Race Talking Wolf Gender Male | Nation Narnia Species Wolf | |
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Play The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Similar Mr Tumnus, Digory Kirke, Jadis the White Witch, Macready, Peter Pevensie | ||
Maugrim
Maugrim is a fictional character in the novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. A Narnian wolf, he is Captain of the White Witch's Secret Police. In early American editions of the book, Lewis changed the name to Fenris Ulf (a wolf from Norse mythology), but when HarperCollins took over the books they took out Lewis' revisions, and the name Maugrim has been used in all editions since 1994.
Contents
Maugrim is one of the few Talking Animals who sided with the Witch during the Hundred-Year Winter. (Nikabrik in Prince Caspian indicates that Narnian wolves have no loyalty to the lion Aslan.)
In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Maugrim's name first appears on the proclamation that the Pevensie children find in Mr Tumnus' ransacked cave, announcing the faun's arrest by the Secret Police for not giving Lucy Pevensie to the White Witch. The wolf is first seen guarding the gate of the White Witch's castle; he takes Edmund's message to the witch and allows him entry. Maugrim is subsequently described as "a huge grey beast - its eyes flaming - far too big to be a dog".
The White Witch then sends Maugrim and the fastest of his wolves to the Beavers' house, to "kill whatever they find there", and to make "all speed" to the Stone Table if the Beavers and Edmund's siblings have already left. The wolves find the house empty, and the harshness of the witch's imposed winter prevents them from finding any tracks or scent. As instructed, they head for the Stone Table to wait for the witch, but by the time they reach it, the snow has melted and the witch has been forced to continue on foot. As Aslan's army assembles near the Stone Table, Maugrim attacks Susan Pevensie, and is killed by Peter Pevensie, for which the latter is given the title "Sir Peter Wolfsbane". Aslan's creatures then follow Maugrim's subordinate wolf to the White Witch, enabling them to rescue Edmund.
In Prince Caspian
Maugrim is mentioned in Prince Caspian when Peter retrieves his sword from the treasury of Cair Paravel, stating, "It is my sword Rhindon ... with it I killed the Wolf".
Media appearances
Maugrim appears in the 1988 BBC production on The Chronicles of Narnia, portrayed by Canadian actor Martin Stone. He assumes the form of a humanoid wolf-like creature when speaking or fighting, and an actual wolf when standing guard at the Witch's castle, traveling, or mortally wounded. Martin Stone returned in Prince Caspian as the werewolf who was slain by Peter and Edmund Pevensie, along with a hag (played by Barbara Kellerman, who had previously played the White Witch) and the dwarf Nikabrik.
Maugrim appears in the 2005 motion picture The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which he is voiced by American actor Michael Madsen. In sequences invented for the film, Maugrim and his wolves attempt to intimidate a red fox into revealing the children's whereabouts after they leave the Beavers' house. Maugrim later taunts Peter, citing an earlier confrontation (at a river which had been defrosted, where Peter didn't have the courage to kill Maugrim), but he is killed as in the book.
In the 1979 cartoon adaptation, the character was credited as Fenris Ulf.