White Witch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jadis, the White Witch |
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| Narnia character | |
Jadis, the White Witch with Maugrim and a black dwarf. Art by Leo and Diane Dillon.
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| Race | Humanoid (Northern Witch)– (rumoured by rivals to be half-Jinn, half Giant) |
| Title | Her Imperial Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands (Former: Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Empress of Charn) |
| Family | Unnamed sister (deceased; killed by Jadis) |
| Nationality | Charn |
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 (the main antagonist of The Silver Chair) "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.
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
- The White Witch was played by Elizabeth Wallace in the 1967 British TV series The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- In the sixth episode of The Young Ones, during a game of hide-and-seek, Vyvyan attempts to hide in a wardrobe. He ends up in Narnia, and meets the White Witch, portrayed by actress Justine Lord. She approaches him much the same way as with Edmund in the book, but Vyvyan is uninterested, and tries to hide in an empty tree that leads back to the apartment, against her protests.
- American actress Beth Porter provided the voice of the White Witch for the 1979 animated television adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (for the British release, Sheila Hancock's voice was dubbed in). In that version, Aslan lunges towards the White Witch and she disappears in a cloud of smoke upon her defeat.
- English actress Barbara Kellerman played the White Witch in the 1988 BBC miniseries The Chronicles of Narnia season 1, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Kellerman was retained as the hag in season 2 and the Lady of the Green Kirtle in season 3, characters from the second and fourth Narnia novels). After her wand is broken, she runs up the ravine, only for Aslan to arrive with reinforcements and roar enough for the ground to shake and the White Witch to lose her balance and fall to her death. In the original novel, it is stated that Jadis is half-Djinn and half-giant.
Theatrical film series
In the 2005 Walt Disney Pictures feature film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, she was portrayed by British actress Tilda Swinton. Swinton's performance won particular acclaim among fans and critics. BBC film critic Stella Papamichael wrote:
As the cold-hearted White Witch, Tilda Swinton sets the tempo for this bracing adventure. She is a pristine picture of evil, like the spectre of Nazism that forces the children out of London to the sanctuary of a country manor.
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 Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Swinton reprised her role as the White Witch in the 2008 Disney Movie sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. In a departure from the novel, Nikabrik and his fellow conspirators (a hag and werewolf) use the White Witch's retrieved wand to conjure an apparition of Jadis within a mystical wall of ice. She tries to coax Caspian and then Peter into offering her a drop of their blood so she can come back to life, promising to lend her powers to their fight against King Miraz once she is made whole. However, Edmund shatters the ice, and the apparition vanishes.
Swinton reprised White Witch again in the 20th Century Fox film adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 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.
See also
In Spanish: Jadis para niños
