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Q: Will the White Witch appear in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie? I know she’s not in the book, but she wasn’t in Prince Caspian either, and she made an appearance in that movie! — MAGPIE, Toronto, Canada
A: Perry Moore, an executive producer on the Narnia movies (and the person most responsible for casting Tilda Swinton in the role of the White Witch in the first place), tells the Oracle that, yes, the witch (and Tilda) definitely make a brief appearance in the upcoming film.
“She — and her evil — weave seamlessly into The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” he says. “She appears right where you think she would when you read the book — in a surprising way you could never guess that is at the same time true to the core of the book.”
Who are these filmmakers to add something like this to the story?
“C.S. Lewis himself, flip-flopped on the origin of the White Witch,” Moore says. “In the first book written [The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe], Jadis is said to be the descendant of Lilith (Adam’s first wife) and an ice giant (like a jotun, from Norse Mythology). Then in the prequel to that book, The Magician’s Nephew, which Tilda is dying for us to do next, C.S. Lewis shows that she came from another planet, Charn, in another dimension that you can only reach by going through the ‘world between world’ and the many pools there. Her appearance was originally totally different. Seven feet tall, long red hair, and she waged a war with her sister until she destroyed that world and froze it — neutron bomb, anyone? — by uttering the ‘Deplorable Word.’
“We took some creative liberties,” Moore admits, “but they’re hardly transgressions when you consider that Lewis just completely rewrote her origin six books later,” he says.
Moore also points out that Aslan himself says that evil like hers never truly dies.
So will Swinton’s White Witch make an appearance in all seven of the movie adaptations (should they get made), even in those based on books where she doesn’t appear (or in books like The Silver Chair, where The Lady of the Green Kirtle isn’t necessarily the same character as the White Witch)?
It’s under consideration.
Q: Was Xena’s chakram a “magic item,” or was she just really, really, really good a physics? — Mark, St. Louis, MO
A: Really, really, really good at physics (probably).
The chakram is, in fact, an historical weapon, used primarily by the Sikhs of Punjab (though not until many centuries after Xena existed).
That said, Xena’s particular chakram does have a supernatural origin: Xena doesn’t possess the weapon when she’s with Borias in Chin, but when she turns up in Norway and confronts the god Odin, she has it; later, in the “Chakram” episode, we learn it was given to her by Ares, who stole it from the gods.
But there’s still no evidence that it’s a “magic weapon” per se. It only seems to work when wielded by people of exceptional skill — Xena, of course, and Callisto, Eve, and (finally, in the finale) Gabrielle.
In “Chakram,” Xena mixes her original “dark” chakram with a chakram of “light,” creating a new weapon with two parts that can be split apart (much like Xena’s own two sides), with a design that seems based on the yin/yang philosophy of her mentor Lo Mao.
This new weapon restores Xena’s lost memory, implying it does have some magical powers (or maybe not: maybe just the familiar act of using it restored her memory). Either way, it seems to work as a weapon solely as a result of Xena’s skill.
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What about the ‘Xena Scrolls’ movie where the chakrum is in two pieces. Joining them together brings Xena’s spirit to the twentieth century Greece. It vanishes when she (Xena) splits it in half again. Doesn’t this show it had powers?
Nice. But yes, I’ve already cited that it has magical powers. But I still see no evidence that it has magical powers as a weapon. It still seems like it “works” as a weapon due to Xena’s amazing skill.
That’s rather unfair to justify making “creative liberties” in the book just because the very author rewrote them. C.S. Lewis is the author and had right to change things as he liked, not so with us.
I truly hope The Voyage of the Dawn Treader will stay true to the book.
I think there’s a typo in this article. Jadis (the White Witch in The Magician’s Nephew) uttered the “deplorable word” to destroy Charn, not the “deplorable world.”
Thanks! Fixed.
Well, the Chakram of Light did have the power to kill gods, so it seems somewhat reasonable to assume that the Chakram of Darkness (which is what Xena carried for the first four seasons of the show) had some kind of magical/mystical element to it, even though episodes like “Been There, Done That” clearly indicate it requires “skill” to use effectively. That typed, the chakram (both “dark” and “super/ying yang) also appears to work instinctively with certain “owners/users” since Callisto is able to use it effectively as soon as she held it, similar to Eve and later Gabrielle.
It’s also interesting to note that when used by Callisto in “Ides of March”, the “dark” chakram broke when it was used against its “true” owner, being Xena. It also seems to have taken it pretty easy on Xena since instead of cutting her in half (which would have been possible given it was capable of sawing tree trunks), it simply bruised/shattered her spine. All the mumbo jumbo about the super/ying yang chakram restoring Xena’s memories is probably left to the often relied upon explanation that “a wizard did it” since it makes little sense in the episode, unless one assumes that Xena lost her “darkness” in “Ides of March” when the “dark” chakram broke and that there was therefore some clear “tie” between Xena’s inner darkness and her connection with the “dark” chakram (which does make some sense). The restoration of the “dark” chakram therefore restores Xena’s darkness in “Chakram” (even though from memory, Xena doesn’t appear to be fully her old self until the two chakrams are merged into the single super/ying yang chakram).
Fan-boy ranting aside, how about that football team that played that game and won. Gee whiz, that was sure exciting.
If I had to guess, I’d say even THEY didn’t have a clear answer. It seems clear that, pre-”Chakrum” episode, it’s a non-magical item. Then with that episode, and the fact that the OTHER chakrum is magical (can kill gods, as you say, which I forgot to add), it stands to reason her chakrum might have SOME powers.
But frankly, it’s confused. :-(
As a follow-up, it would appear that the “super” or “ying yang” chakram is “magical” as a weapon as well as just “in general” for its memory restorative powers. In “Coming Home”, Xena is somehow able to manipulate the chakram while “dead” (or near dead) to kill the Furies and sends the chakram off harmlessly into the air until she is revived and is able to catch it again.
It is all very unlikely, even with a “magical” chakram and I like to believe that Eve was catching it and throwing it “off-screen” at least for the destruction of the Furies.