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. 

Rough Magic: The Wicked Queen

Lilith has been called the Queen of Witches.  Like Diana and Herodias her name appears in witch trials and folklore.  One well known story links Lilith's cave by the Red Sea with "every mirror." In it, a mother buys a mirror in connection to several furnishings for her home.  She places the mirror in the room of her daughter who later becomes possessed by a daughter of Lilith because, "every mirror is a gateway to the Other World and leads directly to Lilith's cave...That is why it is said that Lilith makes her home in every mirror..."  That said, is it likely that such traditions made their way to the mythos collected by the Brothers Grimm?  Enter the Wicked Queen.

   We are all familiar with Snow-white and the Seven Dwarves.  In the earliest version, Snow-white offends her jealous stepmother, the Queen, by possessing richer beauty than her own.  This is discovered by a magic mirror the Queen consults everyday.  "Looking glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?"  After the huntsmen tries to deceive her with a deer's heart the Queen makes three attempts on Snow-white's life.  Each time she poses as a peddler and tempts Snow-white with fatal wares.  At first she uses a corset and a comb "poisoned with witchcraft."  In the end she offers Snow-white the fabled apple and temporarily ends her life.  The Queen herself is captured when the heroic Prince weds Snow-white.  Her life ends after she is forced to dance in a pair of red-hot shoes.  Typically, abridged reincarnations omit this part, taking a page (perhaps) from Walt Disney.

   Modern renditions featuring Snow-white and the Wicked Queen attempt to flesh out her back story.  In both  The 10th Kingdom and Once Upon a Time (owned by Disney subordinate ABC) the "Evil Queen" represents a pact or bond between two women, a sort of lineage.  Diane Weist's Evil Queen from The 10th Kingdom was chosen as the successor of the original Queen to continue her work and ruin Snow White's entire house.  Lana Parrilla's Evil Queen from Once Upon a Time was forced into power by conniving mother, who arranges her marriage to the father of Snow White.

   Concerning her connection to the Queen of Demons in Jewish mythology, the Wicked Queen shares several of her motifs.  An apple is used to tempt Snow-white and an apple is used to temp Eve by the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  In art, the serpent has been depicted as Lilith, reflecting an older belief in the Fall of Man.  Consider too the Wicked Queen's fascination with mirrors   Everyday she stood before the magic looking-glass to assess her beauty, not unlike the daughter in the famous Jewish tale.  While it is unlikely that the Wicked Queen is a Brothers Grimm avatar of Lilith she makes an appropriate totem.  Even more likely, their shared features stem from Lilith's lineage in world mythology. Lilith is "the soul of every living thing which creepeth," and the genetrix of every spirit, demon, goblin and fatal entity from the ancient world.  Perhaps like Jadis in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, the Wicked Queen could be viewed as her descendant.