Duffer (Narnia)

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Duffers are a fictional race who appear in C.S. Lewis' novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (part of The Chronicles of Narnia). They were originally dwarfs, ruled by the magician Coriakin, a living star who was (for some unspecified transgression) commanded by Aslan to watch over the childish Duffers. The Duffers rejected Corikan in favour of their own much-admired "Chief", and were subsequently turned into one-legged monopods. Interpreting this change in themselves as "uglification", they had their Chief's daughter Clipsie say a spell to make them invisible. They later convinced Lucy Pevensie into reading the spell from the Coriakin's Book that will undo their invisibility, since only a young girl can work the magic.

Having regained their visibility, the Duffers took great delight in their monopod form (having seemingly forgotten that they had previously considered it ugly). However, they soon confused the words "Monopod" and "Duffer", and began calling themselves "Dufflepuds".

In their monopod form, their one leg is usually three feet long, and ends in a large canoe-like foot. When they sleep, their foot forms a kind of umbrella over them. According to Brian Sibley's book The Land of Narnia, Lewis may have based their appearance on drawings from the Hereford Mappa Mundi.

The Duffers have a great (and totally unwarranted) respect for their Chief, who leads them by making his commands seem like the only logical thing to do. He often makes seemingly-pointless statements such as "Getting dark, always does at night".