Cackle

Queen Cackle is the former queen of the witches, before Wither replaced her in The Dragon of Fortune. It was said that she loathes all things that are happy. But in every story, the Knight Geronimo Stilton successfully foils her schemes. In contrast to her evil personality, there are books that are not found in English that state that she used to have a good side. When Cackle was a girl, she lived in a small village and played with her friend Stellarius, who later became an Archmage. One day, she was forcefully kidnapped by an evil Witch Queen to become her apprentice after defending Stellarius with her immense power.

History
After being kidnapped by the Witch Queen, Cackle was often humiliated as a student of the Witches. She bottled up her grief, which eventually grew into feelings of hatred. With the help of a fortune teller, who also served the Witches, she managed to kill the former Witch Queen by poisoning her, replacing the Queen herself. The fortune teller also predicted that a girl born in the Kingdom of Witches would become stronger than any Witch in the year of the Falling Star.

The Kingdom of Fantasy
Queen Cackle is first introduced when Geronimo and Scribblehopper, one of Geronimo and Blossom’s allies, set foot in the castle of the Queen of the Witches. The friends come across the queen herself. Geronimo asks if he can cross through the Kingdom of the Witches. Cackle tells him he can do so, but sits down with her council. A basilisk provides Cackle with a list of the monsters who serve her wicked army. Afterwards, Cackle asks Geronimo to have a meal with her, but Scribblehopper has warned him that if he does, he'll be trapped in the kingdom forever. Geronimo refuses. Enraged, Cackle prepares to fry them both but Geronimo pulls a mandrake root out of the music box he found in his attic. The queen snatches the plant and lets Geronimo and Scribblehoper go.

Just as Geronimo and his friends make it to Queen Blossom's castle, Queen Cackle creates a green haze after poisoning Queen Blossom with a plant (possibly the same mandrake root that Cackle took from Geronimo). The heroic group run into some monstrous trolls and Boils, their spy, alerts them. The trolls capture Geronimo and his friends while Cackle arrives with her evil henchmen. Geronimo stalls the menacing witch as he notices the sun rising. Boils convinces her to reward him for giving her the poisoned flower. But instead, Cackle repays the chameleon by betraying him and throwing him away. As the sun rises, Cackle's army retreats, and as she does as well, vowing revenge on Geronimo.

Quest For Paradise
Queen Cackle persuades Geronimo to find a treasure but tricks him into getting captured by witches. Luckily, Geronimo escaped with the aid of his allies. When Geronimo confronts Cackle again, she scolds him for claiming the Heart of Happiness, and threatens to feed him to her dragon. She catches him and begins to drop him to her doom when a unicorn saves him. Cackle then rides on her dragon and flies away, vowing that she will catch Geronimo next time.

The Amazing Voyage
At some unknown point in time, Cackle came into possession of the Stone Mask of Nema the Faceless Witch, which turns whoever wears it to the dark side. She used the mask to corrupt King George and turn him into Grim, the king of Nightmares, so she could marry him, even though it was said that George was her half-brother.

Queen Cackle kidnaps Queen Blossom and imprisons her in a tower. She also rallies her army to conquer the Kingdom of Fantasy and uses Grim, King of Nightmares, for her own selfish purposes. When Geronimo and his friends arrive in the Land of Nightmares, Geronimo finds Blossom held captive and is about to free her when he is ambushed by Cackle herself. Grim faces Cackle and they begin to fight each other over Blossom, both Cackle and Grim having different purposes. Cackle orders Grim to throw Blossom in a pit, but the king refuses. The evil Witch throws a fit and attacks him, breaking the stone mask covering his face. She sends a scorpion to sting Blossom and carries her off. Geronimo charges after Cackle and the two of them wage a battle. Geronimo defeats her dragon and Cackle runs away.

The Dragon Prophecy
Cackle makes a deal with King Firebreath III, of the Kingdom of Fire Dragons, who is jealous of Princess Sterling's relationship with Queen Blossom. Both of them vow to conquer the Kingdom of Fantasy, and Geronimo hears this. In the final battle, Queen Cackle faces Geronimo on her dragon (actually, the dragon's twin) and challenges him to a terrible fight. King Thunderhorn, who has been turned into a deer from Cackle's evil magic, steps in front of Geronimo to protect him just as she's about to shoot him with a lightning bolt from her pinky, injuring the king in the process. Geronimo heals Thunderhorn with a potion given to him by nymphs and heals him, breaking the curse. Her powers nullified for twenty-four hours, Cackle flies off, vowing revenge.

The Search For Treasure
It was said that Cackle sent one of the henchmen and advisors, Slivertooth, the king of Basilisks, to kidnap the baby son of the two keepers of the Royal Ruby and Sapphire, Delia and Azul. Once she had the child in her evil clutches, Cackle planned to ransom the two gemstones in return for the baby's safe return. While Slivertooth failed to kidnap the boy, he was able to bite Delia, filling her with his corrupting venom. The venom transformed Delia into Scorcher, a Witch, who later took the title of ‘Empress of the Witches’.

The Phoenix of Destiny
After Wither lost a duel with Blossom, Cackle appears, rescuing Wither with the Stinkypus, and retreating back to the Kingdom of Witches.

The Dragon of Fortune
After Wither stole the Winged Ring from Geronimo, there was a witch meeting. Unfortunately for Cackle, many witches and other evil creatures voted Wither as the new Queen of Darkness, uniting the witches and Dark Fairies. Feeling betrayed, she stormed out the castle and threw a fit. She also says that she will return for revenge against Wither. There is no further information of where Cackle is after this book.

It was mentioned in this book that Cackle convinced Mel the Magnificent to marry her, so that she can share his power and take over the Kingdom of Fantasy. Since Mel rejected that offer, Cackle declared war against Mel and his allies. When Mel let Queen Blossom join his side, Mel and Blossom easily swept Cackle and her armies away.

Physical Descriptions
Cackle appears with flaming scarlet long hair, and has one brown and one green eye. She usually smiles in a smirking, and evil way. She wears a dress made of solid orange dragon scales, and a gold pointed crown that is ornamented with rubies. She also wears crimson curly heels.

She has many known pets. For example, she owns a pair of ravens named Shriek and Screech, Silvertooth, a Basilisk that delivers messages and petrifies people, her Dragon of Darkness (and its twin brother), and Scarlet Skull, a toxic red butterfly that stung Wither, which caused her to become evil. So many travelers have been transformed into cockroaches and became her slaves. She also kidnapped Scribblehopper’s daughter, Scarlethopper, and cursed her by transforming her into the Phoenix of Destiny, which appears in one of Geronimo’s Special Editions in the Kingdom of Fantasy.

Known Nicknames

 * Never-Named
 * Queen of Darkness
 * Empress of Evil
 * Sorceress of Sorrow
 * Teacher of Terror
 * General of the Dark Army and All Things Unruly and Rotten
 * Black Queen
 * Lady of Chills
 * Empress of Nightmares
 * Sorceress of Sorcerers
 * Your Nastiness
 * Teacher of Spells
 * Powerful Mistress
 * Witchiest Witch
 * Lady-General of the Armies of Darkness
 * She Who Commands the Terror and Governs the Creatures of the Night
 * Queen of the Night

Relationships

 * Eclipse: Sister/Ally
 * Frigid: Sister
 * Vendetta: Sister
 * Stench: Sister
 * Eerie: Sister
 * Shadow: Sister
 * George/Grim: Half-Brother
 * Wither: Ally (Former)
 * Scorcher: Ally (Former)
 * Blossom: Archenemy
 * Geronimo: Archenemy

Trivia

 * Cackle’s Dutch name is “Strega”, which is translated in English to “Witch” in Italian.


 * She is the only villain known in the Kingdom of Fantasy that does not wear black clothing.


 * It is possible that she is inspired by the White Witch from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.


 * Cackle’s nickname “Never-Named” is also referred to Nomenziona, an antagonist from the Dutch version of Elizabetta Dami’s Heksen van Fantasia series.


 * Cackle’s Italian and Dutch names “Stria and Strega” are said to have originated from the Latin term Strix, which means “Night Bird”.


 * Cackle and two of her sisters (Eclipse and Frigid) appear in a fanfiction called Kingdom of Fantasy: The Prince From the Dark, but they look and act differently from their canon appearances.


 * In many non-English versions, it says that Cackle’s sisters are not biologically related to her, but were called that because they were also kidnapped by the previous Witch Queen.