Calormene Poetry: Noble Enemies

Has not one of the poets said that a noble friend is the best gift and a noble enemy the next best?

We have spent quite some time analyzing Calormene poetry. Lewis appears to have been rather dismissive of this literary genre despite its apparent similarities to biblical works such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Our studies of this poetry have revealed why this is so. While perhaps superficially appealing, the ideas conveyed by Calormene poetry are subtly but deeply flawed or conveniently misapplied.

There is, however, one line of Calormen poetry that should be differentiated from the rest. The narrator of this poetic line is Emeth, who’s name (in Hebrew) means truth. The circumstances for his quotation of Calormene poetry are thus.

As we have seen, The Last Battle starts with the Ape Shift posing as the prophet of the recently arrived Aslan (actually the Donkey Puzzle dressed in a lion’s skin). Shift’s motivation appears to be simple greed, he wants oranges and bananas and is willing to sell his fellow Narnians as slaves to Calormen to achieve those selfish desires. The ‘new Aslan’ movement, however, quickly outgrows Shift. The Calormenes become aware of it and (correctly) perceive an opportunity to destabilize Narnia and, with select Narnians, devise an Aslan-Tash composite ‘Tashlan’ to convince the Narnians of their friendship and common purpose. Tashlan is housed in a Stable and emerges only occasionally allowing the Narnians to pay homage.

One evening the Narnians and newly arrived Calormenes are gathered around the Stable and Shift gives permission for anyone to go inside and see Tashlan, but only one at a time. The first to enter is the Cat Ginger, who at this point is the actual Narnian leading the movement. Ginger enters confidently but with a ‘horrible caterwaul,’ races out, and has clearly ceased to be a Talking Beast. It is at this point that Emeth requests to enter the Stable. The Calormene Captain is unwilling, but Emeth insists that, as a servant of Tash, he must be allowed to look upon the face of Tash once, even at the cost of death.

Emeth’s loyalty to his god and his willingness to risk death for his love of Tash, strikes King Tirian and those loyal to him. "By the Lion's Mane,” says Jewel the Unicorn, “I almost love this young warrior, Calormene though he be. He is worthy of a better god than Tash." And, indeed, he is, for upon entering the Stable Emeth finds himself in the afterlife reserved for the worthy. He wanders those heavenly lands until he meets Aslan. Emeth is now sure he has met his death, but Aslan explains that it is not Tash but He who Emeth has spent his life truly seeking with such love and dedication.

After a time, Emeth is come upon by the Seven Lords of Narnia and their entourage. He bows before them and, addressing the High King Peter quotes the Calormene poet:

I know not whether you are my friend or my foe, but I should count it my honour to have you for either. Has not one of the poets said that a noble friend is the best gift and a noble enemy the next best?"

Now, given the high regard Lewis has for Emeth given his name, we should take care to understand Emeth's words. We can plainly understand the value of a noble friend. Lewis spends quite a bit of time defining friendship in his book The Four Loves. Paraphrasing, a friend is one with whom one shares a common interest or insight that separates them from others. A noble friend would be such a person who is also idealistic, moral, and perhaps even illustrious. No doubt that a noble friend is the best gift.

But what is a noble enemy?

Presumably a noble enemy, in contrast to one that is not noble, is moral, idealistic, and a person of principle. Perhaps we might say that noble enemies, given their nobility, are seeking truth. Of course, as enemies their pursuit has not led them to the same conclusion and thus they are not friends. Nonetheless, while perhaps at odds, noble enemies strive towards the same ends.

The Calormene poet properly places the noble enemy as the “next best gift.” Noble enemies will motivate each other to fight harder, to do better, to seek more diligently. A noble enemy will not take short-cuts, will not stab you in the back after slipping on a tussock, nor attempt trickery or even bribery. Ignoble enemies seek to win at all costs, even at the cost of ideals and principles, noble enemies seek to discover the truth.

In The Last Battle Shift, Ginger, and the Calormene captain are ignoble enemies. Their goal is not truth but material gain and they seek to achieve their goals through deceit and disguise. In doing so they compromise their religious principles and even basic decency. They exploit the naive, torture the innocent, and confuse those seeking understanding.

Emeth, in contrast, is indeed a noble enemy. He strives for truth and perceives himself as a true servant of Tash. He seeks war with Narnia to prove the greatness of Tash against (in his mind) the falsehoods portrayed by the fiend which is Aslan, and he is willing to die for his ideals. Of course, his views are incorrect, but because he seeks truth, he eventually finds it. For when noble enemies finally reach the truth they have been seeking all along, they can no longer be enemies. Each must recognize the truth and the noble enemies are transformed noble friends.

Emeth is yet unsure whether that finality has been achieved. Has he become the noble friend of the Seven Lords? We await the response of Peter in our next post.