The Wisest and Best

"Once upon a time there were two little Princesses whose names were Violetta and Gambetta; and they lived in Mountainy Castle. They were twins, and they were so like each other that when Violetta came in from a walk with her feet wet, Gambetta was sometimes told to go and change her stockings, because the Queen couldn't tell which from the other.

"But that didn't often happen, because if Princess Violetta was out for a walk, Princess Gambetta was almost sure to be out with her. Indeed they were so fond of one another that you might have thought they were tied together with a piece of string. All the same, the Queen used to be so fussed and worried by the confusion that, what with one thing and another, she persuaded the King to appoint a special Lord to distinguish between them.

"And he was called the Lord High Teller of the Other From Which."

Owen Barfield was a British philosopher and a founding member of The Inkling Society while at Oxford University. Fellow members of The Inkling Society included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein among others. Regular meetings were held on Thursday nights for the purpose of reading and discussing the members unfinished works. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings was the first to be read to the group.

Barfield was extraordinary close to C.S. Lewis during his life, serving as Lewis' legal and financial advisor, and executor of his estate. Lewis called Barfield the “wisest and best of my unofficial teachers,” dedicating the first Narnian chronicle to his friend’s adopted daughter Lucy.

The Silver Trumpet (1925) , a children's fairy tale, was the first published work of Owen Barfield.

"And now the story must hurry on, for there are many more things to be told yet, so many, that if you knew all that is still to happen you would say it had scarcely begun. Therefore you must try to imagine to youself what took place...."

The Silver Trumpet, by Owen Barfield, offered for sale by Chewybooks, as of April 22,2010.