The Scotsman reports the results of a Penguin Group poll on the scariest villains in children’s literature. They are:
1 White Witch (The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis – 1950)
2 Captain Hook (Peter Pan by JM Barrie – 1904)
3 The Grand High Witch (The Witches by Roald Dahl – 1983)
4 Wicked Stepmother (Snow White by Brothers Grimm – 1810)
5 Cruella De Vil (The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith – 1956)
6 Voldemort (Harry Potter books by JK Rowling – 1997)
7 The Child Catcher (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming – from the 1968 film. Not the original book)
8 Miss Trunchbull (Matilda by Roald Dahl – 1988)
9 The Wolf (Red Riding Hood by Brothers Grimm – 1810)
10 Long John Silver (Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson – 1883)
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes, I saw this yesterday over at Leaky & thought about putting a link in the stories Dave wrote about Voldemort being a failed villain. Failed villain indeed! Not if he can scare the kiddies!
BTW, I do know that Dave was saying Voldemort was a failed character & not necessarily a failed villain in his articles. Just couldn’t resist the jab.
Anyway, other villains. Not surprised the White Witch is on the list but am surprised she’s number 1. Also surprised that Cruella De Vil is not higher up. Although I think her movie version brings to life the extreme cruelty, callousness & evilness that are present in the book version & I prefer the book over the Disney movie.
Never did much with Peter Pan so I never thought much of Captain Hook but thinking about it I can see the scariness in him. I haven’t read the two Dahl books on the list so know nothing of the villains in them. Snow White’s stepmother definitely one scary lady. But in the original fairy tales wasn’t it Snow White’s mother, which would make her actions even worse?
Now, the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Surprised he wasn’t up higher on the list. Still gives me the willies to watch that scene in the movie to this day! Inspired piece of casting & adaptation on that one. Plus, apparently the guy who played the part loved children in real life & children loved him & his most noted movie role ends up being this evil, twisted, ugly child hater. Talk about irony.
Again, didn’t read Long John Silver all that much. But the Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, perhaps I’ve seen too many cartoon adaptations to find him too scary but in the original tales I guess he was, especially if you view him as a sexual predator. I think this was the tack taken in the movie “In the Company of Wolves,” a decent movie for its time, although I only saw it once, but it was scary. Still, my perception of the Wolf will always be colored by that great song by Sam the Sham & the Pharaoh’s!
Wow, are you doing comment moderation now? A good idea I think, although it sometimes slows down the pace of conversation. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing at times.
Oops, guess not all the time & on all comments. Probably because I used a certain word in my original post.
Anyhoo, I suppose I should stop babbling & go to church now.
I wonder whose idea of scary they used. I definitely would not have ranked them in that order. But then, I think I’m thinking more in terms of how evil the characters are as opposed to how scary. On that scale I would put Voldemort right under the White Witch. I guess I take those two the most seriously.
I would have voted for Delores Umbridge to be high on the list for bad girl.
Now, that I’ve thought about it, I can see why the White Witch would score so high as a scary villain. She makes it always winter but never Christmas. Think about it: winter is synonymous with the school year. So, the Witch makes it always the school year but there’s never any holidays! What could be worse for a child!
What’s one of the first thing the Pevensies do as kings & queens of Narnia? They free young children from being educated. And by education, Lewis means something like the modern public school system.
Certianly you must think about the witch from HANSEL & GRETLE she eats little kids
Where’s the orphan catcher out of Roddy Dole’s story “tHE MEANWHILE ADVENTURES”? (aLTHOGUH SHE IS QUITE SILLY AT THE END.)
Awwww, I was hoping my little monster picture would look like Flu-birds.
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I can see why the White Witch would be really scary, especially after RevGeorge explained about there being school all the time, and no breaks! What’s winter without a Christmas break to look forward to? Just a verrry long cold period with no recess or vacations!
I’d put Voldemort higher than 6th or 7th, too. He’s a villain who shows he has no compunction about slaughtering toddlers, which puts him in the King Herod category, I think.
I notice that the Wicked Fairy from Sleeping Beauty isn’t listed. Mistake in my view. In the Disney version, she is aptly named Maleficent, and turns into a Fire-breathing Dragon at the end. That’s pretty scary in my books.
And yes, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel lures children in to her Gingerbread house(or was it just candy? can’t remember. The principle is the same, though.) Her deadly purpose is to fatten the children up, and then eat them! This was long before Hannibal Lecter appeared. Who would have thought fairy tales would contain a character who was a child-eating cannibal?
And the Wolf in the original Red Riding Hood WAS a lot more predatory and dangerous than later expurgated versions make him. In the early versions, he ate both Grandmother AND Little Red Riding Hood, and there was no huntsman to burst in and save them.
(Another story featuring Cannibalism–hmmmm!) RevGeorge, you are also correct that Perrault, the author of the first version of Little Red Riding Hood, intended him to be read as a sexual predator. Thus the story would have been a cautionary one, warning young girls not to go out unaccompanied.(Probably to make parents think twice about sending young girls out on errands, too.)
As an adult, I find Mr. Tumnus way scarier than the White Witch. She is clearly not a nice person, and the treats have a price tag attached. While Tumnus – well, he literally lulls Lucy to sleep so he can do with her what he wants. He seems nice, and betrays her trust. Strong echoes of sexual predators.
The version of Red Riding Hood I read as a child had the wolf swallow both Red and Grandma, and the woodsman come along and slit open the wolf’s stomach. Strangely, this seemed to allay some of the initial horror – death became reversible – and I was actually more concerned about the fate of the wolf: would he survive in his eviscerated state? I was similarly worried about the health of the Big Bad Wolf: would he survive the descent into the pot of boiling water? Along the same vein, I worried about Captain Hook: when we last saw him he was being chased by his implacable enemy, the crocodile. I knew nothing good could come of that. Ditto the witch pushed into the oven by the scheming Gretel – ouch. I never did have too much sympathy for the heroes and heroines of fairy tales. I would have fit very well into the camp of villains in Shrek 3
Having read Matilda to my son when he was younger, I can assure you that Trunchbull is scary. It’s the combination of brutality with authority: she is the adult in charge from whom there is (almost) no escape. The forcible public eating of the chocolate cake, the shot putting of the children, the Ckokey – dreadful stuff. My son expressed his feelings by describing all the things he would like to do to her in return for the tortures she put the children through.