This year I began re-experiencing Narnia through audible’s collection, in large part because I was able to pick up all seven titles with single credit and couldn’t resist. I’ve just finished the last two this month.

Jeremy Northam’s Silver Chair opens with Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole being plucked into Narnia for reasons known only to the Lion. He informs them that King Caspian’s young son Rilian is missing, and that their orders are to follow four signs and rescue him. Jill and Eustace are full of doubts, fears, and squabbling, and soon they missed several signs and find themselves in deep trouble. Literal deep trouble, as they’re trapped in an underground kingdom ruled by a woman that readers will recognize a the White Witch, but which Eustace and Jill don’t know enough to twig on to. Eventually, they will begin to realize that foul is not fair, and cling to the truth they know to escape. I included some more details in my book review ten years ago. I enjoyed Northam’s narration, especially his Puddleglum, but I’m very partial to Puddleglum regardless.

Jill and Eustace return in The Last Battle, which is positively apocalyptic. Evil reigns in Narnia, and not the ordinary kind who the White Witch embodied. This is a deeper evil: while the Witch did wickedness purely to gratify her own desires — her lust for power, her appetite for cruelty — here the evil is deliberately subversive and transgressive. A malicious ape, Shift, finds the body of a lion and has a marvelous idea: skinning it, he bullies his unwitting donkey friend Puzzle (who is none too bright) into wearing the skin and pretending to be Aslan. Since the great Lion has not been seen in Narnia for centuries, Shift has an idea that he can exploit the awe in which the Lion is held to his own benefit. Sure enough, Shift has soon put himself in power and begins giving all of Narnia the Mordor treatment: stripping its enchanted forests to sell lumber to the Calormen. When Eustace and Jill arrive, they are soon joined by the king, Tirian, and in a desperate battle. In times past, the name Aslan could be used to call for allies: now, however, the name has been subverted. The ape’s claim that his actions — working the talking horses, stripping the forests, etc – – are done in the name of Aslan has so ruined the great lion’s reputation that his name is uttered with fear and loathing instead of awe and adoration. Ultimately, the actions of the aple — inviting the Calormen and their god into Narnia – -will presage the End of Things, and we see every preceding main character but Susan, who had gotten too much into nylons and dresses and was no longer a friend of Narnia. This was voiced superbly by Patrick Stewart, so I loved the presentation.

These two paired well together; not only are they dealing with spiritual subversion of a kind — the Witch gaslighting the children into thinking there is no Overworld, no Narnia, and then the Ape being used to destroy Narnians’ love of Aslan and the Narnia he created — but The Last Battle is very fitting for the Advent season. Advent is not only a season of waiting for Christmas, but waiting for the “Second Advent” — the end of days.

Coming up….another Buchanan biography, only now he’s paired with someone; a Zachary Taylor biography, and a Stephen Douglas v Jeff Davis duel. Will I ever escape the mid-19th century? Stay tuned!