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Dunstan Thorn
Madame Semele is an elderly witch who lives in a caravan and sells glass and crystal flowers at the Faerie Market at Wall. She enslaves a young woman, later revealed to be Lady Una, by tethering her with a fine silver chain and cursing her to be enslaved until “the moon loses her daughter, if that occurs in a week when two Mondays come together.” When Lady Una conceives Tristran, Madame Semele begins turning Lady Una into a brightly colored bird unless she needs her to work the stall. Though Madame Semele thinks highly of herself, she often overlooks things or overestimates her abilities. She believes she’s tricking Morwanneg by spiking her food with an herb that forces Morwanneg to tell the truth, for instance, but this doesn’t stop Morwanneg from cursing Madame Semele to not be able to perceive the star. Additionally, though it’s implied that Madame Semele curses Lady Una in a way that she believes means she’ll never have to go without Lady Una’s forced labor, the curse does eventually lift. Madame Semele carries Tristran most of the way to the Faerie market by turning him into a dormouse.
The Old Woman/Madame Semele Quotes in Stardust
The Stardust quotes below are all either spoken by The Old Woman/Madame Semele or refer to The Old Woman/Madame Semele. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5 Quotes
“I am on my way to find a star,” said the witch-queen, “which fell in the great woods on the other side of Mount Belly. And when I find her, I shall take my great knife and cut out her heart, while she lives, and while her heart is her own. For the heart of a living star is a sovereign remedy against all the snares of age and time. [...]”
Madame Semele hooted and hugged herself, swaying back and forth, bony fingers clutching her sides. “The heart of a star, is it? Hee! Hee! Such a prize it will make for me. I shall taste enough of it that my youth will come back, and my hair turn from grey to golden, and my dugs swell and soften and become firm and high. Then I shall take all the heart that’s left to the Great Market at Wall. Hee!”
Related Characters:
Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen (speaker), The Old Woman/Madame Semele (speaker), The Lilim, The Star/Yvaine
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Page Number and Citation:
121
Explanation and Analysis:
Madame Semele tricks Morwanneg into telling her that she’s after the star’s heart, which will grant her and the other Lilim youth. With this passage, Stardust explicitly tells readers what Morwanneg plans to do and why for the first time. This helps readers understand that the star is the embodiment of youth—and that youth, particularly for these two elderly witches, is an extremely desirable state of being. Madame Semele herself describes in detail why youth is so desirable, and it’s notable that she fixates on mostly physical things that will change. Her gray hair will revert to blond, and her breasts will once again become perky and youthful. Notably, elsewhere in the novel, Morwanneg echoes the idea that she wants to look youthful—but she (and Madame Semele) want to retain the wisdom they’ve gained with age. This sets up the idea that while genuine, natural youth entails both looking young and acting young (and sometimes silly), what’s most valuable and desirable about youth are those physical attributes. This is then why Madame Semele plans to sell the rest of the heart at Wall’s Faerie market: youthful looks are something that many people desire and are happy to pay for, whether they’re mortal or not.
Additionally, this passage also highlights how both Morwanneg and Madame Semele dehumanize the star. Rather than see her as a person, they refer to her as an object. She—or more accurately, her heart—is a prize, not an essential organ that keeps her living. They see no issue with killing the embodiment of youth if it means that they get to be young, highlighting both women’s immorality.
Chapter 8 Quotes
The exotic bird hopped up beside her and it chirruped, once, curiously.
“Of course I have kept my word—to the letter,” said the old woman, as if in reply. “He shall be transformed back at the market meadow, so shall regain his own form before he comes to Wall. [...] And I do believe that bumpkin’s flower was even finer than the one you lost to me, all those years ago.”
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Chapter 10 Quotes
“What have you done?” Spittle flecked the old woman’s lips.
“I have done nothing; nothing I did not do eighteen years ago. I was bound to you to be your slave until the day that the moon lost her daughter, if it occurred in a week when two Mondays came together. And my time with you is almost done.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
“And if it does not suit you, you may leave, you know. There is no silver chain that will be holding you to the throne of Stormhold.”
And Tristran found this quite reassuring. Yvaine was less impressed, for she knew that silver chains come in all shapes and sizes; but she also knew that it would not be wise to begin her life with Tristran by arguing with his mother.
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The Old Woman/Madame Semele Character Timeline in Stardust
The timeline below shows where the character The Old Woman/Madame Semele appears in Stardust. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...and Mr. Thorn find the stall selling the flowers, which is now manned by an old woman and a beautiful, chained bird. The old woman has no idea what happened to Dunstan...
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Chapter 5
...for another witch’s caravan, as she saw the cooking fire earlier. When she arrives, the old woman is roasting a hare, a colorful bird chained to a perch nearby. The old woman...
(full context)
Madame Semele fetches beautiful bowls, knives, and a pot of herbs. She then divides the hare, giving...
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Madame Semele is terrified, especially when Morwanneg reveals that she’s one of the Lilim—all the rumors that...
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Chapter 8
...him. As Tristran bends down to pick the bird up, something stuns him, and an old woman begins shouting threats at Tristran. Tristran explains that he merely freed the bird, and the...
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A while later, as Tristran and Yvaine are walking along the road, the old woman and her mule-drawn caravan pass them. She calls Tristran to her, apologizes, and declaring him...
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The bird appears from the caravan, and Yvaine asks why Madame Semele keeps it chained. Ignoring Yvaine, Madame Semele offers to take Tristran to Wall and to...
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Yvaine spends her days sleeping in Madame Semele ’s bed and her nights staring at the stars, sometimes with the bird. The bird...
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Chapter 9
Madame Semele ’s caravan drives through Diggory’s Dyke, and she asks the old woman—Morwanneg—what happened to her...
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The caravan finally reaches the meadow outside Wall. People are setting up tents as Madame Semele pulls the dormouse out of its cage and touches its head with a glass daffodil....
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Chapter 10
...young woman with cat ears comes to sit next to Yvaine, and she wonders if Madame Semele turns people into animals, “or whether she finds the beast inside us, and frees it.”...
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It’s just past noon, and Madame Semele eyes the customers wandering through the market. There aren’t many, and she sighs that this...
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The young woman’s chain finally disappears, and Madame Semele insults her former servant. The young woman says that Madame Semele will never insult her...
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