Stardust

by

Neil Gaiman

Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen Character Analysis

Morwanneg is the name that the oldest of the Lilim takes as she embarks on her journey to look for the star. When she begins her journey, she consumes what’s left of the last star’s heart, which turns her into a young woman who’s beautiful and tall, with long dark hair. As she travels, Morwanneg proves to be selfish and almost drunk on her own power. She has no issue with enslaving others for her own purposes, for instance. Though she thinks of herself as extremely intelligent, she makes a mistake when she curses Madame Semele to not be able to perceive the star—this means that when Morwanneg interrogates Madame Semele about who’s traveling with her to Wall, Madame Semele has genuinely no idea that the star is asleep in her caravan. As Morwanneg chases the star and uses her magic in the process, she gradually loses her youth and reverts into an old, stooped woman with cataracts. Though Morwanneg is arguably the novel’s antagonist, this characterization isn’t straightforward. She’s unable to perceive the star’s heart after Yvaine falls in love with Tristran, and this effectively means that Morwanneg gives up on her brutal hunt at that point. Yvaine, for her part, feels only pity for Morwanneg when they meet briefly at the market.

Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen Quotes in Stardust

The Stardust quotes below are all either spoken by Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen or refer to Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen. 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:
Youth, Aging, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

The three old women were the Lilim—the witch-queen—all alone in the woods.

The three women in the mirror were also the Lilim: but whether they were the successors to the old women, of their shadow-selves, or whether only the peasant cottage in the woods was real, or if, somewhere, the Lilim lived in a black hall, with a fountain in the shape of a mermaid playing in the courtyard of stars, none knew for certain, and none but the Lilim could say.

Related Characters: The Star/Yvaine, Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen, The Lilim
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
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 Star/Yvaine, The Lilim
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“If I but had my true youth again... why, in the dawn of the world I could transform mountains into seas and clouds into palaces. I could populate cities with the pebbles on the shingle. If I were young again...”

She sighed and raised a hand: a blue flame flickered about her fingers for a moment, and then, as she lowered her hand, and bent down to touch her chariot, the fire vanished.

She stood up straight. There were streaks of grey now in her raven-black hair, and dark pouches beneath her eyes; but the chariot was gone, and she stood in front of a small inn at the edge of the mountain pass.

Related Characters: Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, The Lilim, Brevis, Billy
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Not without the Power of Stormhold about your neck you’re not, my brother,” said Quintus, tartly.

“And then there’s the matter of revenge,” said Secundus, in the voice of the wind howling through the pass. “You must take revenge upon your brother’s killer before anything else, now. It’s blood-law.”

As if he had heard them, Septimus shook his head. “Why could you not have waited just a few more days, brother Primus?” [...] “And now I must revenge your sad carcass, and all for the honor of our blood and the Stormhold.

“So Septimus will be the eighty-second Lord of Stormhold,” said Tertius.

“There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of unhatched chicks,” pointed out Quintus.

[...]

“May you choke on [the rune stones] if you do not take revenge on the bitch who slit my gullet,” said Primus [...]

Related Characters: Septimus (speaker), Tertius (speaker), Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen, Primus, The Dead Brothers (Secundus, Quintus, Quartus, and Sextus)
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 170-171
Explanation and Analysis:

Tristran sat at the top of the spire of cloud and wondered why none of the heroes of the penny dreadfuls he used to read so avidly were ever hungry. His stomach rumbled, and his hand hurt him so.

Adventures are all very well in their place, he thought, but there’s a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen
Page Number: 177-178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Yvaine realized that she felt nothing but pity for the creature who had wanted her dead, so she said, “Could it be that the heart that you seek is no longer my own?”

The old woman coughed. Her whole frame shook and spasmed with the retching effort of it.

The star waited for her to be done, and then she said, “I have given my heart to another.”

“The boy? The one in the inn? With the unicorn?”

“Yes.”

“You should have let me take it back then, for my sisters and me. We could have been young again, well into the next age of the world. Your boy will break it, or waste it, or lose it. They all do.”

Related Characters: The Star/Yvaine (speaker), Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen (speaker), Tristran Thorn, The Unicorn, The Lilim
Page Number: 240-241
Explanation and Analysis:
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Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen Quotes in Stardust

The Stardust quotes below are all either spoken by Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen or refer to Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen. 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:
Youth, Aging, and Maturity Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

The three old women were the Lilim—the witch-queen—all alone in the woods.

The three women in the mirror were also the Lilim: but whether they were the successors to the old women, of their shadow-selves, or whether only the peasant cottage in the woods was real, or if, somewhere, the Lilim lived in a black hall, with a fountain in the shape of a mermaid playing in the courtyard of stars, none knew for certain, and none but the Lilim could say.

Related Characters: The Star/Yvaine, Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen, The Lilim
Page Number: 64
Explanation and Analysis:
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 Star/Yvaine, The Lilim
Page Number: 121
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“If I but had my true youth again... why, in the dawn of the world I could transform mountains into seas and clouds into palaces. I could populate cities with the pebbles on the shingle. If I were young again...”

She sighed and raised a hand: a blue flame flickered about her fingers for a moment, and then, as she lowered her hand, and bent down to touch her chariot, the fire vanished.

She stood up straight. There were streaks of grey now in her raven-black hair, and dark pouches beneath her eyes; but the chariot was gone, and she stood in front of a small inn at the edge of the mountain pass.

Related Characters: Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, The Lilim, Brevis, Billy
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8 Quotes

“Not without the Power of Stormhold about your neck you’re not, my brother,” said Quintus, tartly.

“And then there’s the matter of revenge,” said Secundus, in the voice of the wind howling through the pass. “You must take revenge upon your brother’s killer before anything else, now. It’s blood-law.”

As if he had heard them, Septimus shook his head. “Why could you not have waited just a few more days, brother Primus?” [...] “And now I must revenge your sad carcass, and all for the honor of our blood and the Stormhold.

“So Septimus will be the eighty-second Lord of Stormhold,” said Tertius.

“There is a proverbial saying chiefly concerned with warning against too closely calculating the numerical value of unhatched chicks,” pointed out Quintus.

[...]

“May you choke on [the rune stones] if you do not take revenge on the bitch who slit my gullet,” said Primus [...]

Related Characters: Septimus (speaker), Tertius (speaker), Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen, Primus, The Dead Brothers (Secundus, Quintus, Quartus, and Sextus)
Related Symbols: Silver Chains/the Power of Stormhold
Page Number: 170-171
Explanation and Analysis:

Tristran sat at the top of the spire of cloud and wondered why none of the heroes of the penny dreadfuls he used to read so avidly were ever hungry. His stomach rumbled, and his hand hurt him so.

Adventures are all very well in their place, he thought, but there’s a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.

Related Characters: Tristran Thorn (speaker), The Star/Yvaine, Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen
Page Number: 177-178
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Yvaine realized that she felt nothing but pity for the creature who had wanted her dead, so she said, “Could it be that the heart that you seek is no longer my own?”

The old woman coughed. Her whole frame shook and spasmed with the retching effort of it.

The star waited for her to be done, and then she said, “I have given my heart to another.”

“The boy? The one in the inn? With the unicorn?”

“Yes.”

“You should have let me take it back then, for my sisters and me. We could have been young again, well into the next age of the world. Your boy will break it, or waste it, or lose it. They all do.”

Related Characters: The Star/Yvaine (speaker), Morwanneg/the Witch-Queen (speaker), Tristran Thorn, The Unicorn, The Lilim
Page Number: 240-241
Explanation and Analysis: