Flying Horses

Flying Horses enter the story through Strawberry, a horse brought from London into the newly created Narnia. Once Aslan gives him wings and names him Fledge, he becomes more than a means of transport: his transformation makes visible the new world’s power to remake inherited lives and gives Digory the help he needs to begin his journey.

Identity and Awakening

Strawberry arrives in Narnia as a horse who has been made to pull a hansom. When Aslan awakens the land’s creatures and chooses some to become Talking Beasts, Strawberry is among them. The new ability does not immediately bring him a clear account of his past. He says that most of the animals know little yet, and describes a muddled feeling that he had lived somewhere else or been something else before Aslan woke them.

The Cabby’s familiar care helps that memory take shape. He reminds Strawberry of bringing him hot mash, rubbing him down, and covering him against the cold. Strawberry then recalls the black hansom attached behind him and the blows that made him run, with the vehicle rattling after him however far he went. His remembered life therefore holds both care and forced labor: the Cabby had tended him, but Strawberry had also been made to pull and run.

Aslan’s Gift and Transformation

After Digory asks how he will climb the mountains and reach the garden, Aslan promises help and turns to the horse standing beside them. He asks whether Strawberry would like to be winged. Strawberry’s widened nostrils, shaking mane, and tapping hoof show his eagerness, though he answers modestly that he does not know why Aslan should choose him and is not very clever.

Aslan commands him to be winged and names him Fledge, the father of all flying horses. Fledge first shies and rears; then wings burst from his shoulders, growing larger than eagles’ and swans’ wings. Their chestnut and copper feathers shine as he sweeps them, leaps into the air, and circles above Aslan and Digory. He lands awkwardly but delightedly, and tells Aslan that being winged is very good. The change is not simply a new capacity: the horse receives a new name and a place in the life of Narnia.

Place in Narnia and the Quest

Before his transformation, Strawberry’s thirst brings the company to a pool. He walks toward it to drink, but Polly recognizes the danger of the pool-worlds and calls for the green rings. Because the travelers are holding one another, the whole party sinks into darkness before Strawberry can drink. His ordinary bodily need thus accidentally triggers a journey that carries him and the others onward to Narnia.

There, Fledge’s new wings answer a practical need. Digory does not know how to climb the cliffs or find his way among the mountains, and admits that the journey will take time. Aslan offers help by making the horse who has been listening nearby into a flying horse. The transformation directly equips Digory for the task Aslan has given him, while Fledge’s own willing response keeps him present as a participant rather than reducing him to a mere instrument.

Animal Memory and Agency

Fledge’s first conversations in Narnia show that awakening does not erase the animals’ previous lives. His recollections emerge gradually, through a relationship with the Cabby and through the concrete memory of the hansom’s rattle. The scene holds together his uncertainty about his former identity and his ability to make sense of it through speech and recognition.

Aslan’s charge to the newly awakened creatures also defines their place in the world: he gives them Narnia’s woods, fruits, rivers, stars, and himself, while telling them to treat the Dumb Beasts gently and not to return to their former condition. Fledge’s passage from a horse subjected to human labor to a speaking, winged being embodies that change in status. His transformation is at once an individual gift and the beginning of a larger lineage: Aslan names him not only as Fledge, but as the father of all flying horses.