Jadis

Jadis, the Last Empress of Charn, was the first Narnian villain encountered by the Pevensies. Originally from the alternate World of Charn, she was accidentally brought to the World of Narnia, and although banished by Aslan, she returned 900 Narnian-years later when she usurped power from the royal family of Narnia. As a curse upon her Narnian subjects, she began the Hundred-Year Winter, thus earning her well-known title, the "White Witch", though this also probably originates from her inhumanly white skin.

Jadis later built her own palace, though claimed to still be the possessor of the original Narnian castle Cair Paravel in her self-stylised title: Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia, Chatelaine of Cair Paravel, Empress of the Lone Islands, etc. She magically forced Narnia into a hundred-year state of frozen snow and ice during her reign, though she tyrannically banned the celebration of the winter holiday of Christmas throughout Narnia. Her cruelty eventually evoked the Narnians into an triumphant uprising known as the Winter Revolution.

Biography


Jadis was born the daughter of a male jinn and a female giant in the world of Charn (though "giants" to us, these were the ordinary people of that world). Virtually nothing is known about her childhood or early adult life except that she was at some point engaged in a global power struggle with her own sister and that the two were fighting to become queen of their world. At the beginning of this war, in which great armies were involved, it is clear that there was an agreement to prohibit the use of magic though, according to Jadis herself, her sister broke this promise. The final battle of the conflict lasted three days during which Jadis' forces were slaughtered completely until Jadis, rather than surrender, became queen by suddenly speaking the Deplorable Word, a magical incantation that obliterated all living things on the planet except the speaker.

Jadis, already addicted to gaining more and more power, concomitantly became obsessed with seeking immortality. Apparently, with no one left to rule over, she placed a spell on herself that would keep her preserved until someone rang a small bell located in the Hall of Images in the city of Charn, where her body would remain statuesquely seated along with other preserved (though dead) nobles at a long table. She was later found by the human children Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer from Earth who had accidentally arrived in her world. Digory rang the bell, "awakening" Jadis from the enchantment. She was seven feet tall and was seen by the chidren as beautiful but with pale white skin. Here, she explained the war with her sister to the children, conveying to them her totalitarian ideology, her idea that different standards existed for "common people" and for their leaders, and the belief that all citizens live only to do the bidding of their ruler. She thus justified her employing the Deplorable Word, saying that she merely killed the people who were her own people to use and destroy however she wished. She appeared psychopathically unremorseful for her actions in the past and also expressed open interest in seizing control of Digory and Polly's world, demanding that they take her there. Though they attempted to escape her and return to the Wood between the Worlds by touching the magic rings, Jadis grabbed onto Polly's hair, so that she traveled back with them.

In the Wood between the Worlds, Jadis strangely appeared much uglier and even paler and had difficulty breathing the air. The children jumped into the pool that would transport them back to Earth, though Jadis again connected to them by pinching Digory's ear. They all landed in Earth

The White Witch was a cruel and self-centered woman, seeing herself as above all rules of conduct and regarding people around her as tools to be used or obstacles to be demolished; this is most clearly demonstrated in her casual use of the Deplorable Word on Charn, and her complete lack of remorse or care for the world she rendered desolate out of a fit of pique.

The White Witch's magic was very powerful in her own world of Charn, but she found her magic largely useless in other worlds. In Narnia she got her magic power mostly from a wand. With Her Wand, she could turn anyone to stone. Her Castle, the seat of her rule over Narnia, was littered throughout with stone statues frozen in horrified poses, which on closer inspection were people and animals that she had turned to stone.

An extraordinarily beautiful, extremely tall (7 feet), and imposing woman, Jadis' beauty enchants Digory Kirke, Andrew Ketterley and Edmund Pevensie on first encounters.

The White Witch's minions were composed of a large variety of evil magic creatures, but predominant among them were the wolves (which, like many animals in Narnia, could talk) and the black-bearded dwarves.

Physically, the White Witch's most striking feature was her white skin, from which her name was derived. It was not merely very pale, but actually white; as white as chalk, or paper, or snow. In the book The Magician's Nephew it is explained that her skin was made that way by partaking of an apple from the Emperor's Garden in the Land of Narnia at the beginning of that world. The apple was forbidden to all those except those who were explicitly instructed to fetch it, and even then those people had to bear it for others, and not partake of it themselves. The fruit gave her immortality and made her skin white. She was also exceedingly tall, which was a natural feature of her race. (She had come from "giantish" blood.)

Right to Rule
The White Witch made two false claims which, if true, would have given her authority to rule over Narnia. The first was that she was human. At the beginning of Narnia Aslan gave "sons of Adam and daughters of Eve" dominion over all the beasts (nontalking or talking) and magical creatures of Narnia. (Even though they can and do reproduce with humans, Narnian dwarfs are not considered to be human; they are referred to as "Sons of Earth".) Although the White Witch appears human (despite her unnatural skin color and above average height), she is actually descended from Adam's first wife, Lilith, and was one of the Djinn, on the other side she was half giant. The descendants of the union between the Djinn and the giants inhabited Charn, another world in Lewis's fictional universe. She killed her younger sister to get the Throne of Charn.

Her second claim was that she was a servant of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea and ruled by his and Aslan's blessing. Because she was the first to rebel in Narnia, by the workings of the Deep Magic, she was given ownership and the right to kill all traitors and all those who willingly would follow her. She was in essence the Emperor's hangman and carried out her executions on the stone table. In this way she could represent a Satanic figure.



Plot
"...down at Cair Paravel there are four thrones and it's a saying in Narnia time out of mind that when two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve sit on those four thrones, then it will be the end not only of the White Witch's reign but of her life, and that is why we had to be so cautious as we came along, for if she knew about you four, your lives wouldn't be worth a shake of my whiskers!"

- Mr. Beaver

At the beginning of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, it was explained to the Pevensies that an ancient prophecy had been made concerning the overthrow of the White Witch, stating that when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve filled the four thrones at Cair Paravel as Kings and Queens of Narnia, the reign of the White Witch and the endless winter she had caused would end. The White Witch was aware of the prophecy, and employed spies to tell her of any human that came to Narnia.

Origin
"But she's no daughter of Eve. She comes of your father Adam's first wife, her they called Lilith. And she was one of the Jinn. That's what she comes from on one side. And on the other she comes of the giants. No, no, there isn't a drop of real human blood in the Witch."

- Mr. Beaver

Mr. Beaver in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe conjectures that the White Witch Jadis was not human as was her claim but in fact half giantess and half Jinn, a descendant of Lilith. This view of Jadis's ancestry would seem, however, to be superceded by C.S. Lewis's later work, the Magician's Nephew.

In The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the White Witch left a note nailed to Mr. Tumnus' floor which revealed that her real name is Jadis. But in The Magician's Nephew, it is explained that she was the Empress and last inhabitant of another world which contained a great and ancient city known as Charn inhabited by the Jinn. Jadis spoke "the Deplorable Word", which, when spoken properly, would destroy every living thing except the one who uttered it, in order to defeat her sister in her desire to rule Charn. Jadis came to Narnia via the Wood between Worlds, which is an endless forest filled with pools of water that are portals to other worlds, Earth's and Narnia's worlds included. Charn was destroyed after Jadis left. She was banished to the north by Aslan for 900 years until she returned to usurp power over Narnia.

Fate
The White Witch's worst deed (other than killing every living thing in Charn with the use of the Deplorable Word) was when she killed Aslan on the Stone Table (who surrended himself so that Edmund's life could be spared). However, just before she killed Aslan, the Witch revealed that she fully intended to go back on her deal with Aslan and kill Edmund and the other Pevensies as well, leaving the path free for her to rule Narnia forever. Aslan came back to life due to the complete fulfillment of the Golden Age Prophecy (unbeknownst to the Witch herself). While the Witch was fighting in the Battle of Beruna, Aslan arrived with reinforcements (all the statues from her castle whom he brought back to life) and he personally leapt at the Witch, rolling interlocked with her body for a short distance. When Aslan untangled himself, the Witch was dead; she was presumably killed instantly from the sheer force of his pounce.

Deaths
The way the Witch dies is different in each adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe :
 * In the book, the only details given are that Aslan "flung himself upon the Witch" and that they "rolled over together but with the Witch underneath". When next we see her she is dead.
 * In the animated film, Aslan jumps from a high ledge and lands on the Witch, crushing her and completely destroying her.
 * In the BBC film, Aslan kills the Witch with his roar.
 * In the Disney film, Aslan pins the Witch down and then kills her.

Resurrection Theories

 * During the events of the Disney version of Prince Caspian, Nikabrik, despairing of Aslan or the Pevensies arriving, brought in a hag and a werewolf who offered a way to revive the White Witch by using Jadis' wand to create a wall of ice between two pillars inside Aslan's How. However, Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin arrived just in time to stop them. In the Disney film, she materialised as though entrapped in the wall of ice. She tempted Caspian, who was pushed away by Peter, and then she charmed Peter, but she was stabbed from behind by Edmund, shattering the ice into fragments with the Witch disappearing instantly. This was believed to be an attempt at resurrecting the Witch.
 * There is another theory (that is plausible even in the official book-based canon) that the Witch later reappears in The Silver Chair as the Lady of the Green Kirtle, and that effectively, The Lady of the Green Kirtle is merely a resurrected form of Jadis. Later in the book, she transformed into a giant green serpent, but was killed by Rilian, thus dying for certain. There is little evidence to support this theory and the theory was mostly the result of the fact that the White Witch and the Green Witch were played by the same person in the BBC adaptations of the books and that in some versions of the books series that have character descriptions at the beginning, Jadis is said to appear in both The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, as well as in the Silver Chair. Glimfeather the owl called the Green Witch "One of the same crew," referring to the "Northern Witches." This could not be possible if they were one and the same. Also, if they were the same person, C.S. Lewis would have probably confirmed such a theory.

Jadis