Lady of the Green Kirtle

Lady of the Green Kirtle
Narnia character
The Lady of the Green Kirtle, as portrayed by Barbara Kellerman in the 1990 BBC miniseries
Race	Unknown (Northern Witch)
Nation	Underland
Gender	Female
Title	Queen of Underland
Major character in
The Silver Chair
Portrayals in adaptations
1990 BBC miniseries: Barbara Kellerman

The Lady of the Green Kirtle, also called Queen of Underland and Queen of the Deep Realm, is the main antagonist in The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. She is sometimes called briefly the Green Lady (on analogy with Jadis, the White Lady), and she is known also as the Emerald Witch; neither name, however, appears in Lewis's text. She enslaved Prince Rilian of Narnia and a horde of gnomes by her witchcraft, and planned to use them to take over Narnia. She is foiled by three friends of Aslan: Eustace Scrubb, Jill Pole, and Puddleglum.

The Green Lady has kidnapped Prince Rilian, son of King Caspian X, and has fatally poisoned his mother, Ramandu's daughter. The Lady plans to conquer Narnia from underground, using the enslaved prince as her general.

She understands that Eustace, Jill, and Puddleglum have been sent to rescue Rilian, and meets them as they head north from Narnia. She slyly directs them to the giants' castle Harfang for the Autumn Feast, and bids them explain that she salutes the giants by them; for she knows that "man-pies" are a traditional dish for this feast and that this is an easy way to get rid of her adversaries.

When the three unexpectedly turn up instead in her own domain, she attempts to dull their senses and critical thinking through hypnotic magic. She very nearly convinces them that neither Narnia nor the Earth truly exist, but Puddleglum successfully counters the illusion.

She finally uses her shapeshifting skill to transform into a gigantic green serpent, but the Prince recognizes her serpent form as the same one that killed his mother ten years earlier, and after a brief struggle, he strikes off her head.

The story never makes clear who the Green Lady really is or where she comes from. The Silver Chair includes her among several "Northern Witches", a group that evidently also includes Jadis, the White Witch. Some readers believe that Jadis and the Lady of The Green Kirtle are the same person. Jadis, however, is slain by Aslan several hundred years earlier in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Lewis never describes her being brought back to life. But in Prince Caspian, when a group of Narnians discuss resurrecting Jadis, a hag notes that no one has heard of a witch who "'really' died; you can always get them back."