|
Balenciaga Wren is an ymbryne. Of the twelve ymbrynes captured by the wights in the first trilogy, she would be the last captured.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Balenciaga was born in an unknown year, and became the ymbryne of a menagerie dated July 17, 1755,[1] in which she collected many peculiar animals to protect, including Addison MacHenry. Miss Wren had to be extremely strong since a good number of the animals she would rescue would end up in a small cemetery she had on her property. She also somehow managed to get custody of Grunt. It's not given why he lives in the loop, since he isn't an animal, though it may be because he is more animal-like than human. Miss Wren's loop was inspiration for The Tale of Cuthbert, a Tales of the Peculiar story.
In the 1950s, Miss Wren ran a sting against the organizers of the Pamplona, Spain, The Running of the Bulls, 1928 loop, which was maintained by the same people who operated Devil's Acre's blood-sport arena. After the organizers were rounded up, Miss Wren had them humiliated by forcing them to sprint down a long alley lined with animals braying and slapping at them.[2]
Ten years before the events of Hollow City, an injured Olivia was brought to Miss Wren in the hope that she could restore Olivia to human form, but the girl was beyond help at the time of her arrival.[3]
Miss Wren personally freed over a hundred peculiar animals from sideshows and circuses, including the mathematician monkey Mook-Mook.[4]
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children[]
Miss Wren would be visited by several peculiar pigeons, who told her that her ymbryne sisters were being held in a punishment loop in London by the wights. She quickly packed up and left for London. Esmerelda Avocet, who might only have heard that Miss Wren was missing from her menagerie, would come to think that Miss Wren had been kidnapped by the wights.
Hollow City[]
Miss Wren flew into a punishment loop, but soon realized that it was a ruse and a trap set by the wights and barely escaped. She then turned her efforts to rescuing survivors of raided loops, setting up a base of operations in the Peculiar Archives building, which had been frozen by Althea Grimmewald.
While she is in London helping others, she is unaware of how tricky things have become in her loop. Caul had sent a hollow into the loop in order to track her down, but since she and her animals live on a steep cliff it is unable to get to the animals. Caul, who had been hiding as his sister, direct Jacob Portman and his friends to Miss Wren's loop in order for them to help capture her, but she isn't there.
Addison, her right hand man, shows a picture of Miss Wren to the children, and tells the real story of how the loop existed. He told them about the cemetery and what would happen to Miss Peregrine if she did not get treated within the next few days. It kicks the group into high gear and sends them on a trip to find her. Almost as soon as the children leave, the menagerie is raided and Miss Wren doesn't find out till much later.
Miss Wren is delighted when the kids arrive uninjured at her hiding location, though she is surprised when the kids mention the fact that they had found her loop. She is even more surprised when "Miss Peregrine" showed herself. She immediately calls Althea to prepare her equipment, and races as fast as she could upstairs to try to change Miss Peregrine back.
Miss Wren works on Miss Peregrine for hours and is shocked when she learns that Caul is the one she had been helping. She confronts Caul, but he kills Althea which causes the building to unfreeze, thus, letting the wights and hollowgasts come in. Miss Wren, thinking of the peculiar children's lives, tells them to go along peacefully. They are captured and taken to the present time at the train station. Before the train roars away, Jacob sees Miss Wren being shoved into the train car.
Library of Souls[]
She is taken to the punishment loop Devil's Acre with everyone else, and is put into a secured room with eleven other ymbryne's. She is forced to remain there until, she is rescued by Jacob and Emma when they entered the Wights' Fortress. She later plays a part in the collapse of Abaton.
The Conference of the Birds[]
Miss Wren appears in the bar with the American clan leaders, speaking or arguing with Antoine LaMothe before Miss Peregrine joins her. She takes part in the next conversation between everyone concerning Ellery and Jacob's capability. She tries to calm down LaMothe and Parkins while Jacob is looking for evidence, saying that he has almost got something. When LaMothe asks why the wights would kidnap Ellery, Miss Wren answers that it would be to cause chaos. She also pleads for LaMothe to be reasonable after the group finds that a hollow was involved in the kidnapping and LaMothe refuses to let the conflict between him and Parkins end.
Along with Miss Cuckoo and Miss Peregrine, she runs to try and save Ellery with LaMothe. While the group starts preparations to take Ellery to a loop, she keeps the police at bay, either with a story or some memory wipes. At the loop the group goes to, she helps up the guard peculiar who threw himself down upon realizing LaMothe's identity, then asks for a bed for Ellery.
She and Miss Cuckoo meet with the Americans after the peculiars discover that the wights are after the alphaskull in the Well of Hope. The two, along with Miss Blackbird and Miss Peregrine, return from the Marrowbone loop in time to catch Jacob and his friends sneaking out. Back at the group's house, she breaks the news about the location of the Well of Hope, and is part of the group that goes to Hopewell to try to stop the wights.
Description[]
Physical Appearance[]
The snapshot that is found by Emma shows Miss Wren wearing a black sequined shawl and her hair in an upsweep. By the time the group of peculiars finally meets her, her hair is completely silver, with no trace of a black highlight. Jacob describes her as a small, elegant woman. She has a long nose and wears a pair of cat-eye bifocals when reading.
Peculiarity[]
She is an ymbryne. She can manipulate time, shapeshift into a wren, and is able to wipe others' memories.
Trivia[]
- Unlike in the books, Balenciaga is never mentioned by Miss Avocet in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
- At some point, she wrote Bombproof Your Chicken Coop: The Husbanding of Explosive Poultry, which is listed as a modern work of questionable merit in Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders.[1]
- She may be related to Christopher Wren.[5]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Important Books by Peculiar Writers)
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Time Loops)
- ↑ Hollow City (Chapter 4)
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Peculiar Animals and Plants)
- ↑ Hollow City (Chapter 8)