The Horse and His Boy
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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 they do not allow Queen Susan to marry the Calormene prince, Rabidash. 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 hear the Tisroc instructing his men to wage war on Narnia for refusing to leave Queen Susan.
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.
Commentary
The entire story is a self-fulfilling prophecy. When King Lune of Archenland had twin sons named Cor and Corin he brought them to a Centaur who told him that one day Cor would save all of Archenland from the greatest danger it had ever faced. A Calormene spy in the court of Archenland heard this, kidnapped Cor and took him on a ship headed for Calormen. King Lune gave chase and overtook the ship. Before the ship was boarded a sailor took Cor in a lifeboat. The sailor kept Cor alive but died himself before reaching the shore. This is how Arsheesh found Cor, to whom he (not knowing the boy's true name) gave the name Shasta.
One also finds that Aslan acts as a driving force throughout the whole book. One learns that he pushed the boat ashore where Arsheesh would find it. Aslan was also the 'two' lions that chased Shasta and Bree so they would find Aravis and Hwin. Later he was the large cat that comforted Shasta outside of Tashbaan so he would wait for the others. Finally he was the lion that chased them on the far side of the desert to give them the added strength they needed to reach Archenland in time.
In writing this story Lewis relates that he was particularly interested in the narrative structure of the story, which he compares to the Greek drama Oedipus in as much as it features a self fulfilling prophecy.