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The Old Woman/Madame Semele
The faerie woman with cat-shaped ears and lavender eyes is, unbeknownst to most, Lady Una of Stormhold, the eighty-first lord of Stormhold’s first child and only daughter. But Madame Semele enslaved her by binding her with a silver chain, and Lady Una has spent decades enslaved and working Madame Semele’s flower stall by the time she meets Dunstan at the Faerie market. After having sex with Dunstan, Lady Una has Tristran, who is pushed through the gap in the wall to be raised by Dunstan and Daisy. Following this, Lady Semele turns Lady Una into a brightly-colored tropical bird unless she needs her in her human form to work the market stall. When Yvaine falls in love with Tristran—and when Victoria and Mr. Monday plan to marry—Lady Una is freed from her enslavement and returns to the Stormhold to rule as regent until Tristran is ready to assume his role as the Lord of Stormhold.
The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una Quotes in Stardust
The Stardust quotes below are all either spoken by The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una or refer to The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una. 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:
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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.”
Related Characters:
The Old Woman/Madame Semele (speaker), The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una, Tristran Thorn, Dunstan Thorn
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Page Number and Citation:
194-195
Explanation and Analysis:
Madame Semele has turned Tristran into a dormouse so she can easily transport him to Wall, which is what she promised him she’d do in exchange for the glass snowdrop Tristran traded her. This continues to highlight the idea that rules and promises, on their face, might mean one thing—but that it’s possible to make them work to one’s advantage by leaning into technicalities. Tristran thought he was getting transportation and food, and, technically, he is. But he’s getting those things as a dormouse, so it’s much easier for Madame Semele to feed him (as a dormouse requires significantly less food than a human man).
Then, it’s an interesting observation that Madame Semele believes the flower Tristran traded her is better than the one the young woman gave to Dunstan years ago. Readers know that this flower is the exact same one, which begs the question of what makes it different. The answer seems to be that the flower was freely given to Dunstan, and then to Tristran—and it was given with love (or lust) each time. Madame Semele seeks to carefully control her flowers in a way that the novel suggests deprives them of their vibrancy.
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 Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una Character Timeline in Stardust
The timeline below shows where the character The Young Woman/the Bird/Lady Una appears in Stardust. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...follows the sound and finds a stall filled with tiny crystal flowers. The vendor, a young woman with violet eyes and cat ears, greets him and begins to describe the flowers. As...
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The young woman won’t give her name—she doesn’t have one now that she’s enslaved—and they begin to haggle...
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...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 and is just upset that...
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...would be like to keep going into the forest beyond. He hoots twice, and the young woman appears and teases him. They sit on the grass and discuss the stars. She explains...
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Chapter 5
...cooking fire earlier. When she arrives, the old woman is roasting a hare, a colorful bird chained to a perch nearby. The old woman asks Morwanneg to swear that she means...
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...she was clumsy to let her bowl fall in the fire. She tells the concerned-looking bird that she must just be getting old.
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Chapter 8
Tristran is looking for breakfast one morning when he comes across a large, brightly-colored bird in the undergrowth. It’s clearly terrified, and Tristran approaches slowly and unwinds the silver chain...
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The bird appears from the caravan, and Yvaine asks why Madame Semele keeps it chained. Ignoring Yvaine,...
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...sleeping in Madame Semele’s bed and her nights staring at the stars, sometimes with the bird. The bird ignores her when Madame Semele is awake, though. Yvaine also cares for Tristran....
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Chapter 9
...can’t help but answer, and she says she has her mules, a servant girl in bird form, and a man in a dormouse’s body. Morwanneg sends Madame Semele on, and Yvaine,...
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...end of the bargain. Yvaine joins Tristran, and they watch as Madame Semele turns the bird into a young woman who looks only a bit older than Tristran. Something about her...
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Chapter 10
...drunk, and Yvaine sits next to him, wondering why she doesn’t hate Tristran anymore. The young woman with cat ears comes to sit next to Yvaine, and she wonders if Madame Semele...
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...the young woman refuses to say who she really is. She says she was the bird in the caravan, and she knows everything about Yvaine and the topaz stone. The young...
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...There aren’t many, and she sighs that this market won’t last many more years. The young woman quips that she doesn’t care—this will be her last market. She holds up her wrist,...
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The young woman ’s chain finally disappears, and Madame Semele insults her former servant. The young woman says...
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...before they can go anywhere, she has to give the topaz to the right person. Lady Una appears and tells Tristran to ask Yvaine for the topaz: she’s Tristran’s mother. Yvaine gives...
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Yvaine asks Lady Una to introduce herself, and Lady Una does. She pulls out a glass rose, which she...
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Tristran approaches and says that Lady Una will travel to the Stormhold in her palanquin, but he and Yvaine are free to...
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Epilogue
The citizens of the Stormhold are thrilled when Lady Una returns and announces that her son and his bride will soon come to Stormhold so...
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