The Chronicles of Narnia:The Last Battle

            The Last Battle is the seventh and final novel in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. Lewis was awarded the Carnegie Medal for the book in 1956.

           In The Last Battle, Lewis brings The Chronicles of Narnia to an end. The book deals with the end of time in the old Narnia and sums up the series by linking the experience of the human children in Narnia with their lives in their original world.

The story begins during the reign of the last king of Narnia, King Tirian, great-grandson of the great-grandson of Rilian, son of King Caspian X. Narnia has experienced a long period of peace and prosperity begun during the reign of King Caspian X. The book begins as a Centaur, Roonwit, comes to warn Tirian strange and evil things are happening to his land and that the stars portend ominous developments.

An ape named Shift has persuaded a well-meaning but simple donkey called Puzzle to dress in a lion's skin, and pretend to be the Great Lion Aslan. Puzzle, though reluctant, is tricked by Shift's assertion that it is not Shift but Aslan himself who is making the request of Puzzle. Shift, using Puzzle as his pawn, convinces the Narnians, both human and animal, that he speaks for Aslan. Once the Narnians have been convinced that Aslan has returned, Shift orders the Narnians to work for the Calormenes, and to cut down talking trees for lumber. The money will be paid into "Aslan's" treasury, held by Shift, on the pretext that it will be used for the good of the Narnians.

King Tirian and his friend Jewel the Unicorn at first also believe the rumors of Aslan's return, but realize the lie when they hear Shift telling the Narnians that Aslan and the Calormene god Tash are one and the same. When Tirian accuses the ape of lying, the Calormenes overpower the king and bind him to a tree. He calls on Aslan for help, and receives a vision of Digory Kirke, Polly Plummer, Peter Pevensie,Edmund Pevensie, Eustace Scrubb, Lucy Pevensie and Jill Pole, though he does not know who they are. The people in the room can also see him and, though Tirian can't speak to them, they guess that he's a messenger from Narnia. A few minutes later by Narnian time, Jill and Eustace arrive in Narnia. They release the King and rescue Jewel and Puzzle. A band of dwarfs are also rescued, but because their faith in Aslan has been shattered, they refuse to help, claiming "The dwarfs are for the dwarfs." Only one dwarf, Poggin, is faithful to Tirian, Aslan and Narnia and he joins them. Tirian and his small loyal force prepare to fight the Calormenes.

As the battle progresses, all of the animals are killed (many by the dwarfs, who attack both sides) and Eustace, Jill, and Poggin are thrown into the stable where the false Aslan was kept. Tirian, earlier on, had thrown Shift into the stable and Tash, who now haunted the stable, swallowed the ape whole. After Eustace, Jill, and Poggin are dragged into the stable, Tirian, left alone and fighting for his life, drags Rishda Tarkaan, the leader of the Calormenes, into the stable. Much to the Calormen leader's surprise and terror, a very real Tash appears, and snatches him up under an arm. Peter, Edmund, Eustace, Lucy, Jill, Polly, and Digory appear before them, (Susan does not appear in Narnia because she has stopped believing in it, thinking of it only as some silly childhood game) and Peter orders Tash to leave. Aslan appears and as they watch at the stable door, all of the people and animals, including those who had previously died, gather outside the barn and are judged by Aslan. Those who have been loyal to Aslan, or to the morality upheld by Narnians, join Aslan in Aslan's Country. Those who have opposed or deserted him do not pass through the door, rather, they become ordinary non-talking animals and fade into shadow and vanish to a fate unknown even to C.S. Lewis. As the children watch, all the vegetations are eaten by dragons, salamanders, and giant lizards and Father Time calls all the stars down from the skies into the sea, which rises to cover Narnia. Peter closes the door, and Aslan leads them away to his country.

The Chronicles of Narnia:The Magician's Nephew

               The Magician's Nephew is a fantasy novel for children written by C. S. Lewis. It was the sixth book published in his The Chronicles of Narnia series, but is the first in the chronology of the Narnia novels' fictional universe.

The novel begins in London in the early 1900s. The principal characters are two pre-adolescent children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, Digory being the boy who becomes the Professor Kirke appearing in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The pair are transported to other worlds by the magical experiments of Digory's selfish Uncle Andrew and become caught up in the creation of Narnia and the introduction there of the evil queen Jadis, antagonist of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Although begun shortly after The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the novel took Lewis nearly six years to complete, and includes a number of autobiographical elements from Lewis's own life. It explores several Christian themes, including atonement, original sin, temptation and the order of nature.

                 The story begins in London around 1900. Two children, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer, meet while playing in the adjacent gardens of a row ofterraced houses. They decide to explore an attic connecting the houses, but take the wrong door and surprise Digory's Uncle Andrew in hisstudy. Uncle Andrew, a bumbling yet malevolent magician, tricks Polly into touching a yellow magic ring, causing her to vanish. He thenblackmails Digory into rescuing Polly by using another yellow ring, while giving him two green rings for their return.

Digory finds himself in a wood among many pools of water, and is reunited with Polly. They discover that jumping into the water while wearing a green ring takes them to a different universe, and Digory convinces Polly to explore further worlds.

After marking the pool leading back to Earth, they enter a pool leading to a crumbling palace among the ruins of the ancient world of Charn. They find a hall lined with statues of former rulers, progressing from the fair and wise to the proud and cruel. They also find a bell, marked by a sign that dares one to ring the bell while warning against doing so. Digory falls for the taunt and rings the bell against Polly's wishes. Its sound awakens the last of the statues, the evil Queen Jadis.

The Queen describes a final war between herself and her sister. When defeat seemed certain, Jadis spoke the Deplorable Word, destroying all life on Charn and leaving her to become Queen of a dead world. She cast a spell to petrify herself until the bell was rung. Realising her evil nature, the children flee back through the wood to home, but Jadis follows and is pulled with them to London.

Digory and Polly finally succeed in extracting Jadis from London, but their return to the wood also brings along Uncle Andrew, a cab driver named Frank, and his horse, Strawberry. Digory leads them into the nearest pool, believing it would lead to Charn, but they find instead an empty blackness, which Jadis recognises as a world not yet created. They hear singing, which causes stars to appear and the sun to rise. The singer is Aslan, the great Lion. Aslan breathes life into the world, causing animals and plants to emerge from the earth. Jadis attacks Aslan, but finding the lion invulnerable, she flees. Aslan selects some animals to become intelligent talking beasts, giving them authority over the dumb beasts.

Aslan offers Digory the opportunity to atone for bringing the evil of Jadis into Narnia, and sends him and Polly upon Strawberry, whom he transforms into a talking winged horse, Fledge. They fly to a mountain to retrieve a magic apple from a walled garden where they find Jadis, who has eaten one of the apples, thereby gaining eternal youth. She tempts Digory to eat an apple or to use it to cure his dying mother. Although sorely tempted, Digory refuses, believing that his mother would not condone theft.

Upon their return, Aslan congratulates Digory and tells him to plant the apple. Aslan then crowns Frank and his wife Helen (whom Aslan transports from Earth) King and Queen of Narnia. The apple grows into a tree, which Aslan explains will protect Narnia from the Witch for a time. He also explains that a stolen apple would have cured his mother, but at a terrible price; and gives Digory an apple from the tree to save his mother. Upon returning to London Digory cures his mother with the apple and then buries the core in his back yard. He also buries the rings around the apple core to prevent their misuse.

The apple core grows into a tree, and years later the tree is blown down in a storm. Digory has it made into a wardrobe, linking the narrative to the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which Digory is the "old professor" in whose country house Lucy Pevensie finds the wardrobe and the way into Narnia.

The Chronicles of Narnia:The Horse and His Boy

                    The Horse and His Boy is a novel by C. S. Lewis. It was published in 1954, making it the fifth of seven books published in Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. The books in this series are sometimes ordered chronologically in relation to the events in the books as opposed to the dates of their original publication. In this alternate ordering, The Horse and His Boy is the third book, being a midquel of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Although it was published after The Silver Chair, it was written before it, so in written order it is fourth. The story is also referred to as a story-within-a-story in the fourth published book, The Silver Chair. The Horse and His Boy is the only Narnia book which does not feature children from our world as the story's main characters, although the adult Queen Lucy, Queen Susan, and King Edmund (all of whom first appear in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) do appear in the book, and the dynamics of the story develop from Susan's interactions. Peter, the High King, does not appear in the book but is mentioned.

               A young boy called Shasta is found as a baby and raised by Arsheesh, a Calormene fisherman. As the story begins, Shasta overhears Arsheesh agreeing to sell him to a powerful Calormene feudal noble. Shasta has never really loved the fisherman (and vice versa) and is relieved to discover that he is not really Arsheesh's son, and awaits his new master in the donkey stable outside the fisherman's house. The noble's stallion, Bree, astounds Shasta by speaking to him, and suggesting that they escape a life of servitude together by riding north for Narnia. They meet another pair of escaping travellers, Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat, and her talking horse, Hwin. Aravis is fleeing a forced marriage to theTisroc's grand vizier.

The four must travel through Tashbaan, the bustling capital city of Calormen. There they encounter a procession of visiting Narnian royalty, who mistake Shasta for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who has disappeared from their group earlier that day. Shasta is too scared to protest, and goes with the Narnians. He overhears them discussing their escape from Tashbaan and Calormen in order to prevent Rabadash from forcing Queen Susan to marry him. When Shasta is alone, the real Prince Corin reappears and Shasta escapes.

Meanwhile, Aravis has been spotted by her noblewoman friend Lasaraleen and must ask Lasaraleen to not only keep silent about Aravis's identity but help her escape. Lasaraleen agrees, although she cannot understand why Aravis would want to leave the life of a Calormene princess. She helps Aravis to escape through the palace, but they are forced to take refuge when the Tisroc, Rabadash and the Grand Vizier approach. Unfortunately, they've hidden in the very room in which the men are about to meet. Aravis overhears the Tisroc and Rabadash discussing the Narnians' escape and the Tisroc giving Rabadash permission to invade Archenland in preparation for attacking Narnia.

Outside the city, Aravis rejoins Shasta and the Horses. The four of them make an unpleasant journey across the desert and a pursuing lion (later revealed to be Aslan) frightens the travellers into fleeing swiftly enough to outrun Rabadash's army, allowing Shasta to reach King Lune in time to warn him of the approaching Calormenes. The Archenland army prepares their defenses against the Calormenes until a second army from Narnia can arrive. King Lune of Archenland recognizes Shasta as Cor, the long-lost elder twin of Prince Corin and therefore heir to the throne. Aravis and Cor live in Archenland thereafter and eventually marry years later. It is stated in tongue-in-cheek manner that the marriage enables them to argue more efficiently. It is also stated that their son becomes the most famous king of Archenland.

The Cronicles of Narnia:The Silver Chair

          The Silver Chair is part of The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of seven fantasy novels written by C. S. Lewis. It was the fourth book published and is the sixth book chronologically. It is the first book of two in the series in which the Pevensie children do not appear 

          The story begins when Eustace Scrubb, introduced in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, meets classmate Jill Pole at their school, Experiment House. At Eustace's suggestion, they ask for Aslan's help while trying to escape from a gang of bullies, and blunder through a gate that leads them intoAslan's Country. Shortly before, Eustace had told Jill that he had been "out of this world" to a land called Narnia, and his experiences there had been the explanation for a change in his behaviour that everyone had noticed.

Jill shows off by approaching a high cliff's edge, and Eustace falls over trying to pull her back. Aslan then appears and saves Eustace by blowing him to Narnia, then charges Jill with helping Eustace find the Narnian Prince Rilian, who had disappeared some years prior and gives Jill four "Signs", to guide her and Eustace on their quest: of these Signs, the fourth and final is that at a key moment they will be asked to do something in Aslan's name. Aslan then blows Jill into Narnia, where she arrives a few moments after Eustace just as an elderly and frail King Caspian X sets sail east to search for Aslan one last time. The Lord Regent, Trumpkin the Dwarf, gives them room in Cair Paravel. Once there, they are aided by Master Glimfeather and a Parliament of his fellow talking owls (a pun on Chaucer'sParlement of Foules, but also a nod towards the use of the word "parliament" as a collective noun for owls, as "exaltation" is for larks). The owls explain that Rilian disappeared while searching for the green serpent that killed his mother, and is under the spells of an enchantress.

Jill and Eustace journey toward the far north of Narnia with a gloomy but stalwart Marsh-wiggle, appropriately named Puddleglum. The three cross the River Shribble, which marks the boundary between Narnia proper and the lands of the giants. The first giants they encounter do not notice them (fortunately), but are playing: they are throwing huge boulders at a rock-cairn near the trio. Narrowly escaping from these giants, they continue north to a deep and sinister canyon. The sole route across this barrier is an enormous sinister bridge, many times larger in scale than anything a human might normally use.

After they cross the bridge, hungry and suffering from exposure, they meet The Lady of the Green Kirtle, who encourages them to proceed northward to Harfang, a castle belonging to the "Gentle Giants". Jill, Eustace and Puddleglum are given a warm welcome by the giants, who are in active preparation for Harfang's "Autumn Feast". Refreshed by a sleep in shelter, they look out the window and see the words "Under Me", which they recognize as Aslan's third Sign. Upon discovering that the giants are planning to eat them for the Autumn Feast, Scrubb, Pole, and Puddleglum escape from the castle, force themselves into a small nearby cave and slide down a long dark slope to the Underland. They are in darkness, battered and bruised, but they have at least, now followed the Sign that said "Under Me".

They are soon found by an army of gnomes, whose leader instructs them to come with him. They eventually board a boat and row across a "Sunless Sea" to the city ruled by the Lady of the Green Kirtle and a young man being raised by the Lady as a protegé. The young unnamed man treats the travellers pleasantly but does not seem to be right in the head; he himself explains that he suffers from nightly psychotic episodes. During these episodes he must, by the Lady's orders, be bound to a silver chair; if he is released, he will turn into a deadly greenserpent and kill everyone in sight. The threesome determine to witness the youth in his torment, which they sense could be a key to their quest.

As Pole, Scrubb, and Puddleglum witness the young man tied to his chair, his "ravings" seem to indicate desperate health within an enchanted captivity. Finally, after launching a battery of dire threats, the youth begs his companions to release him in the name of Aslan.

Recognizing the fourth Sign, they do so. Far from killing them and turning into a serpent, the young man thanks them and reveals himself to be the vanished Prince Rilian, kept underground by the Lady of the Green Kirtle for sinister purposes. His rescuers introduce themselves, and the next thing Rillian wants to know is whether his father is still alive. Puddleglum informs Rillian that his father still lives, but is old and frail.

The Green Lady then returns and tries to bewitch them all into forgetting who they are and where they are from. The barefoot Puddleglum stamps out the enchantress's magical fire and breaks her spell. The enraged Lady transforms into a green serpent after Puddleglum berates her, and Rilian realizes that he has been enslaved for all these years by his mother's murderer. Rilian kills the serpent,^[1] and leads the travellers in their escape from the Underworld. The gnomes, who were also magically enslaved by the Lady and are now freed by her death, disclose that they have been kidnapped from their home even deeper in earth, a land named Bism. The gnome shows the party a route upward out of the Underworld, before returning to his native land below. Rilian returns to Cair Paravel as King Caspian returns home and meets his long-lost son just before dying.

Aslan appears and congratulates Eustace and Jill on achieving their goal, then returns them to his country at the stream where Jill first met Aslan. The body of King Caspian appears in the stream and Aslan instructs Eustace to run a thorn into the lion's paw. Eustace obeys, and Aslan's blood flows over the dead King, who is revived and returned to youth. Aslan explains that when Jill and Eustace return to their own world, Caspian will go with them briefly, to help set things right there. At the portal between the worlds, Aslan roars, and part of the wall surrounding Experiment House collapses. Caspian, Eustace and Jill cross the wall and frighten the school bullies away. The beaten bullies run back towards the school in terror, having also seen Aslan. In the confusion Eustace and Jill sneak back into the school building and change into their school clothes while Aslan and Caspian return to Aslan's country.

The Cronicles of Narnia:The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader^[1] is a fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis. Written in 1950, it was published in 1952 as the third book of The Chronicles of Narnia.

               The two youngest Pevensie children, Lucy and Edmund, are staying with their cousin Eustace Scrubbwhile their older brother Peter is studying for his university entrance exams with Professor Kirke, and their older sister Susan is traveling through America. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are drawn into the Narnian world, literally pulled into a picture of a ship at sea. (The painting, hanging neglected in the guest bedroom that the Pevensie children were using, had been an unwanted present to Eustace's parents.) The three children land in the water near the pictured vessel, the titular Dawn Treader, and are taken aboard.

The Dawn Treader is the ship of Caspian X, King of Narnia, who was the key character in the previous book (Prince Caspian). Edmund and Lucy (along with Peter and Susan) helped him gain the throne from his evil uncle Miraz.

Three years have passed since then, peace has been established in Narnia, and Caspian has undertaken his oath to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. Lucy and Edmund are delighted to be back in Narnia, but Eustace is less enthusiastic, as he has never been there before and had taunted his cousins with his belief that the country never existed. The talking mouse Reepicheep is also on board, as he hopes to find Aslan's country beyond the seas of the "utter East".

They first make landfall in the Lone Islands, nominally Narnian territory but fallen away from Narnian ways: in particular the slave trade flourishes here, despite Narnian law stating that it is forbidden. Caspian, Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Reepicheep are captured as merchandise by a slave trader, and a man "buys" Caspian before they even reach the slave market. He turns out to be the first lost lord, Lord Bern, who moved to the islands and married a woman there after being banished from Narnia by Miraz. When Caspian reveals his identity, Bern acknowledges him as King. Caspian reclaims the islands for Narnia, and replaces Gumpas, the greedy governor, with Lord Bern, whom he names Duke of the Lone Islands.

At the second island they visit, Eustace leaves the group to avoid doing any work, and hides in a dead dragon's cave to escape a sudden downpour. The dragon's treasure arouses his greed: he fills his pockets with gold and jewels and puts on a large golden bracelet; but as he sleeps, he is transformed into a dragon. As a dragon, he becomes aware of how bad his previous behaviour was, and uses his strength to help make amends. Aslan turns Eustace back into a boy, now a much nicer person. Caspian recognizes the bracelet when Eustace is finally able to get it off: it belonged to Lord Octesian, another of the lost lords. They speculate that the dragon killed Octesian — or even that the dragon wasOctesian.

They make stops at Burnt Island; at Deathwater Island (so named for a pool of water which turns everything immersed in it into gold, including one of the missing lords who turns out to have been Lord Restimar); at the Duffers' Island; and at the Island Where Dreams Come True — called the Dark Island since it is permanently hidden in darkness. They rescue a desperate Lord Rhoop from this last. Eventually they reach the Island of the Star, where they find the three remaining lost lords in enchanted sleep. Ramandu, the fallen star who lives on the island, tells them that the only way to awaken them is to sail to the edge of the world and there to leave one member of the crew behind.

The Dawn Treader continues sailing into an area where merpeople dwell and the water turns sweet rather than salty. At last the water becomes so shallow that the ship can go no farther. Caspian orders a boat lowered and announces that he will go to the world's end with Reepicheep. The crew object, saying that as King of Narnia he has no right to abandon them. Caspian goes to his cabin in a temper, but returns to say that Aslan appeared in his cabin and told him that only Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, and Reepicheep will go on.

These last venture in a small boat through an ocean of flowers until they reach a wall of water that extends into the sky. Fulfilling Ramandu's condition, Reepicheep paddles his coracle up the waterfall and is never again seen in Narnia (Lewis hints that he reaches Aslan's country). Edmund, Eustace, and Lucy find a lamb, who transforms into Aslan and tells them that Edmund and Lucy will not return to Narnia – that they should learn to know him by another name in their own world. He then sends the children home.

In their own world, everyone remarks on how Eustace has changed and "you'd never know him for the same boy" - although his mother does not acknowledge this and belives that Edmund and Lucy have been a bad influence on him.

Back in Narnia, Caspian marries Ramandau's daughter, and the three sleeping lords awaken.