Queen Irene

Queen Irene — once the old princess — is the mystical thread binding MacDonald's two Curdie books, a gray-haired woman who keeps a room of burning roses, sends white-winged pigeons with messages, and knows of goings-on that no one else can see. She sends Curdie to Gwyntystorm without telling him what he must do, trusting his courage to discover the task, and her authority over even the beast Lina marks her as something far stranger than a mere royal ancestor. She matters because she is the story's hidden hand, the source of Curdie's gift and the moral gravity toward which the whole narrative bends.