Yvaine

Infobox character
colour = silver
name = Yvaine
first = " Stardust" (1998)
last = " Stardust" (1998)
species = anthropomorphic star
gender = female
age = unknown
born = unknown
death = N/A
occupation = Ruler of Stormhold
title = Lady of Stormhold
family = the Moon (mother)
other stars (sisters)
spouse = Tristran Thorn
children = none (in novel)
residence = palace in Stormhold
creator = Neil Gaiman

Yvaine is the heroine of Neil Gaiman's novel "Stardust".She is a fallen star who is found by young Tristran Thorn and they have an amazing adventure in the magical realm of Stormhold. She is pursued by the oldest of three evil witches who wish to rejuvenate themselves by eating her heart. The sons of the Lord of Stormhold also want her, because she possesses a topaz stone (a ruby in the film) which belonged to the previous Lord of Stormhold, and whichever of his heirs finds it first will become the next Lord.

Yvaine is not mentioned by name in the first part of the novel, with Gaiman instead referring to her as "the star", "the young lady" or, on one occasion, "the star woman." After Tristran rescues her from the witch-queen, she tells him that her sisters called her Yvaine. She is mostly referred to by this name from this point on, although Gaiman still refers to her as "the star" on several occasions.

In the Novel

Background

Yvaine is a star of the skies of Faerie. In Faerie, the stars are conscious, living beings. Like all the stars, Yvaine is a daughter of the moon, and a therefore a sister to every other star in the sky. Before her fall, Yvaine was an evening star (hence the name). It has been suggested that she was in fact the first star of the evening, in that, when describing her fall from the perspective of the Lord of Stormhold and his sons, Gaiman mentions that "Tertius thought, although he was not certain, that it (the falling star, i.e. Yvaine) was the first star of the evening, the one that his brother Septimus had remarked upon". At the time of her fall, the movements of the stars have brought Yvaine "low on the Eastern horizon". It is in this place in the sky that she is hit by the enchanted pendant of the Lord of Stormhold, knocked from the heavens, and subsequently falls to earth.

On Earth

Following her fall, she is found by a young man named Tristran Thorn. Tristran has sworn an oath to retrieve a fallen star for his 'true love' Victoria, and to this end, forces Yvaine to return with him to Wall, thereby reinforcing her already strong dislike of him. Before long, the two are joined by a unicorn, which is implied to have been sent by the moon to protect the star, and on whose back Yvaine later flees from Tristran. Yvaine inadvertantly walks straight into a trap set by the oldest of three witch-queens called the Lilim, who wish to cut out and devour the star's heart so as to regain their youth and beauty. The witch almost manages to kill Yvaine, but Tristran arrives just in time to save her. The unicorn is killed in the ensuing battle, but Tristran and Yvaine escape by use of a magical candle.

Yvaine reveals that because Tristran has saved her life, she must now follow wherever he goes. This enrages her, but following his apology for how he has previously treated her, she relents a little and tells him her name, which she had not mentioned before. Tristran offers to help Yvaine return to the sky after he has presents her to Victoria, but Yvaine tells him that such a thing is impossible, and that she is doomed to remain on earth forever. The two are picked up by a sky-ship, on which Yvaine's leg is treated by a surgeon, and properly splinted until it heals, although she walks with a slight limp from then on. The ship sets them down on the road to Wall, and on the road, the two encounter a witch named Madame Semele, from whose stall Tristran's father had purchased a glass flower seventeen years previously. Tristran trades this flower for safe passage to the wall, after which Semele transforms him into a dormouse out of spite. She does nothing to Yvaine, because she is prevented from seeing the star by a curse placed upon her (Semele) by the oldest of the Lilim. This enables Yvaine to pass the journey to Wall unnoticed in the witch's caravan.

When the two reach Wall, Yvaine discovers that entering the human world will transform her into meteoric rock, and therefore stays behind when Tristan goes to speak to Victoria. He returns to tell Yvaine that Victoria is marrying another man, and that he no longer wished to marry the girl anyway. At this point, Yvaine realizes that she has fallen in love with Tristran herself, and when the feeling is revealed to be reciprocated, the two share their first kiss.

Following Tristran's discovery that he is in fact the new Lord of Stormhold (his mother, who was Madame Semele's servant, was also the previous Lord's daughter) Yvaine discharges her obligation to relinquish the topaz pendant to its rightful owner by giving it to Tristran. She then encounters the witch-queen who has been hunting her. The witch has by now squandered all of her restored youth, and is so old and frail that Yvaine feels nothing but pity for her. Yvaine reveals that she has given her heart to Tristran, rendering it useless to the witch-queen, and the witch accepts this fact.

Yvaine goes with Tristran to explore Faerie for eight years, after which she assumes her position as his queen and lives a long, happy life by his side, despite the fact that they cannot have children. She still apparently misses the sky, for she chooses to sleep in a suite of room whose roof has collapsed, leaving them open to the air and giving her a perfect view of the moon and stars. Many years later, Tristran dies of old age, and the widowed Yvaine becomes Lady of Stormhold. She has not aged at all in all her time as his queen, nor does she age in all her decades of ruling, thus implying that she will live on forever. Yvaine proves herself to be a wonderful monarch, and rules wisely over Stormhold. She retains her limp, and Gaiman also mentions that she still occasionally shines in the darkness. Even after many years of living on earth, she still mourns her days as a star, going every night to the highest point of the palace to watch, sadly, as the stars dance across the heavens.

Characteristics

Yvaine is described as being young and slim, with sky-blue eyes, hair so fair that it is almost white, and skin "as pale as the moon". She also glitters in the darkness, and it is mentioned that this, to a distant observer, gives her the appearance of being a tiny point of light, not unlike how she appeared when seen in the sky from earth.

Yvaine and her sisters appear to hold their mother in some awe, almost to the extent of worshipping her. When Tristran offers to shake Yvaine's hand, she is repulsed, and exclaims "Mother Moon defend me!" She also shows her reverence for her mother when she reluctantly promises to remain with Tristan from that point onward, and swears her oath on the moon.

Yvaine appears to be inescapably bound by obligations, another trait which she apparently shares with the other stars. She mentions to Madame Semele's slave girl (Lady Una) that an obligation "binds [her] kind more securely than any chain ever could." Over the course of the novel, she comes under two such obligations, both of which ultimately shape her destiny, and that of many other characters: After being knocked from the sky by the Lord's pendant, she carries the stone around with her because she is under obligation to return it to its rightful owner. At the witch-queen's inn, she almost succeeds in giving the stone to Primus, but Tristran bursts in to warn the prince that the owners of the inn have tried to poison him (Tristran), at which point the witch slits Primus' throat. The second obligation under which Yvaine falls is that of remaining with Tristran. Having saved her life, he is, by the laws of the stars, now responsible for Yvaine, and she for him, and wherever he goes, she must follow. This enrages her, as she still despises Tristran at this point.

In the movie

Yvaine is knocked from her place in the sky by the enchanted pendant of the Lord of Stormhold. After she crashes into the ground, she is found by Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) (Tristran in the book) who has promised his beloved Victoria (Sienna Miller) that he would give her that fallen star in exchange for her hand in marriage. He had used his Babylon candle to pass the wall beside his village ('Wall') and accidentally crashes into Yvaine upon landing (As she puts it she was "hit by a magical flying moron"). Despite the star not being what he expected (a beautiful woman rather than a meteorite), Tristan decides to bring her back to Victoria.

However, Tristan is not the only one seeking the star. Yvaine is in terrible danger from the living sons of the King (Peter O'Toole), who are looking for her because only she can secure the throne for one of them. Before he died, the King magically sent out a necklace with a beautiful diamond in it - the first male of the royal family who touches it will turn the diamond into a ruby and become the next king. Yvaine is now in possession of the necklace as it was what caused her to fall to earth. Later, Septimus (the king's seventh son) also discovers that the heart of a star will provide immortality and plans on devouring her heart so that he can rule forever. Also the three witches known as "The Lilim", Mormo, Empusa and the eldest and the most powerful, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), want to eat Yvaine's heart to gain magical rejuvenation.

As Tristan sets out to protect Yvaine and bring her back to Victoria, his journey brings incredible encounters with a pirate captain: Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), and a shady trader (Ricky Gervais) among other surprises.As he nears the wall, Tristan realises that he has fallen in love with Yvaine who falls in love with him in return. When she suspects that he still loves Victoria, she is heartbroken and tries to enter England (which would cause her to turn into a rock and thus kill her). She is stopped by a servant girl named Una, but both are then captured by Lamia and brought to The Lilim's castle.

Tristan, meanwhile, hurries to return to Yvaine (he had actually gone to tell Victoria that he loved another girl and no longer wanted to marry her). He and Septimus break into The Lilim's castle to save Yvaine from having her heart cut out but they are nearly killed by Lamia. Lamia's two vicious sisters, are killed in the battle, and Lamia seems to grow tired of her quest for youth. She releases Yvaine and tells her and Tristan to leave, as youth is now meaningless without her two sisters. However, this turns out to be a tr

Characterization in the movie

Yvaine is an evening star - one who shines brightly enough to be seen even by day. Like other stars she eats darkness and drinks light, but unlike so many of her less complex sisters, she loves to gaze down and watch the earth; seeing the lives and adventures of mankind unfold helps to make eternal life a little more interesting...and a little less lonely.Not that Yvaine would ever admit to feeling alone - fiercely independent, it would irk her to admit craving or needing anything from anybody. Nor would she wish to see man at any closer quarters: four hundred years ago, one of her sisters fell to earth and was never seen again, and the rumor in the night skies is that she met a most terrible fate.The star was captured by the witches and was cared for until her heart shone. They killed her and ate it. In the movie, this information is revealed to Tristan through a dream when he comes back and finds that Yvaine is no longer where he left her.