In Western culture, the mythology surrounding the Judeo-Christian tradition of the

creation and fall is well known and widely interpreted. Religious denominations differ in

claiming the truth of these stories, but regardless of their status as truth or metaphor, there is

much to be learned from this tradition by contrasting sacrifice with selfishness. This theme is still

pertinent today, and is present in C. S. Lewis's novel, The Magician's Nephew.

For the purpose of this paper, myth is defined as “sacred stories handed down as a part of

religions, as well as the narratives that explain and define the great achievements of nations and

peoples” (Thury, Introduction to Mythology, 4). Thus, when I reference myth, or mythology, it is

in the strict sense of the word with the connotation of sacredness in the story. I will first outline

the anchor text, taken from chapters 1–3 in Genesis, which covers the creation and fall myths,

and then examine a variant tradition to the anchor text, the mythical tradition of Lilith. The bulk

of this paper will compare the ways that The Magician’s Nephew adapts these two mythologies,

both in the actual text and in the thematic elements. This close comparison of creation and fall

myths and The Magician's Nephew will highlight the way that these stories compare sacrifice

with selfishness.

While scholarship for biblical allegory and the presence of Lilith is quite large, The

Magician’s Nephew receives only an honorable mention in scholarship or is merely a vehicle to

talk about Lilith, as in Megan Sauter’s article, “Lilith in the Bible and Mythology.” Sauter rightly

situates Jadis as the Lilith figure in The Magician’s Nephew, but does not move beyond this. My

intention for this paper is to do more than identify where the biblical myth and Lilith tradition

show up in Lewis’s work, but rather to analyze why this tradition matters in the context of the

book. Thematically, I believe using the biblical and Lilith myths set up a dichotomy between

selfishness and loving sacrifice. Because this social and personal value is found in the anchor


texts and the contemporary retelling, sacrifice has stood the test of time to reveal itself as an

important value that individuals hope to instill in themselves and their communities today.

Genesis
The biblical creation and fall myths are widely known, but I will offer a brief recap here.

It should be noted that there are two distinct versions of the creation story in Genesis. In the first

version, found in Genesis 1, God creates the earth and all that dwell therein during six periods,

called days. The text says, “In the beginning…the world was without form, and void” (King

James Version, Gen. 1:1-2); thereafter God begins the process of creation. In order of days, the

periods are as follows: creating the heaven and earth, the light and dark; creating the waters;

creating the plant life; creating the heavenly lights; creating fish and fowl; and creating beasts of

the earth, insects, and man, both male and female. The culmination of this account is expressed

in Genesis 1:28 and 31, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful,

and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it….And God saw every thing that he had

made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

The next distinct version of the creation story is found in Genesis 2. A garden was

planted, “eastward in Eden” (Gen. 2:8), containing trees and plants, rivers, and precious metals

and stones. Man was formed “out of the dust of the ground” and God “breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:8). Man is placed in the garden and

commanded not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, or else he will

die. God then declares that “it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help

meet for him” (Gen. 2:18), and so creates all the animals, to be brought before Adam (here he is

named for the first time), “to see what he would call them” (Gen. 2:19). After Adam names each

beast, and discovers that there is still no “help meet” (a phrase which indicates a fitting

companion) for him, God causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep, removes a rib from Adam, and


fashions the rib into a woman. When Adam awakes, he rejoices in the discovery of the woman

(who is yet unnamed until Genesis 3:20, when she is called Eve).

Genesis 3 discusses the last significant part of this mythology. A serpent, described as

being the most “subtil” (Gen. 3:1) of any beast that God had made, comes tempting the woman.

In direct opposition to what God has said, the serpent insists that they will not die if they eat the

fruit of the tree of knowledge, but rather that they will “be as the gods, knowing good and evil”

(Gen. 3:5). The woman takes the fruit and eats it, sharing the fruit with her husband. Because

they have eaten the fruit and gained knowledge, their “eyes…[are] opened” (Gen. 3:7). When

God discovers what has happened, he curses the serpent that there will be “enmity” (Gen. 3:15)

or opposition between the serpent and the descendants of the woman. As a consequence of being

the first to eat of the fruit, God states that the woman will have great sorrow in childbearing and

that her husband will rule over her. As for Adam, he is told that he will have to work much

harder in order to bring forth food from the ground. Before they leave the garden, Adam names

the woman Eve. Adam and Eve leave Eden and God puts precautions in place so that they cannot

return.

Lilith
The body of Lilith mythology arises out of a desire to reconcile the two distinct creation

stories in Genesis. Although biblical scholars today have identified three authors for these works

(the Jehovist, Elohist, and Priestly sources), which account for the different versions, the Lilith

tradition formed during a time when such scholarship was unavailable. As Janet Howe Gaines

expresses in her article, “Lilith”, “God creates woman twice—once with man, once from man’s

rib—so there must have been two women. The Bible names the second woman Eve; Lilith was

identified as the first in order to complete the story” (6). Much of the myth surrounding Lilith

actually predates the biblical record and comes from non-Hebraic sources, including the Epic of


Gilgamesh, of Sumerian origin; a Babylonian relief sculpture; and a Syrian amulet. In fact, Lilith

gets only one mention in biblical text, in Isaiah 34:14, and even then, translators often leave out

the name in favor of some other rendering. Gaines points out that, though still few in number, the

Talmud contains references to Lilith that indicate the beginnings of Hebraic scholarship

surrounding her (3). In each textual occurrence, “Lilith represents chaos, seduction and

ungodliness” (Gaines 1).

It wasn’t until The Alphabet of Ben Sira (dated somewhere between the 8th and 10th

centuries) that Lilith was explicitly connected with the creation myths as Adam’s first wife. As

Louis Ginzberg relates in Legends of the Jews,

To banish his loneliness, Lilith was first given to Adam as wife. Like him she had been

created out of the dust of the ground. But she remained with him only a short time,

because she insisted upon enjoying full equality with her husband. She derived her rights

from their identical origin. With the help of the Ineffable Name, which she pronounced,

Lilith flew away from Adam, and vanished in the air. (64)

The ineffable name is the name of God, “long been considered so holy that it is unspeakable”

(Gaines 4-5). Gaines attributes Lilith’s powers of flight to uttering this name. Due to her earlier

depictions and the myths surrounding the various periods in her life, including some traditions

that depict Adam separating from Eve for 130 years and then having demonic children with

Lilith after she seduces him (Patai 232), Lilith is often later associated with succubi.

The Magician’s Nephew

C. S. Lewis wrote The Magician’s Nephew as a prequel to the Narnia series. However, at

the time of its publication, The Magician’s Nephew was the sixth book of the eventual seven in

the Chronicles of Narnia. The title of the book references Digory Kirke, the magician’s nephew,

and Uncle Andrew, the foolish magician. Using magic rings, Uncle Andrew sends Digory and


Polly to the “wood between worlds” (Lewis 31), a sleepy wood interspersed with pools. The

children decide to explore one of the pools, assuming that it will take them to another world. The

pool leads them to Charn, where Digory awakens the wicked queen Jadis. As the world starts to

crumble around them, Jadis tells Digory and Polly about how she destroyed Charn using the

deplorable word. Attempting to escape from Jadis, the children instead bring her to London. In

order to get Jadis out of their world, Digory and Polly use the rings to return to the wood. In all

the commotion, Jadis and the children are joined by Uncle Andrew, and Frank the cabbie.

From the wood, the group enters a pool that takes them to an unformed world. As they

watch, the lion Aslan begins to sing the stars, plants, and animals into being. Jadis is terrified and

flees to the west. Aslan chastises Digory for bringing an evil witch into the newly born world and

gives him a task: Digory must travel to a distant garden and bring a silver apple back to plant as a

protection against Jadis. Once he reaches the garden, Digory picks an apple, and is tempted by

Jadis. Digory resists Jadis and brings the apple back to Narnia, where it is planted and a mature

tree immediately grows. Aslan allows Digory to take an apple back to his mother. Before the

children and Uncle Andrew leave, Frank and his wife, who has been brought to Narnia by magic,

are made the king and queen of Narnia. When Digory returns home, he gives his mother part of

the apple, and she regains her health.

Literary Analysis
The Magician’s Nephew moves among worlds in different stages of existence. Jadis is

first encountered in Charn, a world “at the end of all ages” (Lewis 72). Charn contrasts Narnia

and Earth; while both yield life, Charn is empty except for Jadis. Significantly, Jadis is the cause

of that emptiness. As she relates, the destruction of Charn was

my sister’s fault….She drove me to it.… At any moment I was ready to make peace—yes

and to spare her life too, if only she would yield me the throne. But she would not. Her


pride has destroyed the whole world.…She even knew that I had the Secret of the

Deplorable Word. Did she think—she was always a weakling—that I would not use it?

(Lewis 70)

This dialog brings up two interesting points. First, Jadis does not take responsibility for

destroying Charn. She believes it is her sister’s fault and pride that drove Jadis to such steps.

Jadis’s own pride and blindness are again evident when Digory and Polly question her about

what happened to the people and Jadis declares that it doesn’t matter because she was their queen

and their only purpose was to serve her. Second, Jadis destroys Charn by uttering the

“Deplorable Word.” This harkens back to Lilith evoking the ineffable name in order to flee from

Adam. Both situations produced less than desirable consequences for those who remained

behind. Charn and all its people were destroyed, and Adam was left alone.

From Charn, the story moves back to London, where Jadis is again likened to Lilith, this

time in appearance and influence. When Digory first sees Jadis, he describes her as being tall and

beautiful, with a look of fierceness and pride (Lewis 54). Uncle Andrew is so taken with her

beauty that, though he is an old man, he gets all dressed up to impress her, calls her a “superb

creature” and begins “to imagine that the Witch would fall in love with him” (Lewis 89). Jadis

clearly has a seductive influence over Uncle Andrew, as is characteristic of Lilith. Like Lilith,

Jadis doesn’t truly care about the individual she is influencing. Uncle Andrew is merely a means

to an end, which in this case is Jadis ruling Earth. In London, Jadis creates quite the commotion,

breaking into a jewelry store and stealing jewelry for herself, destroying a hansom cab, and

assaulting a policeman. Her actions are consistent with the frequent association of Lilith with

chaos. Additionally, the way Jadis behaves again supports the claim that she is selfish and

prideful, neglecting all those around her once they have served her purposes.


This trend continues as the story moves to Narnia. Jadis identified the world that they

have entered as “an empty world” (Lewis 113), reminiscent of the wording used in Genesis 1:1-2

that “in the beginning….the world was without form.” Here, as Aslan sings the world into being,

the creation pattern is similar to the myths in Genesis. It appears that heaven and earth are

already created as the group is standing on something when they first appear in Narnia.

However, they witness the creation of lights, rivers and mountains, grass and plants, and then the

animals. Later on, Frank and his wife, Helen, become the king and queen of Narnia. They are

instructed to “rule and name all these creatures, and do justice among them, and protect them”

(Lewis 164) and to “use a spade and a plow and raise food out of the earth” (Lewis 165), as well

as promised “you and your children and your grandchildren shall be blessed” (Lewis 166). Frank

and Helen are the representations of Adam and Eve, who are given much the same instruction

and promise. Interestingly, Helen is only brought to Narnia after Jadis, the first woman, flees.

Although the connection is not made explicitly in The Magician’s Nephew, in The Lion, the

Witch, and the Wardrobe, Jadis is said to have “[come] of you father Adam’s…first wife, her

they called Lilith” (Lewis 88). This plot structure correlates with the structure of the Lilith and

creation mythologies, and serves to characterize Helen as a benevolent and gracious Eve figure,

and Jadis as a wild and wicked Lilith figure.

The plot of the fall myth is also adapted within the Narnia phase, but in some rather

unique and inverted ways. Just as God chastises Adam and Eve for eating the fruit, Aslan

chastises Digory for bringing Jadis into Narnia. To rectify his wrong, Digory is the one who must

enter a beautiful garden. The contrasts the account of Adam and Eve, who already were in the

garden, but were subsequently cast out after their fall. There is additional reference to the

serpent’s tempting of Eve, but in The Magician’s Nephew, this is played out by Jadis and Digory.


As Digory approaches the garden, there is a sign on the gate that warns his not to take anything

for himself. This warning should call to mind the commandment given by God to not eat the fruit

of the tree. The tree itself seems to have many similarities to the tree of knowledge of good and

evil. Although not explicit in the Genesis accounts, the mythology surrounding the tree is that the

fruit, often depicted as apples, was desirable and appealing, in smell, appearance, and taste. The

tree with the silver apples is described likewise. As soon as he smelled the apple “a terrible thirst

and hunger came over him and a longing to taste that fruit” (Lewis 188). It is easy to imagine this

same draw for Eve.

However, Digory, for a time, resists. Until the serpentfigure, Jadis, approaches him with

two tempting offers. She declares, “If you do not stop and listen to me now, you will miss some

knowledge that would have made you happy all your life” (Lewis 191). The implication here is

the same as that which the serpent implied in Genesis: the knowledge they have to offer will

make you happy at the cost of disobedience. Jadis offers the knowledge that the apple will give

the taker eternal youth, an interesting effect, as that is the implied result of eating fruit from the

tree of life, which God sent Cherubim and a flaming sword to guard. Jadis first encourages

Digory to eat the apple himself, to become immortal and rule as her king. Digory dismisses this

quite easily. But when Jadis suggests giving the apple to Digory’s mother, it gives him reason to

pause and really consider. As he puts it, “he now knew that the most terrible choice lay before

him” (Lewis 193). He can break his promise to Aslan and trust Jadis that the apple will heal his

mother, or keep his promise to Aslan and hope that his mother will get well again. Unlike Eve,

who takes and eats the fruit, Digory resists Jadis’s tempting words. However, I believe the

motivating factors behind the two decisions are rather similar. They both came about because

Eve and Digory had foresight to sacrifice for the greater good. Digory sacrificed healing his


mother in order to keep his promise, and Eve sacrificed living in Eden in innocence in order to

be the mother of all living. Their choice was not a selfish one, as Jadis and the serpent made it

out to be.

Interestingly, both Jadis and the serpent lied to Digory and Eve. Jadis assured Digory that

the apple would have healed his mother, when in fact it would have healed his mother but to

their great regret, for she would have stopped aging. The serpent assured Eve that they would not

die, but have knowledge like gods. They did gain knowledge, but also mortality, which is again

an interesting juxtaposition between effects of the two types of fruit. In Genesis, God curses the

serpent, but in The Magician’s Nephew, Jadis brings the curse upon herself by stealing and

eating the fruit. She obtains immortality and eternal youth, but because of her evil heart, she will

live in misery all her days (Lewis 208). The final parallel is that the seeds of the apple brought to

Narnia are used to plant a tree that will protect Narnia from Jadis, for “while the Tree flourishes

she will never come down into Narnia” (Lewis 206). This is reminiscent of the protection placed

before the tree of life after Adam and Eve leave the garden.

Sacrifice
I now offer a few concluding comments about sacrifice and its antithesis, selfishness.

This theme is easily found in The Magician’s Nephew, especially in the juxtaposition of Jadis

and Digory. Jadis is characterized as cruel, prideful, and arrogant. She lacks compassion and

cares only for her own self-interest and status. Aligning Jadis with Lilith helps to solidify this

characterization. Lilith too was selfish. Rather than setting aside her purported disagreements

with Adam, she fled and refused to return. On the other hand, time and again Digory is shown to

care for the well-being of others, especially his mother, whom he loves dearly. The crux of the

story is when Jadis tempts him with an apple to heal his mother, but Digory decides to keep his

promise to Aslan without the assurance that his mother will be all right. As a reward for this


great sacrifice, Aslan grants Digory an apple from the tree, which will heal her without giving

her immortality. Jadis, who cannot understand what it means to sacrifice for another person,

cannot understand what it means to love another person, and so lives in dissatisfaction and

misery. It is Digory who learns this great lesson, and lives a joyful life. Likewise, the Genesis

and Lilith myths come to the same conclusion. Lilith, who refuses to sacrifice her pride, lives a

life of chaos and destruction, while Adam and Eve, who sacrificed life in the Garden of Eden by

eating the fruit, find joy in their lives through their families. This theme has been maintained in

the anchor texts and the contemporary retelling, and is still relevant, if not more accessible today.

While the theme is present in the mythology, the archaic and often foreign language makes it

difficult to access. C. S. Lewis’s adaption allows this theme of sacrifice to be accessible to a

modern audience. Sacrificing for those we love, rather that acting selfishly, is an attitude that

societies value and hope to instill in younger generations, so that they may continue to promote

general goodness and goodwill. Although the world is generally moving away from devoted

religious observance, there is much to be learned about how to live a good life and how to love

thorough sacrifice from this tradition found in Genesis, Lilith mythology, and The Magician’s

Nephew.

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Patai, Raphael. The Hebrew Goddess. Wayne State University Press, 1990.

Sauter, Megan. “Lilith in the Bible and Mythology.” Biblical Archaeology Society, 14 Nov.

2018, www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/hebrew-bible/lilith-in-the-bible-

and-mythology/.

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