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| “ | If it's a war Aslan wants, it's a war he shall get. | „ |
| ~ Jadis plotting to make war with her archenemy King Aslan. |
Queen Jadis the White Witch, or simply known as Jadis, is the main antagonist of The Chronicles of Narnia franchise.
She is an extradimensional alien of a human appearance originating from Charn, a dimension separate from both Earth and Narnia. It was revealed that she singlehandedly exterminated all life on her own world through the use of a ritual. She is the archenemy of Aslan, as well as Peter, Susan, Lucy, and especially Edmund Pevensie. She is also the self-proclaimed Witch Queen of Narnia. Once she made her way into Narnia, Jadis cast an incredibly powerful, century-long spell over the entire land so that it is always winter and never, ever, ever any other season, nor Christmas. As a tremendously powerful sorceress, capable and trained of dark magic, Queen Jadis wielded a much fearful wand through which she could transform anyone who opposed her into ice and stone.
Despite the fact that she was a tyrannical usurper, Jadis was shown to be truly knowledgeable in the laws of Narnia as well as the ways of the Deep Magic. She is also served by numerous servants all avid in brutality: Maugrim as her police chief, Otmin as her army General, Ginarrbrik as her servant, and the polar bears as her pets.
Jadis' tyranny over Narnia was brought to an end when she went to war against Aslan, the mighty and just lion who was the creator and true king of Narnia, the four Pevensie children who came to the land of Narnia from England through an enchanted wardrobe (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy), and their Narnian army, which concluded with her being killed by Aslan himself.
However, in the film series, despite the fact that her body was destroyed, Jadis' spirit lives. She attempted to revive herself with Prince Caspian's blood only to be destroyed by Edmund. Her spirit would continue to torment Edmund's mind.
Portrayals[]
In the UK version of the 1979 animated film, she was voiced by Sheila Hancock. In the US version, she was voiced Beth Porter.
In the BBC series, she was portrayed by Barbara Kellerman, who also played the Hag and the Lady of the Green Kirtle in the same series.
In the film series, she was portrayed by Tilda Swinton, who also portrayed Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton, Minister Mason in Snowpiercer, Lucy and Nancy Mirando in Okja, Madame Blanc and Helena Markos in the 2018 remake of Suspiria, and Gabriel in Constantine.
Appearance[]
Books[]
Queen Jadis is an extremely tall, muscular, and incredibly - yet terrifyingly - beautiful giantess for a human general impression. Deeply egotistical, she openly demonstrates much vanity and pride in her beauty and appearance, as she seems to be aware of how easily she can instill terror with her uncannily familiar beauty due to most being aware of her equal heartlessness and evil. She possessed long, flowing, shiny black hair and icily blue eyes, and wore a magnificent golden crown. She had a look of such fierceness and cold, stern, intimidating pride that it was enough to take one's breath away.
After arriving in Narnia, her skin turned as white as salt or icing sugar, one of the factors earning her the name "the White Witch". She carried a golden wand as described in the books.
Jadis possessed a magnificent sense of style and always dressed extravagantly in a way that incensed and publicized her great power and status. In the events of The Magician's Nephew, she was depicted in long, flowing Romanesque robes, while in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, she wore white furs that covered her up to her throat.
Although she looked human, it had been mentioned that she had no human blood in her, both figuratively and literally. Mr. Beaver mentioned that she was one of the children of Lilith, Adam's first wife in the Bible on one side, and on the other she was descended from the giants, which explained her great height. In fact, the prequel revealed that she was an alien of extradimensional origin.
Films[]
Her skin isn't depicted as white as salt or icing sugar and her hair is ash-blond and she wears a crown made entirely of ice. Her wand is depicted to be silver, with a crystal of ice at the tip, and requires physical contact with a target in order to work its deadly magic. Her clothing also changes throughout the film. In the first half of the film, she wore a bluish-white gown with a white fur coat then replaces it with a badger fur stole. During Aslan's sacrifice, she wore a blackish-grey dress with a black-feathered rooster on the right side and her hair in a ponytail. During the Battle of Beruna, she wore green battle robes, a golden ornamental crown, and sported Aslan's mane around her neck and chest. She also carried a mighty broadsword during the battle.
Personality[]
| “ | The White Witch isn't human, she doesn't have a heart. | „ |
| ~ Tilda Swinton describing Jadis. |
Queen Jadis is the prime personification of evil, wickedness, and cruelty in the Narnian universe: a satanic and monstrous temptress responsible for bringing evil of all kind and chaos to Narnia. She is in general a highly intelligent, sadistic, power-hungry, cold-blooded, calculating, wrathful, and cruel tyrantess. A tactical genius capable of manipulating any situation to her advantage, Jadis was also dangerously manipulative, and could control, corrupt, or twist anyone's minds into obeying if not also trusting her, allowing her to do her evil bidding with just her words and feigned kindness, as she does with Edmund upon their first encounter in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Additionally, Jadis was a complete and utter megalomaniac, obsessed to no end with the obtainment and maintaining of absolute power in whatever world or reality she found herself in, as demonstrated by her immediate desire to seize the throne from the rightful ruler and declare herself queen of all Narnia upon her first arrival in the land. Incredibly selfish, Jadis would do absolutely anything to achieve her own self-serving evil goals, including committing omnicide of her own universe just to have no opposition.
She was also completely capable of using force of arms to achieve ultimate power and domination over all, as she does in the second book. Because of her own obsession with power, Jadis was extremely arrogant, narcissistic and self-centered to a fault. She genuinely believed that she had a right to rule over whatever world she inhabited, and expected all to obey and do her bidding out of a delusional sense of entitlement.
Jadis' greatest flaw was arguably her deadly and extreme arrogance, in that she was totally incapable of viewing anyone as her equal, and saw others simply as tools to be of use to her or obstacles to be demolished. With all these traits, it may be accurate to describe her as nothing but a utter sociopath. Jadis's personality was marked by a total lack of empathy or conscience. She had no concept of love, honor, kindness, goodness, loyalty, and no compassion for anyone other than that of her own self, even after wiping out her entire species, she showed a remorseless and pitiless pride in her actions. Furthermore, she was a complete hypocrite, cursing her sister with utilizing underhanded and dishonorable tactics just get what she wants, even though Jadis herself was no stranger at all to that.
Queen Jadis was known to represent the ever present power of warfare to the Pevensie children because the novel is set during World War Two, and the Pevensies have been sent off to the Dorset countryside to be protected from the war, yet they themselves meet war when they enter Narnia, and they must willingly fight in the final battle of the Narnian War despite being sent away from London to be protected from such war in the first place. Thus, Jadis' personality represented complete and utter chaos, bloody warfare and murder. She had a nihilistic and amoral view of human and Narnian life, killing a multitude of allies and enemies alike without any sympathetic humanity. However, despite her disrespect for human law, she had an uncharacteristic yet selfish respect for the Deep Magic or divine law - she would not let the world she had conquered perish as a result of letting Edmund go free, showing her relentless desire to hold on to her tyrannical power at all costs.
The Witch Queen was also an utterly ruthless and heartless being, and calmly expressed that she did not want prisoners taken at the beginning of the Battle of Beruna, and would only be satisfied with all of her enemies slaughtered. Jadis was also shown to be excessively self-confident, almost to the point of rash impulsiveness, but showed fear and unease when around Aslan, though that part is understandable, as even she knew of Aslan's might. Despite the entirety of her negative personality, she was willing to let Edmund go once he was marked as a traitor, so long as Aslan agreed to surrender himself to her and her force.
While being a spirit, she attempted to revive herself with Prince Caspian's blood and attempted to convince Peter only Edmund destroyed her. She continues to live as a spirit to torment and attempt to corrupt Edmund to become her king.
However in the films, she is portrayed as more calm than her book counterpart.
Powers and Abilities[]
Being born into the royal family of Charn, Jadis had an innate talent in the magical arts, which she further attuned and enhanced through delving into the darkest side of magic, enabling her to emerge as a dangerously powerful witch.
After eating an Apple from the Tree of Youth, Jadis became a goddess-level sorceress, and her incredible supernatural powers could only be surpassed by those of Aslan's.
Examples of powers Jadis displayed were:
- Cryokinesis: Jadis has divine control and authority over ice, cold and snow. She is capable of holding Narnia in an unbreakable and eternal winter for more than a hundred years, and even capable of constructing an enormous palace entirely out of ice. She is also immune to freezing temperatures. She is also capable of creating enormous blizzards and snowstorms with relative ease.
- Frigiokinesis: She is capable of—using her wand—turning living things to stone. This is not her most powerful trait, but it is her signature attack. Once inflicted, the power of the wand cannot be reversed by anyone, except for Aslan.
- The Deplorable Word: Jadis's most terrifying ability is her knowledge of the Deplorable Word. This Word is incredibly powerful, and, when spoken with certain rituals, will effectively kill every single living creature on the planet it is being spoken on—the only person who is unaffected by the Word is the person who made the incantation. However, it is ineffective outside of her world.
- Telekinesis: Jadis is naturally capable of manipulating objects without physically touching them. She is also capable of utterly reducing objects to dust.
- Immortality: After eating an Apple from the Tree of Youth, Jadis was changed from having the longevity of her species to having complete immortality. Even if her body is destroyed, her embodiment will ultimately survive.
- Preservation: Jadis has the unique ability to put herself into suspended animation, sustaining her age, powers and physical condition unbreakably for an infinite amount of time.
- Beauty: Jadis is incalculably beautiful, and any male creature who lays eyes on her will view her as the most beautiful creature that any individual has ever seen. Females, however, are understandably immune to this beatific charisma.
- Telepathy: Jadis has the ability to read the minds of others.
- Creature Control: She has utter control and authority over evil creatures such as minotaurs, wolves and dwarfs. This is enough to create an army for herself.
- Superhuman Strength: Jadis is shown to be incredibly strong. It is her physical strength that she can retain in other worlds. She can rip lampposts from the ground, deliver bone-breaking blows during fights, and lift people cleanly off the ground and throw them through the air over huge distances. Jadis's physical strength increases when she enters Narnia and eats the apple from the Forbidden Tree. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Jadis is so strong she can carry a broadsword in each hand and deliver phenomenally powerful blows with each blade, despite broadswords being extremely heavy and meant for two-handed wielding.
- Swordsmanship: Jadis is an incredibly talented warrior and a deadly swordswoman - she has survived hundreds of wars on Charn, honing her own skills on the battlefield. During the Battle of Beruna, she effortlessly defeated every single opponent that she faced during the conflict with complete ease, even the extremely skilled Oreius. People may argue that this particular battle progress was due to her possessing a wand, but later when Edmund destroys the Wand, Jadis takes his sword along with her own and shows extraordinary proficiency with these weapons. In her duel with Peter, she completely outmatches him several times throughout the duel. It must be said that, up until Aslan appeared in the battle, Jadis was basically toying with him, never truly attempting to kill him but showing off her superior skill. However, when Aslan enters the battle, Jadis actually tries to kill him and comes close to doing so, but Aslan saves Peter just in time.
- Supreme Reflexes/Speed: She has superhuman reflexes - when Edmund destroys her wand, she reacts quickly to recover from the horror of its destruction and overpowers and stabs him.
Quotes[]
Books[]
The Magician's Nephew[]
| “ | Yes. Victory, but not yours. | „ |
| ~ Jadis's chronologically first line right before speaking the Deplorable Word right in front of her sister, thus killing all life on Charn. |
| “ | Who has awoken me? Who has broken the spell? | „ |
| ~ Jadis upon being awoken by Digory. |
| “ | You! You? But you are only a child, a common child. Anyone can see at a glance that you have no drop of royal or noble blood in your veins. How did such as you dare to enter this house? | „ |
| ~ Jadis asking Digory how he got into Charn. |
| “ | You are no magician. The mark of it is not on you. You must only be the servant of a magician. It is on another's Magic that you have travelled here. | „ |
| ~ Jadis, coming to the conclusion that Digory is not a magician. |
| “ | There is great peril here. The whole palace is breaking up. If we are not out of it in a few minutes we shall be buried under the ruin. Come. | „ |
| ~ Jadis having Dogory and Polly come with her. |
| “ | That is the door to the dungeons. | „ |
| ~ Jadis to Digory and Polly about the dungeon door in Charn. |
| “ | That passage leads to the principal torture chambers. | „ |
| ~ Jadis showing Digory and Polly more of the city in Charn. |
| “ | This was the old banqueting hall wheremy great-grandfather bade seven hundred nobles to a feast and killed them all before they had drunk their fill. They had had rebellious thoughts. | „ |
| ~ Jadis about her great-grandfather. |
| “ | Has your master magician, your uncle, power like mine? But I shall know later. In the meantime, remember what you have seen. This is what happens to things, and to people, who stand in my way. | „ |
| ~ Jadis to Digory and Polly, showing them the now lifeless world of Charn. |
| “ | I was the queen. They were all my people. What else were they there for but to do my will? ... You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny. | „ |
| ~ Jadis, still speaking to Digory, showing complete apathy to all the people's lives she destroyed with the Deplorable Word. |
| “ | I had already cast strong spells on the hall where the images of my ancestors sit, and the force of those spells was that I should sleep among them, like an image myself, and need neither food nor fire, though it were a thousand years, till one came and struck the bell and awoke me. | „ |
| ~ Jadis about her spells. |
| “ | So, yours is a younger world. | „ |
| ~ Jadis concluding that Digory and Polly are from a world that's younger than Charn. |
| “ | Many great kings thought they could stand against the House of Charn, but they all fell, and their very names are forgotten. Foolish boy! Do you think that I, with my beauty and my Magic, will not have your whole world at my feet before a year has passed? Prepare your incantations and take me there at once. | „ |
| ~ Jadis demanding that Digory take her to their world, Earth, so she can take it over. |
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe[]
| “ | And now, who has won? Fool, did you think that by all this you would save the human traitor? Now I will kill you instead of him as our past was and so the Deep Magic will be appeased. But when you are dead what will prevent me from killing him as well? And who will take him out of my hand then? Understand that you have given me Narnia forever, you have lost your own life and not saved his. In that knowledge, despair and die. | „ |
| ~ Jadis revealing to Aslan that she was going to kill Edmund regardless of their pact, right before she kills Aslan. |
Movies[]
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe[]
| “ | Jadis: Edmund, I would very much like to meet the rest of your family. Edmund: Why? They're nothing special. Jadis: Oh. I'm sure they're not nearly as delightful as you are. But you see, Edmund, I have no children of my own. And you are exactly the sort of boy where I could see, one day, you becoming prince of Narnia--maybe even king. Edmund: Really? Jadis: Of course, you'd have to bring your family. Edmund: Oh. Do you mean...Peter would be king, too? Jadis: No! No! But a king needs servants. Edmund: I-I guess I can bring them. |
„ |
| ~ Jadis manipulating Edmund to betray his siblings. |
| “ | Jadis: Tell me, Edmund... Are your sisters deaf? Edmund: No. Jadis: And your brother, is he...unintelligent? Edmund: Well, I think so. But Mum says-- Jadis: THEN HOW DARE YOU COME ALONE?! |
„ |
| ~ Jadis furious at Edmund when he comes to her castle all by himself. |
| “ | Jadis: You have a traitor in your midst, Aslan. Aslan: His offense was not against you. Jadis: Have you forgotten the laws upon which Narnia has been built? Aslan: (angrily) Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written. Jadis: Then you'll remember well that every traitor belongs to me. His blood is my property. Peter: Try and take him then. Jadis: Do you really think that mere force will deny me my right, little king? Aslan knows that in this, I had blood as the law demands. All of Narnia will be overturned and perish in fire and water. That boy will die on the stone table... as is tradition. You dare not to refuse me. Aslan: Enough. I shall talk with you alone. |
„ |
| “ | You know, Aslan, I'm a little disappointed in you. Did you honestly think by all this that you could save the human traitor? You are giving me your life...and saving no one. So much for love. Tonight, the Deep Magic will be appeased. But tomorrow, we will take Narnia...forever! In that knowledge, despair... and die! | „ |
| ~ Jadis to Aslan before she stabs him to death. |
| “ | THE GREAT CAT IS DEAD! | „ |
| ~ Jadis after Aslan is killed. |
| “ | Impossible! | „ |
| ~ Jadis shocked to see Aslan alive after his resurrection, as well as her last words. |
Trivia[]
- The White Witch never appeared in the book versions of Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. However, she did appear in the movie versions. Still, the book version of Prince Caspian mentions that people were trying to bring her back, so this does fit a bit with the movie version.
- The White Witch's death was always changed a lot:
- In the book, Aslan flings himself upon her but it is not shown how she dies while it confirms that she's dead.
- In the animated film, Aslan leaps and crushes her to death, turning her into smoke.
- In the BBC series, Aslan roars so loudly that it causes her to fall off a cliff to her death.
- In the live-action films, Aslan pounces on her and mauls her to death.
- In the book, animated film and live-action film, she fights with Peter while in the BBC series, she doesn't.
- In the BBC series and live-action film, she's the one who wounds Edmund by stabbing him with her broken wand while in the book, it is not known how Edmund gets wounded or who wounds him. However, in the animated film, one of her minions wounds him by bonking him on the head.
- Jadis the White Witch is one of only five Disney villains ever nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, the others being Hector Barbossa and Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Scar from The Lion King and Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear from Toy Story 3.
External links[]
- Jadis the White Witch on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Jadis the White Witch on the Disney Wiki
- Jadis the White Witch on the Chronicles of Narnia Wiki
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 Villains
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Jadis the White Witch's Army & Followers Telmarines Calormenes Others | ||