We may feel ourselves quite safe from this
degree of absurdity but we are mistaken. If a man watches his own mind, I believe he will
find that what profess to be specially advanced or philosophic conceptions of God, are,
in his thinking, always accompanied by vague images which, if inspected, would turn out
to be even more absurd than the manlike images aroused by Christian theology.
Miracles
10
Myth
Lewis believed that Christian truth must be defended with sound logic and
philosophy. But this apologetic needed to be explicated in order that its meaning
could be made clear to its hearers. That is why he felt this could best be
accomplished through the proper use of myths. By myth he did not mean legends
and fairy tales but a real unfocused gleam of truth falling on human imagination.
In his classic Experiment in Criticism, a book on how to read a book, Lewis lays out
six characteristics of literature that that make a myth:
1. it is extra-literary , or independent of the form of the words used;
2. the pleasure of myth depends hardly at all on such unusual narrative
attractions as suspense or surprise ;
3. our sympathy with the character is minimal;
4. myth is always fantastic and deals with impossibles and preternaturals ;
5. though the experience may be sad or joyful , it always is grave and never
comic;
6. the experience is not only grave but awe inspiring. We feel it to be numinous.
It is as if something of great moment has been communicated to us.
11
Myth
From a theological perspective Lewis saw true myths as memories or echoes
of God Himself and He left us with human imagination as their receptor. He
explained this relationship in describing how he came to write the Narnia
Chronicles, as a mythological expression of the Gospel story:
"It was he [the imaginative man] who, after my conversion, led me to
embody my religious belief in symbolical or mythopoeic form, ranging
from Screwtape to a kind of theological science fiction. And it was of
course he who has brought me, in the last few years, to write the series of
Narnian stories for children; not asking what children want and then
endeavoring to adapt myself (this was not needed) but because the fairy
tale was the genre best fitted for what I wanted to say."
12
"...what Dyson and Tolkien showed me was this: that if I met the idea of
sacrifice in a Pagan story I didn't mind it at all: again if I met the idea the
idea of a god sacrificing himself to himself...I liked it very much and was
mysteriously moved by it: again, that the idea of the dying and reviving
god . . . similarly moved me provided I met it anywhere except in the
Gospels. The reason was that in the Pagan stories I was prepared to feel the
myth as profound and suggestive of meanings beyond my grasp even tho' I
could not say in cold prose "what it meant". Now the story of Christ is
simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others,
but with this tremendous difference that it really happened...."
C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves, 18 October 1931, in They Stand Together: The Letters of C.S. Lewis to
Arthur Greeves (1914-1963)
13
The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of
the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the
heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens—at
a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical
consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody
knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified (it is all in order)
under Pontius Pilate. By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth:
that is the miracle. … God is more than god, not less: Christ is more
than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance
resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about "parallels" and
"pagan Christs": they ought to be there—it would be a stumbling block
if they weren't. We must not, in false spirituality, withhold our
imaginative welcome. If God chooses to be mythopoeic—and is not the
sky itself a myth—shall we refuse to be mythopathic?
Myth Became Fact
14
The things I have symbolized by North and South, which are to me equal and
opposite evils, each continually strengthened and made plausible by its critique
of the other, enter our experience on many different levels. In agriculture we
have to fear both the barren soil and the soil which is irresistibly fertile. In the
animal kingdom, the crustacean and the jellyfish represent two low solutions of
the problem of existence. In our eating, the palate revolts both from excessive
bitter and excessive sweet. Everyone can pick out among his own
acquaintance the complexions, dryness and taciturnity of the one, the open
mouths, the facile laughter and tears, the garrulity and (so to speak) general
greasiness of the others. The Northerners are the men of rigid systems whether
skeptical or dogmatic, Aristocrats, Stoics, Pharisees, Rigorists, signed and
sealed members of highly organized "Parties". The Southerners are by their
very nature less definable; boneless souls whose doors stand open day and
night to almost every visitant, but always with readiest welcome for those who
offer some sort of intoxication. Every feeling is justified by the mere fact that
it is felt: for a Northerner, every feeling on the same ground is suspect. An
arrogant and hasty selectiveness on some narrow a priori basis cuts him off
from the sources of life.
15
In Theology also there is a North and a South. The one exaggerates the
distinctiveness between Grace and Nature into a sheer opposition and by
vilifying the higher levels of Nature makes the way hard for those who are at
the point of coming in. The other blurs the distinction altogether, flatters
mere kindliness into thinking it is charity and vague optimisms or pantheisms
into thinking that they are Faith, and makes the way out fatally easy and
imperceptible for the budding apostate. The two extremes do not coincide
with Romanism (to the North) and Protestantism (to the South).
With both the "North" and the "South" a man has, I take it, only one concern-to avoid them and hold the Main Road. We must not hearken to the overwise or to the over-foolish giant." We were made to be neither cerebral men
nor visceral men, but Men. Not beasts nor angels but Men--things at once
rational and animal.
16
Lewis’s Concept of Nature: Spoiled Goodness
Nature is more than a background setting for the action of his characters
“Either there is significance in the whole process of things as well as in human
activities, or there is no significance in human activity itself.”
C.S. Lewis, The Personal Heresy, 1939.
Fresh exuberance of nature (This is no thaw; this is spring) - Glimpses of Redeemed
Creation
Creation, Fall, Redemption
“They say Aslan is on the Move - Perhaps has already landed”
17
Lewis’s Concept of God: The Coming of the Lion
"Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,
has prevailed.
Rev. 5:5
“’They say Aslan is on the move – perhaps has already landed’
And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any
more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite
different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says
something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous
meaning – either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a
lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you
remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It
was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump
inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and
adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had
just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning
and and realize that its the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”
The LWW
18
Lewis’s Concept of Humanity: Possible Gods and Goddesses
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to
remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one
day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to
worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all,
only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other
to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming
possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we
should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all
play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a
mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization--these are mortal, and their
life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with,
work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting
splendors.
The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses
19
Narnia
Many Christian doctrines (Classical Christianity)
Doctrines fall into three categories:
Nature, God, Man’s Relationship to Nature, God and his fellow man.
Stories
-(1-4)London Children being evacuated to the country during WW II.
Children Transported from this world into a world faire-tale creatures
belonging to a great lion (four books on this scheme). The Lion The
Witch and the Wardrobe,
- (5)The tale of two native children of that world who are also chosen by
the great lion to serve the land of Narnia and to know him in a special
way.
- (6)The beginning of the world of Narnia - the intrusion of two
Victorian children into the newborn world begins the complications
which give rise to all the later adventures. (The Magician’s Nephew)
-(7)The end of Narnia (Last Battle)
20
Narnia
Myth Made Truth:
The Origins of the Chronicles of Narnia
In the process of writing the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S.
Lewis gradually expanded the breadth and scope of his
literary ambitions. What was foreseen from the outset as
a collection of stories for children developed into a
complex depiction of an entire moral universe. As the
seven books progress, Lewis unfolds the whole Divine
plan for this universe from its creation to its apocalypse.
However, the uniqueness of Lewis' literary achievement
stems from the fact that Lewis manages to do two things
at once. That is, he remains faithful to his original
intention to write stories for children while adding in
subtle moral and spiritual complexities. Thus, the
Chronicles of Narnia are a series of books that can
delight the senses as they challenge and stir the soul.
(Mark Bane)
21
Lewis, like Aristotle, believes that moral principles are learned indirectly
from others around us, who serve as exemplars. . . . This is also the clue to
understanding the place of the Chronicles of Narnia within Lewis's
thought. They are not just good stories. Neither are they primarily Christian
allegories (in fact, they are not allegories at all). Rather, they serve to
enhance moral - education, to build character. . . . To overlook the function
of the Chronicles of Narnia in communicating images of proper emotional
responses is to miss their connection to Lewis’s moral thought.
Gilbert Meilaender:
22
THE KINGDOM OF NARNIA
LEWIS RIGOROUSLY DEFENDS THE FAIRY TALE AGAINST ANY who claim that it
gives a false conception of life. The fact is, says he, that this is the direct opposite of the
truth and it is the so-called realistic stories which deceive children. The fairy tale, like the
myth, on the one hand arouses longing for more ideal worlds and on the other gives the real
world a new dimension of depth. The boy "does not despise real woods because he has
read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little more enchanted."
The child reading the fairy tale is delighted simply in desiring, while the child reading a
"realistic" story may establish the success of its hero as a standard for himself and, when he
cannot have the same success, may suffer bitter disappointment.
It seems obvious that two purposes guided Lewis in the writing of his Narnia stories. One
was to tell a good tale, the other to suggest analogies - I do not think Lewis would wish them
called allegories - of the Christian scheme of things. These books have been among Lewis's
most widely read. Charles Some think that they mark "the greatest addition to the
imperishable deposit of children's literature since the Jungle Books. Chad Walsh says that he
himself felt the fairy-tale atmosphere was curiously cut-and-dried but that two of his
daughters, aged six and eight, re-educated him after he had read them the first chapter and
they required two chapters a night thereafter, some times followed by tears when a third
chapter was not forth-coming.
23
The Magician's Nephew
Digory Kirke (12) and Polly Plumber (11) are children living in London. After Digory moves in with
his Aunt Letty and crazy Uncle Andrew, he meets Polly and they do some exploring. They make
their way to Narnia, the new world created by the Great Lion, Aslan. They must save it from the evil
witch, Jadis. The book is usually numbered either first or sixth, but some people recommend reading
it second
The Main Theme: Weakness to Power
Key Symbol: Fruit of the Tree of Life
The Magician’s Nephew and The Bible
(Colossians 1:9-17) – Christ created and redeemed the world.
Paul prays for power in their lives.
When and Where in The Magician’s Nephew
Chapter 1,2 – London
Chapters 3,4,5 – Trip to Charn
Chapters 6,7,8 – London
Chapters 9,10,11 – Narnia
Chapters 12, 13 – Western Wild
Chapters 14 – Narnia
Chapters 15 – London
Stars themselves. ..singing (99. 88)
It laughed for joy (101, 90)
Land bubbling like water ( 113, 100-101)
For out of them you were taken (118, 105)
Adam's race has done the harm (136, 121)
15:21 Name all these creatures (138, 123)
My son, my son (142, 127)
Well done (166, 149)
25:21
Oh, Adam's sons. ..good (171, 153 )
Job 38:7
Psalms 19:5
Gen. 1: 24
Genesis 3:19
I Corinthians
Genesis 2:19
II Sam 18:33
Matthew
24
Luke 19:42
The Magician's Nephew
To discover the very beginnings of Narnia one should read The Magician's Nephew, actually
the sixth book in the series of seven. The book might well be called The Beginnings of Narnia,
or How the Wardrobe Gained Its Magic. Digory Kirke was an old white-haired man when
Peter and his friends first discovered that the wardrobe was a doorway into Narnia, yet the
story really began when Digory was a boy in London and one morning stuck his head over the
garden wall and found Polly Plummer looking up at him. Digory and his invalid mother were
living with his uncle and aunt Ketterley while his father was away in India.'
Before the adventure was over they were to plant in Digory's yard the seeds of an apple
brought back from Narnia, and long afterwards the wood from that same tree was to be used
in making the magical wardrobe.
The original adventure started when Digory and Polly accidentally discovered that Digory's
queer and unpleasant uncle was a dabbler in magic. This uncle's godmother, one of the last
mortals on earth to possess any fairy blood, just before her death had given him a box
containing dust from the lost island of Atlantis. She warned him as she was dying to burn the
box. Instead he experimented with its contents and was able to make some little colored rings,
yellow and green, with which he caused guinea pigs to disappear. The uncle was too cowardly
to become his own subject but when Polly touched one of the yellow rings she disappeared.
Digory, thoroughly disgusted with his uncle, took two of the green rings into his pocket and
put a yellow one on his finger. Immediately he was transported to the Wood between the
Worlds, where he found Polly. They discovered that by putting on the yellow rings and
jumping into one of many' small lakes in the Wood they could go into other worlds.
25
One they went to was called Charn, a world almost dead, and when Digory struck a bell he could not
resist, Jadis, a powerful, and haughty queen, came to life; and told them how by speaking the Deplorable
Word she had destroyed her rival sister and all of Charn. When Jadis discovered the children were from
a newer world, she coveted it for herself:, Scared, the children put their hands on the magic rings to
return to London., but they found Queen Jadis in London with them, for she had touched them at the
last moment. There Jadis went out in a hansom cab with Uncle Andrew and caused a riot. She had
wrenched off an iron guy from a light pole and was flailing policemen with it when Digory and Polly got
hold of her and touched their yellow rings:' Immediately they were back in the Wood between the
Worlds. They quickly jumped into one of the pools of water and went into a midnight world, the world
of Nothing. To their consternation, they found they had brought along not only Jadis but the cab driver,
Uncle Andrew, and the cabby's horse.
In this world of Nothing they saw Narnia created by a great Lion, AsIan. All, including the horse, were
delighted except Uncle Andrew and Jadis. The latter flung her iron guy at the Lion. It stuck in the
ground, and because Aslan’s great creativity was at work making grass, trees, and all sorts of beings, the
iron grew into a lamp post just like the one in London. The whole world seemed filled with right magic
as Aslan worked. Jadis ran away and Uncle Andrew hid himself. ¥-an created fauns, satyrs, dwarfs, and
talking beasts. Even the cabby horse was turned into a talking beast.
Before this new world was five hours old evil had entered into it. Uncle Andrew, refusing to believe that
Aslan was anything more than a beast, was unable to hear Asian's beautiful song as he created things
and could not even hear the animals talk and laugh. But Jadis was even a greater evil in Narnia. Digory
had brought the evil in, said AsIan to the beasts, but he promised to see that the worst fell upon himself.
Aslan told the cabby - and also his wife Helen, who had been brought to Narnia by Aslan's magic - that
they were to be the first king and queen of the land and were to name and rule all the creatures. Also
that their children would be kings of Narnia and of Archenland. Then Aslan, that Digory might help to
undo the wrong he had done in bringing in evil sent him far away into the mountains of the Western
Wild to a beautiful valley where in a garden on a hilltop grew an apple tree.
26
To carry Digory and Polly to this spot the cabby horse was turned into a great flying Pegasus. Digory was to
bring back an apple the seed of which, when planted by AsIan, would produce a tree to protect Narnia from
Jadis for many years.
At the end of their aerial journey they found the garden and a tree loaded with beautiful fruit. But Digory also
discovered Jadis in the garden, eating an apple. Telling him how delicious it was and otherwise enticing him,
she almost persuaded him to eat, yet Digory remembered his instructions and was able to return to Aslan with
a perfect apple. From its seed a new tree sprang up quickly, and Aslan gave Digory an apple from it to carry
back to heal his sick mother. From the golden leaves of another tree the dwarfs fashioned crowns for the new
king and queen of Narnia, and AsIan himself, with all the creatures standing at attention, established King
Frank and Queen Helen as the first rulers of Narnia.
After a wonderful farewell and parting advice from Aslan about evils that would come on Narnia, they were
transported back to their own world. The apple which Digory had brought along cured his mother.. Digory
buried the core of it in his back yard, and, to prevent Digory’s uncle from further mischief with his magical
rings, he ad Polly buried them near the apple seeds. This was the tree which Digory much later fashioned into
a wardrobe. He did not know that it retained some of its Narnian magic, for that was a discovery to be made
a long time afterwards by" Peter, .Edmund, Susan, and Lucy.
Back in Narnia King Frank and Queen Helen ruled. Their second son became King of Archenland. The boys
married nymphs and the girls wood-gods and river-gods. The lamp-post which had grown up in Narnia shone
always in the Narnian forest and the place where it stood came to be known as Lantern Waste. '"
Narnia was quite a different world from ours. This is the manner in which it was created. As Digory and the
others stood in the dark and empty land of Nothing, they heard a far-off song that appeared to come from
every direction at once, even from the very earth beneath their feet. Though it was hardly a tune at all, it was
almost too beautiful to bear. Suddenly the voice of AsIan, for it was he who began it all, was joined by many
other voices. At the same time the black sky above was filled with blazing stars which seemed to join their own
voices to the swelling music. Then in the east, to the sound of still more glorious music, the sun rose splendidly
and revealed fresh and colorful valleys and rivers and mountains. Yet it revealed no trees nor even a blade of
27
grass.
The Lion now sang a new song that was softer and more lilting than before, and as he paced to and fro
the ground was covered with grass sprinkled with daisies and buttercups. It was then that Jadis,
fearful of the Lion's approach, flung her iron guy from the London light pole straight at him. The
object struck AsIan between the eyes and fell into the grass. It began to grow like the other new
creations. After this AsIan sang a wilder tune and the land in front of him began to take on queer
humps of many different sizes and out of these humps burst all sorts of animals, stags, panthers, dogs,
frogs, and elephants. Hundreds of birds came out of the trees, and bees and butterflies soon filled the
air and got busy. To Aslan's music were soon added hundreds of other sounds from the teeming land.
Then AsIan touched some pairs of animals and called them aside into a circle. They stood in perfect
silence with their eyes upon him, and it was apparent that something marvelous was about to happen.
As AsIan stared at them they turned their heads as if to understand. Yet Asian did not speak, but only
breathed out a long, warm breath. Then from far overhead the stars began to sing and there came a
blinding flash of light which made the children's bodies tingle. Asian in a deep, wild voice then sang,
"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake.. Love. . Think. Speak. Be walking frees. Be talking beasts. Be divine
waters.“
This was the beginning of Narnia. It was all quite" perfect, except that the powerful vengeful Jadis,
brought to life by. Digory's sinful curiosity, had gone off to the edge of Narnia and would remain. Yet
she could not return as long as the apple tree flourished.
Narnia was a small land compared to some of those near it. Rabadash reminded the Tisroc that
Narnia was not one-fourth the size of the smallest of his provinces in Calormen, and even Edmund
confessed that Narnia might be overcome easily by its more powerful enemies roundabout. It was a
land of heather and thyme and of sweet air, of rivers and plashing glens, of mossy caves and great
forests filled with the noise of dwarfs' smithies. It was a land of freedom, where maidens were never
forced to marry against their will, and where even a mouse like Reepicheep had a great sense of honor
and chivalry.
28
Just to the south of Narnia, and connected with it by a pass through high mountains, lay
Archenland, a country ruled over by King Lune from his castle at Anvard and later by his son
Ram the great, the most famous of all Archenland kings. Farther south, across a great desert,
was the large and cruel country of Calormen. Its dark-skinned and proud people always
dreamed of capturing both Narnia and Archenland. The capital of Calormen was the great city
of Tashbaan, and the country had many provinces.
To the west of Narnia lay a wild land of big mountains covered with dark forests or else with
snow and glaciers. It was called the Western Wild. A river rushing down from it created a vast
and thundering waterfall, underneath which was Caldron Pool, and out of this flowed the River
of Narnia which ran all the way across to the sea. On the east side of the Western Wild was
Lantern Waste, where the children first entered Narnia and where Jadis, the White Witch, had
her kingdom.
The capital of Narnia was Cair Paravel, located in a beautiful spot on the east coast near the
River of Narnia, and this was where Aslan established Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy as kings
and queens of Narnia and where they reigned for many years. A little to tenor of Cair Paravel
lived the marsh-wiggles, and above them one crossed the River Shribble and came to a desolate
moorland called Ettinsmore which led, finally, to mountainous country and the giants'
stronghold of Harfang. Nearby were the ruins of a great city underneath which once lay the
kingdom of the Green Witch and her unwilling vassals. Here also in a deep cave had slept Father
Time until AsIan awakened him to sound his final horn over Narnia.
On the east of Narnia lay the ocean, over which, if one were courageous enough, he could sail to
alma, Terebinthia, the Seven Islands, the Lone Islands, Dragon Island, Deathwater Island,
Darkness Island, and World's End Island to the Silver Sea and the very end of the world, and
there he could look beyond the sun itself into the high mountains of Aslan's own country.
29
In olden times there were many chinks or chasms between the world and
Narnia, but they had grown rarer. One of the last was a magical cave on an
island in the South Sea, upon which a few men and women had once
accidentally blundered and discovered the Land of Telmar, which was then
unpeopled. They lived there for generations and became a proud, fierce
nation. Finally Telmar suffered a great famine and its people, led by King
Caspian the First, went a long distance to the Western Mountains of
Narnia, crossed them, and conquered Narnia which was then in some
disorder. It was not then a land of men at all but of talking beasts, walking
trees, fauns, dwarfs, and giants. Actually it was the Telmarines who
silenced the beasts and trees and fountains and killed and drove away
dwarfs and fauns, and even tried to cover up the very memory of such
things.
These are the places in which the events of the Narnian stories take place.
30
The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, whose eyes never blinked, stared at the animals as hard
as if he was going to burn them up with his mere stare. And
gradually a change came over them. The smaller ones - the
rabbits, moles, and such-like - grew a good deal larger. The very
big ones - you noticed it most with the elephants - grew a little
smaller. Many animals sat p on their hind legs. Most put their
heads on one side as if they were trying very hard to understand.
The Lion opened his mouth, but no sound came from it; he was
breathing out, a long, warm breath; it seemed to sway all the
beasts as the wind sways a line of trees. Far overhead from
beyond the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a
pure, cold, difficult music. Then there came a swift flash like fire
(but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself,
and every drop of blood tingled in the children's bodies, and the
deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: "Narnia,
Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be
talking beasts. Be divine waters."
Uncle Andrew
(The founding of Narnia)
The Tree with Silver Apples
31
The Magician's Nephew
"Child," he (Aslan) replied, "that is why all the rest
are now a horror to her. That is what happens to those
who pluck and eat fruits at the wrong time and in the
wrong way. The fruit is good, but they loath it ever
after."
"Oh I see," said Polly. "And I suppose because she
took it in the wrong way it won't work for her. I mean
it won't make her always young and all that?"
"Alas," said Aslan, shaking his head. "It will. Things
always work according to their nature. She has won
her heart's desire; she has un-wearing strength and
endless days like a goddess. But length of days with
an evil heart is only length of misery and already she
begins to know it. All get what they want; they do not
always like it."
The Wood Between the Worlds
(The Planting of the Tree)
32
The Magician's Nephew
They looked and saw a little hollow in the grass, with a
grassy bottom, warm and dry.
"When you were last here," said Aslan, "that hollow was a
pool, and when you jumped into it you came to the world
where a dying sun shone over the ruins of Charn. There is
no pool now. That world is ended, as if it had never been.
Let the race of Adam and Eve take warning."
"Yes, Aslan," said both the children. But Polly added, "But
we're not quite as bad as that world, are we, Aslan?"
"Not yet, Daughter of Eve," he said. "Not yet. But you are
growing more like it. It is not certain that some wicked
one of your race will not find out a secret as evil as the
Deplorable Word and use it to destroy all living things.
And soon, very soon, before you are an old man and an
old woman, great nations in your world will be ruled by
tyrants who care no more for joy and justice and mercy
than the Empress Jadis. Let your world beware. That is the
warning."
Fledge, Polly and Digory
(The End of This Story and the Beginning of All The Others)
33
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Main Theme: Frozen to Thawed – Winter to Spring
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN:
C.S. Lewis played in this
wardrobe as a child.
Key Symbol: The Stone Table
Favorite Quotes
LWW and the Bible (see next page)
When and Where in LWW
1. Lucy accidentally found herself in Narnia
2. After a visit with Mr. Tumnus the Faun, Lucy returned to England
3. Edmund accidentally found himself in Narnia and met the Queen of Narnia
4. Edmund became addicted to magic candy (Turkish Delight)
5. Peter and Susan assumed that Lucy’s Narnia was unreal
6. All four children found themselves in Narnia
7. The four learned about Narnia while visiting Mr. And Mrs. Beaver
8. Edmund sneaked away to betray the others to the White Witch
9. Edmund made his way to the Witch’s castle and became captive there
10. As the children and the Beavers fled, Father Christmas arrived with gifts
11. The Witch discover that her perpetual winter was beginning to thaw
12. Aslan appeared, greeted his friend ands knighted Peter
13. The Witch demand her right to kill Edmund
14. Aslan gave himself to the Witch to die in Edmund’s place
15. Aslan came back to life
16. Aslan revived all victims of the Witch who had turned to statues
17. The children ruled Narnia for many happy years before returning to England
Prof. Digory
34
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Bible
Daughter of Eve (9,8)
Romans 5:12
I should live to see this day (68, 58)
Luke 2:30
Wrong will be right when. ..(74, 64)
Mat. 12:18-20
At the sound of his roar. ..(74, 64 )
Hosea 11:10-11
Sorrows will be no more (74,64)
Isaiah 65:19
When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone (76, 65 )
Genesis 2:23
They are tools, not toys ( 104, 87 )
Eph. 6:11-17
No need to talk about what is past ( 136, I 12)
Is. 65:16
Deep Magic ( 138, I 14)
I Corinthians 2:5-8
He just went on looking at Asian (138, 114)
Hebrews 12:2
I should be glad of company tonight (147, 121 )
Matthew 26:38
I am sad and lonely ( 147, 121 )
Matthew 26:38
Let him first be shaved (150,124)
Matthew 27:28
Jeering at him saying ( 150, 124 )
Matthew 27:29
In that knowledge, despair and die (152,126)
Matthew 27:46
Lucy and Mr. Tumnus
Warmth of his breath. ..came all over her (159,132) John 20:22
A magic deeper still ( 159, 132 )
I Corinthians 2:7-8
Asian provided food (178, 147)
John 6:1-14
He has other countries to attend to (180, 149)
John 10:16
35
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
The first of the adventures, after the creation of Narnia by Asian, began about sixty years later
when the four Pevensie children, Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy, left London because of airraids during the war and went to stay with old Professor Kirke in his great country mansion. One
day Lucy, while playing in an old wardrobe, accidentally discovered it was a doorway - one never
reached Narnia twice in the same way – to Narnia and eventually all four of the children got in.
Just inside was the lamp-post of Jadis the White Witch. She was now queen of Narnia, having
slain most of its inhabitants and turned its weather to perpetual winter yet with never any
Christmas.
Jadis had overcome most of Narnia and had as her henchmen a vast number of giants,
werewolves, …. bull-headed men, evil dwarfs. and spirits of evil trees and poisonous plants_ Even
though Jadis magically turned all her enemies to stone, there were many loyal Narnian talking
beasts hidden away and eager for her downfall. One of these was Tumnus the Faun, whose
friendship with Lucy brought on Jadis's wrath and lined up the forces of good and evil. Mr. and
Mrs. Beaver led the children southwards toward the Stone Table. They were followed by the
furious Jadis, who had learned of Asian's return to Narnia.
In the south, where once again spring had returned, Asian took Peter to a high hill and showed
him in the distance on a peninsula jutting into the sea the castle of Cair Paravel where he and the
other children were to reign. AsIan also predicted the death of Jadis. Meanwhile she and her
cohorts arrived at the Stone Table and she was about to kill Edmund,..now her prisoner, with her
stone knife when Aslan volunteered to die in his place and thus appease the Deep Magic involved.
That night Lucy and Susan met AsIan near the Stone Table, wept bitterly at the sadness in his
countenance, and later horrifiedly saw Aslan bound by his enemies, spit upon, jeered at, and
finally slain by the White Witch. At sunrise the Stone Table itself split into two great pieces. Later
Lucy and Susan returned sorrowfully to the dead body of their leader.
36
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Yet with the coming of daylight Lucy and Susan were overjoyed to hear a great voice behind
their backs and turning saw Aslan shining in the early sunrise. He was larger and more
more glorious than ever. When they inquired how he could be alive again, he told them it was
a very Deep Magic. After a happy romp, Aslan took the two girls upon his back and traveled
like the wind to the White Witch’s castle in the West. There he brought all the stone animals
back to life and laid her castle waste. Hurrying back eastward, they found peter and his
friends in deadly combat with the White Witch’ and her followers. The result was a complete
victory, Aslan himself joining the battle and slaying the White Witch herself.
Then Aslan and all the loyal inhabitants of Narnia took the children to Cair Paravel and
crowned them, and they grew up to be as dignified kings and queens as one could imagine.
Long afterwards while one day in the west hunting the White Stag, who could give you wishes
if you caught him, they came upon the lamp-post in the Lantern Waste. At first they did not
recognize it. Later they became convinced that if they passed the post they would either find
strange new adventures or else some great change in their fortunes. They passed through the
thicket in which the post was located and the next moment were children again among the
clothes hung in the wardrobe of the old professor's mansion. To their amazement they found
that though they had been in Narnia a great many years no earth time at all ‘had elapsed.
Old Professor Kirke comforted. them by saying, “Once a King in Narnia, always a King in
Narnia” and assuring them that sooner or later they would again discover an entrance to that
marvelous country.
37
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
"Have you forgotten the Deep Magic?" asked the Witch.
"Let us say I have forgotten it," answered Aslan gravely.
"Tell us of this Deep Magic."
"Tell you?" said the Witch, her voice growing suddenly
shriller. "Tell you what is written on that very Table of
Stone which stands behind us? Tell you what is written
in letters deep as a spear is long on the fire-stones on the
Secret Hill? Tell you what is engraved on the scepter of
the Emperor-beyond the sea? You at least know the
Magic which the Emperor put into Narnia at the very
beginning. You know that every traitor belongs to me as
my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a
right to a kill."
"Oh," said Mr. Beaver. "So that's how you came to
imagine yourself a queen -- because you were the
Emperor's hangman. I see."
(Deep Magic from The Dawn of Time)
38
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
"Oh, you're real, you're real! Oh, Aslan!" cried Lucy, and both girls flung
themselves upon him and covered him with kisses.
"But what does it all mean?" asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.
"It means, said Aslan, that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is
a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only
to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into
the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read
there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing
victim who has committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the
Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward."
(Deeper Magic From Before The Dawn of Time)
"Of course," said Aslan. "And now! Those who can't keep up - that is,
children, dwarfs, and small animals - must ride on the backs of those who
can - that is, lions, centaurs, unicorns, horses, giants and eagles. Those who
are good with their noses must come in the front with us lions to smell out
where the battle is. Look lively and sort yourselves."
And with a great deal of bustle and cheering they did. The most pleased of
the lot was the other lion who kept running about everywhere pretending to
be very busy but really in order to say to everyone he met, "Did you hear
what he said? Us Lions. That meant him and me. Us Lions. That's what I
like about Aslan. No side, no stand-off-ishness. Us Lions. That meant him
and me." At least he went on saying this till Aslan had loaded him up with
three dwarfs, one dryad, two rabbits, and a hedgehog. That steadied him a
bit."
(What Happened About The Statues)
And I saw a strong angel, who
shouted in a loud voice: "Who is
worthy to break the seals on this
scroll and unroll it?" But no one in
heaven or on earth or under the
earth was able to open the scroll
and read it. Then I wept because no
one could be found who was worthy
to open the scroll and read it. But
one of the twenty-four elders said
to me, "Stop weeping! Look, the
LION of the tribe of Judah, the heir
to David's throne has conquered.
He is worthy to open the scroll and
break the seven seals." Rev 5:2-5
And Aslan stood up and as he
opened his mouth to roar his face
became so terrible that they did not
dare to look at it. And they saw all
the trees in front of him bend
before the blast of his roaring as
the grass bends in a meadow before
the wind.
The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe
39
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
"Is--is he a man?" asked Lucy.
"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you
he is the King of the wood and the son of the great EmperorBeyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan
is a lion--the Lion, the great Lion."
"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he--quite safe? I
shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake,' said Mrs. Beaver, 'if
there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees
knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells
you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But
he's good. He's the King I tell you."
"I'm longing to see him," said Peter, "even if I do feel frightened
when it comes to the point.“
40
Christian Creed in Narnian terms:
I believe in the Emperor-beyond-the-Sea who has put within time the Deep Magic, and,
before all time, the Deeper Magic.
I believe in his Son Asian who sang into being all the worlds and all that they contain:
Talking Beasts and humans, dumb animals and shining spirits. And I believe that Asian was a
true beast, the king of beasts, a Lion; that for Edmund, a traitor because of his desire for
Turkish Delight, he gave himself" into the power of the White Witch, who satisfied the
requirements of the Deep Magic by killing him most horribly. At the dawn following that
darkest, coldest night, he was restored to full life by the Deeper Magic, cracking the Stone
Table and, from that moment, setting death to work backwards. He exulted in his new life
and went off to rescue all those who had been turned into stone by the Witch’s want and to
deliver the whole land from everlasting winter. He will be behind all the stories of our lives;
and, when it is time, he will appear again in our world to wind it up, calling all of his
creatures whose hearts' desire it is to live "farther in and farther up" in his country which
contains all real countries.
I believe that upon us all falls the breath of Asian and that ours are the sweet waters of the
Last Sea which enable us to look steadily at the sun. I believe that all who have thrilled or
will thrill at the sound of Asian's name are now our fellow voyagers and our fellow kings and
queens; that all of us can be for ever free of our dragonish thoughts and actions; and that one
day we will pass through the door of death into "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.” (Paul Ford)
41
Prince Caspian
"I say, Peter," whispered Edmund. "Look at those carvings on the walls.
Don't they look old? And yet we're older than that. When we were last here,
they hadn't been made."
"Yes," said Peter. "That makes one think."
(Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance)
"I am confounded," said Reepicheep to Aslan. "I am completely out of countenance. I must crave your indulgence
for appearing in this unseemly fashion."
"It becomes you very well, Small One," said Aslan.
"All the same," replied Reepicheep, "if anything could be done... Perhaps her Majesty?" and here he bowed to
Lucy.
"But what do you want with a tail?" asked Aslan.
"Sir," said the Mouse, "I can eat and sleep and die for my King without one. But a tail is the honor and glory of a
Mouse."
"I have sometimes wondered, friend," said Aslan, "whether you do not think too much about your honor."
"Highest of all High Kings," said Reepicheep, "permit me to remind you that a very small size has been bestowed
on us Mice, and if we did not guard our dignity, some (who weigh worth by inches) would allow themselves very
unsuitable pleasantries at our expenses. That is why I have been at some pains to make it known that no one who
does not wish to feel this sword as near his heart as I can reach shall talk in my presence about Traps or Toasted 42
Cheese or Candles: no, Sir - not the tallest fool in Narnia!" (Aslan Makes a door in the Air)
The Silver Chair
"Do you know the way to those new diggings, by which the sorceress meant to lead out an army
against Overland?"
"Ee-ee-ee!" squeaked Golg. "Yes, I know that terrible road. I will show you where it begins. But it
is no manner of use your Honor asking me to go with you on it. I’ll die rather."
"Why?" asked Eustace anxiously. "What’s so dreadful about it?"
"Too near the top, the outside," said Golg, shuddering. "That was the worst thing the Witch did
to us. We were going to be led out into the open--into the outside of the world. They say there’s no
roof at all there; only a horrible, great emptiness called the sky. And the diggings have gone so far
that a few strokes of the pick would bring you out to it. I wouldn’t dare to go near them."
"Hurrah!" Now you’re talking!" cried Eustace, and Jill said, "But it’s not horrid at all up there.
We like it. We live there."
"I know you Overlanders live there," said Golg. "But I thought it was because you couldn’t find
your way down inside. You can’t really like it--crawling about like flies on top of the world!"
The Bottom of the World
"Down there," said Golg, "I could show you real gold, real silver, real diamonds."
"Bosh!" said Jill rudely. "As if we didn’t know that we’re below the deepest mines even here."
"Yes," said Golg. "I have heard of those little scratches in the crust that you Topdwellers call
mines. But that’s where you get dead gold, dead silver, dead gems. Down in Bism we have them
alive and growing. There I’ll pick you bunches of rubies that you can eat and squeeze out a cupful
of diamond juice. You won’t care much about fingering the cold, dead treasures of your shallow
mines after you have tasted the live ones in Bism." The Bottom of the World
...After that, the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an
Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn’t much good even at that,
they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.
The Healing of Harms
43
The Last Battle
A false Aslan is roaming Narnia, commanding everyone to work for the cruel
Calormemes. Can Eustace and Jill find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land? The
last battle is the greatest of all and the final struggle between good and evil.
The Main Theme: Death to Life
Key Symbol: The Stable
Favorite Quotes
The Last Battle and the Bible:
Rev. 5:1-14
Trembled with a small earthquake (10,10)
Mark 13:8
Worst thing in the world (20, 20 )
Psalms 77:10
Is not like the Aslan (25,25 )
Psalms 77:10
By whose blood (33,33 )
Ephesians I :7
Seeing is believing ( 104, 99 )
John 20:25-29
Between the paws of the true Aslan(107,101)
Deuteronomy 33:27
Lovely fruit trees (135-137,127-129)
Revelation 22:2
A Stable once. ..inside (140-141, 133)
Luke 2:7
Well done (146,138)
Matthew 25:21
Stars will fall from heaven ( 150-1 51, 142-143 )
Mark 13:25
Moon … looked red (156,148)
Joel 2:31
To know more of him (162,154)
Phil. 3:10
To look upon his face (162,154)
Ps. 27:8
Though he should slay me (163, 155)
Job 13:15
No one get hot or tired (171, 1620
Is. 40:31
One can’t feel afraid (173,164)
I John 4:18
44
The Last Battle
"You will go to your death, then," said Jewel.
"Do you think I care if Aslan doomes me to death?"
said the King. "That would be nothing, nothing at all.
Would it not be better to be dead than to have this
horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the
Aslan we have believed in and longed for? It is as if
the sun rose one day and were a black sun."
"I know," said Jewel. "Or if you drank water and it
were dry water. You are in the right, Sire. This is the
end of all things."
(The Ape in Its Glory)
"There! You see!" said the Ape. "It's all arranged. And
all for your own good. We'll be able, with the money
you earn, to make Narnia a country worth living in.
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."
"But we don't want all those things," said an old Bear.
"We want to be free. And we want to hear Aslan
speak himself."
"Now don't you start arguing," said the Ape, "for it's a
thing I won't stand. I'm a Man: you're only a fat,
stupid old Bear. What do you know about freedom?
You think freedom means doing what you like. Well,
you're wrong. That isn't true freedom. True freedom
means doing what I tell you."
(The Ape in Its Glory)
When, Where
1. Trouble in Narnia, Chapters 1-4: three weeks
2. Hope from our World, Chapters 5-8: less than 48 hours
3. Utter Hopelessness on the Stable Hill, Chapters 9-12: one night
4. Farther Up and Further In, Chapters 13-15: timelessness
45
The Last Battle
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 gray 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,
streching them 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 whither
beneath it.
After one look at it Puzzle gave a screaming bray and darted into the Tower. And Jill (who was no coward, as you know) hid her face
in her hands to shut out the sight of it. The others watched it for perhaps a minute, until it streamed away into the thicker trees on
their right and disappeared. Then the sun came out again, and the birds once more began to sing.
Everyone started breathing properly again and moved. They had all been still as statues while it was in sight.
"What was it?" said Eustace in a whisper.
"I have seen it once before," said Tirian. "But that time it was carved in stone and overlaid with gold and had solid diamonds for
eyes. It was when I was no older than thou, and had gone as a guest to The Tisroc's court in Tashbaan. He took me into the great
temple of Tash. Then I saw it, carved abbove the altar."
"Then that--that thing--was Tash?" said Eustace.
But instead of answering him Tirian slipped his arm behind Jill's shoulders and said "How is it with you, Lady?"
"A-all right," said Jill, taking her hands away from her pale face and trying to smile. "I'm all right. It only made me feel a little sick
for a moment."
"It seems, then," said the Unicorn, "that ther is a Tash, after all."
"Yes," said the Dwarf. "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."
"Where has it--he--the Thing--gone to?" said Jill.
"North into the heart of Narnia," said Tirian. "It has come to dwell among us. They have called it and it has come."
"Ho, ho, ho!" chuckled the Dwarf, rubbing his hairy hands together. "It will be a surprise for the Ape. People shouldn't call for
demons unless they really mean what they say."
(What News the Eagle Brought)
46
The Last Battle
"...And the other sight, five leagues nearer than Cair
Paravel, was Roonwit the Centaur lying dead with a
Calormene arrow in his hide. 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."
(What News the Eagle Brought)
"I almost wish--no I don't, though," said Jill.
"What were you going to say?"
"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 bath-chair and then die in the end just
the same."
(The Great Meeting on Stable Hill)
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The Last Battle
Tirian looked and saw the queerest and most ridiculous thing you can imagine. Only a few yards
away, clear to be seen in the sunlight, there stood up a rough wooden door and, round it, the
framework of the doorway: nothing else, no walls, no roof. He walked toward it, bewildred, and
the others followed, watching to see what he would do. He walked round to the other side of the
door. But it looked just the same from the other side: he was still in the open air, on a summer
morning. The door was simply standing up by itself as if it had grown there like a tree.
"Fair Sir," said Tirian to the High King, "this is a great marvel."
"It is the door you came through with the Calormene five minutes ago," said Peter smiling.
"But did I not come in out of the wood into the stable? Whereas this seems to be a door leading
from nowhere to nowhere."
"It looks like that if you walk round it," said Peter. "But put your eye to that place where ther is a
crack between two of the planks and look through."
Tirian put his eye to the hole. At first he could see nothing but blackness. Then, as his eyes grew
used to it, he saw the dull red glow of a bonfire that was nearly going out, and above that, in the
black sky, stars. Then he could see dark figures moving about or standing between him and the
fire: he could hear them talking and their voices were like those of Calormenes. So he knew that
he was looking out through the stable door into the darkness of Lantern Waste where he had
found his last battle. The men were discussing whether to go in and look for Rishda Tarkaan (but
none of them wanted to do that) or set fire to the stable.
He looked around again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue sky overhead, and
grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every direction, and his new friends all round
him laughing.
"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."
(How The Dwarfs Refused To Be Taken In)
48
The Last Battle
Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast
appeared on the Dwarfs' knees: pies and tongues and pigeons and trifles and
ices, and each Dwarf had a goblet of good wine in his right hand. But it
wasn't much use. They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was
clear that they couldn't taste it properly. They thought they were eating and
drinking only the sort of things you might find in a stable. One said he was
trying to eat hay and another said he got a bit of an old turnip and a third said
he'd found a raw cabbage leaf. And they raised golden goblets of rich red
wine to their lips and said "Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough
that a donkey's been at! Never thought we'd come to this." But very soon
every Dwarf began suspecting that every other Dwarf had found something
nicer than he had, and they started grabbing and snatching, and went on to
quarreling, till in a few minutes there was a free fight and all the good food
was smeared on their faces and clothes or trodden under foot. But when at
last they sat down to nurse their black eyes and their bleeding noses, they all
said:
"Well, at any rate there's no Humbug here. We haven't let anyone take us in.
The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs."
"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 cannot be taken
out."
(How The Dwarfs Refused To Be Taken In)
49
The Last Battle
"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
Narnia. Think of all that lies dead and frozen behind that door."
"Yes and I did hope," said Jil, "that it might go on forever. 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.
(Night Falls on Narnia)
It is hard to explain how this sunlit land was different from the old Narnia as it would be to tell you how the fruits of that
country taste. Perhaps you will get some idea of it if you think like this.You may have been in a room in which there was
a window that looked out on a lovely bay of the sea or a green valley that wound away among mountains. And in the
wall of that room opposite to the window there may have been a looking-glass. And as you turned away from the
window you suddenly caught sight of that sea or that valley, all over again, in the looking- glass. And the sea in the
mirror, or the valley in the mirror, were in one sense just the same as the real ones: yet at the same time they were
somehow different--deeper, more wonderful, more like places in a story: in a story you have never heard but very much
want to know. The difference between the old Narnia was like that. The new one was a deeper country: every rock and
flower and blade of grass looked as if it meant more. I can't describe it any better than that: if you ever get there you will
know what I mean.
It was the Unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right forehoof 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!"
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One of these days, we are going to be in the Father's house. That is the Christian's certain
destiny. We are going to be together forever. We will see, in their redeemed bodies, our
loved ones who have gone on before us. One day we are going to step into eternity, like
Enoch did, and pass from this life to the next. Death, the thing that we dread so much, will
be a mere transition. And the Lord will be there to greet us and gather us into the Father's
house, where there is warmth and security and nothing to fear.
C. S. Lewis, in his final children's book, The Last Battle, describes it this way:
"There was a railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you
are--as you used to call it in the shadowlands--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 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 have 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 forever: in which every chapter is better
than the one before.
That is why Paul says in 1 Thess 4:18:
"Therefore comfort one another with these words."
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Conclusion
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