It is doubtful, familiar with Narnia as you are, that you have ever heard of me, the Hermit of Lantern Waste. As a few others have done from time to time, I blundered into Narnia from the world of men, through one of the chinks or cracks, which have apparently at times opened between the two worlds. I came alone, having been a hermit in my own world before coming here. In that world, in the place you refer to as the world of the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, I lived also in a wood, and one day in the winter of the year, while I sheltered from the teeth of a blizzard in the hollow trunk of a tree, I found myself drawn into your world. It was warm and snug inside the tree and I fell asleep waiting out the storm. When I awoke I was startled to hear birds singing and to see the rays of what appeared an autumn sun filtering through golden leaves. I stepped out of my shelter to find myself here, in Narnia, though at the time I did not know its name or what had happened to me.

And though at whiles I have wandered from the wild moors and mountains of the north to the steaming deserts and beyond the home of the Tisroc (who most assuredly will not live forever), I have made my home, in a pleasant valley in the heart of Lantern Waste. Though I live alone as a hermit, I have many friends throughout Narnia who visit from time to time and who have been my companions on my journeys. Indeed, it is by the kindness of these friends that I have a home at all, and that I have come to be who I am in this society of talking beasts and walking trees.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Since you know nothing of me or who I have become I shall begin my tale at its beginning.

Copyright©2001, John Nelson