How Prince Col Came to Leave Narnia for therck

[nfe-gremlin.livejournal.com]

Title: How Prince Col Came to Leave Narnia
Author: bedlamsbard
Recipient: therck
Rating: PG
Possible Spoilers/Warnings: mention of underage arranged marriage in a historical context
Summary: Listen now. I will tell you a story that is never told among the Narnian kind, for there are none remaining in Narnia who remember such things.
Author’s Notes: Thanks to [redacted] for the beta!


How Prince Col Came to Leave Narnia


By the time that King Rilian the Disenchanted, son of Caspian X the Seafarer (the first king of a more or less united Narnia), assumed the throne, his betrothed had already been married for some eleven years, and had three boys and two girls with her husband. This was of course to be expected: Rilian had been missing for nearly fifteen years and Marged of Archenland, or rather her mother Queen Yrsa the Deep-Minded, had no intention of waiting for a missing and presumed dead prince to appear out of thin air. (Or thick earth, as the case was.) When news of Rilian’s return and coronation reached Anvard, Yrsa prudently waited until the unrest in Narnia had settled down to mild grumbling (for not all in Narnia believed that Rilian was truly Caspian’s son or that he was not some creature of the Lady of the Green Kirtle that he claimed to have slain. Whether or not Yrsa believed that he was the same man whom she had betrothed her second daughter to all those years ago was irrelevant; what mattered was that after venting his wrath on his own people, he not turn it on Archenland) and sent an ambassador to Caspian’s castle in the city of Cair Paravel. The ambassador arrived somewhat nervously, but he was relieved to find that the streets of Cair Paravel felt familiar to him after a fashion. The city by the sea (no longer the white city of the Golden Age, but fair enough) was not his own Anvard, but like Anvard it was populated by humans and nonhumans alike, though he noted that (unlike Anvard), the humans and nonhumans were careful to segregate themselves from each other, for Caspian’s Narnia had not been united long enough for the old prejudices between Telmarine and Narnian to fade.

When the ambassador arrived at Caspian’s castle, he presented his queen’s message to the new king of Narnia. The queen sent her condolences on his father’s death, her congratulations on his return and accession, her apologies that his bride had married in the interim of his departure, and in Marged’s place, she offered the hand of her eldest granddaughter, the fourteen-year-old Princess Lyndel. In case Rilian required further encouragement, the ambassador carried with him a portrait of the princess that had been completed in the weeks between Caspian’s accession and his own departure. The portrait hangs in the castle yet, and in it you can see that Lyndel at the time of her marriage was a fair girl with a heart-shaped face and masses of wheat-golden hair. She is still a fair woman, your mother.

What the ambassador and the queen both prudently failed to mention was that the princess was in fact so young that when she arrived in Narnia for the wedding, she brought with her in her entourage her nursemaid, who had been with her since she herself had been born. Rilian, no fool, did not protest this, even though Lyndel for a time feared that he would send her nurse away with the rest of her women, whom one or two at a time were returned to Archenland. Lyndel of course was not surprised, because it was the custom of such marriages that her household would in time cease to be made up of her own countrywomen and replaced with those of her new land, for she was no longer Lyndel of Archenland, but instead Lyndel of Narnia. Perhaps Rilian had some lingering fondness for his own nursemaid, who had died many years earlier, and so the new queen was allowed to keep her childhood nursemaid. She had cause, for nine months after the wedding she bore her new husband a son: you, my sweet prince. And so it is that you, who will one day be King of Narnia, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Emperor of the Lone Islands, come to have an Archenlander nurse.

*

“And besides,” she added, lifting the young prince to her knee and forbearing to address the lad who sat quietly on a cushion besides the fire, the child the king’s mistress had borne him only a few weeks after the wedding, “the benefit of having an Archenlander nurse rather than a Narnian one or a Telmarine one,” since these distinctions were still important many years after Caspian’s Unification, “is that I know many stories that your own people have never heard of. Listen now –”

*

Listen now. I will tell you a story that is never told among the Narnian kind, for there are none remaining in Narnia who remember such things, and the White Witch destroyed the last of their kind in her hundred-year winter. In Archenland alone the line runs true, and you, my prince, are the blood of the First Men, whom Aslan himself named kings and queens of Narnia. But in Narnia they are all dead. You will be the first such king in more than a thousand years.

These were the days of old, when the world was young. In these days the great northern mountains and the great mountains of the south, your mother’s land, were still growing, and to the east there was only ocean from Galma and Terebinthia to the World’s End. The Seven Isles were naught but a few bits of rock in the sea, and the Lone Islands had not even been rooted yet. Not yet had the Telmarines even entered this world; the land to the west of Narnia was empty and barren, not yet shaped. In these days there were still gods, and they warred over this land. Great river gods sent their streams tearing through the land, forging lakes and rivers, while the forest lords made their dominion over branch and root, so that all of Narnia was torn between earth and water.

But there were no intruders. There could not be, for the Warden Tree of old still stood by the quiet banks of the Great River. As long as the Warden Tree stood, no evil could enter Narnia – but that did not keep the land itself from breeding toil and trouble.

At this time, the King in Narnia was Frank the sixth of his name, in straight descent from the First King. (Not the High King, mind, for these were the days before the High King and his kin, before the Long Winter and the White Witch, before the end of all goodness in Narnia.) King Frank had two sons, the eldest of whom was his heir. He was another Frank, but they called him Kit, which means lion cub in the old tongue. His second son was scarce two years younger, and he was called Col.

Now, as boys Kit and Col were as close as any two brothers could be. They played together, they trained together, and they studied together, but eventually the time came for Kit to leave the boys’ place to enter the warriors’ hall, and so the two brothers were parted for the first time. At this time also King Frank began to groom Kit for kingship, for he was growing old and he did not want his heir to ascend the throne unprepared for what lay before him. (The Warden Tree might keep off intruders from Narnia, but from time to time there were ill deeds within the land itself, not to mention the small gods who fought their battles with the very earth as their battleground. A King of Narnia had to be prepared to deal with such things.)

Col knew this and did not resent it, for he had always known that one day Kit would be King and he himself would be the King’s right hand. Instead he busied himself with his training and his playing, which was indeed just another method of training for war. Such things were uncommon in Narnia, but not entirely unheard of, and it was better to be safe rather than sorry. During this time Col made many friends and allies among the boys his own age, boys that he had known when his brother had been among their ranks, but who grew to be nearly as close as his own blood once Kit had gone. First among them was Ider the Black, the best archer of all the lads, then Drust the Sweet-Singer, a faun whose voice could coax a bear out of its winter cave. Also there was Garrit of the Soft Hands, clever even for a centaur and certainly the cleverest of all in the boys’ place, and Elwin Harefoot, who, even though he was only human, had once raced a cheetah from Lantern Waste to the Eastern Shore and won. These and more did Col gather about him, so that he was a boy confident in his friends, just as his own brother was amongst his.

As the seasons turned the time came for Col and his friends to take the manhood trials. They passed easily, surpassing those that had come before them – even the Crown Prince. New-blooded, they joined the ranks of the warriors. All expected Kit and Col to return to their former closeness – indeed, even the two brothers themselves expected this. Certainly their father did, as he was well-satisfied in his two sons, for it was a good thing to have one son who would wear the crown and another to wield the sword.

But too much time had passed. Kit had drawn his own companions around himself, while Col had his friends. Over and over again the brothers tried to renew their closeness, but one thing or another always seemed to prevent it. Rumor ran rampant that Col might try to overthrow his brother, so that even Kit seemed ill at ease around his brother, though Col and his friends denied it whenever the question was put to them. Though the great gods of earth and stream had calmed themselves for the time being, all of Narnia seemed to be on edge, waiting for one or the other of the two brothers to make the first move – the move that would, finally and irrevocably, sever them from each other. None knew what form this might take, or if it would end well or poorly.

Affairs came to a head at high summer. The warriors, fresh-returned from a hunt, spent the evening stretched out on the banks of the Great River. It had been a hot, humid day and even after nightfall the heat lay heavy on them, so that at length Elwin Harefoot stripped off his shirt and breeches and leapt into the river to cool down. He was soon followed by his companions and both brothers, until at last only Ider the Black, whose arrow had brought down the stag that day, remained on the shore.

At another time the river would have been full of life, naiads eager to flirt with – and more! – the fresh young warriors of the King’s court. Ider’s absence might not have been noted. But the river god was far upstream, with his daughters gathered close about him – perhaps planning another assault on one of his rivals, or on the god of the Western Wood, with whom he had a particular quarrel. So it was that one of Kit’s warriors, a faun called Kosta Halfhand, sought to draw Ider into the water, first with laughter, then with cajoling, and then, as Ider still refused, with threats.

The others had ceased their sport. Ider stood stiff upon the bank, his hands clenched tight upon his waist, and refused for the hundredth time that evening.

“Perhaps it is merely that the lad cannot swim,” Kit suggested, seeking to make peace.

This had rather the opposite effect, since it sent Drust into a black rage. “Are you suggesting that your brother’s man cannot be as well trained as your own, then? For shame, highness –”

“And perhaps it is merely that the lad has something to hide,” suggested another of Kit’s companions. He had drifted close to the shore during the argument, quite unseen by the others, and as Drust blustered and Col sought to calm the group, he grasped Ider by the young man’s narrow ankle and dragged him into the water.

A tussle immediately commenced. Drust threw himself upon the nearest of Kit’s men, shouting vile imprecations, and all through the water the companions of the two brothers shoved and struck at each other, any jesting that had remained now extinguished. In the mess Kosta got hold of Ider, and they had not wrestled long before he cried out, “By Aslan – he’s a woman!”

That stilled them. They looked, all of them, and saw that in the fray Kosta had torn Ider’s shirt half-off. She covered herself with one hand, flushed scarlet beneath her black hair, and took herself out of the river without a word, grabbing for her cloak and drawing it tight about her despite the heat.

Kit, who was betrothed and presently immensely conscious of such things, immediately leapt from the water. He dressed quickly, apologizing for his discommode and that of his companions – in short, treating Ider as he might treat any lady of the court who might have chanced to come upon them in similar circumstances. Col and his companions, though they drew themselves from the water and dressed as well, were silent. They closed ranks about Ider, giving her a fresh shirt, and complimenting her on the splendid black eye that she had given Kosta. There was much laughter on their part, and it was soon made clear to Kit that whether or not his brother had known of Ider’s sex beforehand, it was no trouble to him now, for Col and his companions treated her no differently than they had before the battle in the river.

This sat ill with Kit. Some questioning of his brother revealed that Ider had taken her twin brother’s spot in the boys’ place, a trick that both siblings and their mother – their father was many years dead – had been privy to. Her brother had remained at their family home, which was some distance from the King’s castle, so that they were rarely seen at court. That was how no one, save her closest friends, had known that she was a woman. Col was not much bothered with it, for he had known her so long that it was nothing more than part of her, like her sword arm or her fleet feet. Ider and Kit had never been friends, but he had respected her, as he had respected all of his brother’s companions, and he found that something had changed once he learned that she was a woman.

If Col and Ider had hoped that her true identity would remain a secret, it did not last past their entrance through the castle gates. Their father had come to meet them, eager to see what bounty the hunt had brought, and Kit blurted out what they had learned on the banks of the Great River. Col gave him a betrayed look, but too late: the secret had been spilled.

By the next morning, the story was all over the castle. When Ider entered the great hall to break her fast, the whole hall went silent, everyone watching and wondering to see if she would sit with Col and his companions, as she was accustomed to, or if she would sit with the women. There was a great sigh – of relief, or something else? – as she took her customary place at Col’s right hand.

That might have been the end of the matter, if it was not for Kit. The crown prince stood, looking down the table at his brother and his companions, and said, “My lady Ider, it is not suitable for a maiden such as yourself to be seated with the warriors.”

Ider gave him a cool look. “I am a warrior, am I not? I passed the same trials as did the others here.”

“You are a gentle maiden, and unsuited for the violent life of a warrior.”

“You did not think I was so gentle when I beat you wrestling!”

There was a burst of laughter in the hall. Kit’s cheeks flushed scarlet and Ider grinned a little in triumph. Col was at her side, gazing steadily at his brother. The rest of the warriors were tense. They were not armed, their weapons hanging on the wall behind them, but between Col’s companions and Kit’s companions there was a distinct air of violence heavy in the room. Mayhap you have felt it, from time to time, in a place where there are soldiers and knights aplenty, with or without their weapons close to hand.

“I must insist, my lady,” the crown prince forced out, his voice sharp on the word lady.

“And I must refuse, my prince,” said Ider.

The prince looked at the King. Frank’s expression suggested that he would rather not be involved in such a discussion, but he roused himself gamely. “Lady Ider, my son is quite right. This is unsuitable for you –”

Ider clenched her hand quietly tightly upon the table. “I am a warrior of Narnia,” she said. “I did all that any other of these warriors here has done, and just as well. Would you prefer yourself one fighter short and one maiden to the richer? For I can assure you, my king, that I am no lady.”

There was another shocked burst of murmurs.

“Then, Lady Ider, I am afraid that you will have to leave my court,” King Frank said.

It was then that Prince Col made his decision. Perhaps the rest of the court had been waiting for him to speak, perhaps not, but at these words he rose in his seat, gripping the Lady Ider’s shoulder – though whether this was meant as reassurance for himself or for her no one knew. “My father,” he says, “either she stays with the warriors in the place that is rightfully hers – the place that she has earned – or when she goes, I and my companions will go with her.”

“Col –” the King began, but there was a fierce, devilish light in Kit’s eyes, and he spoke before his father could finish.

“Then you’d best go, brother.”

Col looked at him – and then he pushed his chair back, giving his hand to Ider as she rose as well. Both of them took their weapons from the place where they hung on the wall, followed by the remainder of Col’s companions – about half of Narnia’s warriors. The King did not speak as they left the hall in silence. His son did not look back.

Soon afterwards Col and his companions rode out from the castle. They rode south, into the fresh young mountains that had not yet been explored by man. They were never again seen in Narnia, but what happened to Col – who was the first King of Archenland – is another story entirely.

*

The young prince was half-asleep against his nurse’s shoulder, but he roused himself a little to ask, “What happened to King Frank and the bad prince?”

“The King died soon afterwards – of grief, some say, for he had loved his children’s mother very dearly, and though he could not stop Col from leaving, he never stopped missing him. Kit became king after him – another King Frank, the seventh of his name. In time he married and had children of his own. He and his brother never spoke again, though.

“That line is dead now. The First Men are no longer even memories in Narnia, thanks to the White Witch; they have been eclipsed by the High King and his kin. But in Archenland they remain, the sons and daughters of King Col the First, all the way back to the beginning of the world.”


Original Prompt that we sent you: What I want: I'm interested in the parts of Narnian history we know little or nothing about-- Frank and Helen's great-grandchildren, the arrival of Caspian's ancestors, Rilian's reign (or his descendants' reigns), the origins of the other humans in the Narnian world, any gap. I'm also curious about the point of view of ordinary Narnians if the gaps in history don't work.
Prompt words/objects/quotes/whatever: "History never looks like history when you are living through it." John W. Gardner (1912 - 2002)

Comments

[lady_songsmith]

ooooh, love it, love it, love it! How brilliant to have Archenland remember that they're descended of Frank (though I'd sort of like to hear the Narnian version of the split -- I suspect it'd be less flattering to Col and more to Kit -- which, love that nickname, btw!). And I like the little details thrown into the frame, like Archenland's pragmatic alliance with Rilian and the bastard in the nursery.

[cofax7]

Oh, that's very good. I love the layers here: the implications about Rilian, the business about the only original royal line being in Archenland, the rather Sutcliff-ish warrior society of the early days, and of course the sibling squabbling ending in a major political rift. Well done!

[edenfalling]

Wow! I love the portrait you paint of a protected but very wild Narnia in its earliest years, with the world still shaping itself outside the borders, the small gods of the land fighting one another, and the warrior culture around the court -- it feels like a very small kingdom, the sort where battles are fought by champions rather than large armies as in the Golden Age or later. Col and Kit drifting away from each other is both a typical story trope -- which is probably why the story lasted nearly two thousand years, if we believe Lewis's timeline -- and a believable consequence of brothers growing up in an age-segregated culture and having the weight of their father's throne hanging between them.

I also really like what you did with Ider, how she's introduced unremarkably as another of Col's companions and then Col and his friends continue to see her that way after the reveal of her gender, while Kit either cannot or will not accept her. I wonder if he reacted so badly because he truly felt her sex somehow negated all her achievements, or if it was a way of striking at Col through a socially acceptable framework. I was very glad when Ider stood her ground and then her friends stood and left Narnia with her.

The frame story is also nifty, because of course Rillian was probably betrothed before he vanished, and even if time stood still for him while he was enchanted (which is arguable either way, grrr, why is Lewis so vague about ages and time spans in SC?) the rest of the world didn't stop and Archenland in particular had no reason to expect him to return. And I have wondered for a long time what Archenland's attitude toward the changes in Narnian government was, since their royal family is at this point the only known line descended from Frank and Helen. It makes perfect sense that Archenlanders remember a lot of history that Narnians don't, because Narnia has had its culture nearly obliterated at least twice by Rillian's day -- first by Jadis and then by civil war followed by the Telmarine invasion.

[(Anonymous)]

Gasp…so much world building. I love all the little details in this: that Rillian wasn’t loved by his people right away, that Caspian’s Narnia wasn’t totally united like people would have us believe, all the things about Rillian’s life before and after the Green Lady, the king’s mistress has a child… I love how you build the customes and etiquettes of a woman going to be married in a foreign land.

It was beautiful how you wrote about the world whenit was young, how the forming of the world still carried on after that first day and that Aslan only did part of it, the rest was works of other gods.

I love the hint of slight resentment at the end that in Narnia, the line of First Men was eclipsed by the Pevensies but also pride that it lived on in Archenland, and the suggestion that Archenland is closer to a country where men and beasts are united than Narnia at this point. I love how Col and Kit’s relationship is extended into a metaphor for the relationship between Narnia and Archenland; they are like brothers, ultimately they have always been allies and were close, but then things change, what is left is moments like these where it’s clear they’ve drifted apart and there is just memories and a subtle hint of wariness and perhaps even rivalry that neither really acknowledge.

Ruan Chun Xian

[amine-eyes.livejournal.com]

Oh I love how the split happened here, and how you framed the story in a bedtime story :DDDDDD

[(Anonymous)]

Brilliant! There's so much in here, and so many directions that the story can take off in. (What a ratbag, old Kit, hey?) Love the recognition of the difficulties of Narnian/Archenland relations, and Telmarine/Narnian relations, and the hint of the whole difficult life of Rilian's mistress' child,

In sum, I liked it very, very much.

Heliopause.

[the_rck]

Thanks ever so much! This is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind-- You gave me both more about Rilian and something about Frank and Helen's descendants. I believed in the growing estrangement between the brothers, Col and Kit (and wondered how things will be between Rilian's sons). I like this as an origin story for Archenland and like the idea that Archenland has a continuity of stories and such that Narnia really doesn't. I can't help speculating as to what other stories Archenland has preserved that Narnia has lost.

Thanks so very much for writing!

[autumnia]

Loved this a lot -- there's a lot of history-building here and I like how you presented it, as a history lesson/bedtime story to the young Prince (and I love the details you have here about Rilian as well, how his first betrothed had marry during his captivity and then how Rilian himself had a mistress who also bore him another child). What's great here is that you have Col breaking ties with his family all because he had a woman in his group of confidantes and warriors. And I LOVE that he did not treat her any differently than his male friends and he accepted her as an equal.

[snacky]

Oh, I really liked this a lot! I love all the little details and descriptions and hints (Queen Yrsa the Deep-Minded, Rilian's bastard son sharing the nursery with the prince, what happened to Col being "another story entirely") and this vision of the early Narnia as an unsettled place, still being shaped, where gods walked the earth, and the Narnians being a warrior culture - I like how ancient they felt, and how appropriate, for this early in Narnian history.

I also liked Ider and Col and his companions acceptance of her, while Kit uses her as the reason to drive his brother away. I love how Ider was able to speak for herself, to claim her place as warrior, even with both the Crown Prince and the King telling her no. I wonder if she because Col's Queen in Archenland...

And I loved Rilian's son being of the first line - talk about strengthening his ties to the throne and the bloodline going all the way back to the beginning of the World - and that the Archenlanders remember all the history that the Narnians don't.

Very well done!

[pencildragon11.livejournal.com]

The worldbuilding. Oh, my, the worldbuilding. I love this. I love the bedtime story and the gods warring among themselves and the manhood trials and the girl-in-disguise and the rich oldness of this tale.

“That line is dead now. The First Men are no longer even memories in Narnia, thanks to the White Witch; they have been eclipsed by the High King and his kin. But in Archenland they remain, the sons and daughters of King Col the First, all the way back to the beginning of the world.”

Wow. And I'm sure the Archenlanders are justly proud of their unbroken line. Good story.

[(Anonymous)]

This was superb. Solid details included but not limited to:

Rilian being greeted with suspicion (to some, it must have seem like Anastasia, right?? I am the long-lost prince?? Or one of those Russian rebels in the time of Catherine the Great?? Interesting, too, that Rilian took a mistress...did he pass a law that none of his women were ever, ever allowed to wear green???)

The voice of the Archenland nurse, telling a story to the children that is history...we have encountered this approach to child's education in Narnia before, I think...

Kit's chivalry being revealed as irritating chauvinism..it looks charming on the surface, and turns out to be pernicious...but what this reviewer finds particularly interesting is the way the story of Col and his lady-who-is-not-a-lady foreshadows another Prince Cor, who, centuries later, will also marry a maverick woman in disguise...evidently, for all the keep-'em-barefoot-and-pregnant ethos that prevails in Archenland, there has always been a tradition of women who color outside the lines..and the men who appreciate them.

Clio1792

[hutchynstarsk.livejournal.com]

Very well written and interesting!! :)

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

A wonderful story. I love the way you use Rilian's son -- of course there were betrothals and of course there were mistresses -- and how nevertheless for all the unsettling times, with the arrival of Lyndel, the old blood of the first men of Frank now flows again in the royal line of Narnia. It is wonderful how the Archenlanders remember what the Narnians do not.

The whole description of the world itself making itself, growing its mountains and islands, is a wonderful extension of the creation story of TMN. I love the images of the old gods fighting amongst one another, with Narnia as a wild and unsettled place even without the threats from outside. It is a brilliant device I've never seen before in fic.

The issues with Col, Ider, and Kit are fascinating. I always tend to think of Narnia as being more liberal where gender is concerned because of the female Beasts, so that alone is noteworthy and then as the other reviewer noted, the parallel between Ider and Aravis and Cor and Col.

Thank you for a terrific story.

[ilysia-039.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. You exactly capture the tone of Old Tales- legends and the like- and the pitch is perfect. It's a lovely tale, too, blending history and myth and love and betrayal into a perfect mixture that is both a perfect bedtime tale and a lesson. It works wonderfully, too, that Archenland claims the only true descent from the 'First Men;' thank you so, so much for sharing.

[linneasr.livejournal.com]

Oh, very nice! Intelligent portrayal of the establishment of Archenland, why it is a slightly different country, why the line of Frank's descent might have eventually deserved to fail - brilliant, all of it! Congratulations!

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

Omg, this is great! I really love the style you have--it's perfect for the storytelling but it also doesn't drag at all. And you've drawn these characters out really well, both as characters in a fairy tale and as characters of their own story. And I like that there's a story of Archenland that doesn't sort of go "And then there was a prince and he was less cool than his brother, so he founded Narnia lite."

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

Excellent story!