About Yvaine

Yvaine is the heroine of Neil Gaiman's novel Stardust. She is a fallen star who is found by young Tristran Thorn and they have an amazing adventure in the magical realm of Stormhold. She is pursued by the oldest of three evil witches who wish to rejuvenate themselves by eating her heart. The sons of the Lord of Stormhold also want her, because she possesses a topaz stone (a ruby in the film) which belonged to the previous Lord of Stormhold, and whichever of his heirs finds it first will become the next Lord.

Yvaine is not mentioned by name in the first part of the novel, with Gaiman instead referring to her as "the star", "the young lady" or, on one occasion, "the star woman." After Tristran rescues her from the witch-queen, she tells him that her sisters called her Yvaine. She is mostly referred to by this name from this point on, although Gaiman still refers to her as "the star" on several occasions.

Yvaine is knocked from her place in the sky by the enchanted pendant of the Lord of Stormhold. After she crashes into the ground, she is found by Tristan Thorn (Charlie Cox) (Tristran in the book) who has promised his beloved Victoria (Sienna Miller) that he would give her that fallen star in exchange for her hand in marriage. He had used his Babylon candle to pass the wall beside his village ('Wall') and accidentally crashes into Yvaine upon landing (As she puts it she was "hit by a magical flying moron"). Despite the star not being what he expected (a beautiful woman rather than a meteorite), Tristan decides to bring her back to Victoria.

However, Tristan is not the only one seeking the star. Yvaine is in terrible danger from the living sons of the King (Peter O'Toole), who are looking for her because only she can secure the throne for one of them. Before he died, the King ( having all his surviving son at his death bed) decides that instead of naming an hier he informs his sons that who ever retrieves his ruby pendent will be the new ruler of Sormhold. He takes the large ruby pendent from around his neck, the crimson fades from the stone and it darts out the window and into the sky, shooting up and up until it collides with Yvaine causing her to fall to earth.

As Tristan sets out to protect Yvaine and bring her back to Victoria, his journey brings incredible encounters with a pirate captain: Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro), and a shady trader (Ricky Gervais) among other surprises. As he nears the wall, Tristan realises that he has fallen in love with Yvaine who falls in love with him in return. When she suspects that he still loves Victoria, she is heartbroken and tries to enter England (which would cause her to turn into a rock and thus kill her). She is stopped by a servant girl named Una, but both are then captured by Lamia and brought to The Lilim's castle.

Tristan, meanwhile, hurries to return to Yvaine (he had actually gone to tell Victoria that he loved another girl and no longer wanted to marry her). He and Septimus break into The Lilim's castle to save Yvaine from having her heart cut out but they are nearly killed by Lamia. Lamia's two vicious sisters, are killed in the battle, and Lamia seems to grow tired of her quest for youth. She releases Yvaine and tells her and Tristan to leave, as youth is now meaningless without her two sisters. However, this turns out to be a trap: Had Lamia killed Tristan, then Yvaine's heart would be broken and all its rejuvenating powers would be lost forever. Realizing that Tristan still loves her, Yvaine is able to use her starlight to kill Lamia, saving them both. When Tristan becomes the next king (he is the last male heir to the family, as Una was the king's only daughter), Yvaine marries him and becomes the queen. Since she "gave" her heart to Tristan when she fell in love with him, the two will live on together forever. After several generations pass the two use a Babylon candle to travel back to the sky and become twin stars.