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Chapter 3
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stardust, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Youth, Aging, and Maturity
Love and Ownership
Home and Belonging
Rules
The Value of Literature
Summary
Analysis
Soon, Tristran feels like it’s summer instead of October. When he grows tired, he lies down, stares at the stars, and begins to dream of Mrs. Cherry. Then, a “small and hairy voice” asks Tristran to dream quieter dreams. In the morning, the small hairy man wakes Tristran up by offering him cooked mushrooms, which the man insists are disgusting but which Tristran loves. The man appreciates Tristran’s manners but remains unconvinced. He goes to relieve himself while Tristran watches his pack, and after Tristran takes his turn, he introduces himself. The man replies with, “Charmed,” and he then hurries off down the path. Tristran follows, thinking of how the man’s pack reminds him of the protagonist’s burden in Pilgrim’s Progress, which Mrs. Cherry read to the class every morning.
Following Tristran along his journey is his appreciation for Mrs. Cherry, and the love for (and background knowledge of) classic books that she instilled in him. Here, he uses his knowledge of the classic religious allegory Pilgrim’s Progress—in which the pack symbolizes sin—to make sense of the mysterious, but helpful, small hairy man. Tristran doesn’t know exactly what the man is all about, but he senses that the man is helpful and on the side of good. Note too that Tristran eats the man’s food without question, despite having spent his life being told such a thing is inappropriate. This is another subtle indicator that Tristran perhaps belongs in Faerie.
Themes
The little hairy man finally slows down, and he and Tristran walk side by side. When they stop for lunch, the man asks Tristran what he’s doing. He stops Tristran from describing Victoria’s beauty and asks “what damn-fool silly thing” she convinced him to do. This offends Tristran, but the man says that only lovers, minstrels, and madmen come here, and Tristran is obviously in love. Tristran explains that he promised Victoria a star, and the man suggests he find a girl who will reciprocate his affections without making him do silly things. But Tristran remains firm, and so the man warns him not to mention the star to anyone else here, though he should never lie if anyone asks where he’s going. He should say he’s going forward.
On the whole, Stardust casts the kind of love (or perhaps more accurately, infatuation) that Tristran expresses for Victoria as a normal, if arguably silly, symptom of youth. It’s due to Tristran’s youth and belief in his quest, the madman suggests, that Tristran isn’t willing to consider that Victoria might not be the right girl for him. Tristran remains steadfast though, and so the small hairy man gives him some important rules and advice to follow. As Tristran has grown up in the mortal world, he needs this help to effectively learn to function here.
Themes
As the path grows more difficult to follow and a cold breeze blows, Tristran asks if the star is far away. In response, the little hairy man replies, “How many miles to Babylon?” Tristran recites the nursery rhyme and says it’s just a nursery rhyme. The man responds incredulously: people here would work for years to hear the rhyme (or any other nursery rhyme). Suddenly, they realize they can’t find the path, and they come across a bird skeleton. The hairy man explains that they’re in a serewood. The trees are going to kill them, and a falling leaf stings Tristran’s hand. Tristran says he still knows where the real path is, and so he guides the hairy man to it, dodging the trees that try to cut them and block their way. Finally, they make it back to the real path, and the serewood shakes angrily.
In Faerie, the man suggests, nursery rhymes aren’t just intended to soothe babies—they contain truths and are worth years of a person’s life. In the novel this represents a primary difference between Faerie and the mortal world, but it also suggests that most works of literature have some important kernel of truth if a person is willing to look for it. Tristran, meanwhile, seems somehow at home in Faerie as he navigates out of the serewood. This is yet another indicator that he belongs here, due to his mother being Faerie-born.
Themes
The small hairy man pulls out a bottle of something, which Tristran unstoppers for him. The man pours himself a cup and then offers one to Tristran. Then, Tristran points the way out of the wood, and a few hours later, the path leads between two stone walls, and the woods behind them disappears. Insisting they must talk, the man asks Tristran where he’s from and who his parents are. The man remembers Dunstan, who let him sleep in his barn once. As far as Tristran knows, though, he has no fairies or enchantresses in his family tree. To test him, the hairy man asks Tristran to point in the direction of various Faerie landmarks, and Tristran confidently does so. He doesn’t know where Paris, France is, though. Still confused, the hairy man suggests they eat. He promises to help Tristran find his star.
At this point, readers (but not Tristran or the little hairy man) know that Tristran’s mother was from Faerie, but it’s unclear if she herself is magical or otherwise powerful. Still, the fact remains that Tristran has fairy blood, which the man seems to recognize. This is the reason he seems confused: it seems like Tristran belongs in Faerie given his ability to locate landmarks, but without proof of who his mother is, there’s no way to verify that Tristran does indeed belong in Faerie. Still, what the man sees is enough to convince him that Tristran does deserve help finding the star.
Themes
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Meanwhile, Primus, Tertius, and Septimus ride down Mount Huon in a carriage. At nightfall, they stop at an inn—and one of the pot-girls can clearly see seven gentlemen. After supper, they go to their rooms and lock themselves in. Just before midnight, the chambermaid Letitia knocks on Tertius’s door. He inspects her body, kisses her, and then they have sex. She asks if he’d like to have sex again and offers him wine. He drinks, but before they can proceed, Tertius writhes and asks where the wine came from. Just as she says that Septimus gave it to her, Tertius dies. Tertius’s ghost discusses the poisoning with his dead brothers. Septimus escapes on one of the carriage horses, while Primus sends Letitia back to Stormhold with Tertius’s body and another of the horses. Then, Primus leaves in the carriage in a terrible mood.
The pot-girl can presumably see the dead brothers, leading readers to understand that wherever the living brothers go, the dead ones will follow—and watch. Tertius falls prey to Septimus’s poisoning, potentially because he behaves in such a naive and trusting manner—that is, a youthful manner. Primus, in this sense, might have an edge over Septimus, being the eldest brother.
Themes
A boy named Brevis has been sent by his mother to sell their ill-tempered goat at the market, as they have no food. When he reaches a crossroads near the wood, a gorgeous woman (Morwanneg) is there with a small cart but nothing to pull it. The woman asks Brevis to sell her the goat, offering a higher price than Brevis could’ve hoped. He hands over the rope, and the woman touches the goat between the eyes. To Brevis’s surprise, the goat—which would normally run—stays put. Then, the woman says a matched pair would be nice, so she touches Brevis’s forehead. When she snaps her fingers, Brevis and the goat stand between the cart’s shafts—Brevis is a goat. The goats pull the woman’s cart down the road.
Morwanneg, notably, gives Brevis no say in the matter when she essentially enslaves him by turning him into a goat. There’s nothing for him to gain in this—it benefits Morwanneg alone. With this, the novel begins to illustrate Morwanneg’s ruthlessness and selfishness. It’s nothing to her to enslave a fellow human being if it helps her on her quest, suggesting that anyone who gets in her way should fear for their safety.
Themes
Tristran sits wrapped in a blanket. The little hairy man has taken his ripped clothes to the village. Now, Tristran sees flickering lights in the bushes, and little folk appear and begin to sing embarrassing songs about his quest and his state of undress. Tristran throws his hat at them and cries to the hairy man that they took his hat when the hairy man returns. But the hairy man lays out clothes, which are brightly colored—not like the drab colors Wall’s residents wear. Tristran grudgingly dresses, and he’s almost a new man: he’s confident and jaunty. After sharing a meal, the little hairy man asks how far away the star is. Without thinking, Tristran says it might take six months. Nodding, the hairy man reminds Tristran of the nursery rhyme about Babylon and hands Tristran a small wax candle.
Though Tristran is having a difficult time adjusting to life in Faerie (he’s not used to having to deal with the teasing that the little folk lob at him), his change in demeanor when he gets his new clothes nevertheless suggests that this is the right place for him to be. In fact, in comparing Wall’s normal clothing to Faerie’s, the novel even implies that for Tristran, Wall’s dress code was stifling. As the little hairy man hands Tristran a candle, like from the nursery rhyme, he again makes the case that nursery rhymes aren’t just simple entertainment. Here, they have meaning and contain important information about how to navigate the world.
Themes
The little hairy man then hands Tristran a thin silver chain made of “Cat’s breath and fish-scales and moonlight on a mill-pond.” He’ll need it to bring his star back. Tristran wraps the chain around his wrist and finds a buttonhole in which to put the glass snowdrop. Then, the hairy man tells Tristran to stand up, he’ll light the candle, and Tristran will walk to his star quickly, as the candle’s wick is almost gone. The man lights the candle. Tristran walks, each step bringing him a new place. He passes through mountains, passes a woman (Morwanneg) driving two goats, and then steps into a glen.
The chain, notably, is made of the same substance as the one that bound the young woman—suggesting that while Tristran doesn’t question the hairy man, he’s inevitably going to be forced to question what it means to capture, or even enslave, another being when he uses the chain. And again, the magical candle brings to life an element from a nursery rhyme, encouraging Tristran and readers to look for the potential value in the written word.
Themes
Tristran looks for the star, figuring he’s looking for a rock. He can hear someone trying not to cry, and he asks if they can help him find a fallen star. The person throws clods of mud at him, and Tristran approaches to find a girl, who says only that she broke her leg when she fell. Tristran realizes that she is the star. He fastens the chain around her wrist and the other end around his own, announcing that he’s bringing her home with him because he swore an oath. Just then, the candle goes out. The star says coldly that she won’t help Tristran get home. Unperturbed, Tristran lies down to sleep, wondering what the little hairy man will think when he doesn’t come back. He also wonders what Victoria Forester is doing. The star continues to insult Tristran, but she finally sleeps.
Finally, Tristran learns that the star isn’t a ball of gas or a rock—it’s a person. Thus, when he captures the star with the chain, he’s chaining a fellow human being against her will, something that at this point he doesn’t seem to recognize as morally repugnant. His focus on Victoria blinds him to the implications of his behavior and the effects that it has on the star. The star is clearly having a difficult time due to her painful fall and the fact that she, like Tristran, has suddenly tumbled into a brand-new world. But for now, Tristran doesn’t see their similarities—or indeed, humanize the star at all.
Themes
