Editing Houyhnhnm

{{Short description|Fictional race of horses}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox fictional race
| name        = Houyhnhnm
| image       = Gulliver u Hvajninimů - Grandville.jpg
| caption     = Gulliver in discussion with Houyhnhnms (1856 lllustration by [[J.J. Grandville]]).
| series      = [[Gulliver's Travels]]
| type        = 
| home_world  = 
| first       = ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]''
}}
'''Houyhnhnms''' are a fictional race of intelligent horses described in the last part of [[Jonathan Swift]]'s satirical 1726 novel ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]''. The name is pronounced either {{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|uː|ɪ|n|əm}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|hw|ɪ|n|əm}}.<ref>Daniel Jones: ''English Pronouncing Dictionary.'' Cambridge/New York/Melbourne: Cambridge University Press 1997. {{ISBN|0-521-45272-4}}, {{ISBN|0-521-45903-6}}</ref> Swift apparently intended all words of the Houyhnhnm language to echo the neighing of horses.

==Description==
[[File:Map of Houyhnhnms land.jpg|right|thumb|Map of Houyhnhnms Land (original map, Pt IV, ''Gulliver's Travels''), showing its location south of [[New Holland (Australia)|New Holland]] (Australia).]]
Gulliver's visit to the Land of the Houyhnhnms is described in Part IV of his ''Travels'', and its location illustrated on the map at the start of Part IV.<ref>''Gulliver's Travels'' (GT), part IV, ch 1: Oxford World Classic (OWC) p. 206</ref>

The map shows Houyhnhnms Land to be south of Australia; it indicates [[Edel Land District|Edels Land]] and [[Cape Leeuwin|Lewins Land]] to the north, and [[Nuyts Land District|Nuyts Land]] to the north-east, on the mainland with the islands of [[St Francis Island|St Francis]] and [[St Peter Island (South Australia)|St Pieter]] further east, and Sweers, [[Maatsuyker Island|Maatsuyker]] and [[De Witt Island|De Wit]] islands to the east. The map is somewhat careless with the scale, however; Edels Land to Lewins Land are shown adjacent, while in reality they are some 1000&nbsp;km apart, while the sweep of the Great Australian Bight, from Cape Leeuwin, Australia's south-westerly point to the [[Maatsuyker Islands]], off the southern tip of [[Tasmania]], is over 3000&nbsp;km.

Gulliver describes the land as "divided by long rows of trees, not regularly planted but naturally growing", with a "great plenty of grass, and several fields of oats".<ref>GT Pt IV, ch 1: OWC p. 208</ref>

The Houyhnhnms are rational [[equine]] beings and are masters of the land, contrasting strongly with the [[Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)|Yahoos]], savage [[humanoid]] creatures who are no better than beasts of burden, or livestock. Whereas the Yahoos represent all that is bad about humans, Houyhnhnms have a settled, calm, reliable and rational society. Gulliver much prefers the Houyhnhnms' company to the Yahoos', even though the latter are biologically closer to him.

==Interpretation==
[[File:The Servants Drive a Herd of Yahoos into the Field, from Gulliver's Travels.jpg|thumb|Houyhnhnms driving a herd of [[Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)|Yahoos]], [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]]
[[File:Gulliver-taking-his-final-leave-of-the-land-of-the-houyhnhnms-sawrey-gilpin.jpg|thumb|''Gulliver Taking His Final Leave of the Land of the Houyhnhnms'', [[Sawrey Gilpin]], 1769]]
It is possible to interpret the Houyhnhnms in a number of different ways. One interpretation could be a sign of Swift's [[Liberalism in Europe|liberal]] views on race, or one could regard Gulliver's preference (and his immediate division of Houyhnhnms into color-based hierarchies) as absurd and the sign of his self-deception. It is now generally accepted that the story involving the Houyhnhnms embody a wholly pessimistic view of the place of man and the meaning of his existence in the universe.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jan, Firdaus|first=K. M., Shabam|title=Perspectives on Gulliver's Travels|year=2004|pages=17}}</ref> In a modern context the story might be seen as presenting an early example of [[animal rights]] concerns, especially in Gulliver's account of how horses are cruelly treated in his society and the reversal of roles. The story is a possible inspiration for [[Pierre Boulle]]'s novel ''[[Planet of the Apes (novel)|Planet of the Apes]]''.

Book IV of ''Gulliver's Travels'' is the keystone, in some ways, of the entire work,{{citation needed|date=April 2014}} and critics have traditionally answered the question whether Gulliver is insane (and thus just another victim of Swift's satire) by questioning whether or not the Houyhnhnms are truly admirable.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Williams|first=Kathleen M.|date=1951|title=Gulliver's Voyage to the Houyhnhnms|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2871830|journal=ELH|volume=18|issue=4|pages=275–286|doi=10.2307/2871830|jstor=2871830 |issn=0013-8304}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Carnochan|first=W. B.|date=1963|title=The Complexity of Swift: Gulliver's Fourth Voyage|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4173404|journal=Studies in Philology|volume=60|issue=1|pages=23–44|jstor=4173404 |issn=0039-3738}}</ref> Gulliver loves the land and is obedient to a race that is not like his own. The Houyhnhnm society is based upon reason, and only upon [[logic|reason]], and therefore the horses practice [[eugenics]] based on their analyses of benefit and cost. They have no religion and their sole morality is the defence of reason, and so they are not particularly moved by pity or a belief in the intrinsic value of life. Gulliver himself, in their company, builds the sails of his skiff from "Yahoo skins". The Houyhnhnms' lack of passion surfaces during the scheduled visit of "a friend and his family" to the home of Gulliver's master "upon some affair of importance". On the day of the visit, the mistress of his friend and her children arrive very late. She made no excuses "first for her husband" who had died just that morning and she had to remain to make the proper arrangements for a "convenient place where his body should be laid". Gulliver remarked that "she behaved herself at our house as cheerfully as the rest". A further example of the lack of humanity and emotion in the Houyhnhnms is that their laws reason that each couple produce two children, one male and one female. In the event that a marriage produced two offspring of the same sex, the parents would take their children to the annual meeting and trade one with a couple who produced two children of the opposite sex. This was viewed as his spoofing and or criticising the notion that the "ideal" family produces children of both sexes. [[George Orwell]] viewed the Houyhnhnm society as one whose members try to be as close to dead as possible while alive and matter as little as possible in life and death.<ref>George Orwell: ''[http://orwell.ru/library/reviews/swift/english/e_swift Politics vs. Literature – An examination of Gulliver's travels]''</ref>

On one hand, the Houyhnhnms have an orderly and peaceful society. They have philosophy and a language that is entirely free of political and ethical nonsense. They have no word for a ''lie'' (and must substitute a circumlocution: "to say a thing which is not"). They also have a form of art that is derived from nature. Outside ''Gulliver's Travels'', Swift had expressed longstanding concern over the corruption of the [[English language]], and he had proposed language reform. He had also, in ''[[Battle of the Books]]'' and in general in ''[[A Tale of a Tub]]'', expressed a preference for the Ancients (Classical authors) because their art was based directly upon nature, and not upon other art.

On the other hand, Swift was profoundly mistrustful of attempts at reason that resulted in either [[hubris]] (for example, the Projectors satirised in ''A Tale of a Tub'' or in Book III of ''Gulliver's Travels'') or immorality (such as the speaker of ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'', who offers an entirely logical and wholly immoral proposal for [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]]). The Houyhnhnms embody both the good and the bad side of reason, for they have the pure language Swift wished for and the amorally rational approach to solving the problems of humanity (Yahoos); the extirpation of the Yahoo population by the horses is very like the speaker of ''A Modest Proposal''.

In the shipping lanes he is rescued by a [[Pedro de Mendez|Portuguese sea captain]], a level-headed individual albeit full of concern for others, whose temperament at one level appears intermediate between the calm, rational Houyhnhnms of Houyhnhnmland and the norm of corrupt, European humanity, which Gulliver no longer distinguishes from Houyhnhnmland's wild Yahoos. Gulliver can speak with him, and though now disaffected from all humanity, he began to tolerate his company. Gulliver is returned to his home and family, finds their smell and look intolerable and all his countrymen no better than "Yahoos", purchases and converses with two stabled horses, tolerating the stable boy, and assures the reader of his account's utter veracity.

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[Brobdingnag]]
* [[Lilliput and Blefuscu]]
* [[List of fictional horses]]
* [[Struldbrug]]
* [[Yahoo (Gulliver's Travels)|Yahoo (''Gulliver's Travels'')]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* {{Cite NIE|wstitle=Houyhnhnms|short=x}}

{{Gulliver's Travels}}

[[Category:Literary characters introduced in 1726]]
[[Category:Fictional horses]]
[[Category:Fictional species and races]]
[[Category:Gulliver's Travels]]
[[Category:Fictional island countries]]