Shasta

Lore & Background

Shasta is raised under the name Shasta by a poor fisherman named Arsheesh, who lives on the coast of Calormen. Harshly treated, Shasta believes that Arsheesh is his father until he overhears the fisherman negotiating to sell him as a slave to a Tarkaan. He discovers that Arsheesh found him as a baby in a rowboat washed up on the beach. Shasta goes to the stable and starts talking to the Tarkaan's horse there.

To his surprise, the horse answers, warning Shasta that his new master is cruel and suggesting that both horse and boy escape together to Narnia, a land of freedom where nearly all the animals talk. Shasta agrees, and he and the horse, nicknamed Bree, start off that night. They encounter another pair of fugitives, a Tarkheena named Aravis and her talking horse Hwin. They make their way to Tashbaan, Calormen's capital city, where Shasta is mistaken by a visiting Narnian party for Prince Corin of Archenland, whom he strongly resembles.

Learning that Prince Rabadash of Calormen is planning to invade Archenland as a step to conquering Narnia, Shasta and his companions set off to warn Archenland. After a grueling journey across the desert, a tired and barefoot Shasta successfully warns the Archenlanders. Riding with the Archenlanders, he becomes lost in dense fog, but is then guided by the great lion Aslan through a mountain pass into Narnia, where his warning musters a force of Narnians to come to the aid of their allies.

At Corin's urging, Shasta participates in the battle to defeat Rabadash and his Calormen horsemen. Shasta then discovers who he really is: Prince Cor of Archenland, elder son of King Lune, Corin's twin brother, and heir apparent to the throne. When he was a baby, a prophecy predicted that he would save Archenland from a great danger, leading domestic enemies of King Lune to kidnap him. When his father pursued their ship, the kidnappers put the baby prince on a rowboat with a knight.

This was the boat in which Arsheesh found him. The knight had died, but Aslan guided the boat to shore so that Cor could survive. The prophecy was fulfilled when he alerted both the Archenlanders and their Narnian friends of the Calormen invasion. Cor is reunited with his father and brother (his mother having died sometime before), and Aravis comes to live with them at the castle of Anvard.

Cor and Aravis eventually marry, and their son Ram the Great becomes (we are told) the greatest king of Archenland. King Cor, King Lune, Queen Aravis, and Prince Corin Thunder-Fist are all mentioned as present in the second Narnia at the end of The Last Battle. Cor is a direct descendant (via Col, the second son of Frank V of Narnia) of King Frank I of Narnia, who was born on Earth in England.

Reader's Guide

Shasta begins his journey as an uneducated, fearful child accustomed to servitude in Calormen. Unlike other Narnian protagonists who arrive from our world, Shasta is native to this universe, making his growth within the context of Calormene oppression particularly poignant. His defining moment occurs when he learns that the mysterious Lion guiding them is actually Aslan, simultaneously revealing his royal heritage as Prince Cor of Archenland. Shasta's arc culminates in a battle against the Calormene army threatening Narnia. By the story's end, he is reunited with his father and younger brother, Prince Corin, ascending to the throne as King Cor.