The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection
The identity of the Mothers [CD spoilers]
taininfernus:
In Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Titania of Faerie is the only Fae queen that we ever see, however the tripartite goddess is present throughout the story, especially in the climax: The Kindly Ones.
In the first arc of Sandman, Morpheus calls upon Hecate, a triple-form goddess with Maiden, Mother, and Crone aspects. Later, in a flashback, Orpheus is in Hades to gain back his love. To do so, he sings a song that makes all of the denizens of Hades cry, including the Furies (Erinyes), the same tripartite goddess, a slight for which they never forgive him and may even have called the Bacchae upon him to tear him apart. Finally, as the main antagonist of the climax, they appear as The Kindly Ones (Eumenides), again a tripartite goddess, responsible for hounding those who spill family blood. In the first and last forms, they are clearly Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, as they are called by name. In The Kindly Ones, they are shown at the beginning of the story, Clotho helping to start a weaving, and Lachesis working on it. At the end, when their business is done, Atropos is seen cutting it short, a metaphor for the life, and story, that they have just ended.
These names, Hecate, Erinyes, Eumenides/Kindly Ones, are used to speak of them when operating for different functions. Perhaps these are the names that Mother Summer spoke of.
I would think that the Summer Lady is most likely Clotho, though. It seems to track.
Dust Bunny:
I also have to agree with the Gaia hypothesis. Having the Summer Lady as Clothos would unbalance Summer and Winter.
Gaia has two sides--light and dark, life and death. Or, as Ian Anderson sings (slightly adjusted as necessary for this case), "(S)he who made kittens put snakes in the grass."
Silkki:
Gaia also known as the genious loci of the whole earth! : )
Paladino:
We do have a WoJ that Mother summer once retired, and the current one is the replacement, so I'm not sure we need to find a third one, for the mother to be the fates..
tuttman1234:
--- Quote from: FirstSelector on November 28, 2012, 01:04:26 AM ---This may have been kicked around before, but I haven't been able to find a similar theory. My apologies if so.
We meet the Mothers for the second time in Cold Days, but in a rather unique way. Harry attempts to summon Mother Winter... and it works. His summoning reveals, I think, a very important gap in our knowledge.
Premise:
The Mothers, along with a heretofore unknown entity, are the Fates.
Background:
The Fates are three women that appear in various mythologies who control the destinies of mortals. I will use the Greek names for concreteness. There is Clotho, the spinner of the thread of life, Lachesis, who measured the length, and Atropos, who cut it with her shears.
Another rather prevalent mythos surrounding thee women goddesses is the idea of the Mother, the Maiden, and the Crone. One can map the three Fates onto the three goddesses easily.
In most of these mythos, the Fates are absurdly powerful, up to deciding on the fates of the Gods themselves.
Claim:
Mother Winter is the Atropos, the Crone; Mother Summer is Lachesis, the Mother; we have yet to identify the Maiden, Clotho.
Supporting evidence:
Perhaps the most obvious evidence is that Harry attempts to summon Mother Winter using the Greek and Norse names for Atropos.
While on the subject of names, it is implied twice that there is a name that references both Mother Summer and Winter together. I suggest that it would be the name of the Fates, which is Moirai in Greek.
Additional evidence is provided by looking at the personalities of Mother Summer and Mother Winter. Mother Winter is old (so old she can barely walk), does not suffer fools, and is generally not the nicest Fae around. She is perpetually shrouded in her cloak and has an absolutely evil cackle. She also has the requisite shears:
Mother Summer, on the other hand, is much more matronly and kind. She bustles around their cottage and tends the house. She actually tries to put Harry at ease and is generally pleasant.
Speculation:
If we accept that Mothers Winter and Summer have a corresponding Maiden, then we must speculate on who that would be. My best guess at the moment is that the role of the Maiden is played by the Summer Lady. It is not known what true purpose the Ladies' power fulfills, or at least it hasn't been revealed.
Given that Clotho is associated with life and giving birth, it seems more reasonable that the Summer Lady would serve in this role rather than the Winter Lady. It would also fit with the "youngness" of the Summer Lady, and it is not unreasonable to draw the connection between the Lady and Mother.
Conclusion:
I think that Mother Summer and Winter are two of the three Fates, which necessitates identifying the third Fate, the Maiden.
--- End quote ---
I like where you are going with this, but take it a step further. I get the idea that Mother Winter and Mother Summer live together because they are really two parts of the same being. I like the three goddesses approach, but what if, for the DV, the greeks just had a better understanding of the fae courts that Dresden does. I see the relationship between Winter and Summer looking something like this
Mothers Winter and Summer
/\
/ \
/ \
Mab Titania
/ \
/ \
/ \
WL (Molly) SL (Sarissa)
I think that they are just two parts of the same thing, like the opposite sides of a coin. And the lower down the chain you go, the less they resemble each other.
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