Hwin facts for kids

Hwin is a fictional character from C. S. Lewis's fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia. She is prominent in the book The Horse and His Boy.

Hwin, a mare, was born as a free talking beast in the Land of Narnia, but was captured as a foal by the Calormenes, and has lived her life as the property of humans, hiding her true nature as a talking horse. However, to help her mistress, Aravis Tarkheena, to escape an arranged marriage, Hwin reveals her true nature to Aravis, and persuades Aravis to flee with her to freedom in Narnia instead. In The Horse and his Boy, (the events of which all occur during the reign of the four Pevensie children in Narnia, an era which begins and ends in the last chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Hwin and Aravis fall into company with the talking stallion, Bree, to whom Hwin is distantly related, and the boy Shasta. In the course of their adventures, the companions thwart an attempted invasion of Archenland and Narnia, and Hwin, nervous, gentle and humble by nature, passes through testing grounds in which courage and the ability to lead are developed in her.

Name

Hwin's name brings to mind the word "whinny", a sound that horses make. (Ford 2005, p. 240) Primarily, "Hwin" is a contraction of "Hwinhynym", which, spelled "Houyhnhnm" is the name of the race of noble horses from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

See also

In Spanish: Hwin para niños