Confused....(*SPOILERS*)

WARNING SPOLIERS! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE WHOLE SERIES ALREADY!!!!!!!!!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
I read Narnia for the first time about 20 years ago when I was a kid, now I just re-read the series.

The first time through, I never caught this, but in the last book, the last page, Aslan seems to imply that they have been dead all along?? Am I missing something here? have they truely been dead? Is Narnia Heaven?

That is a good one. In the other books the children enter into Narnia (body and soul). In the last book Jill and Srubb are dead in the body and I guess only spiritually enter Narnia. Aslan appears to have a mission for the two before the enter heaven, which includes the new Narnia. But as I always say, "Don't get technical".

Welcome, Dragonlorn! I didn't see you post before.

They weren't "dead all along," they died toward the end of TLB, but their death just released them to eternal life in the true Narnia.

oh ok...so they died right before the end of the last book in a train wreck on Earth? How come there is nothing in the books referring to their deaths? Seems like a strange way to kill off the characters.

And Susan denounced Narnia, right?

Very strange ending....

The kids do talk about the way they were blasted into Narnia was different than any time before, that they thought it was some kind of explosion or accident, and then found themselves in this new place. And one of them, I forget who, says it would be just as well to die there as get smashed up on the British railways -- it's kind of foreshadowing or something. The point Lewis was trying to make, I think, was that for those who serve Aslan, the means of death itself was trivial, the "real life" beyond this earth was the important thing.

What I found fascinating was that Jill and Eustace enter Narnia quite a while before the Pevensies, in Narnian time. Yet in English time, Jill and Eustace only died mere seconds before Peter, Edmund, and Lucy.

Starkist said:

What I found fascinating was that Jill and Eustace enter Narnia quite a while before the Pevensies, in Narnian time. Yet in English time, Jill and Eustace only died mere seconds before Peter, Edmund, and Lucy.

Click to expand...

Right, it's that muddle about the times again ...
(One of the characters says that in one of the books ...)

As I understand it, Jill and Scrubb (I don't believe) actually died on the train. I think they were pulled to Narnia right before the crash happened. Thus, they could be In Narnia both body and soul. This was some short time before the rest all died in the crash, and came to the heaven!Narnia.

Once they went through the door into the stable, I believe they "died" as it were, as well as King Tirian, etc. At that point, their body was transported back to the train, with the usual muddle about times.

So they all died at the end and live in Narnia happily ever after?

Yeah -- that makes TLB a book our Johan and WHB can agree on:
1. Everybody dies
2. Everybody lives happily ever after.

HAHAHAHAH!!!!!!! Nice one Inky!

I wonder why Lewis choose an ending like this? I guess Aslan was watching over them while they were on "Earth". Once he saw what was about to happen, he transported them to Narnia?

Or did they actually DIE and their souls went to Narina(instead of Heaven?)

No, read carefully - Inkspot has it right. Their physical bodies were truly dead on earth, but their true identities did a waystop in the "more real" Narnia (the one behind the Stable Door) to help wrap up the "old Narnia". They all then proceeded "further up and further in" to the Garden - within which was an even more "real Narnia". Ultimately they went from there up to Aslan's Country, from which all countries spurred out.

And, of course, Aslan was always watching over them both in this world and in Narnia.

This is a difficult question. In the new Narnia that the older chilren (and the professor and Polly) entered at the time of the train accident and heaven that the Pevensie Parents go to, yes they died and there souls left them. But for Jill and Eutace it is different. Old Narnia is a physical world. The only way to get to it is by magic, but it is created and physical. So I feel a body is needed. So Jill's and Eutace's bodies may have been never found among all the remains. And they were just persumed died. We say the same about all those poor souls that lost their lives on 9/11. Many of their bodies never were identified. Lewis seems to say that when we die, our souls separate from our bodies and can enter certain higher realms (heaven and new earth as in the Bible, and Aslan's country and new Narnia as in the CON). You either have to die or be taken out (raptured) to get there. And you really can't come back as SC and LB seem to teach. When the children usually went to Narnia or Aslan's country by magic they keep their own bodies, but in these higher realms ("further up, further in" realms) where you enter by death or rapture (and permanent) you are either given new bodies or the old bodies take on the new. Of cource this is as unclear in the CON as in the Bible.

It is a difficult question, and I'm not sure Lewis thought it through completely - either that, or he presumed "different rules" applied because the end was so near. Remember, neither Scrubb, nor Pole, nor Tirian were killed - they were just tossed through the stable door. (in fact, they were explicitly not to be killed.) Yet they ended up in the same reality as Peter, Edmund, and the rest. Their bodies were not only taken with them, but immediately transformed, or at least cleaned.

Fortunately, we don't have to sweat this much. It's not like it's Scripture or anything, and if we can't find a clean, clear pattern, we can always throw up our hands and say, "It's just a story!"

Well, taking in to consideration that the time zones between the worlds are different, the others may have died before Scrubb and Pole. Or, alternately, there is always the will of Aslan.
However I don't think the ending of the chronicles does the rest of the books justice. It seems a terrible way to end it all.

inTHEwardrobe said:

However I don't think the ending of the chronicles does the rest of the books justice. It seems a terrible way to end it all.

Click to expand...

well said..

I loved the way it ended. Every time I read it (or listen to the audio dramas) I want to cry because it brings all of the characters from the books back together again. I think it was an awesome way to end the series.