M is for Mab

I’m doing folklore and book review posts to reach and please a larger audience. Previous years have shown select interest in both and to minimise blogging throughout the year, I’m focusing my efforts on April.

If you’d rather check out my book review for today, go here.

Mab is the shadowy faery queen of dreams and various small fae. But there has to be more, right?

Folklore

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

“O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs,
The cover of the wings of grasshoppers,
The traces of the smallest spider’s web,
The collars of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams,
Her whip of cricket’s bone; the lash of film;
Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o’ mind the fairies’ coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court’sies straight,
O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees,
O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are:
Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail
Tickling a parson’s nose as a’ lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plaits the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes:
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage:
This is she—”

— Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Act I, scene IV

Fairy Mythology (1828) by Thomas Keightley

In these places we find that Abundia is a queen or ruler over a band of what we may call fairies, who enter houses at night, feast there, twist the horses’ manes, etc. This may remind us at once of Shakespeare’s Queen Mab, whom, though only acquainted with Habundia through a passage in Heywood,[549] we conjectured to have derived her name from that of this French dame.[550] Chaucer, by the way, always spells habundance with an h, which may have become m as it does n in Numps from Humphrey; so Edward makes Ned, Oliver Noll, etc.

Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology by Theresa Bane

In the English fairy tradition, Mab is considered to be the high Queen of the Fairies; although her exact origins are unknown, it is commonly believed she likely originated in Celtic lore either from the goddess Mab (“youth”) of Welsh mythology or from Maeve (Maebhe) of the Cuchullain tales. There is also the possibility she could be a version of the Norse goddess Mara from Scandinavian folklore; this is suspected as both Mara and Mab are said to have the ability to infiltrate and manipulate a person’s dreams.

*More can be read in the book.

The Element Encyclopedia of Fairies by Lucy Cooper

A name for the fairy queen in English folklore, especially popular in sixteenth and seventeenth-century literature. She famously appears in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as the fairy midwife, delivering men of their desires in the form of dreams. Described as being no bigger than an agate stone, she rides around in a hazelnut chariot drawn by insects. She also appears in Michael Drayton’s Nymphidia (1627) and Ben Jonson’s Entertainment at Althrope (1603), and is generally characterised as being mischievous, delighting in fairy tricks such as tangling horses’ manes into elflocks, swapping human children with changelings, or leading people on wild goose chases through bonds and ditches as a will o’ the wisp type figure. In Joshua Poole’s Parnasus she was first described as consort to the fairy king, Oberon, a role more often given to Titania. Her origins are not clear, but it is possible that her roots may be traced to the warlike Celtic queen Medb or Maeve of Ireland or Mabb of Wales.

*More can be read in the book.

The Forest in Folklore and Mythology by Alexander Porteous

Sometimes the fairies of popular belief may be traced as being descended from some traditionally remembered personage who may or may not have had a real tangible existence. Thus Queen Mab is said to have been originally the queen of a certain early Irish race, her name being Medhb.

*More can be read in the book.

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore by Patricia Monaghan

Welsh folkloric figure. In Ireland the great goddess Medb was diminished over time to a quasi-historical queen of the same name. In Wales the same process resulted in this fairy queen who offers only a hint of earlier divinity. Queen Mab is best known from the reference in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where she appears as the “fairies’ midwife”, a role traditionally played by a human victim of fairy kidnapping. Queen Mab’s other duty, according to Shakespeare, was to bring nightmares – once again, a role rarely ascribed to Medb but common among mischievous fairies; her playfulness has led to some scholars to derive her name from the Welsh term for child, mab, which also appears in the collection of myths called the Mabinogion. Shakespeare borrowed British and Welsh fairy lore at will; although vivid, his portraits of mythological beings are not necessarily accurate.

*More can be read in the book.

Further Reading:

• Queen Mab
• Mab
• The Origins of Queen Mab- separating fact from fiction
• Who is Queen Mab? Queen of the Fairies in Folklore or in Literature?
• Medb

Folklore in a Nutshell by Ronel

From English folklore and early literature, Mab is either the high queen of faeries, the wife of Oberon – the faery king – or, as Shakespeare said in “Romeo and Juliet”, the faery queen of dreams. Michael Drayton had her as the wife of Oberon and queen of diminutive fae in “Nymphidia” in 1627. Even Milton had her as a pixielike faery. In some beliefs, she’s connected to the Scandinavian nightmare creature Mara who, too, can infiltrate dreams, though Mab is usually benign in nature. She’s usually seen as a tiny, mischievous faery who acts much like a will-o’-the-wisp when leading humans through bogs – called “Mab-led” in Warwickshire since 1849; tangling hair – especially that of horses, which could mean she’d gone for a midnight ride on it; and all-out fun like most faeries. Sometimes she’s charged with swapping human children with changelings, though it isn’t clear why she would. Some believe her to be the faery version of a queen from an early Irish race, Meadhbh, though it doesn’t fit that Shakespeare knew this as Irish folklore wasn’t much known in in the sixteenth century by the rest of Britain. Most early writers had her connected to dreams, though, and kept her as the queen of the fae, despite Titania taking that role in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

Mab in Modern Culture

Merlin (miniseries) 1998

Queen Mab is a character in the 1998 miniseries, Merlin and is the main antagonist.

Learn more.

Queen Mab (Miranda Richardson) has been inserted into Arthurian legend as the primary antagonist, but is preserved as a ruler of fairies, pixies, goblins and a belief system referred to as ‘the old ways’, in opposition to the introduction of Christianity by recent Roman influences.^[13] Mab is responsible for the creation of the half-human wizard Merlin and influences the conception of Mordred, Arthur’s illegitimate son and her protegé.

Learn more.

BBC Merlin

“I am the spirit of this place. And all the places that bring despair to men’s hearts.”— Queen Mab to Merlin

Queen Mab is the spirit of the Impenetrable Forest and all other places of despair.

Queen Mab appeared to Merlin when he, Arthur, and the Knights were lost in the Impenetrable Forest. Speaking in riddles and rhyme, she told him to use his magic to navigate the forest and warned him that one of his party would not return. Her prediction later came true when Elyan was killed rescuing Gwen from the Dark Tower (The Dark Tower).

According to some scholars, the name “Mab” originates from the name of Queen Medb, a legendary queen of Connacht from the Ulster Cycle. It may also come from the Middle English name “Mabily”.

Learn more here.

Iron Fey book series by Julie Kagawa

Mab is the Queen of the Unseelie court. She is the mother of Ash, Sage, and Rowan. Mab is queen of snow/ice and darkness.

Her biggest enemies are the rulers of the Seelie Court and ruler of the Iron Realm, King Oberon, Queen Titania and Queen Meghan Chase.

Meghan describes Mab as not tall, like Oberon, and not willowy slim like Titania, but a figure women would die to have. She has long, shiny almost-blue black hair that is described as a “waterfall of black ink” tumbling down her shoulders. Her skin is pale white, like marble, her lips are like mulberry, and her black eyes, which the book described as a void, or a night without stars, radiate power and royalty.

Mab is cold, frightening, and sometimes very cruel.

Learn more here.

Mab in My Writing

Origin of the Fae: Mab

Mab is the queen of dreams, nightmares and creatures that go bump in the night. These minor fae flock to her for protection as they’d rather be under her rule than be Solitary Fae open to the whims of the Courts.
Her second-in-command is Mara, a creature known to create nightmares throughout folklore.
Mab is connected to the land, the air and darkness, being able to use the magic within it all to create dreams for mortals and fae alike. She’s a powerful faery who can stand up to the Dark King, Dagda and other powerful fae while ruling over her domain – dreams. Her seat of power is Dublin.
She can change size at will. She’s usually a tiny faery who can ride in a carriage drawn by bumblebees. She has wings, though she can hide them. Depending on her mood, she appears as a gothic creature with dark hair and eyes, or a light creature with iridescent wings, eyes and pale blonde hair.

She’s in charge of dreams… This is the first song I thought of (check out the imagery in the music video).

See this immortal in action in my writing:

Queen of Nightmares (Irascible Immortals #3)

She sat on the iron sign, ignoring the sting of it, and watched the mortals around her.

Ripples of dark power washed over her, making her shiver. The energy in the French Quarter was much different from what she was used to in Dublin. Oh, the Irish respected the old ways, but they didn’t revere magic and all it entails like those in New Orleans did – even if they were mostly unaware.

She had heard others speak of the pleasures to be had in this city so far from her seat of power. And she was ready to indulge.

Mab stepped off the street sign and donned a human glamour, shedding her rose petal dress, diaphanous wings and tiny size. She stood out like a sore thumb among the dressed-to-scare mortals in her jeans and T-shirt.

Queen of Nightmares, Irascible Immortals #3, Ronel Janse van Vuuren

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