Saturday, March 2, 2013

Jadis

Jadis was a character in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. She appeared in The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She was mentioned in some of the other books too. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, she is referred to as the White Witch. She was from the World of Charn, which exists outside Narnia and Earth, and was it's last Queen. She was a powerful sorceress, and fought a bloody war against her sister. When she was about to be defeated, she spoke a curse called the Deplorable Word that ended all life on Charn. She placed a sleeping spell on herself and was awakened by a bell she left behind by Digory Kirk and Polly Plummer of Earth. She followed them to Earth but she could not use her magic there. When they attempted to send her back to the Charn, she ended up in Nardia where she ate a silver apple from the tree of youth and became immortal. She was then banished by Aslan to the north for 900 years. When she returned, she used her magic to create the Long Winter. There was a prophecy that the Golden Age would be brought about by two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve. She tried to use Edmund Pevensie to lure the his siblings to her, but the Beavers helped them flee. Aslan returned and prevented her from executing Edmund. As the two sides prepared for war, Jadis asserted her legal claim on Edmund's life. Aslan offered his own life in place of Edmund's and Jadis accepted. She stabbed him in the heart on the Stone Tablet. After Aslan was resurrected, he killed her in the midst of battle.

Jadis is an invented name. The White Witch of Narnia is not the most appealing namesake, but the name has a modern sound, sharing a first syllable with the extremely popular name Jayden. In 2011, the name Jadis was given to 5 boys and 5 girls.

Update: Thanks to Waltzing More Than Matilda, I've learned that Jadis is the word for 'witch' in Persian

3 comments:

  1. I think you must have had a Harry Potter brain snap - the childrens' surname was Pevensie, not Pensieve! :)

    I heard that Lewis may have created Jadis from the Persian word for "witch".

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  2. ROFL. I totally did! Thanks for pointing that out. :)

    It looks like you're right about the origin of Jadis. I found it in this link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia?from=Main.ChroniclesOfNarnia

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