White Witch


Jadis is the main antagonist of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew in C. S. Lewis's series, The Chronicles of Narnia. She is commonly referred to as the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as she is the Witch who froze Narnia in the Hundred Years Winter.
Some recent editions of the books include brief notes, added by later editors, that describe the cast of characters. As Lewis scholar Peter Schakel points out, the description there of Jadis and the Queen of Underland "states incorrectly that the Queen of Underland is an embodiment of Jadis". Beyond characterising the two as "Northern Witches", Lewis's text does not connect them. See Lady of the Green Kirtle for further discussion.

Character history

Jadis was born on an unknown date long before the creation of Narnia. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe she is identified by a character as a descendant of giants and Adam's first wife :
Jadis died in battle in Narnian year 1000, meaning that she lived for well over 1,000 years.

''The Magician's Nephew''

In The Magician's Nephew, Jadis is introduced as the Queen of Charn, a city in an entirely different world from Narnia. She was the last of a long line of kings and queens, who began well but grew evil over many generations and conquered the entire world of Charn. Jadis, a powerful sorceress, fought a bloody war of rebellion against her sister. On the point of defeat, Jadis chose not to submit, but spoke instead the Deplorable Word which destroyed all life on Charn except her own. She then cast a spell of enchanted sleep upon herself to await someone who could rescue her from Charn.
Many years later, a 12-year-old Digory Kirke and his friend Polly Plummer arrive in the ruins of Charn through Digory's uncle's magic. The children find the bell that Jadis left to break the spell. Despite Polly's warning not to ring the bell, Digory does so. Jadis is awakened and by holding on to them is transported with them back to London in the year 1900. She initially aims to conquer the world to which she is transported, but finds that her magic does not work there. Digory, seeking to correct his mistake, attempts to transport her back to Charn, but they end up instead in the world of Narnia at the moment of its creation by the lion Aslan. As Aslan approaches, she attacks him with the rod of iron she has torn by main strength from a London lamp post; when this has no effect, she flees.
Jadis makes her way to the garden on a mountain west of Narnia, where she eats an apple that she believes will make her immortal and give her eternal life. However, this supposed immortality comes at a cost: her skin is bleached white, and the evil in her heart causes her eternal misery. She cannot stand the sight of the tree that Aslan has Digory plant in Narnia from the fruit of the garden, and she thus stays to the north of Narnia, working to develop her magic.
Meanwhile, the land of Narnia remains the domain of animals and is not troubled by the Witch nor any other enemy for many hundreds of years.

''The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe''

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, set 1,000 Narnian years after the events of The Magician's Nephew, the tree that kept Jadis at bay has died, and Jadis has usurped power over Narnia. She is now known as the White Witch, and is served by various races including Wolves, Black Dwarves, Giants, Werewolves, Tree Spirits that are on her side, Ghouls, Boggles, Ogres, Minotaurs, Cruels, Hags, Spectres, People of the Toadstools, Incubi, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Orknies, Sprites, Wooses, Ettins, Poisonous Plant Spirits, Evil Apes, Giant Bats, Vultures, and creatures that are "so horrible that if I told you, your parents probably wouldn't let you read this book." The Witch's magic is now powerful, and with her wand she can turn enemies to stone.
She styles herself "Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands", and she casts Narnia into an endless winter with no Christmas. She fears a prophecy that four humans – two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve – will cause her downfall, and orders all Narnians to bring any human they come across to her.
By the time the Pevensie children arrive in Narnia, Jadis has ruled for 100 years. She first meets Edmund Pevensie while riding on her sledge through the land of Narnia, enchants him with magical Turkish delight, and tempts him to betray his siblings by offering to make him her heir. She wants all four of them, although at this stage only Edmund and his sister Lucy have been in Narnia. The four Pevensie children arrive together in Narnia soon afterward, and Edmund strays to the Witch after he and the other children are taken in by Mr and Mrs Beaver. While he understands now that the "Queen of Narnia" and the White Witch are one and the same, he is still determined to taste more Turkish Delight – and remains convinced that the Witch would keep her promise to make him heir to her throne. In the meantime, her Secret Police had captured Tumnus the faun, who had harboured Lucy on her first visit to Narnia.
But with the approach of Aslan, her magical winter thaws. Edmund receives a hostile reception from the White Witch upon arriving at her castle without his siblings, and moreover informs her that Aslan had arrived in Narnia. The harshness of the Witch's winter makes Edmund realize that he has been wrong in thinking that her side was the right side, and he realises the full extent of her evil when he witnesses her angrily turning a party of creatures into stone after their revelation that Father Christmas had been in Narnia.
A wolf informs Jadis that Edmund's siblings have reached Aslan's camp and that one of them killed Maugrim. Jadis sends the wolf off to rally her army as speedily as they can. Aslan's army advances to rescue Edmund as Jadis uses a spell to conceal herself and her dwarf.
Jadis meets Aslan for a parley and insists on her right, as the first to rebel against Aslan, to take the life of Edmund as a traitor. She accepts Aslan's offer of his own life as substitute, knowing that without him the Pevensies cannot stand against her. Aslan keeps this pact secret from his followers. Jadis has Aslan bound at the Stone Table, and an ogre shaves his mane. She tells him that his sacrifice won't save Edmund and that he has given her Narnia forever. Then she kills him with a stone knife. Susan and Lucy, who followed Aslan from their encampment, witness his death from bushes nearby.
Jadis is unaware, however, of a deeper magic from before Narnia's founding. As a willing innocent victim who has offered his life in a traitor's stead, Aslan is revived. He then runs to her castle and restores all her statues to life. He brings them as reinforcements to the battle at Beruna against the witch's army. Her army is defeated, and Aslan himself kills Jadis. Most of her followers are killed and the remnants of her army who do not surrender flee and are later killed by Aslan's followers.

Characteristics

An extraordinarily beautiful, tall and imposing woman, Jadis enchants Digory Kirke, Andrew Ketterley and Edmund Pevensie on first encounters. She is seven feet tall, as were all members of the Royal Family of Charn. After eating the fruit of eternal life, her skin becomes as white as paper.
A natural-born sorceress and a cunning strategist, Jadis is arrogant and cruel, considering herself above all rules and viewing others as tools to be used or obstacles to be demolished. After she eats the Fruit of Everlasting Life, selfishly and against the written admonition on the gate, she discovers that her sense of inner power and life is amplified. Her callousness and sense of entitlement is most clearly demonstrated when she uses the Deplorable Word in Charn to vanquish her sister, even though the Word would eradicate all life in that world but her own. She prefers to destroy that entire world than submit to her sister's authority, and shows afterward a remorseless pride in her actions.
Though her magic disappears when she leaves Charn, she manages to build it up again in Narnia's world, exercising both her previous experience and her privilege to witness a new world's dawning to become again a sorceress of formidable power, though she is still outclassed by Aslan. She eventually usurps the throne of Narnia, using her magic to cast the land into perpetual winter. Her most feared weapon is her wand, whose magic is capable of turning people into stone. The petrified remains of her enemies decorate the halls of her castle. For the brief time that Jadis is on Earth, she has no magical power but retains her phenomenal strength. This is demonstrated when she battles with Metropolitan Police in London, wielding the cross-bar she wrenched from a lamp post. The same cross-bar is taken into the new world that would become Narnia, and grows into the full lamp post encountered by Lucy Pevensie many years later.

Portrayals

Radio

The voice of Jadis was provided by Elizabeth Counsell in Focus on the Family's radio drama versions of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Magician's Nephew. Counsell also made a cameo appearance as a lamb in The Last Battle.
In the BBC Radio productions of The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Jadis was played by Rosemary Martin.

Television

In the 2005 Walt Disney Pictures feature film ', she was portrayed by British actress Tilda Swinton. Swinton's performance won particular acclaim among fans and critics. BBC film critic Stella Papamichael wrote:
Jadis is viewed as significantly more psychopathic and malevolent, possessing an instinctively violent streak and the expressed disregard for the lives of others - during the Battle of Beruna, she declares that no prisoners are to be taken simply since she has no interest in taking any. She is also hinted to have a cynical, dry sense of humour.
Tilda Swinton was nominated for an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain for her performance as the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but lost to Hayden Christensen for his performance as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in '.
Swinton reprised her role as the White Witch in the 2008 Disney Movie sequel '. In a departure from the novel, Nikabrik and his fellow conspirators use the White Witch's retrieved wand and through the use of dark magic manage to conjure an apparition of Jadis within a mystical wall of ice and attempt to offer her Caspian X as she needs a drop of blood from a son of Adam to fully resurrect herself. She tries to coax Caspian into offering her his blood and then from Peter, promising to lend her powers to their fight against King Miraz once she is made whole. However, Edmund shatters the ice before the Witch can obtain a drop of blood, and the apparition vanishes.
Swinton reprised White Witch again in the 20th Century Fox film adaptation of ', only as a manifestation of the Dark Island preying on Edmund's fears, a mental test that Edmund overcomes as he manages to kill the Dark Island's sea serpent, a manifestation of his fear. The apparition disappears, screaming in defeat.
Swinton has expressed interest in returning to the role once more in a film adaptation of The Magician's Nephew.

Literature

Jadis appears in the Neil Gaiman short story "The Problem of Susan" which appeared in the 2006 collection Fragile Things.