Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to Narnia and CS Lewis! For this weeks review, we will be looking at CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy !
Book Title:The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy
Author: CS Lewis
Illustrator: Pauline Baynes
Publisher: HarperCollins
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0064471063
ISBN-13: 978-0064471060
Summary of the book:
Some Possible Spoilers.( Please Highlight to read)
Summary
During the time when Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy reigned in Narnia, their lived a young boy named Shasta who lived in Calorman. Shasta was raised by an old fisherman. One night while in a stable with one of the horses, he over heard the fisherman talking with another man and the man offered to buy Shasta from him. The fisherman agreed. Shasta grew afraid and began to talk with the horse.
The horse spoke to him and revealed he was a talking horse from Narnia. The horse offered him the chance to leave Calorman and head for Narnia and the north. Shasta accepts and during the night the two run off together. The horse introduces himself as “Bree-hinny-brinny-hooey-ha.” or “Bree” for short.
During the night they are pursued by lions and speed up and come in contact with what appears to be the Tisroc on his war horse. The discover it is a girl named Aravis wearing her brother’s armor and riding a talking Narnian mare named “Hwin.”
After telling her story of why she was traveling North, the four of them agreed to travel together. They came to the city of Tashbaan where they posed as common people on ordinary horses. They agreed that if they were separated to meet at the old tombs on the other side of the city. While traveling Shasta is spotted by the Narnians, who are visiting the city, and taken in with them as they mistake him for the missing Prince Corin of Archenland.
While staying with them he meets King Edmund, Queen Susan, and Mr. Tumnus. He overhears their plan to leave Tashbaan in secrecy as Prince Rabadash, the ruler of Calorman, wants to marry her and she refuses. They know they won’t be allowed to leave in public so they have to do it in secret.
Meanwhile Aravis and the horses encounter her old friend Lasraleen who is extremely shallow and flighty. Aravis is forced to hide with Lasraleen and pose as her slave girl, as her father is in Tashbaan searching for her. While in the palace she over hears a plot by Prince Rabadash and Ahoshta Tarkaan to invade Archenland and then Narnia.
Back with the Narnians the real Corin returns. Corin tells Shasta where he has been and helps him escape. Shasta heads for the tombs where a small cat comes and stays with him through the night. He is frightened later on as he hears jackals howling. He awakens and thinks he sees a lion. He discovers it is only the cat.
In the morning the cat is gone. Aravis and the horses finally arrive and she tells Shasta of the plan. The two hurry to Archenland to warn the king. As they enter they look back and see Rabadash and his army are coming. The horses run faster to reach the city of Anvard and are pursued by a Lion who wounds Aravis. They find housing with an old hermit . The hermit agrees to watch after Aravis and the horses while Shasta continues on.
Shasta finds the king out hunting and warns him of the attack .Shasta rides back with the king and his hunting party but they are separated in the fog. SPOILERS!While lost he meets Aslan who tells him how he has helped him along the journey every step of the way , even when Shasta was a baby.
Shasta finds his way to Narnia the next day. He sends a message through a talking Stag to King Edmund and is looked after by some dwarves. Shasta meets up with King Edmund, Corin, and Queen Lucy and joins them in the battle. Aravis and the horses watch the battle through a magic pool.
Aslan soon reveals himself to Aravis, Bree and Hwin and tells how he helped them as well. Shasta arrives and also shares something with them. He is actually Cor, the older twin brother of Corin and a prince of Archenland. Usurpers of his father’s throne had attempted to kill him as a baby by sending him adrift to prevent a prophesy of him one day saving Archenland from being fulfilled.
Edmund, Lucy, Cor, Corin, and the rest of the heroes hold a council to decide what to do with Rabadash. Aslan appears and turns him into a donkey for his foolishness. Aslan assures him he will not be this way forever. If Rabadash returns to his kingdom and stays in the temple of Tash and never leaves it he will be restored. However, if he disobeys he will become a donkey again and the change will be irrevocable. Rabadash follows the command.
In time Cor and Aravis marry and he becomes king of Archenland.END SPOILERS!
Review.
Of the seven books in the Narnia series this is one that many fans have mixed feelings about. Partially because it feels different than the other ones. This story does not have any goings on in Earth. No children from our world go into Narnia as it is set during the time of the Pevensies’ reign in Narnia. This means that they are regulated to cameo appearances. Much of the story is also set south of Narnia where there is little or no mention of Aslan or if he exists as they do not believe in him in Calorman, but serve another god, Tash. SPOILERS!Aslan himself doesn’t even appear until near the end of the book, and it is only at that point when readers understand that he was in the story the whole time guiding Shasta and Aravis.END SPOILERS!
Because of these differences this book is often times confusing for fans and they like it far less than the others. It can some times take them several times to get the hang of this book and understand it. Many fans of the series often even said of the seven books they would not complain if it wasn’t filmed.
However, for the difficulties, differences and challenges the book presents to readers on the outset, it still bears the same ring that the other books possessed and contains as much depth and symbolism as the others and is a highly enjoyable adventure story set in a fantastical land, akin to Aladdin in The Arabian Nights rather than a strict “fantasy”.
Aside from the enjoyable cameos of Edmund, Susan, Lucy and Mr. Tumnus and Aslan’s stirring appearance at the end, we again meet some new characters in this story. First we have Shasta, a young boy who has a great destiny and as a child is set adrift only to be raised by a family not his own and one day grows up to be the one to save his people, despite the attempts to stop him.
Shasta bears some similarity to Moses in the Old Testament as like him some jealous and fearful people wanted to kill him to prevent a prophesy from being fulfilled, and in the process, he was protected and raised by a people not his own, only to return and fulfill what had to happen.SPOILERS! He also encounters Aslan as Moses encountered God, while out in the wilderness and discovers how he had lead him all the way.END SPOILERS!
This leads him to embarking on a dangerous journey to a land he has never been to like Abraham and Moses in the Bible, or even like John Bunyan’s Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress. Such an influence of the later is possible as that was a book that was very formative to the young CS Lewis’ imagination and was among the many that were instrumental in his coming to the faith. This makes the book also similar to Lewis’s own Pilgrim’s Regress.
SPOILERS! We also meet his real twin brother Corin who is more impulsive and reckless than his brother and more prone to fighting. Cor, or Shasta is more peaceful. This makes the two similar to Castor and Pollex or the Gemini twins in Greek mythology as one was aggressive and war like the other peaceful, which lead to their deaths. Ironically the book was also dedicated to his real life step sons Douglas and David Gresham, who he was beginning to get to know at this point due to his relationship with Joy Davidman Gresham, and may have used their personalities as templates.END SPOILERS!
We encounter the character of Aravis, a young girl who is fleeing her home as she is forced into an arranged marriage, one that she doesn’t like. She is more headstrong and stubborn than Lucy, Susan or Jill were as unlike them she is born from a noble family. This means she is used to getting her way all the time. Along her journey she is humbled and learns to think of others.
Her family line is much like a line of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, as she is of the family of the Tisroc who claim to be descended from the god Tash as the Pharaoh claimed to have been descended from the line of Amon Ra. The cities in Calorman are also named for rulers and deities as the Egyptians did. Their beliefs also feature a pantheon similar to that of the Hindus, this would not be surprising as Lewis was versed in the mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Norse, Egyptians and Hindus, so to draw from any of these sources in creating his world is not surprising.
We also meet the talking horses Bree and Hwin who have lived so much among the dumb beasts of the south that they have forgotten much of Narnia and their beliefs. Bree even disbelieves that Aslan is really a lion. Their disbelief is much like the Hebrews in the Exodus, in that did not fully know of Yahweh due to their time among the Egyptians. It is only when Bree and Hwin truly encounter Aslan that they know the truth much as when the Hebrews encountered God in the wilderness.
The villain in this book is Prince Rabadash son of the Tisroc. He is called later in the book “Rabadash the Ridiculous” as he is a very foolish character who underestimates Aslan and the people of the North and makes rash choices . As a villain he isn’t as evil as either of the witches, or as cunning as Miraz in the other books, but more arrogant and stupid. His great flaw is his own hubris, or extreme arrogance against Aslan and Narnia, which for his sin he is punished.
Lewis’ narrations hit the spot as usual. He even at one point shows a self-depreciating sense of humor when he compares children in that world learning how to tell stories with children learning to write essays in our world and says that he thinks more people would rather hear stories than read essays. This comment is humorous for him to make as he wrote many essays, in particular on Christianity, and is best known for them, but was well aware that more people would rather read a story. This is what led to him writing Narnia in the first place, to allow him to write about the concepts he wrote of in essays and allow the readers to sneak past the watchfull dragons and understand these concepts of faith in an easier way.
This story deals a lot with humility and the belief something much larger than you is always in charge, though you may not always see it at the time.
While the story may be confusing at first and different than the others it is still an enjoyable read, and a thrilling adventure and well worth it for any fan of the series. Don’t be afraid to go to Narnia and the North with The Horse and His Boy. Much like Shasta and Bree’s journey it may be hard to get through at first but it is well worth it.
Four out of Five shields.
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