Princess Miriamele Presbyter, also known as Miri, is a fictional character in the world of Osten Ard in the books Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn is Tad Williams's epic fantasy trilogy, comprising The Dragonbone Chair , Stone of Farewell , and To Green Angel Tower...

 by author Tad Williams

Tad Williams

Robert Paul "Tad" Williams, born in San Jose, California, is the author of several fantasy and science fiction novels, including Tailchaser's Song, the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, the Otherland series, and The War of the Flowers....

. She is the only child of Prince (later King) Elias. In looks she is attractive in a boyish way. With her golden hair and green eyes, she resembles her grandfather King John Presbyter, rather than either of her dark-haired parents.

The Hayholt

We first encounter Miriamele through Simon's eyes. As a kitchen boy and apprentice to Doctor Morgenes, he only hears the gossip about the nobles. She arrived at Hayholt with her father when King John summoned his sons to attend his deathbed. Rumours that Simon hears include her being beautiful and also the Princess being sad and wanting to return to Meremund, her childhood home. Simon also saw her once from afar, standing on a tower with the sun flashing in her golden hair.

He does encounter a slender youth with short black hair who spies on the two Princes. The next time when the youth seemed to spy on him, Simon caught him and he offered the name Malachias to Simon. While travelling through Aldheorte when Simon and Binabik save Malachias and a small girl from the Stormspike hounds, we again see the princess in disguise, this time as the serving girl Marya. It is only at Naglimund that we see the real Princess Miriamele for the first time, her disguise now stripped away.

Naglimund

At Naglimund we still see Miriamele only through Simon's eyes. She talks to Simon about her frustrations since her uncle Josua won't let her travel to Nabban to gain the aid of her mother's kin. But Miri is uninformed and doesn't realise that Josua had already obtained her uncle, the Duke of Nabban's aid and support. She is very excited for Simon's part when he announces that is going north after the sword and gives him a blue scarf as reminder of her. There is definitely something blossoming between the two youths but they travel on different paths for a long time.

But after Simon, Binabik and their companions set out towards the north to retrieve Thorn, Miriamele left Naglimund in secret with only the drunken monk Cadrach for company. Vorzheva, the prince's concubine, is the one who helps her escape by providing coin, provisions and horses. Josua is furious with Vorzheva and sends Duke Isgrimmnur after Miriamele, since he is the only one she would listen to and return with.

Road to Nabban

From the second book onwards, we see Miriamele's point of view. She and Cadrach travel ever southward and she realises more and more that Cadrach is a drunkard and cheat and will sell her to the highest bidder. She is sought far and wide and will be a prize for any who catches her. They come upon the slaughtered Hernystiri where King Lluth and his son Gwythinn had fallen, together with most of their soldiers. There a dying nobleman names Cadrach "Padreic" and although the monk tries to shrug it away, Miriamele is suspicious. On the island of Perdruin, she is abducted by the Count Streáwe, the absolute and nearly benevolent ruler of Perdruinn. He tells her that someone already knows where she is and that since he owes this person a favour, he will hand Miriamele over to him. Miri is furious and also realises that it was Cadrach who had betrayed her. For a couple of weeks she relinquishes in the Count's estate to await word from her mysterious "buyer". It is while in Perdruin that she learns of the fall of Naglimund and a kind of hopelessness settles on her.

She and Cadrach are rowed across the Bay and without preamble she pushes Cadrach in the freezing water. She helps him get into the boat again also but vows that she will never trust him again until the stars shine at noon. Her captor is however an old friend, Father Dinivan, the aide of the lector of the Holy Mother Church, Lector Ranessin. He is also a member of the League of the Scroll and a very learned man, trained in the Art. He wants Miriamele to tell her story of what she had seen to the Lector, so that the Church may decide what to do. [The Church in Osten Ard is very like to the Roman Catholic Church.] He is shocked however to see Cadrach, whom also he name Padreic. Later when Cadrach is sleeping, Dinivan tells Miriamele that Cadrach had once been called Padreic and that he was a prolific scholar who had been a member of the League as well. He suddenly fell away from them however, descending into drunkenness.

Sancellan Aedonitis

Father Dinivan leads Miriamele and Cadrach to the city of Nabban where the Sancellan Aedonitis is, the headquarters of the Aedonite church. There the lector Ranessin resides, a good and wise man in his seventies. Dinivan assure Miri that her story will be heard and judged in fairness by the Lector. The day after their arrival, Miriamele is summoned to the Lector and there she tells him of all she has seen and heard since before leaving Hayholt. She tells of her father's descent into madness, the hounds of Stormspike that had chased them, the Raed at Naglimund and the revelations of Jarnauga.

The next Day the King's Councelor Pryrates arrives and after he and the King are excommunicated during a private dinner, assassinates Father Dinivan and the Lector and blames it on a group of fanatics, the "Fire Dancers". During the following chaos Cadrach hides himself and Miriamele onboard a ship lying in the harbor.

Journey to Kwanitupul

The next Morning they discover that the ship set sail during the night and they're discovered by the ship's Niskie, Gan Itai and brought before the master of the ship, the Nabbanai nobleman Aspitis Preves. After Miriamele lies about being the daughter of a minor nobleman, Aspitis is very accommodating and shows great interest in her and begins to charm her. A few days later, after becoming more morose and trying to warn the princess against Preves, Cadrach tries to flee, is captured and is put in irons. Miriamele, feeling trapped and helpless and alone, allows Aspitis to seduce her. After a few days she realizes that Aspitis works for Pryrates and knew from the beginning who she really was. He plans to marry her so that after the current duke of Nabban falls out of favor with the king, he as her husband can grab the throne. After she hears this she falls into a depression and finally plans to kill Aspitis even if costs her own life, but Gan Itai discovers her and after listening about how Preves pays the "Fire Dancers", who persecute Niskies, and wants to force Miriamele into marriage Gan Itai decides to help her escape. The next night the Niskie creates a disturbance so that the princess and the recently freed Cadrach can flee in a small boat.
Afterwards they make their way to the coast, during the journey Cadrach reveals that he fell away from the League because he had found the manuscript of the "mad priest" Nisses which is said to contain the future, how after reading it he became a drunk and began to sell all his things and finally several pages of Nisses' book just to get the next drink. He hates himself because after he sold all pages, Pryrates himself, who he reveals was for a time also a member of the League but has been removed before him, captured him and forced him to reveal anything he could remember. Cadrach in a way feels responsible because he gave Pryrates the tools he needed for his nefarious schemes.
After an exhausting Journey they finally arrive in Kwanitupul, in an inn that Cadrach said belonged to a friendly ex-member of the League where Dinivan would have sent anyone who could help them before his death. There they meet Duke Isgrimnur and Tiamak, a friend of Father Dinivan, whom have both been waiting for them.