Narnia Recap: Shasta has reunited with Aravis, Bree, and Hwin and now they are returning to King Lune and Narnia. Obligatory note about racism, intent, and Lewis is here.The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 15: Rabadash the Ridiculous
There is one chapter left in this book and it is difficult to analyze for reasons which I think will become apparent as we did in. I am going to try my best to wade through here, but appreciate your patience as we go along.
[Confession: I think, too, as this deconstruction has gone on that I've come to put pressure on myself more with each post. What was a few years back a project of "read a chapter, have reactions on the internet" has now been built up in my mind as "no, I must post a perfect post that captures every nuance of the chapter and if I can't do that then I might as well not even try". I'm going to try to get out of that mental rut because it's not helpful for me, but we'll see how that goes.
So here is a short post and I'm not going to apologize because there is nothing wrong with a short post. Right?]
THE NEXT TURN OF THE ROAD BROUGHT them out from among the trees and there, across green lawns, sheltered from the north wind by the high wooded ridge at its back, they saw the castle of Anvard. It was very old and built of a warm, reddish-brown stone.
Before they had reached the gate King Lune came out to meet them, not looking at all like Aravis’s idea of a king and wearing the oldest of old clothes; for he had just come from making a round of the kennels with his Huntsman and had only stopped for a moment to wash his doggy hands. But the bow with which he greeted Aravis as he took her hand would have been stately enough for an Emperor.
I'm the first person to like down-to-earth kings and I recognize that Lewis didn't have much space left to cram Lune's folksy better-than-those-fancy-Calormen stiff upper British lippedness into the narrative when this is the last chapter, but I do need to point out that this makes no sense within the narrative we've been given. Can we just... back up a bit?
Yesterday (yes? pretty sure!) a prince from another kingdom invaded, and a king and queen from the next kingdom over popped by to help. The kingdom's long-lost son showed up to fulfill a prophecy that everyone has agreed was a pretty big deal, and there is good evidence that his appearance came about through the meddling of a local god who has a tendency to pop in. That's a lot of royalty to suddenly have around and a lot of things that need doing, but here Lune is in his jeans and favorite scruffy band t-shirt playing with his doggos. I hope he has a kickass chancellor taking care of shit.
Oh and also, he knows his long-lost son is coming back with a Calormene Tarkheena with ties to the royal family. No big deal, nothing you wanna get fancy for.
By the way, I am stunned that Prince Cor was allowed to wander off himself with no more escort than a couple of trumpeters to announce him at the Hermit's hut. I feel if my long-lost son showed up after a decade or two of thinking he was dead, I wouldn't want him to leave my side for a couple days. Of course, Lune has already demonstrated his fatherly devotion by losing Cor in a fog because he wasn't a good enough horse-rider to keep up with the pack, so we are perhaps not on the same parental page here. But I do note that there are desperate Calormen warriors who fled into the forest after the battle and I feel like maybe you don't want your young heir to the throne traipsing around in those conditions. Why didn't they send people to get Aravis, Bree, and Hwin and bring them back?
“Little lady,” he said, “we bid you very heartily welcome. If my dear wife were still alive we could make you better cheer but could not do it with a better will. And I am sorry that you have had misfortunes and been driven from your father’s house, which cannot but be a grief to you. My son Cor has told me about your adventures together and all your valor.”
“It was he who did all that, Sir,” said Aravis. “Why, he rushed at a lion to save me.”
“Eh, what’s that?” said King Lune, his face brightening. “I haven’t heard that part of the story.”
Then Aravis told it. And Cor, who had very much wanted the story to be known, though he felt he couldn’t tell it himself, didn’t enjoy it so much as he had expected, and indeed felt rather foolish. But his father enjoyed it very much indeed and in the course of the next few weeks told it to so many people that Cor wished it had never happened.
This part I will not criticize. Let it never be said I cannot be kind or fair.
Then the King turned to Hwin and Bree and was just as polite to them as to Aravis, and asked them a lot of questions about their families and where they had lived in Narnia before they had been captured. The Horses were rather tongue-tied for they weren’t yet used to being talked to as equals by Humans—grown-up Humans, that is. They didn’t mind Aravis and Cor.
I don't like this, and now I feel unfair again. Arguably this is an accurate depiction of abuse: the horses have had to pretend to be mute for years (really, their entire lives since childhood) and now they're struggling. Maybe it's a good thing to not have all that trauma wiped away in a single page.
But... we've done that with Shasta, more or less. We don't see any fear or reticence in being accepted into Lune's family. He isn't wary of having a new father after the old one was so abusive. Nor does he see red flags in his new brother having a policy of "beat up anything that argues with me", despite that being the modus operandi for Shasta's abusive adoptive father.
Shasta doesn't read like a survivor of abuse, so it's a touch frustrating that Bree and Hwin do, especially when that depiction is an excuse to (once again!) side-line the Animal characters and keep them from having lines. Why, for that matter, are Aravis and Cor different? The Horses had to be silent around all humans, not just children, so why wouldn't Aravis and Cor be practice? For that matter, they have in the past few day(s) been speaking to the Hermit and they have also recently spoken to God Himself. I feel like after all that, I could handle a schlummy dude with doggy hands.
Presently Queen Lucy came out from the castle and joined them and King Lune said to Aravis, “My dear, here is a loving friend of our house, and she has been seeing that your apartments are put to rights for you better than I could have done it.”
“You’d like to come and see them, wouldn’t you?” said Lucy, kissing Aravis. They liked each other at once and soon went away together to talk about Aravis’s bedroom and Aravis’s boudoir and about getting clothes for her, and all the sort of things girls do talk about on such an occasion.
Both Lucy and Aravis are established as not really caring about decor and clothes and girl things, except for when they do. The pattern seems to be that when girlier girls are around--Susan, Lasaraleen--then these girl things are to be scorned and hated by the tomboys, but when the girly girls are gone then Lucy and Aravis must take up the narrative role of girl lest they transcend their gender framework and become boys.
All of which is fine for actual people, but makes for terribly inconsistent characterization for the sake of shitting on feminine things and the people who value them.
Coming back around to "gee, it's awfully inconsistent who reads like an abuse victim and who doesn't", it's troubling to me that we spend almost no time on Aravis' reactions. She come from a place where royalty are descended from actual gods--and she's just met the local god on her way here. (And she knows him to bear a grudge against her and to be willing to enact violence upon her if he is moved to do so!) She's also coming from a patriarchal culture where her father was determined to sell her into marital slavery over her many tearful objections.
Given all that, I would be a wary about Lune and his intentions! He seems nice enough, but so did her father. At what point is Lune going to sell her off to one of his courtiers? Will she have any choice in the matter? I see no attraction whatsoever to Shasta and Aravis is a clever girl capable of politicking; the Aravis I've come to know would be devising either an escape plan or a marriage contract to one of the younger, pliable, and wealthy nobles on hand. (Or both! Both is good.) She would not, based on what we know of her with Lasaraleen, give a shit about talking with Lucy about the drapes.
The thing is, if I squint I can almost see Lewis recognizing that he didn't have the chops to write Aravis settling in? So he has her shoved off-stage with Lucy and we're meant to sort of understand that Lucy explained everything ever and now Aravis is up to speed and on the same page. Okay. It's not the bravest or most elegant solution, but it'll get you there in a pinch. But... I don't know, it just sticks in my craw a bit that Lucy is brought in consistently to serve plot reasons without really being allowed to have a character on the page. And the character we do see is utterly bland, lacking any of the personality touches we could arguably have said existed way back in LWW.
After lunch, which they had on the terrace (it was cold birds and cold game pie and wine and bread and cheese), King Lune ruffled up his brow and heaved a sigh and said, “Heigh-ho! We have still that sorry creature Rabadash on our hands, my friends, and must needs resolve what to do with him.”
Lucy was sitting on the King’s right and Aravis on his left. King Edmund sat at one end of the table and the Lord Darrin faced him at the other. Dar and Peridan and Cor and Corin were on the same side as the King.
“Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head,” said Peridan. “Such an assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins.”
Ugh. Just. Let me edit this?
After lunch, which they had on the terrace (it was cold birds and cold game pie and wine and bread and cheese), King Lune ruffled up his brow and heaved a sigh. Lucy sat on the King’s right and Aravis on his left. King Edmund sat at one end of the table and the Lord Darrin faced him at the other. Dar and Peridan and Cor and Corin were on the same side as the King. Addressing them all, Lune said, “Heigh-ho! We have still that sorry creature Rabadash on our hands, my friends, and must needs resolve what to do with him.”
“Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head,” said Peridan. “Such an assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins.”
THERE. Establish seating first, not in between conversation as a hasty after-thought. This reads like such a first draft and I just. *waves hands* Respect your craft, Lewis!
Okay.
After lunch, which they had on the terrace (it was cold birds and cold game pie and wine and bread and cheese), King Lune ruffled up his brow and heaved a sigh and said, “Heigh-ho! We have still that sorry creature Rabadash on our hands, my friends, and must needs resolve what to do with him.”
Lucy was sitting on the King’s right and Aravis on his left. King Edmund sat at one end of the table and the Lord Darrin faced him at the other. Dar and Peridan and Cor and Corin were on the same side as the King.
“Your Majesty would have a perfect right to strike off his head,” said Peridan. “Such an assault as he made puts him on a level with assassins.”
“It is very true,” said Edmund. “But even a traitor may mend. I have known one that did.” And he looked very thoughtful.
“To kill this Rabadash would go near to raising war with the Tisroc,” said Darrin.
“A fig for the Tisroc,” said King Lune. “His strength is in numbers and numbers will never cross the desert. But I have no stomach for killing men (even traitors) in cold blood. To have cut his throat in battle would have eased my heart mightily: but this is a different thing.”
*rubs my forehead*
Lune, the Tisroc just sent hundreds of men after you in a single afternoon and apparently they had no trouble whatsoever crossing the desert. You appear to have fifty fighting men, tops, and you keep your gates open all the time. I'm pretty sure you aren't anywhere near as impregnable as you think you are.
This is particularly frustrating to me because Lune is supposed to be an example of a Good and Wise king, but these foolhardy words would sound perfectly natural in Rabadash's mouth. So once again I cannot tell the heroes from the villains if we remove the speech tags!
And that's before I even get to Lune's grossly specific bit about cutting "that creature" Rabadash's throat in battle. Not "defeat him in honorable combat to the death" or anything flowery here, no sir. Just visceral gore for Lune the Soft King. I wish to speak to the manager of this establishment, okay.
“By my counsel,” said Lucy, “your Majesty shall give him another trial. Let him go free on strait promise of fair dealing in the future. It may be that he will keep his word.”
“Maybe Apes will grow honest, Sister,” said Edmund. “But, by the Lion, if he breaks it again, may it be in such time and place that any of us could swap off his head in clean battle.”
So I guess Edmund has stopping thinking that "even a traitor may mend". What even is character consistency? If I were Aslan (and if Aslan were worth a damn as an actual Jesus metaphor), this is the point where I'd pop in and smack Edmund up the head with the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant and also maybe the parable of the asshole who negs his sister's ideas in public.
I'm going to pause here because (a) it's late over here in my time zone and (b) I want to give Rabadash's "trial" its own post.
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