Nice to see you around,
DiGoRyKiRkE Welcome back!
Ronny wrote:I mean, sure, she's cruel and imperious, but I always felt it translated into personal bravery, a force of will which allowed her to go to lengths others simply wouldn't. When it comes to battling for her throne, she's right there, on the field, fighting alongside her soldiers. And, if memory serves me, her reign was actually keeping the Calormens out.
Ronny, I note you credit Jadis with bravery, but what is your concept of bravery? It would be easy for Jadis to be "brave" when she knows she has tricks up her sleeve that her opposition does not. Such as powers like the Deplorable Word (in Charn) or the ability to turn the opposition to stone as in Narnia. Or knowing that one has (wrongly) eaten an apple that protects against her dying any time soon. Or the knowledge that she has just killed her most feared opponent. It is not so easy to be brave when all that stands between her opposition and death is the moral high ground.
Which the Calormenes did not have, either in HHB or in LB. Even in
The Last Battle, despite winning. Yes, Jadis kept them out of Narnia, but reduced Narnia to a frozen wasteland, even if she couldn't kill off its inhabitants outright the minute she took over. Maybe she had learned the lesson that she failed to learn in Charn, that Narnia had different rules, that she was only entitled to kill those she regarded as traitors to Narnian law. And that without a people to dominate, she was just a forgotten statue, no more than an archaeological relic. The reason that the Calormenes were kept out of Narnia whilst Jadis was there was mainly because with a powerful witch in charge of a frozen Narnia they had little or no use for that country, either as trade or as labour. Even Jadis was in no position to prevent their interference with the affairs of the buffer state of Archenland which guarded the passes which would have permitted Calormene entry to Narnia.
Some years ago I saw some online discussion in comparing a list of literary villains which included, among others, the Big Bad Wolf, Sauron, Voldemort and yes, Jadis, the White Witch. Courage was not really one of the attributes of any of these literary villains. All of them, to a character, tend to be domineering bullies who resent opposition, who fear being "dethroned" from their position of power, and who prey on anyone weaker than themselves.
Comparing Voldemort and Jadis is quite valid, since the author of the Harry Potter series was well acquainted with C.S.Lewis' Narnia stories. Dumbledore, Hogwart's headmaster in the Harry Potter series said at the end of the first book: "There are all sorts of courage. And one of them is the courage to stand up to one's friends". I can't see Jadis tolerating even friendly advice. Nor can I see the woman who "poured out the blood of her armies like water" against her victorious sister as brave.
Yes, I agree that in RL there have been women courageous enough to lead in battle. Among them were Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni, in resistance to the Roman juggernaut, and Joan of Arc who led the French to victory at Orleans and elsewhere against the occupying English. But as the famed Belgian nurse, Edith Cavell, who was brave enough, in World War I, to treat both German and British wounded, as well as aiding the latter's escape, said when facing her execution at the hands of the Germans occupying neutral Belgium, "Courage is not enough".
