Maeve is the first of Oberon's two wives. The second is her sister Titania, and together they are the Three Creators of Faerie. Maeve is the mother of many Firstborn and types of fae. She disappeared along with Oberon and Titania hundreds of years ago. She is often-mentioned but has not appeared in the series.
See Also: Headscratchers
About[]
Her name is frequently invoked as an oath by the fae ("Maeve's tits!" is one example), and she is revered by most of them.
Maeve is the Winter Queen to Titania's Summer, and is associated with water, transformation, and healing.[1] Despite her status as the Unseelie Queen, Maeve seems to be the more nurturing of the two sisters. Indeed, the Luidaeg recalls that she could even gentle Titania's children with her kindness, and turn a blind eye to their viciousness.[2] She is not without her rage, as she had taken vengeance upon Titania for the Roane slaughter and the Luidaeg's binding, and had cursed Janet with immortality for breaking her last Ride, which ironically gave birth to the downfall of many of Titania and Eira's machinations and the restoration of the Roane.
Description[]
In the Luidaeg's memories, "She smells like wild roses and southernwood, like moss and loam and the first day of the fall...[She] is wearing a gown of thorns and autumn leaves, and there are roses in her hair, and she is beautiful." [2]
Biography[]
When Titania bound the Luidaeg in a geas, Maeve took revenge. Potentially out of spite, Evening engineered Maeve's disappearance from Faerie with Titania's blessing about five hundred years ago, using Janet Carter to interrupt her Ride. Because Janet convinced Tam Lin not to sacrifice himself to the Ride, Maeve went in his place, upsetting the balance of Faerie in the process. Before disappearing, Maeve cursed Janet with immortality until she returns. It is unclear if she's physically dead when she sacrificed herself for Faerie.
Maeve appears to be at least nominally aware of what is going on in Faerie: While lost on the Rose Roads, Toby calls upon Maeve and asks for help as a friend of the Luidaeg's. An entity presumed to be Maeve responds, providing a safe path off the Road.[3]
In the Series[]
A Killing Frost[]
While on the Rose Roads, Toby appeals to Maeve. A disembodied being responds, opening up a path for Toby and her allies to get off of the road.
Relationships[]
Luidaeg[]
The Luidaeg is Maeve's first child and the First of the Firstborn. They had a close relationship, and Maeve cursed Titania in retaliation after Titania put a geas on the Luideag.[1]
Titania[]
Maeve has a contentious relationship with her sister, who is also a wife to Oberon. The two are opposing forces of winter and summer and they have traded curses back and forth over the year.
Trivia[]
- The fandom suspect that Marcia, a seemingly thinblooded changeling in service to Count Dean Lorden is Maeve under either a disguise or a geas. This is evidenced when:
- Crossing the thresholds between the mortal realm and the Summerlands barely fazed Marcia.
- She was one of the few residents of Goldengreen to emerge unscathed from the transformation spells that Simon cast upon them, which had been further reinforced by the blood of a Firstborn.
- Amphitrite recognises her vaguely during the Convocation of Consequences.
- Was able to resist the temptation of a Selkie's skin, and although the Luidaeg offers Marcia the chance to become Roane, she refuses as she has other paths to follow.
Quotes[]
- "I know you're the Winter Queen, I know you're supposed to be the cold one, but I think...I think we got it wrong at some point. I think when we started turning our history into stories, we forgot who the real monsters were, and we start painting them in places they've never been. I don't know this for sure, but I listen to the way your daughter talks about you, and...and I think you're kind. I think you care about what happens to Faerie, and what happens to your kids." -Toby, A Killing Frost Ch. 9
- "It makes me really uncomfortable to think that Maeve is still out there--close enough to hear when you call for help--and not coming home. She's supposed to come home." -Quentin
- "I don't know. Her sister raised her kids to kill as many of Maeve's descendants as possible, her husband refused to rein Titania in even as she was advocating for mass murder, and she wound up pulled into some unknown void or something when Toby's grandmother broke the Ride. If I were her, I might not want to be any closer to Faerie right now either." -May, A Killing Frost Ch. 9
Mythology[]
Queen Mab (the anglicized spelling of Maeve) is a fairy referred to in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, where "she is the fairies' midwife."[4]
In Poole's work Parnassus, Mab is described as the Queen of the Fairies and consort to Oberon, emperor of the Fairies.[4]
See Also: