| "Welcome, fellow vertebrates, to my underwater underworld." |
| — The Sea Witch |
The Sea Witch is one of the main antagonists in The Land of Stories series. She is an overarching antagonist in The Enchantress Returns and Beyond the Kingdoms, an unseen overarching antagonist in The Wishing Spell, and one of the many secondary antagonists in An Author's Odyssey and Worlds Collide.
The Sea Witch is fairy tale character from The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, who makes a deal with a mermaid that has fallen in love with a human prince. The mermaid is willing to trade her voice for a pair of legs in order to join him on land. She needs to make him fall in love with her or perish- when the prince falls in love with someone else, her sisters make a deal with the Sea witch too. She gives them an enchanted knife in exchange for their beautiful ocean-colored hair. The Little Mermaid must kill the prince in order to return to the sea as a mermaid. She refuses and turns into sea foam.
In the Land of Stories series, the Sea Witch is indeed the one who made a deal with the Little Mermaid. She is still active and willing to make deals; she agrees to trade her jewels for (whom she thinks is) Queen Red Riding Hood, and trades Dr. Bob’s engagement ring for his freedom.
The Sea Witch uses her dark magic to grant the wishes of her customers. The payment for her help is usually a black pearl, unless she has her sights on something more precious.
The Sea Witch is considered a legend among witches, along with the Snow Queen. She lives in seclusion and is rarely seen and never attends the witches' meetings. Along with the icy sorceress, the sea hag is one of the most powerful sorceresses in the world, so powerful that even Morina is humble before her.
The Sea Witch is unique as she is considered a villain though she never really committed a crime. She never forces people to make bargains. However, make no mistake, she is far from good.
Biography[]
The Enchantress Returns[]
At some point, Dr. Robert Gordon traveled to the land of stories trying to look for Charlotte Bailey but accidentally got lost at sea and was shipwrecked. The witch's barracudas found him and brought him before her and she put him to work as her sea animal feeder. Bob discovered the Sea Witch's interest in jewelry and negotiated with her for her engagement ring in exchange for letting him go. When the Witch saw how beautiful her ring was she acept, she let it go and ordered her fishes to take it to dry land.
The group goes to the bottom of the ocean to the Sea Witch's lair, before going Goldilocks disguises herself as Little Red Riding Hood to trick the witch. Charlie, Alex and Conner pretend to be pirates who kidnapped Queen Red Riding Hood and offer her to the witch in exchange for her jewels. At first the witch was reluctant and tried to haggle with them but thanks to Conner they stood firm regarding the terms.
The twins managed to take their jewels but before they could leave the witch stopped them as she was going to make sure she was the real queen and not an imposter. When she analyzed Goldilocks' blood with her squid and it turned blue, the furious witch discovered the deception. She threw her squid in Charlie's face and he was incapacitated. Goldilocks freed herself from the sea snake that had tied her up and used it as a whip to fight the witch, who furiously began to summon her sea creatures and increase her size.
The group began to try to flee their lair and Red managed to take the squid from Charlie, Jack kicked it and threw it back at the witch and it fell on her face, leaving her incapacitated. The team got on the turtle who began to swim at maximum speed, when they were halfway there a similar scream a shock wave shook the ocean that indicated that the witch had freed herself from her squid.
The Witch summoned all her marine servants, barracudas, sharks and anglerfishes began to chase them, attacking the sea turtle, fortunately the mermaids arrived and managed to keep them at bay so that the turtle reached the surface. But the witch's fishes reached surface and attempted to attack the ship. The Granny tried to take flight but one of the anglerfish bit one of the sails of the ship and it capsized in the air, landing in the territory of the trolls and goblins.
Beyond the Kingdoms[]
The Sea Witch and the Snow Queen meet with Morina and the other witches to make a plan to curse Alex and use her to conquer the Otherworld. They reveal that they knew of the Otherworld for centuries and conspired together to take over our world. They knew of the Otherworld's advanced technology and revealed that they cursed Ezmia, amplifying her negative emotions until they consumed her and changed her into a dark fairy. After her defeat, the witches set their sights on Alex.
An Author's Odyssey[]
The Sea Witch overlooks the other witches with her cuttlefish upon a throne of coral. She combines her magic along with the other witches. When Morina leaves to cast the curse, the Sea Witch reveals her suspicions of the Beauty Witch to the Snow Queen. The queen informs her that the water witch's suspicions are correct but she has seen the failure of Morina's plot to usurp them.
Worlds Collide[]
The Sea Witch invades the Otherworld along with the other witches. The forces of the Otherworld force the witches to hide behind a magic barrier in Central Park.
In the battle between witches and fairies, the Sea Witch was killed and transformed into sea glass by Emerelda.
Physical Appearance[]
"Her skin was pale turquoise and scaled. Tall blades of seaweed grew straight out of her head like hair. She had a wide face, with wide turquoise lips and round insect-like black eyes. She wore a gown made of dark shell that had several mussels and sea polyps growing on it. She walked on six legs, and a pair of claws peeked out from under her gown, as though she was part crustacean."[1]
Prior to her encounter with the Bailey twins, the Sea Witch always wore countless strings of black pearls of varying shapes, shades and sizes around her neck. But by the time at the end of The Enchantress Returns she lost her jewelry because she got tricked.
Personality[]
She surrounds herself with anglerfish, crabs, sea snakes and sharks, and keeps a cuttlefish as a pet. She also keeps prisoners in her cave; presumably "clients" who failed to keep the end of their bargains. She is cruel and evil. She captures sailors and sea creatures of all kinds and feeds them to her army of great white sharks and giant anglerfish.
She is greedy. She desires jewels, especially black pearls. However, she will not hesitate something more valuable from her customers such as a mermaid's voice.
She has a love for the macabre which is evident in her bargains and the decoration of her home. She employs gruesome methods in her spells like the knife and her home is decorated with the carcasses of aquatic life. Red Riding Hood described her as "disgusting and complicated for sport" who "enjoys being grotesque and difficult."[2]
Relationships[]
In Beyond the Kingdoms, she visits the other witches at their monthly gathering together with the Snow Queen. The other witches are terrified of them and even bow.[3]
It is revealed that she has worked together with the Snow Queen to curse Ezmia and use her as a weapon to take over the Land of Stories and the Otherworld, and when Ezmia was defeated by Alex, they shifted their focus on her and tried to curse Alex. Their curse wasn't strong enough and they ask the other witches to join them.[4]
The Sea Witch clashes with Morina as she does not trust the horned sorceress. The Sea Witch loathes Morina's lack of respect towards her and the Snow Queen and does not trust her.
The Sea Witch looks down on the mermaids and sees them as mere creatures rather than intelligent, sentient beings. Not much is known about their relationship but the witch hangs them on her cavern wall to die slowly by drying up. The fact that mermaids suffer slowly rather than being imprisoned and devoured along with other sea creatures implies that there may be more to the story of the mermaids and the witch.
Ezmia is little more than a key figure in her plot to conquer the Otherworld. She felt no emotion for the fairy.
While the Seafoam Spirit may have just have been another customer, the Sea Witch coveted the mermaid's voice rather than a black pearl.
Powers and Abilities[]
As a witch, the sea sorceress could wield her kind's branch of magic. She, along with the Snow Queen, crafted a spell capable of amplifying a creature's negative emotions to the point of corruption. She also had the power to change a mermaid into a human and she crafted the magic knife to break her transformation spell.
The Sea Witch can manipulate water, specifically salt water. She can conjure waves that can travel vast distances through fresh water and over land. She can conjure enough water for her sharks to swim in or to drown her enemies in and make her waves move like serpents.
Her witchcraft has allowed her to live centuries longer than an ordinary mortal. She has lived before the sleeping curse was cast and before Ezmia's corruption (since she was responsible for it). It is presumed that the Little Mermaid loved an ancestor of one of the monarchs, further implying her longevity.
In her battle with Conner, Alex, Jack, Froggy and Goldilocks, the Sea Witch grew in size.
The Sea Witch had the thick shell and sharp claws of a crab. A snap from her claws could be potentially fatal.
The Sea Witch trained scores of deadly sea creatures to do her bidding from crabs to gigantic anglerfish. She trained her pet cuttlefish to identify a person by tasting their blood and she had trained great white sharks as guards, an army and as mounts.
Quotes[]
- "Customers."[1]
- "Welcome, fellow vertebrates, to my underwater underworld."[1]
- "You insult me with your offer."[5]
- "You are just a large frog and two children. Tell me how you acquired a queen."[6]
- "I believe we have a deal."[6]
- "By combining our magic, we can cast a curse on Alex Bailey so powerful, she'll never recover from it!"[7]
- "Liars!"
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Enchantress Returns, ch 21, p. 386
- ↑ Queen Red Riding Hood's Guide to Royalty, ch 7, p 76
- ↑ Beyond the Kingdoms, ch 29, p. 404
- ↑ Beyond the Kingdoms, ch 29 p 405
- ↑ The Enchantress Returns, ch 21, p. 387
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 The Enchantress Returns, ch 21, p. 388
- ↑ Beyond the Kingdoms, ch 29, p. 406
| Magic Users | |
|---|---|
| Witches & Warlocks |
Arboris • Charcoaline • Ezmia • Gargoylia • Gingerbread House Witch • Hagatha • Morina • Rat Mary • Serpentina • Tarantulene • Sea Witch • Snow Queen • Three Witches • Wicked Witch of the East • Wicked Witch of the West • Glinda the Good • Hagetta • Sprout • Stitches • Mara • Lucy Goose |
| Sorcerers & Sorceresses | |
| Fairies |
Brystal Evergreen • Snowy Weatherberry • Tangerina Turkin • Skylene Lavenders • Violetta Vee • Emerelda Stone • Rosette Meadows • Trix • Xanthous Hayfield • Alexandra Bailey • Conner Bailey • John Bailey • Coral • Lloyd Bailey • Noodle • Merkle |
| Alchemists |
Stent • Storm • Strait • Stag • Stage • Star • States • Stats • Steam • Sting • Stone • Strand • Stump |