| Narnia character | |
|---|---|
James McAvoy as Tumnus in the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe |
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| Tumnus | |
| Race | Faun |
| Nation | Narnia |
| Gender | Male |
| Birthplace | Narnia |
| Major character in | |
| The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | |
| 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 person 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]
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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 black hair, a "strange but pleasant little face," a long tail, and being, "only a little taller than Lucy herself."
He first appears in the story when Lucy arrives in Narnia at the lamp-post. He introduces himself to Lucy and she tells him who she is, before inviting her back to his cave for dinner. During dinner, they have a conversation about Narnia before Tumnus starts playing his flute and Lucy falls asleep. When Lucy wakes up she realizes that he is crying. He confesses that he is in the pay of the White Witch, 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. Mr Tumnus soon realises that he can't give Lucy up to the Witch, and 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 there and neither of them can understand how the White Witch hasn't found out about him harbouring her. However, when Lucy and her siblings come to Narnia a while afterwards, they find that Tumnus has been captured by Maugrim, Chief of Jadis, the White Witch's secret police. However, he had spoken to Mr. Beaver not long before his arrest and told him to act as a guide to the four children if he saw them in Narnia. He had told Mr. Beaver that he feared that he would soon be arrested.
They met Mr. Beaver just after leaving Tumnus's ransacked cave.
Much later on 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, following all of the other Narnians to the battle as the Witch is defeated and killed.
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