The Chronicles of Narnia : The Horse and His Boy

The Horse and His Boy

Plot summary

A boy by the name of Shasta is found as a baby and raised by Arsheesh, a Calormene fisherman. As the story begins, Shasta overhears Arsheesh agreeing to sell him to a powerful Calormene feudal nobleman, Anradin. He also learns about Arsheesh finding him, and is relieved to discover that he is not really Arsheesh's son, since there was little love between them. While Shasta awaits his new master in the stable, Bree, the nobleman's stallion, astounds Shasta by speaking to him. He is a talking horse from Narnia who was captured by the Calormenes as a foal. He tells Shasta that Anradin will treat him cruelly, and Shasta resolves to escape. The horse suggests that they escape a life of servitude by riding north together to Narnia. They meet another pair of escaping travellers, Aravis, a young Calormene aristocrat, and her talking horse, Hwin. Aravis is fleeing to avoid a forced marriage with Ahoshta, the Tisroc's grand vizier.
The four must travel through Tashbaan, the bustling capital of Calormen. There they encounter a procession of visiting Narnian royalty, who mistake Shasta for Corin, a prince of Archenland, who was separated from their group earlier that day. Unsure what to do, Shasta goes with the Narnians and overhears their plans to escape from Calormen to prevent a forced marriage of Queen Susan with the Tisroc's son, Rabadash. Shasta escapes when the real Prince Corin returns.
Meanwhile, Aravis has been spotted by her friend Lasaraleen. She asks Lasaraleen not to betray her, and to help her escape from Tashbaan. Lasaraleen cannot understand why Aravis would want to abandon the life of a Calormene princess or refuse marriage with Ahoshta, but she helps Aravis escape through the palace. On the way, they hide when the Tisroc, Rabadash, and Ahoshta approach. Unfortunately, they have hidden in the very room where the men are about to meet. Aravis overhears the Tisroc and Rabadash as they discuss the Narnians' escape. Rabadash is still determined to have Queen Susan and wants to invade Narnia to seize her. The Tisroc gives Rabadash permission to invade Archenland and Narnia while High King Peter is preoccupied battling giants to the north. The Archenlanders are at peace with Calormen and expecting no attack from them. So Rabadash and the Tisroc expect the invasion will be easy.
Outside Tashbaan, Aravis rejoins Shasta and the horses, and tells them of the plot. The four set out across the desert, and a lion (later revealed to be Aslan) frightens the travellers into fleeing swiftly enough to outrun Rabadash's army. Shasta arrives in Archenland in time to warn King Lune of the approaching Calormenes, and the army of Archenland prepares to defend their kingdom. Shasta is then separated from them and heads to Narnia, where he also warns the Narnians of the plot, and they send word to King Edmund and Queen Lucy. When Rabadash and his army arrive at King Lune's castle, they are surprised and disappointed to find their prey on guard and waiting for them. Although this has disrupted Rabadash's plan, which depended on speed and surprise, a battle ensues. There is no clear outcome until an army from Narnia, led by Edmund and Lucy, reinforces the defenders. Shasta and Corin, having become friends, sneak into the battle with varying success. The Northern alliance of Archenland and Narnia wins a complete victory over the Calormenes, and Rabadash is captured. Anradin is among those who fall in the battle.
Rabadash rebuffs King Lune's merciful offer of conditional release. Aslan appears and warns Rabadash to accept King Lune's mercy before his doom strikes. Rabadash rebuffs Aslan as well, so his doom strikes: he is turned into a donkey. His true form will be restored if he stands before the altar of Tash at the Autumn Feast. However, he will become a donkey again if he ever strays more than ten miles from the Temple of Tash, and there will be no return. For this reason Rabadash pursues peaceful policies when he becomes Tisroc as he dare not risk the ten mile limit by going to war. People call him "Rabadash the Peacemaker" but in reality they consider him "Rabadash the Ridiculous" as they never forget his donkey transformation. His name becomes a synonym for a stupid person over future generations in Calormen.
The victorious King Lune recognizes Shasta as Cor, the long-lost identical twin of Prince Corin and, as barely the elder of the two, the heir to the throne. He was kidnapped as a baby to prevent a prophecy that he would one day save Archenland from the greatest peril she would ever face. But the prophecy was fulfilled when Cor foiled Rabadash's invasion with his timely warnings. Aravis and Cor live in Archenland thereafter and eventually marry years later, and their son becomes the most famous king of Archenland.

Series continuity

The adventures are mentioned twice in The Silver Chair. Corin, Cor (or Shasta), Aravis, Bree and Hwin all appear in the great reunion in The Last Battle. Lucy and Edmund still retain their memories of their time on Earth, as evidenced by Lucy's retelling of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Themes and motifs

"Narnia and the North!"

Bree and Shasta use the phrase "Narnia and the North" as their "rallying cry" as they make their escape from their life in Calormen. They are both motivated by a deep longing to find their way to the place that is ultimately their true homeland. In the setting of The Horse and His Boy, the reader finds a departure from the landscapes, culture, and people of the Narnian realms which have become familiar in the other books. The placement of the action in the more alien realm of Calormen helps to convey a sense of "unbelonging" on the part of the characters and the reader, which reinforces the motif of longing for a true home. (Gresham 2000)
In other works, Lewis uses the German word Sehnsucht to encapsulate the idea of an "inconsolable longing" in the human heart for "we know not what." C. S. Lewis identifies the objects of Sehnsucht-longing as God and Heaven. (Bruner 2005, pp. 135–140)

 

The Chronicles of Narnia : The Silver Chair

 

Plot summary

The story starts when Eustace Scrubb, introduced in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, is driven into the company of classmate Jill Pole at their miserable school Experiment House. The impetus is their need to find sanctuary from the gang of school bullies who run rampant in this laissez-faire and mismanaged school run by an incompetent headmistress. Eustace confides to Jill that he has recently been "out of this world" to a land called Narnia, and that his experiences there have led to the changes in his behaviour that everyone seems to have noticed. Jill initially believes that Eustace is lying, but when he promises and asks her to attempt to go to Narnia with him, she agrees. When the bullies are about to converge on the two, Eustace suggests asking for Aslan's help, and the two blunder through a gate that leads them to a high cliff in Aslan's Country.
Jill shows off by approaching the cliff's edge, and Eustace, trying to pull her back, falls over the edge. Aslan appears and saves Eustace by blowing him to Narnia. He charges Jill with helping Eustace find Prince Rilian of Narnia (the son of King Caspian X, he disappeared some years before), and he gives Jill four Signs to guide her and Eustace on their quest. The fourth and final Sign is that at a key moment they will be asked to do something in Aslan's name. Aslan then blows Jill into Narnia, where she arrives a few moments after Eustace—just as an elderly and frail King takes ship and sails from the harbor. Jill remembers the Signs, and asks Eustace if he has seen an 'old friend'; if he had, and had greeted him, they would have received help in their quest. They eventually realize, much to Eustace's chagrin, that the departing King is actually King Caspian X, who has set off to search for Aslan or his son. Trumpkin the Dwarf, now Lord Regent and quite deaf, provides Jill and Eustace with rooms in Cair Paravel, but on the advice of Glimfeather the Owl they make no mention of their quest. Instead, they are summoned by Master Glimfeather to a Parliament of his fellow talking owls (a pun on Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, but also a nod towards the use of the word "parliament" as a collective noun for owls). The owls explain that Caspian's son, Prince Rilian, disappeared while searching for the green serpent that killed his mother, and is under the spell of an enchantress.
Jill and Eustace are flown to the marshes on the northern edge of Narnia where they are partnered with the delightfully gloomy but stalwart Marsh-wiggle Puddleglum, who serves as a guide, hunter for food in the wilderness, and down-to-earth voice of reason. They journey toward the giant-lands north of Narnia after crossing the River Shribble. The first giants they encounter take no notice of them, and the trio continue north where they encounter a deep and sinister canyon. The only route across this barrier is an enormous and ancient bridge, many times larger in scale than anything a human might normally use.
Hungry and suffering from exposure, they cross the bridge and meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle accompanied by a silent knight in black armour. She encourages them to proceed northward to Harfang, the castle of the "Gentle Giants". There, she tells them, they will find warm beds and hot food while the Giants celebrate their Autumn Feast. Jill and Eustace are overtaken at the thought of comfort and warmth, and forget all about the signs and the quest, with only straight-headed Puddleglum arguing against the journey to Harfang. Upon their arrival, they find the Gentle Giants only too pleased to "have them for their Autumn Feast." After a night of rest, the three look out a window of the castle and discover the obvious ruins of a giant city in the valley below. They also see the words "Under Me" engraved on the road, which they recognize as Aslan's third Sign. Later they make another discovery: that the giants are planning to eat them for the Autumn Feast. After finding an unguarded door, Scrubb, Pole, and Puddleglum escape the castle only to be chased by hunting dogs and giant nobles. They take shelter in a cave under the ruined city, where they fall down a long dark slope into Underland. Battered and bruised, they are now in complete darkness; but they have followed the Sign that said "Under Me".
They are found by an army of earthmen, who take them aboard a boat across a Sunless Sea to the city ruled by the Lady of the Green Kirtle. Her protégé, a young man, greets the travellers pleasantly but does not seem right in the head. He explains that he suffers from nightly psychotic episodes, and during these episodes he must, by the Lady's orders, be bound to a silver chair; for if he is released, he will turn into a deadly green serpent and kill everyone in sight. The threesome determine to witness the youth in his torment, as they sense it could be the key to their quest.
When the young man is tied to his chair, his "ravings" seem instead to indicate desperation to escape an enchanted captivity. After launching a battery of dire threats, the youth finally begs his companions to release him in the name of Aslan. Recognizing the fourth Sign, they hesitantly do so. Far from their apprehension of him turning into a serpent or killing them, the young man proceeds to destroy the silver chair. Free from the enchantment, he thanks them. He declares that he is the vanished Prince Rilian, kept underground by the Lady of the Green Kirtle as part of her plot to conquer Overland.
The Green Lady returns and tries to bewitch them all into forgetting who they are. The barefoot Puddleglum stamps out the enchantress's magical fire and breaks her spell. The enraged Lady transforms herself into a green serpent, and Rilian realizes that he has been enslaved all these years by his mother's murderer. Rilian kills the serpent with the help of Eustace and Puddleglum,^[3] and leads the travellers to escape from Underland. The gnomes, who had also been magically enslaved by the Lady, are now freed by her death and joyfully return to their home even deeper in the earth, a land called Bism. One of them shows Rilian's party a route to the surface before leaving. Rilian returns to Cair Paravel as King Caspian is returning home, and Caspian is reunited with his long-lost son just before dying.
Aslan appears and congratulates Eustace and Jill on achieving their goal, then returns them to the stream in his country where Jill first met him. The body of King Caspian appears in the stream, and Aslan instructs Eustace to drive a thorn into the lion's paw. Eustace obeys, and Aslan's blood flows over the dead King, who is revived and returned to youth. Aslan explains that when Jill and Eustace return to their own world, Caspian will go with them briefly, to help set things right there. At the portal between the worlds, Aslan roars, and part of the wall surrounding Experiment House collapses. Caspian, Eustace, and Jill cross the wall and give the school bullies a sound thrashing. The beaten bullies run back towards the school in terror, having also seen Aslan, who lets them glimpse his back as part of the plan. In the confusion Eustace and Jill sneak back into the school building and change into their school clothes, while Aslan and Caspian return to Aslan's country. The headmistress calls the police with a wild story of armed hoodlums and an enormous lion on the school grounds; subsequent enquiries expose her incompetence and mismanagement. The worst of the bullies are expelled and the incompetent headmistress given a new job—failing as a school inspector, she is eventually elected to Parliament. Experiment House becomes a well-managed learning institution, and Eustace and Jill remain good friends.

Main characters

• Jill Pole - A pupil at Experiment House who is befriended by Eustace Scrubb after she is bullied by a gang of children.
• Eustace Scrubb - Appeared in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and is a cousin of the four Pevensie siblings from the earlier stories. Became a much nicer person after his brief time as an enchanted dragon in the previous story.
• Puddleglum - A Marsh-wiggle who helps Jill and Eustace on their quest.
• The Lady of the Green Kirtle - The evil ruler of the Underworld.
• Prince Rilian - Heir to the Narnian throne, who was captured by the Lady of the Green Kirtle and enslaved in her Underworld.
• Aslan - Creator of Narnia and the only character to appear in every book.
• King Caspian - Elderly King of Narnia who appeared in Prince Caspian as a boy and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader as a young man; in The Silver Chair he is sad because his only son was taken from him 10 years earlier just after the death of his wife from a serpent attack

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