Hello, hello, fellow Narniacs! Welcome to the 2026 summer challenge. The goal is to read two chapters of The Last Battle per day, then share reflections in this thread with each other. A "reflection" can be anything that expresses what you read in that day, be it poetry, artwork, philosophical musings -- whatever the text inspires in you! Please remember to abide by TLC's forum guidelines, including running links by staff members for approval prior to posting.
Our schedule is as follows:
Aug 10 - Ch 1-2
Aug 11 - Ch 3-4
Aug 12 - Ch 5-6
Aug 13 - Ch 7-8
Aug 14 - Ch 9-10
Aug 15 - Ch 11-12
Aug 16 - break or catch-up day
Aug 17 - 13-14
Aug 18 - 15-16
Further up and further in!
Shifting Puzzle (Chapter 1)
Shifting words and shifting shapes,
Rejoicing in the lie he spins;
Devilish clever when he apes
To call his harried servants friends.
Send his doting donkey down
Where the freezing currents roll,
Then send again to go to town
And make a mask of all his toil.
Watch the trap close fast around him,
By the Lion's mane.
Bound in falsehood, sink or swim
For some petty gain.
Ooh, very good, Lily! I especially like the first stanza -- it's just so evocative!
I had intended to get my reading in tonight, but things came up and I couldn't, so I'll have to shoot for tomorrow night or Wednesday, as time permits.
Thanks!
And good to hear from you, regardless. I'll keep up with my end and look forward to when you have the opportunity to chime in!
Chapter 1:
What struck me first and immediately this go-'round was the isolation of Shift and Puzzle's "neighbourhood". While they're not completely alone out by Cauldron Pool, Lewis makes it very, very clear that this neck of the woods is not much populated.
And that environment is fertile for Shift's machinations.
Out there, he can devise his plans in the quiet, sew a lion skin into a donkey's coat in broad daylight, and all the more easily lead Puzzle astray. The lattermost point especially impressed itself on me with remembrance of Proverbs 11:14: "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety." Puzzle, while not without contact with other people, spends the great majority of his time with Shift and only Shift, never hearing wisdom from anyone else, never able to witness someone challenging Shift on his ideas, and unable to withstand a challenge himself.
I admit I hadn't really thought about the isolation aspect, just that the Ape was a very bad friend. But Puzzle might have had more spine to stand up with, as well, if he had any friends who weren't bullies.
I have my Chapter 3 reaction, but may take a bit pulling together the other ones.
(Chapter 3)
Take away the winter stores–
Twill be no Winter, anyhow,
In this land where truth is lie,
And light is dark,
And water dry.
What right have seasons
Still to turn,
If Aslan is an evil one?
If all the blooded sacrifice
Ever done under a distant sun
Be in his name?
Hush Lamb, a Lion speaks–
Power to pillage, in Ape made man.
(Chapter 4)
The Lion walks stiff and strange, as in a night mare
Beneath the flare of murdered brushwork fire.
His subjects, so afraid, have no space to think it odd,
That this creature with so little grace, half-hidden face, should be their god.
Only the fallen king bound to the tree
Seems to have distance enough to see.
I do love me some contrast, and both of your poems for 3 and 4 achieved that.
Chapter 2:
Perhaps I'll end up with a theme of impressions centered around single words this year, for the one that came up often as I read was "clarity". Some of this chapter is crystal clear: Roonwit's warning, the stars' tidings, the dryad's petition for help. Some of it -- mostly involving Tirian and Jewel as they try to process new developments -- is completely lacking in clarity: rumours and lies, an unfamiliar "Aslan", righteous anger turned to blinding fury.
Chapter 3:
Yup, this one-word thing is here to stay. This one is "honour", though there's a great deal more dishonour in this chapter.
Tirian and Jewel are dishonoured knights. Rishda snatches away Tirian's crown (which is likely motivated by self-interest, but also incidentally keeps it away from Shift, who's got a paper crown). Shift's self-inflations are an insult to both Man and Ape. Rishda crows about his prisoners as if he had anything to do with it; Shift doesn't even consider them worthy of interest. His "sagacious" self, in the pursuit of his personal pleasures, leads to robbing the Squirrels of what's left of their stores because new nuts are not in season... and then gutting Narnia entirely to enrich himself. He keeps "Aslan" in a pokey, old stable and puts as good as no effort into trying to sound like an actual "mouthpiece of Aslan", to say nothing of the whole "Aslan is Tash, Tash is Aslan" business. Rishda (as is made all the clearer later) has no honour for his own god.
But even in the midst of all this dishonour, there is a little honour left. Tirian and Jewel seek justice. They, while confused and pained, still desire to serve the Lion they love. The assembled Narnians show distress when they recognize who the prisoners are (and some later come to succour Tirian). The Lamb dares to challenge the "unity" of Aslan and Tash, as does Tirian though he doesn't get a chance to give voice to it.
(Still catching up I'm afraid)
(Chapter 5-6)
Find friends and truth in the dark of night.
Shed disguise by unexpected light.
For a moment, grasp your hope:
Breath free air near the end of your rope.
Is this enough the wicked scheme's undone?
Could it be the battle's so close to won?
(As am I.)
Very nicely done!
Chapter 4:
The word for this chapter is "little". The little tickle that Tirian couldn't rid himself of. The little Beasts who came to help him in their little (but significant) way. The little bits that Tirian heard of the goings-on on Stable Hill. The little details about the questionable "Aslan". And, most importantly, Tirian's little seed of faith. That seed, though tiny and frail in the midst of doubt and fear, grows in this dark moment as he remembers the history of Narnia and how Aslan was intertwined in saving it again and again. "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." Matthew 13:31-32
Chapter 5:
Just a small one for this chapter: "wonder". Jill and Eustace's sudden appearance from another world and their tales about significant figures in Narnia's history as alive and very much on familiar terms are certainly a wonderment to Tirian! Even while Eustace was telling his story about how they got to Narnia (or rather, how they tried to get to Narnia), I thought of how it must have sounded to Tirian.
The Dwarves
(Chapter 7)
Free from the lie,
Only one comes back for thanks –
like a leper healed –
all others march to the same drum,
Deeper into the dark.
I like the comparison to the one grateful leper, Lily!
Chapter 6:
What struck me on this reading was everyone's experience. Tirian obviously has had all his martial training and such other experience as is helpful to setting up their disguises. Eustace is good enough with the Narnian sword that he must unlearn all that. And Jill... well. She's quite the standout. She is noted for her decent archery (granted we don't have any remark on Eustace's skill, as he was not tested), is simply superb at woodcraft as a result of her Guiding in England and apparently good memory of the stars from her last visit, and the guts (for good or ill, depending on who you ask) to sneak into the stable for a little reconnaissance and capture.
Chapter 7:
"Enlightenment", in the sense that everyone believes himself enlightened. Oh, the Ape lied, did he? Noted. Oh, you have the false Aslan on hand, do you? Nice, nice. Oh, you haven't got the real Aslan on hand, eh? Tough breaks. Well, don't you see, that must mean there is no Aslan at all. No, siree, we won't be taken in again: we have been enlightened. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." Psalm 14:1
The same self-deception applies to Rishda and Ginger about Tash. False god though he is, he is a real entity in that world, and they believe themselves enlightened in believing otherwise. To their detriment, as the story goes on.
Chapter 8:
I was struck by the sense of foreshadowing in this chapter. First as pertains to Tash and those who called on him without belief. Then both to the "good, ordinary times" with "every day and week better than the last", and to the ending of all worlds except Aslan's Country. (Interesting that in VDT and SC, Aslan's Country is not seen as its own world in the way it's referred to here.) Then to the fall of Narnia and Roonwit's exhortation about noble deaths.
Ending Days
(Chapter 8)
8/17/26
Look back across the breadth of time–
The feasts, the dances, richest lore–
Gentle joys without a crime,
And know this is no more.
No more! The days of hope and ease,
Between the hard adventures’ march.
No more radiant Sun to please
The eye after a long hard watch.
On the wings of Eagles comes
The awful news, the knell of doom.
A demon stalks to meet war drums,
As seen by the last guests from Spare Oom.
On Stable Hill
(Chapters 9-10)
8/17/26
The net tightens,
As puppeteers twine their strings.
The hour ripens
And an old, wild fear sings
Of the brute beast beneath every skin
After the canny cat climbs in
And scatters, caterwauling terror.
The wrong man falls down dead.
There is something getting in your head–
Some truth you almost know.
The stable door stands like a maw.
The Horses
(Chapter 11)
8/18/26
Unbound at last, they come to your call.
They race, they bound – they scream – they fall.
Every last good and noble beast
Meets another arrow being released
By small nimble hands, and treacherous bows.
Why such needless deaths, nobody knows.
