The candle and the crown that Tristran encounters during his journey through Faerie represent the importance of nursery rhymes and other literature. Mere hours after entering Faerie, the little hairy man warns Tristran that nursery rhymes aren’t meaningless. He says, “there’s some on this side of the wall would give seven years’ hard toil for that little cantrip,” making it clear that such poems are extremely valuable. As Tristran’s journey progresses, he comes to learn that this is because in Faerie, the nursery rhymes and poems often come to life. Tristran uses a “Babylon candle,” for instance, to travel miles at a time, as described in the nursery rhyme “How Many Miles to Babylon.” And when he encounters a lion and a unicorn fighting, he deduces how to break up the fight by thinking of the poem “The Lion and the Unicorn,” which suggests that the lion simply wants to maintain his power—and thus that he’ll stop fighting once Tristran gives him his crown, a symbolic representation of his power.
Nursery rhyme characters and objects might not magically come to life in the real world, but by showing how nursery rhymes guide Tristran’s behavior and teach him how to respond to given situations, Stardust shows that literature, poetry, songs, and the like aren’t frivolous. They may be merely entertaining to some, but they can also contain important life lessons or other useful information.
Candle and Crown Quotes in Stardust
“Hullo,” said Tristran. There were burrs and leaves in the lion’s mane. He held the heavy crown out toward the great beast. “You won. let the unicorn go.” And he took a step closer. Then he reached out both trembling hands and placed the crown upon the lion’s head.