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Horse and His Boy
The Horse and His Boy is a novel by C.S. Lewis. It was
published in 1954, making it the fifth of seven books published in
Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. The books in this series are
sometimes ordered chronologically in relation to the events in the
books as opposed to the dates of their original publication. In this
alternate ordering, The Horse and His Boy is the third book. The story
is also referred to as a story-within-a-story in the fourth published
book, The Silver Chair. The Horse and His Boy is the only Narnia book
which does not feature children from our world as the story's main
characters, although the adult Queen Lucy, Queen Susan, and King Edmund
(all of whom first appear in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
do appear in the book.
A young boy called Shasta has been found and raised
by a Calormene fisherman who agrees to sell the boy to a powerful
Calormene general. Shasta is glad to hear that he is not the fisherman's
true son, and awaits his new master in the little stable outside the
fisherman's house. As he muses aloud, the general's stallion, Bree,
begins to talk to Shasta, who is astounded. Together the pair decide
to escape cruel Calormen by riding north for Narnia. They meet another
pair of escaping travellers, the royal Calormene girl, Aravis, and
her talking horse, Hwin.
When the four arrive at the capital city of Calormen,
they are forced to travel through it. They encounter a procession
of visiting Narnian royalty. The royals see Shasta and mistake him
for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who was traveling with the Narnians
but had run away. Shasta is too scared to protest. He discovers that
the Narnians are planning to escape from Calormen for fear of being
kept prisoner if Queen Susan refuses to marry the Calormene prince,
Rabadash. When Shasta is alone, the real Prince Corin climbs through
the window and tells Shasta how to leave the city.
Meanwhile, Aravis has been spotted by her rich friend
Lasaraleen, but warns the girl not to tell anyone that she has seen
her. Lasaraleen agrees, although she cannot understand why Aravis
would want to leave the luxurious life of the Calormene nobility.
She helps Aravis to escape through the palace, although they are frightened
when they realise that they have stumbled into the room of the Tisroc.
They briefly hide behind a chair, and overhear the Tisroc planning
to attack Archenland as a means of later invading Narnia.
Once outside the city, Aravis meets Shasta and the Horses.
The four of them make the unpleasant journey across the desert to
try and warn the people of Archenland and Narnia that the Calormenes
are coming to wage war on them. A pursuing lion forces the travellers
into moving at great speed, although in the process, Aravis is injured
and the horses become exhausted. These three rest with an old hermit
while Shasta continues alone. He meets and warns the Archenland army,
who are able to defeat the Calormenes. King Lune of Archenland sees
that Shasta is really Cor, the long lost twin of Prince Corin. Aravis
and Cor live in Archenland thereafter and eventually marry years later.
