Lucy first meets Mr. Tumnus after entering Narnia in C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He is a faun who lives in a cave and invites Lucy to tea.
Mr. Tumnus initially intends to report Lucy to the White Witch, who has ordered that humans in Narnia be captured. His conscience changes, however, and he helps Lucy escape, making him one of the story’s first examples of moral courage.
The character draws on the classical faun, a human-shaped woodland being associated with Roman mythology. Illustrations and screen adaptations have made Tumnus’s umbrella, scarf and flute especially recognizable.