Ages in this book

[MrBob]

Somewhere else in these forums, there is a topic regarding the ages of the Pevensies, but I cannot find it and the search function came up with squat as it didn't want to look up the word "Age". Alas...

I know in that thread, I did miscalculate the ages of the Pevensies as I did not even follow the timeline in the book that Shasta was found when the Tisroc began his reign and that he did so in the same year that the hundred-year winter ended.

But I do not accept the timeline that this takes place 14 years later. A few reasons:

Look at the ages of the main young characters of other books. Only Peter, Susan, and a few Narnian characters are teenaged or older and they were in with the younger characters.

Digory and Polly were both about 10, Lucy and Edmund were about 9-11 and 10-12 through their major adventures, Eustace and Jill were about 10-12 (I am going by Eustace's statement that "more than a year" went by instead of five years).

It seems that Lewis prefers to write his main characters in that preteen age range. Due to that, I see Aravis and Shasta around the age of 12.

What about anyone else? How old do you feel they are?

MrBob

[waterhogboy]

I would actually argue that Aravis, at least, was around 14/15/16. The way she acts in the book and her attitude seems much older than 12. She has a friend who is into make-up and that, and in Lewis' day, even considering he's describing a culture where women marry young, I can't imagine he would think of them as younger than 14...

[Tazzy]

I would say about ... 13/14. Seeing as her father was about to get her married as well. And 14 seems about the right age. But I always thought of Shasta being 12. Hmm, guess he was older than he sounds.

[jesslaugh]

I would agree that Aravis might be a preteen because that is the age Lewis likes to write about, but think that age more applies to people coming from our world to Narnia's world. Caspian, in Voyage, seems to be around his late teens or early twenties, I think. And given Aravis's skill with horses, and maturity, I'd say she's around 15. Any older is maybe too old to "run away" in a society like that.

[MrBob]

A few other thoughts about Shasta's and Aravis' age. Shasta was surprised when she told him in the story that she was betrothed, he replied that she was not grown up, possibly the same age or younger than he was.

When in with the Hermit, Bree calls Shasta a boy, "a child, a mere foal."

Before the battle, Edmund and Thornbut were calling Corin a boy and treating him as such.

jess, as for Aravis' skill with horses, remember that Jill was an equestrian in The Silver Chair, riding one of the horses at the end. And Aravis was around horses all her life so she should have known how to ride well.

MrBob

[jesslaugh]

Yes, but having been around horses myself, I know that it can be hard for 12 and 13 year olds to mount by themselves. I don't really remember details, but I just remember thinking that she must've been older than I was when I was reading it (14).

[subjectofthehighking]

As for Corin and Shasta being treated like "children," some boys around 12-13 can be pretty mischevious and immature (sorry if any boys around that age read this, remember, I said some.) as Corin was. And remember, Shasta was raised by a fisherman, hadn't learned manners, and didn't know the first thing about riding. The latter point especially must have brought Bree to view him as younger/less responsible than his age indicates, therefore indicating him as a "mere foal"

[~Lava~]

All we really know is that the Pevensies were one year away from leaving Narnia or there abouts because they talk about the Calormen Ambassadors arriving after the day after the orchard was finished and how the event was a year before they went to hunt the White Stag.

[Lucy most Valiant]

I have all the ages for everyone figured out in each book according to a little bit of research I have done. So if you really want to know the age of a particular character in a particular book then pm me.

[MrBob]

"they talk about the Calormen Ambassadors arriving after the day after the orchard was finished and how the event was a year before they went to hunt the White Stag."

I just read that part of PC and did not find where they stated that it was a year before their hunt. I also refuse to believe that Lucy can recite the story of how she first came to Narnia at the end of H&HB and then forget everything within a year.

If you have a specific passage, let me know where it is that states where the planting of the orchard was about a year before the stag hunt.

And really, couldn't there be more than once when Calormen sent Ambassadors?

Bob