Battle of Hastings was a Stone Table fight

[CallSmith]

So I've been caught up on the series for a few months, had some issues getting back on the site for weird reasons, but I'm back with a fun theory, and I want to know what you guys think. Spoilers up to the latest Anthology below.

So it's mentioned (I believe in Summer Knight, but it could have been Cold Days or Small Favor) that Titania and Mab haven't talked since the Battle of Hastings (1066) and then Cold Days establishes that Mab and Titania aren't the first to hold their mantle (the same holding true for Maeve and Aurora.) I've also seen a bunch of places that Mother Summer isn't the first Mother Summer but Mother Winter is. (I must have missed this in my reading but ok).

WOJ says that the clues for the Blackstaff/Mother Winter's walking stick are from Celtic lore c. 1065. The two interesting things that happened in Great Britain around that time are that the High King of Ireland was deposed and supposedly died in Rome and the Norwegian and Norman Invasions. Since Stamford Bridge hasn't been mentioned yet it would suggest that the Norman one was more important.

My theory is: Whoever stole the Blackstaff did it around 1065, and this imbalance in power caused a Stone Table battle that took place on the 14th of October. During the period of time around the Blackstaff being stolen, and possibly during the battle itself the OG (presumably) Summer and Winter Queens died and were replaced by Mab and Titania (Who were presumably the Lady's). This also when the OG Mother Summer died and was replaced by the current one (if someone could find me the source for the current Mother Summer not being the original that would be great.) presumably as a sacrifice on the Table to balance out Mother Winter being weak.

This also creates an interesting idea for who Lea actually is (since her name is more of a title for Fairy God Mother) that she was originally the spare Mother Winter and that the current Mother Summer could be her sister.

What do you guys think?

[Snark Knight]

The backstory about Mother Winter being the original and Mother Summer being the second to fill the role wasn't from the books, it was a WOJ in response to someone asking about succession among the Mothers and Queens. His answer was that the first Mother Summer wasn't killed at all, she just got tired of the role and retired, passing on her mantle.

Some people have speculated that MW being the original might mean that the Winter mother mantle is the shard of the original unitary mantle that Hecate chose to keep for herself. I like the theory, but it's unsupported so far.

And as for Lea, the WOJ is that she built her personal power from the ground up, mostly by bargaining with humans to her advantage over the centuries. Judging from Sarissa there's no particular reason an unmantled sister would start with great personal power, but there's no solid reason yet to guess at Lea having a particularly more significant bloodline than any other Sidhe.

The Stone Table may very well have been in play around the events of Hastings, though.

[CallSmith]

Was the use of the word 'shard' an intentional Brandon Sanderson reference? And so basically there's no reason I'm right but also no reason I'm wrong?

[Snark Knight]

Call it semi-intentional. Sanderson has explained more of the details of cosmic-level mantles being subdivided in his work, but what we know of the Dresdenverse Fae being divided from a common origin seems similar enough to use the same vocabulary.

And, yeah, I'd rate the Lea theory unsupported but also not contradicted by anything. The Mother Summer one falls victim to inconvenient WOJ though.

[deadvoid]

There's no reason or evidence that both mothers ever do any battle, btw, that's what the other queens are for.

[Talby16]

The mothers exist on a power level that is much greater than the queens. I believe there is a WOJ somewhere about them being much more elemental in nature. That kind of power would leave a mark on the world which means they don't usually get up to shenanigans and stay more in the Nevermere.

[Ulfgeir]

Technically we don't know that it is the battle of Hastings that were the last time since Mab and Titania spoke to each other. Very likely, yes. But if I recall correctly, what was said was "We haven't spoken with each other since Hastings".  So theoretically it could be that they haven't spoken since they were in Hastings or something involving someone named Hasting (Or more likely some with the title Hastings. Like Lord Essex in Elisabethean times)

Now, Jim has said though that a lot of things were happening at that time.

/Ulfgeir