Stardust

It’s not like me to read a magical kind of novel with a bit of love story in it, but it’s so like me to watch a romantic comedy Asian drama. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) My classmate lent this to me and I thought I should try reading a magical story to experience a magical feeling (haha). (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

Today, I’m going to talk about what I just read recently - STARDUST by Neil Gaiman.

As I am not really a huge fan of this kind of story, all I can say is that it is nice, an average tale, not a bad story. But hey, don’t take it as a negative comment. It’s just that it’s what I feel about it. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

It has a good flow and I am amazed how the characters are interconnected with each other. Well, honestly, I would love it if I could see a real Faerie, just like what it was described here. And the glass flowers with magical sound – it would be very lovely to look at it for real.

I love flowers, and since I read The Secret Garden, my love for it just seemed to grow deeper, and I begin to think I must have my own flower garden when I will be able to. (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

I’m sure you will enjoy reading this novel.

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Title: Stardust
Author: Neil Gaiman

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Young Tristan Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria - even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. But beyond that old stone barrier, Tristan learns, lies Faerie - where strange things can happen to a determined lad chasing his heart's desire . . . and where nothing, not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.

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SONG

Go, and catch a falling star,

Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me, where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil's foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy's stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind. 

If thou be'st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear
No where
Lives a woman true, and fair. 

If thou find'st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.

-- JOHN DONNE, 1572 - 1631

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Dunstan Thorn was an eighteen-year-old boy in the village of Wall. Every nine years, at midsummer, there was a fair outside of Wall. During this fair – the May Day – people from different places lodge in the inns and houses in the Wall to wait for the special event.

At this time, Dunstan Thorn was courting Daisy Hempstock. The special day came, and there were different colored stalls outside the village of Wall, with different displays of beautiful and wonderful things that were pleasant to the eyes. Dunstan went outside their village through the gap of the Wall to buy something to give to Daisy. He stopped by a stall that displayed glass flowers with magical sound. There, he met the woman at the stall, being a slave of the witch that owned the stall. A thin silver chain tied the woman to the stall, and said, “I gain my freedom on the day the moon loses her daughter, if that occurs in a week when two Mondays come together”. Dunstan chose one glass flower and as he held it, its magical sound would charm beautifully. And the woman just “gave away” the glass flower to Dunstan.

Then, Dunstan and Daisy got married. One night, there was a child that was slipped through the gap of the Wall from the outside and it was written, “Tristan Thorn”. Tristan was the son of Dunstan and the slave woman during the fair.

On Mount Huon, in Stormhold, the ruler was about to die and he called all his children, dead and alive. They were deciding who would be the next ruler of Stormhold. Their father, the eighty-first ruler of Stormhold, held the topaz - that whoever gets the stone in possession, would be the one to have the Stormhold as his dominion. They were waiting to whom their father would give the topaz, but their father threw it upward outside of the window, and said that the one who will find the stone will be the next to rule Stormhold.

Tristan grew up and there was a certain lady he was in love with – Victoria Forester. Tristan worked at Mr. Monday’s shop, where this shop provide the village’s people with the food and supplies they need, and Mr. Monday would go outside the village to get the food and supplies and give them to those who ordered, in a week’s time. One night, when the wind was howling and the rain was pouring, Victoria went to the shop to give the list of orders her mother had written. Tristan offered to give her a walk on the way home, and then they saw a falling star. Tristan admitted to Victoria what he feels and Victoria replied that if he could give her the fallen star they saw, she would give him anything he desires.

So, he went on a journey, to Faerie, to find the fallen star. His father, Dunstan, gave him the enchanted glass flower as a lucky token for his temporary departure. Indeed, he found the star. It was in the form of a lady with thin silk dress that looked like it glittered beautifully in the dark of the night. She looked like a real star in the distant that twinkled on and off, off and on. Tristan asked her why she had fallen, and the star replied, “I was hit…” She had the topaz around her waist, and she must return it to its owner.

They walked on a journey together. They saw a caravan and they met the witch owner of the stall during the fair when Dunstan had that glass flower. A bird with such different colors was with her, tied with a silver chain. The witch said that the bird became like that as the penalty of “giving away” one precious glass flower. They were on their way to the fair that was held every nine years. So, Tristan and the star hitched a ride in the caravan to the Wall. The witch turned the bird back to a woman to take care of the stall that displayed glass flowers. When Tristan went back to the Wall, he found out that Victoria and Mr. Monday was getting married. He did not feel miserable hearing the news and was actually happy.

In the fair, the silver chain that tied the slave woman to the stall was getting thinner and little by little, faded away until it became like a smoke, then vanished away. She told the witch that her years of servitude was over, and declared that she was the Lady Una – the firstborn of the eighty-first ruler of Stormhold. When Tristan went back to the fair, Lady Una confronted the star that she had something she needed to return to the owner. So the star pulled out the topaz, and Lady Una gave it to Tristan. He became the eighty-second ruler of Stormhold.

And as what fairy tales end: “And they all lived happily ever after.”

(ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

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If they ask where you’ve come from,

You could say, “Behind me.”

If they ask where you’re going,

You’d say, “In front of me.”

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♥ Neil Gaiman's official site ♥

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♥   (｡◕‿◕｡)   ♥