Questions about The Last Battle

[SusanoftheSouthernSun]

I had a few questions about the last battle, some things I was mulling over. The major one though is the key. I know the door is locked, but is the door still there and if so, it is possible it will ever be opened again? I know it is about the second coming and the such, but I did wonder, what about those that believed and died after the events of the last battle? Would they just appear?

[Copperfox]

That is, for sure, one of Mr. Lewis' more ambiguous moments. My take on it is that, when Tirian and those with him entered the Stable, they skipped ahead in time. Back in the Narnian world, some sequence or other of events would have kept happening--probably involving Narnian holdouts making heroic stands here and there against the Calormene invaders. Whether any of these remaining Narnians were still alive at the moment Aslan awakened Father Time or not, their final destination would be the same: coming to that splitting of the ways that Mr. Lewis described, where all whose hearts were seeking Aslan in life entered into His Kingdom and everlasting joy.

[~Lava~]

All those who were in Narnia at all, left Narnia at the time of the Last Battle. If you read the book right, you will notice that Aslan calls all the Narnians to the door. No one is left in Narnia, that Narnia died. One was left in Narnia when Peter locked the door. Aslan called all to himself.

[PrinceOfTheWest]

I don't think I can agree with Copperfox's speculations. It's not that they specifically contradict anything in the book, it's that there's no support for them. The only mention that is made of what's going on in Narnia between the time Tirian comes through the Stable Door and Aslan reopens the door to initiate the apocolyptic ending events is when Tirian peeks through a crack in the door at Peter's behest. There he sees the embers of the bonfire dying on the same night as the Last Battle. The next time the door is mentioned, Aslan is "roaring" it open. I can't see any support in the text for the idea that any significant span of time passed between the two incidents.

I think this consistent with Lewis' view of Narnia, from front to back. Starting with Frank and Helen on the first day and ending with Tirian at the Last Battle, Narnia was ruled by rightfully appointed Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve. The exceptions were the 100 year winter, which Aslan also knew would come on the first day, and the Telmarine interregnum, which ended up producing a legitimate king anyway. However, with the ending of Narnia as an independent nation, the reason for that world was removed, and Aslan ended it. It wasn't like the Telmarine days, when a rightful king would someday reappear. A resistance would have been meaningless. It was time to close that book and begin a new one.

[~Lava~]

I agree with PotW on this. Aslan ended Narnia the Day after the fight at the Bonfire.