Mr. Tumnus

Encyclopedia : M : MR : MRT : Mr. Tumnus

James McAvoy as Mr Tumnus in

In C. S. Lewis's fictional world of Narnia, Mr. Tumnus is a faun in the story The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He also makes appearances in The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle. He is described as having reddish skin, curly hair, a short pointed beard, horns on his forehead, cloven hooves, shiny black goat legs, and a long tail that he carries over his arm. However in the movie version he has a short tail and brown goat legs.

Mr. Tumnus meets Lucy Pevensie, one of the main four characters, when she first enters the magical land of Narnia through the eponymous wardrobe. They meet at a lamppost and Mr. Tumnus offers Lucy tea at his home. At his house, Mr. Tumnus gives Lucy tea, sardines, and cakes, then plays his flute for her. Either the song or the flute has some enchantment which puts Lucy to sleep. She wakes up several hours later to find Mr. Tumnus crying. He then explains to her how he had entered the service of the White Witch, and was planning on turning Lucy over to the Witch when she was asleep. He begs Lucy's forgiveness, which she readily gives, and then takes her back to the lamppost so she can go home.

Mr. Tumnus is later arrested and turned to stone by the White Witch. Much of Lucy's eagerness to fight the White Witch comes from her affection for and desire to rescue him. After Aslan's resurrection and his subsequent raid on Witch's castle with the Pevensie girls, Lucy finds the statue of Mr Tumnus, who is restored to life when Aslan breathes on him.

The name Tumnus may be a truncated form of Vertumnus which was borne by a rustic god in Roman mythology.

See also

• Pan (mythology)
• Puck (mythology)
• Satyr
• Faun

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.