This Letter From C. S. Lewis To His Goddaughter, For Whom He Wrote 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe'

November 14, 2025

There’s a simple, heartfelt letter tucked inside The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe that reveals the tenderness behind C. S. Lewis’s legendary stories.

It was addressed to his goddaughter, Lucy Barfield, the real-life inspiration for Lucy Pevensie, the brave and loyal heroine of Narnia.

C.S. Lewis / The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The letter reads:

My Dear Lucy, I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather, C. S. Lewis"

There’s a gentle melancholy in his words, a recognition of how quickly childhood slips away. Lewis understood that as we grow, the world we once inhabited — full of wonder, magic, and the fearless courage of imagination — fades beneath the weight of responsibility and reason.

Yet he also offered hope: that fairy tales are not lost forever, that there will come a time when we can return to them, dust them off from some high shelf, and rediscover the joy, wonder, and dreams we once held.

Who Was Lucy Barfield?

Born in 1935, Lucy Barfield herself lived a life that mirrored some of the struggles of growing up and facing the limitations of the adult world. She was artistic and lively, a love for music and dance shaping her life, yet later battled multiple sclerosis, which eventually left her unable to move or speak. Even so, the spark of wonder never truly left her.

In her final years, she delighted in hearing her godfather’s stories read aloud, returning, in a sense, to that magical world he had written for her so many decades before. She passed away on May 3, 2003.

Words of Wisdom

The dedication and the story behind it remind us that fairy tales aren’t just for children. They are gifts of courage, imagination, and hope, waiting for us to rediscover them when the world grows heavy.

Lewis’s words speak across generations, gently urging us to remember that even as we age, the capacity to dream, to believe in courage, magic, and the triumph of good over evil, remains alive — tucked quietly on the upper shelves of our hearts, waiting for the moment we are ready to open it again.