The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia #3) by C.S. Lewis

Back in the days when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and sisters were kings and queens under him, Shasta, a young boy with a mysterious past, overheard a plot to sell him into a life of slavery.



Deciding he must escape from his cruel master, Shasta never expects to find an ally in Bree — a war horse that talks. But together, they have an adventure that unites them with a runaway princess and her talking horse, pits them against a treacherous young prince, puts them on a dangerous journey across the desert and brings them face to face with a terrifying lion.



The Horse and His Boy mirrors the deep need that every heart feels: to belong ... to come home.



The Horse and His Boy was one of many stories C. S. Lewis had toyed with while writing the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. After finishing those three stories, he thought he had written as much as he could about the land of Narnia. But Narnia wouldn't leave him alone, and within a few months of finishing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader he'd completed The Horse and His Boy. Though it was originally written fifth in the Chronicles of Narnia sequence, it takes place during the period mentioned at the end of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Therefore, Lewis recommended it be read third.


Again and again, Lewis explored themes of unbelonging in this world, because he believed we were made for another world. To paraphrase Lewis: We long for something more than we get in this life because we are heirs to something greater. Which is why it's no surprise that Calormen lacks the "magic" of Narnia. There, Shasta and the others experience the raw and very harsh edge of life without the "magic" of a transcendent hope. There, a Great Force works under cover of night to guide our friends to their final destination. And it is only when they reach the "North" that they find their heart's true home. They have gone from unbelief to belief. And then the magic truly begins.



Read Chapter 10, The Hermit of the Southern March here.