top of page
Search

Excerpted Inspirations #210

  • Writer: Linda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
    Linda Odhner, with photos by Liz Kufs
  • 2 days ago
  • 0 min read
Tirian looked and saw the queerest and most ridiculous thing you can imagine. Only a few yards away, clear to be seen in the sunlight, there stood up a rough wooden door and, round it, the framework of the doorway: nothing else, no walls, no roof. He walked towards it, bewildered, and the others followed, watching to see what he would do. He walked round to the other side of the door. But it looked just the same from the other side: he was still in the open air on a summer morning. The door was simply standing up by itself as if it had grown there like a tree. “Fair Sir,” said Tirian to the High King, “this is a great marvel.” “It is the door you came in with that Calormene five minutes ago,” said Peter, smiling. “But did I not come in out of the wood into the Stable? Whereas this seems to be a door leading from nowhere to nowhere.” “It looks like that if you walk round it,” said Peter. “But put your eye to that place where there is a crack between two of the planks and look through.” Tirian put his eye to the hole. At first he could see nothing but blackness. Then, as his eyes grew used to it, he saw the dull red glow of a bonfire that was nearly going out, and above that, in a black sky, stars. Then he could see dark figures moving about or standing between him and the fire: he could hear them talking and their voices were like those of Calormenes. So he knew he was looking out through the Stable door into the darkness of Lantern Waste where he had fought his last battle. The men were discussing whether to go in and look for Rishda Tarkaan (but none of them wanted to do that) or to set fire to the Stable. He looked round again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue sky overhead, and grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every direction, and his new friends all round him, laughing. “It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from without are two different places.” “Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.” “Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.” It was the first time she had spoken, and from the thrill in her voice Tirian now knew why. She was drinking everything in more deeply than the others. She had been too happy to speak. -C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle (1956), pp. 131-133 Artwork: “Bigger than Our Whole World” by Linda Simonetti Odhner (inspired by Maud and Miska Petersham’s The Christ Child.)

 
 
 
  • Black YouTube Icon
  • Black Facebook Icon

The views expressed on this website are the opinions of their authors, and may not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other author, agency, or organization, including Deborah's Tree.


©2020 by DEBORAH'S TREE. Proudly created with Wix.com

bottom of page