The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy

About two weeks ago, I finished re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy.  As I've been re-reading The Chronicles of Narnia books this time, I've been looking for more instances of Aslan-as-Christ, which I've talked about in some other posts.  I found two in The Horse and His Boy, one of which I felt absolutely foolish for not having noticed the last time I read it.

The first (and the one I felt foolish for not having noticed before) is near the end of Chapter Eleven (The Unwelcome Fellow Traveller).  As Shasta is travelling through the woods, he becomes aware that "someone or somebody was walking beside him" and that "he had really no idea how long it had been there."  At first, Shasta can't see who it is because it's so dark, but eventually, it's revealed that the "someone or somebody" is Aslan.  After Shasta talks with him for awhile, "the pale brightness of the mist and the fiery brightness of the Lion rolled themselves together into a swirling glory and gathered themselves up and disappeared."

There are more than a few similarities between Shasta's encounter with Aslan and the two disciples going to Emmaus in Luke 24.  While the disciples are travelling they meet someone they don't know at first ("But their eyes were kept from recognizing him." - Luke 24:16).  They talk with him for awhile, but it isn't until he takes bread, blesses it, and gives it to them that they recognize him as Jesus, at which point He vanishes.

Within Shasta's conversation with Aslan, there are a few other elements that hint at Aslan-as-Christ.  When Shasta asks the lion who he is, he replies:  "'Myself,' said the voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook: and again, 'Myself', loud and clear and gay: and then the third time 'Myself', whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all round you as if the leaves rustled with it."  First, there's the Trinity in the three "Myself"s, and second, "Myself" seems to have some relation with God's "I AM WHO I AM" in Exodus 3.

There's also the light.  "Now, the whiteness around him [Shasta] became a shining whiteness; his eyes began to blink.  ...  He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now.  A golden light fell on them from the left.  He thought it was the sun.  ...  It was from the Lion that the light came."  There's a similarity between this and Christ's Transfiguration:  "And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light" - Matthew 17:2.  Both descriptions involve the same elements:  the sun, whiteness, and a shining light.

The narrator then describes Aslan as - among other things - "the High King above all kings in Narnia," which seems to be a reference to Revelation 19:16: "On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."  Both are kings, but each is a higher king than all other kings.

The second instance of Aslan-as-Christ (which I actually found last time I read the book) is in Chapter Fourteen (How Bree Became a Wiser Horse).  Aslan jumps over the wall into the Hermit's courtyard and then talks with Aravis, Bree, and Hwin.  Aslan says to Bree, "You poor, proud frightened Horse, draw near.  Nearer still, my son.  Do not dare not to dare.  Touch me.  Smell me.  Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers.  I am a true Beast."  It's a similar situation to Christ's appearing to His disciples after the resurrection.  "And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me, and see.  For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.'" - Luke 24:38.  "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve, but believe.'" - John 20:27.  Where Christ offered His hands and feet and the scars in His hands and side, Aslan offers his paws, tail, and whiskers.  While it's not as close a resemblance, there's also a similarity between Aslan's jumping over the wall and Christ's appearing "although the doors were locked" (John 20:26).  Both arrive despite that which is meant to keep people out.