How the White Witch Became Narnia's Villain

The White Witch is the most famous villain in Narnia — but almost nobody knows where she actually came from. C.S. Lewis gave her not one origin but two, written five years apart, in two different books that don't quite agree. In the first, a talking beaver swears she isn't human at all. In the second, she has a name — Jadis — and a whole dead world behind her. This is the full story of the White Witch: the murdered world of Charn and the single word that emptied it, the stolen apple that made her immortal, the hundred-year winter she laid over Narnia, and the ancient law she believed gave her the right to kill. It's also the story of the one law she never bothered to read — the Deeper Magic that undid her on the Stone Table. Her origin is exactly what Netflix and Greta Gerwig are bringing to the screen first, with Emma Mackey as Jadis. So before the film arrives, this is who the White Witch really is — and why everything she touches turns to winter, or to stone. If you grew up with Narnia and still look for a lamp-post between the trees, pull up a seat by the lantern light. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 The Most Famous Villain in Narnia 1:36 Jadis, Last Queen of Charn 2:03 The Deplorable Word 3:13 The New World She Hated 3:47 The Stolen Apple 4:29 Why She Fled North 5:17 Two Origins, Two Books 5:45 Lilith and the Giants 7:28 Always Winter, Never Christmas 8:02 Wolves, Wand, and Statues 9:09 The Prophecy She Feared 9:47 Turkish Delight and Edmund 10:33 The Deep Magic 12:16 The Stone Table 12:50 The Deeper Magic 13:50 The Winter Breaks 15:10 What Netflix Is Filming First 16:19 Which Origin Do You Believe? New Narnia lore and storytelling every week on The Lantern Archive. #Narnia #WhiteWitch #CSLewis