Queen Mab

## Story

Mab was the traditional Queen of fairies until Titania, of *Midsummer dream* 's fame, dethroned her.

In *The wandering of Oisin,* W.B. Yeats described her as the "the most beautiful woman ever, bearing a sword."

She resided in Ireland, reigned on Caunnaught (Connemara), and was the actual sovereign. Still, her husband Ailill possessed one thing she did not have, a magnificent bull. In Ireland, power was for the richest, so Mab needed an even better bull. She first tried to buy a bull "the great brown of Cooley" to her neighbor king Cochonbar.

When he refused, Mab declared war, but Cochonbar 's champion was the invincible hero Cuchulain, and Mab's armies did not defeat him. She first tried by offering her daughter Findabair as well as her own body, to incite Ferdiad, another invincible hero, to kill Cuchulain. But the latter killed Ferdiad despite that they were childhood friends. Finally, Mab used the black magic of three witches to kill the hero, and obtained the bull.

Shakespeare describe a quite different fairy in *Romeo and Juliet*:

*O, then, I see Queen Mab has paid you a visit.*

*She is the fairy responsible for dreaming, assuming a shape*

*No bigger than an image engraved on a stone in the ring*

*On the index finger of a politician,*

*Drawn (in her chariot) by a team of creatures as tiny as atoms*

*Across the noses of men as they lie asleep;*

*Her wagon-spokes are made of long spiders' legs,*

*The cover is made of grasshoppers' wings,*

*The harness is made of the smallest spider's web,*

*The collars (around their necks) are made of thin moonbeams*

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Her whip is made of a cricket's bone, the lash is made of film,

Her charioteer is a small grey mosquito

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Not even as big as a parasite

*Pulled off the lazy finger of a maid;*

*Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut*
Made by the carpenter squirrel or old worm,

(Who have been) the fairies' coach-makers since time began.

And with this splendour she gallops night after night

*Through the brains of lovers, and then they dream of love;*

*Over the knees of courtiers, that dream on bowing to gain favour at Court,*

*Over the fingers of lawyers, who immediately dream of fees,*

*Over the lips of ladies, who immediately dream of kisses,*

Who the angry Mab often plagues with blisters,

*Because they have eaten candied fruit to sweeten their breath:*

*Sometimes she gallops over the nose of a courtier,*

And then he dreams of some promotion within the Court;

*And sometimes she comes with the tail of a pig intended to pay the Church*

*,*
Tickling a minister's nose as he lies asleep

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And then he dreams of another way to increase his income:

Sometimes she drives over the neck of a soldier,

And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats,

*Of breaches, ambushes, the finest swords (thought to be Spanish)*

*,*
Of toasting friends with overflowing cups; and then right away

He hears drums in his ear (for battle), which startles and wakes him,

And, being frightened, he says a hollow prayer or two

And sleeps again. This is that very Mab

*That tangles the manes of horses in the night,*

*And plasters on bloody knots in the hair of sluttish women,*

*The untangling of which brings much misfortune (either the ire of Mab or possibly infection):*

This is the hag, who, when virgins lie on their backs,

*Pushes on them and teaches them to stand the act (of intercourse),*

*Making them able to bear the load (of their husbands' weight)."*

Crazy people were told to have their mind kidnapped by this version of Mab. Still according to Shakespeare, Mab was actually fairies's midwife. As such, she is a small, pleasant creature, having butterfly 's wings, flowers on her head, and wearing pink; while giving sweet dreams to humans.

However, some authors still use her as Titania's foil; while the first is queen of Seelies (good fairies) , Mab is the queen of Unseelies (villains fairies).

## Trivia

-Mab's kingdom is the province of Connaught.

-The small, dream inducing Mab is good, but she is often quite villainous, whether she declared a war out of pride and ended the life of Cuchulain, or as the queen of Unseelies, with usually a witchy look. She is notably one of the main villains of the comics *Wika* and the TV movie *Merlin*, (incarnated by Miranda Richardson) where she is fighting Christianity to bring back old gods influence. She fails, and while immortal, she finally vanishes when humanity forget that fairies exist.

-The "dark" Mab remind of Hecate, the goddess of black magic, which was a personality of goddess Artemis.

## Gallery

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The dream inducing MabMab visiting a sleeping personMab by Brian Froud, resembling HecateMiranda Richardson as Mab in *Merlin.*Mab in *Wika*