Mr. Tumnus

Tumnus
Narnia character

Race Faun
Nation Narnia
Gender Male
Birthplace Narnia
Major character in
Portrayals in adaptations
1988 BBC miniseries : Jeffrey Perry
2005 Walden/Disney film: James McAvoy

Tumnus is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. He is featured prominently in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and also appears in The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. He is close friends with Lucy Pevensie and is the first creature she meets in Narnia, as well as the first Narnian to be introduced in the series. Lewis said that the first Narnia story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, all came to him from a single picture he had in his head of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels through a snowy wood. In that way, Tumnus was the initial inspiration for the entire Narnia series.[1]

Description

Lewis describes Tumnus as having reddish skin, curly hair, brown eyes, a short pointed beard, horns on his forehead, cloven hooves, goat legs with glossy brown hair, a "strange but pleasant little face," a long tail, and being "only a little taller than Lucy herself."

Tumnus first appears when Lucy arrives in Narnia at the lamp-post. He invites her back to his cave for dinner. During dinner, they talk about Narnia. Tumnus then plays his flute, and Lucy falls asleep. When Lucy wakes up, she sees him in tears. He confesses that he is in the pay of the White Witch (Jadis), who rules Narnia and has made it always winter but never Christmas. She had ordered him and the other Narnians to hand over any Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve - humans - that he sees in Narnia. Tumnus, despite knowing that the Witch will find out if he disobeys her orders, quickly realises that he can't bear to give Lucy up to the Witch, so he guides her back to the lamp-post to see that she returns safely to her own world.

When Lucy returns to Narnia a few days later, Tumnus is still safe: evidently the White Witch hasn't discovered his disobedience. However, Lucy's brother Edmund enters Narnia shortly afterward and mentions to the White Witch that his sister had visited Narnia before and met a faun. When Lucy and her siblings subsequently come to Narnia, they find that Tumnus has been arrested by Maugrim, Chief of the White Witch's secret police. Tumnus had spoken to Mr. Beaver of his fears not long before his arrest and asked him to guide to the four children if he found them in Narnia. The children meet Mr. Beaver just after leaving Tumnus's ransacked cave.

Later in the story, when the winter has come to an end and Aslan is preparing an army to take on the White Witch, Lucy and Susan find Tumnus as a statue in the Witch's castle, and he is restored by Aslan. He follows the other Narnians to the battle as the Witch is defeated and killed.

In The Horse and His Boy, Tumnus appears as a royal adviser to the four Pevensie monarchs (fourteen years later, according to Lewis's Narnian Timeline). He devises a ruse for escaping from Calormen, thereby saving Queen Susan from being forcibly married to Prince Rabadash, and the other Narnians, including her brother Edmund, from certain death trying to defend her.

Portrayals

Tumnus appears in an episode of Family Guy. Looking for a missing sock in the dryer, Peter Griffin falls in and enters the land of Narnia. He is greeted by Tumnus, who has his missing sock. Tumnus also appears in the South Park trilogy, "Imaginationland", and in Epic Movie as he explains to Lucy that he is a faun. He is also portrayed by Héctor Jiménez in Epic Movie.

See also

References

  1. ↑ C.S. Lewis. On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature. 1982, p. 53. ISBN 0-15-668788-7
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