Deplorable Words: Lilith and The Chronicles of Narnia

It is difficult to study Lilith and not feel inspired, even if you're Christian  author C.S. Lewis.  It's fairly common knowledge that the White Witch was based on Lilith, (along with the dreaded Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen, Ayesha from Rhyder J. Haggard's She, the Queen of Babylon in Neshbit's Story of the Amulet, and some chump called Satan from Paradise Lost).  It's even more common knowledge that she figures into Jadis's heritage as an ancestor.  Lilith, after all, was credited by Jewish's theology as the mother of demons, Djiin and every unclean spirit on earth. 



Originally conceived as the antagonist for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Jadis proved to be more enduring.  Her history is recapped in Book Six of The Chronicles of Narnia, entitled The Magician's Nephew.  Hiering form the pagan world of Charn, she was a mystical princess at war with her sister.  At some point, the witch learned to use "The Deplorable Word," to traumatically end the conflict.  The villainess is let lose in our world and eventually finds her way to the dawn of Narnia.  There she enjoys a thousand year rule until her death at the hands of Aslan.  There's some speculation that she appeared in The Silver Chair as the Queen of the Underland.    While it's commonly discredited by fans, I once worked with a children's book scholar at Barnes and Noble's who claimed the link was confirmed by Lewis's lectures.  I have, however, never been able to locate her source.  Apparently, Jadis's presence was supposed to slip "in and out of Lewis's books" in "other forms."  Lilith herself is said to be, "a fierce spirit of myriad names and many shapes."

Aside from her personality and perilous beauty, Lilith is most evident in Jadis's use of the Deplorable World.  In the Garden of Eden, Lilith was said to invoke the mysterious name of God in order to grow wings and fly from Paradise.  Her ancestress Isis also knew the hidden name of the Sun God and used it to make herself the head of the Egyptian pantheon. Fiction or not, Jadis belongs to a powerful legacy.  If Lewis's Narnia books were part of the public domain, along with the Brothers Grimm and the "modern" fairytales of Lewis Carrol and L.Frank Baum (creators of Wonderland and Oz, respectively), Jadis would probably have her own novel by now. 

Lilith and the "The Little Faces"

Ancient Christianity is littered with references of semi-divine women and full blown female deities   Figures like Asherah, Sophia, Mary Magdalene and Lilith fascinate us in the modern age, now that we have the resources to revisit them.  Lilith is the most notorious.  There is no denying that.  Most likely this is due to her popularity as Judaism's Queen of Demons.  There is no great emphasis placed on the rest of the story, what transpired before she arrived in the desert and after she left Eden.

     The Zohar paints an interesting picture of Lilith's adventures.  Some time after leaving Adam behind in Paradise (or immediately after) she flew to Heaven.  There she noticed the Cherubim:

"She desired to cleave to them and to be shaped as one of them, and was loath to depart from them.  But the Holy One, blessed be He, removed her from them and made her go below...

Then He...gave him [Adam] a partner, as soon as Lilith saw Eve clinging to his side she was reminded by his form of the supernal beauty, she flew up from thence and tried as before to attach herself to the 'little faces' [Cherubim].  The supernal guardians of the gates, however, did not permit her.  The Holy One, blessed be He, chide her and cast her into the depths of the sea."

So Lilith, the "Queen of Demons" is capable of feeling affection and loss.  She left Eden because her mate insisted he was superior to her.  She found a new home and attempted to join a community.  Ultimately she is rejected in a very serious way. Sometime after Adam and Eve are expelled, God brings Lilith out from the depths of the sea:

"...and gave her power over all those children, the ''little faces' of the sons of men, who are liable to punishment for the sins of their fathers.  She then wandered up and down the world.  She approached the gates of the terrestrial paradise [Eden], where she saw the Cherubim, the guardians of the gates of Paradise, and sat down near the flashing sword, to which she was akin in origin.  When she saw the flashing sword revolving, indicating that man had sinned, she fled and wandered about the world...finding children liable to punishment."

     Lilith's fate has strong parallels with the legend of La Llorona, the roving specter explored in a previous entry concerning Latin America.  La Llorona was once Maria, a Mexican divorcee who drowned her children to punish her adulterous husband.  Maria was turned away from the gates of Heaven and instructed to find her children, which is why she roams the world, finding children who resemble her own.

Lilith's story does not end after she leaves Eden.  She does not deteriorate and become the Queen of Demons.  Like Moses, Elijah or Jesus himself, her story is told in layers.  In Midrash, the Talmud and the Dead Sea Scrolls we have additional chapters in the evolution of a turbulent character.  But unlike her Biblical contemporaries  Lilith's name occurs in older parts of the world, linking her with past lives and an older class of gods and heroes.