The Last Battle

The Twilight of Narnia

The Last Battle is the seventh and final book in C.S. Lewis's seminal The Chronicles of Narnia series. Published in 1956, it is arguably the darkest and most theological of the books, serving as the series' apocalyptic conclusion. The novel moves beyond simple fantasy adventure to explore profound themes of falsehood, skepticism, and the final destiny of all things, drawing heavily on biblical accounts of the end of the world and the Last Judgment.

Falsehood and the Calormene Threat

The story begins with Narnia facing its gravest crisis. A clever, wicked Ape named Shift dresses a simple donkey, Puzzle, in a lion skin and presents him to the Narnians as Aslan returned. This deception, aided by the hostile forces of Calormen, leads to widespread confusion and betrayal. The false Aslan is used to promote unjust and blasphemous commands, including a shocking claim that the Narnian god, Aslan, and the Calormene god, Tash, are one and the same: "Tashlan."

The protagonists, Tirian (the last King of Narnia) and the two children, Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb, return to Narnia to find the country in disarray. They must fight against both the deceptive propaganda of Shift and the outright invasion by the Calormene army, led by the cruel Rishda Tarkaan.

The Final Judgment and the New Narnia

The battle itself is a confused, bloody, and ultimately losing fight for the true Narnians. The war culminates in the stable, a place used by the Calormenes to present the false god. One by one, the characters are forced into the stable, which, surprisingly, becomes the gateway to Aslan’s Country (Heaven).

The world of Narnia then undergoes its final judgment. Aslan appears in full majesty, and all the creatures of Narnia are summoned before him. The novel's controversial yet powerful scene of the Judgment involves:

• The Unmaking of the World: The stars fall, the sun grows cold, and Father Time awakens to squeeze the dying sun, leading to the utter destruction of the old Narnia.

• The Entrance to True Narnia: Those who have been faithful to the spirit of Aslan, regardless of their knowledge or actions, are welcomed into a "New Narnia"—a transcendent, eternal reality that is more beautiful and "more real" than the one they left.

• The Revelation: The book ends with the joyous revelation that all the Pevensie children (except Susan, who is noted to have "stopped believing in Narnia"), along with Digory and Polly, have died in a train crash in the real world, and their entry into Aslan's Country is their true eternal home. This conclusion ties the entire series together by defining Narnia not just as a fantasy land, but as a temporary shadow of a greater, permanent reality.