Jabberwock

The Jabberwock is the monstrous dragon-like creature of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" in Through the Looking-Glass (1871), slain by a young hero with a vorpal sword.

The Story

In Through the Looking-Glass, Alice finds a book written in mirror writing. When she holds it up to a mirror, she can read a poem called "Jabberwocky." A father warns his son to beware the Jabberwock, along with two other strange beasts. The son takes his vorpal sword, waits by a tree, and when the Jabberwock comes at him with blazing eyes, he cuts off its head and carries it home in triumph. His father rejoices.

Alice admits she does not quite understand it, though it seems to fill her head with ideas. Later in the book, Humpty Dumpty explains some of the odd words, such as "brillig" and "slithy."

Appearance and Powers

The poem says almost nothing concrete about the beast beyond its jaws that bite, claws that catch, and eyes of flame, and its strange burbling and whiffling as it approaches. Its familiar look comes from John Tenniel's illustration for the first edition: a tall, scaly, winged creature with a long neck, bat-like wings, buck teeth, whiskers, and clawed hands, wearing what looks like a waistcoat. Tenniel's picture made the Jabberwock look like a dragon, and that is how most readers have seen it ever since.

Origins and Sources

Carroll (the pen name of Charles Dodgson) wrote the first stanza years earlier, in 1855, as a parody of Old English verse in a homemade family magazine. The Jabberwock itself and the rest of the poem appeared only in Through the Looking-Glass, published in December 1871 with 1872 on the title page. Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice notes that Carroll considered using Tenniel's Jabberwock as the book's frontispiece but worried it was too frightening for children, and used the White Knight instead.

Legacy

"Jabberwocky" is one of the best-known nonsense poems in English, and several of its invented words, such as "chortle" and "galumph," entered the dictionary. The creature has appeared in Terry Gilliam's film Jabberwocky (1977) and in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), where it became a fully fledged dragon. The poem is a classic example of a hero-slays-monster tale in the tradition of Saint George, told in invented language.

Related

• The Reluctant Dragon: The Reluctant Dragon is the gentle, poetry-loving dragon of Kenneth Grahame's 1898 story, who would rather chat and compose verse than fight, and who stages a mock battle with Saint George.
• Dragon of Silene: The Dragon of Silene is the lake-dwelling, plague-breathing dragon killed by Saint George in medieval legend after he rescued a princess offered to it, the best-known version appearing in the Golden Legend around 1260.
• Lambton Worm: The Lambton Worm is a giant serpent of County Durham folklore, fished from the River Wear by young John Lambton, which grew huge, coiled around a hill, and could rejoin its body whenever it was cut apart.
• Dragon Books
• Saint George and the Dragon

Sources and Further Reading

• Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (Macmillan, 1871), illustrated by John Tenniel
• Martin Gardner, ed., The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition (W.W. Norton, 2000)
• Morton N. Cohen, Lewis Carroll: A Biography (Knopf, 1995)

Cite this entry: “Jabberwock,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/jabberwock.