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Myron Bentham is a male peculiar with an unknown peculiarity. He is the brother of Caul and Alma Peregrine. He was good friends with Abraham Portman and is the owner of P.T., his grimbear. He is also an amazing inventor and invented the Panloopticon.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Myron is the brother of Alma and Jack "Caul." Their birth order is not consistent across sources: in the first book, Jacob, while looking at a photo the siblings were in as children, says that the brothers look younger than Alma, which she does not correct.[1] However, Jack, who abused her out of jealousy while she was a baby,[2] would have to be older than her to have done this, and Myron, who speaks of it like he remembers it, is also likely older than her. During Caul and Myron's battle in the Library of Souls, Myron is described as Miss Peregrine's "younger, weaker brother," making him the middle child if this is taken to mean he is only younger in comparison to Caul.[3] When asked by a fan, Ransom Riggs stated that Myron is the older brother of Caul, and Caul the older brother of Alma.
At some point, Myron, Jack and Alma were found by an unnamed ymbryne, and Alma was discovered to be one herself. Rather than separate them, all three were sent to Esmerelda Avocet's Ymbryne Academy. By the time Alma was three years old, the siblings were already living there. Myron was fully aware that Caul was extremely jealous of the attention Alma received, but he didn't do much to stop Caul's mistreatment of their sister.
Myron, left; Jack, right
As teens, Myron and Jack had a dream of being explorers. They wanted to visit loops discovered by Perplexus Anomalous, discover new ones, and unite peculiardom. The brothers eventually left the academy and started up the Claywings, a group of peculiars upset with and envious of the ymbrynes. Myron and Jack also started searching for loops in order to add them to the forming Panloopticon.
However, things quickly turned sour between the two brothers as Myron's goals and ambitions were to unite all peculiar folk in peculiardom, but Caul's goals and ambitions were to become a god-king and rule over all peculiars, animals and humans alike, using the power in the Library of Souls. The Claywings, too, believed in Caul's cause.
When Myron realized how dark his brother had become, he tried to stop Caul only for Caul to turn against him and spread vicious rumors about him; that he was a traitor and that he no longer believed in the group's cause.
As a result of Caul feeling threatened by his brother and being sadistic, he had Myron beaten and his legs broken, which never fully healed, and then thrown into a pit left to die. Myron, being a very smart man, tricked the Claywings into performing the Experiment of 1908, only for it to be an emergency way to collapse loops permanently. He thought it would simply kill them all. But when the Claywings tried the ritual, it failed and caused the creation of hollowgasts and wights.[2]
At some point, Myron met Abraham Portman and conned the man out of his second soul, which he kept for many years. Because of "collaboration with the enemy" and "betrayal after betrayal," the final being with Abraham, Myron was banished by the ymbrynes, which is why he remained living in Devil's Acre.[4]
Library of Souls[]
Sharon and his cousins save Jacob and Emma from being beaten to death by ambrosia addicts of Devil's Acre by bringing them to Myron's home. His assistants help nurse the two back to health. When Jacob and Emma go exploring his home, they discover a vast collection of peculiar wax models (who they later discover were not made of wax but rather real people held still by Mother Dust) and old loop entrances. They finally meet Myron who tells them the whole story of Caul and the Claywings, and his relationship to both Caul and Miss Peregrine. He equips them to rescue all the ymbrynes, most set on the retrieval of his sister.
After everyone is released, Myron greets them at the gates with his grimbear, PT. He and Miss Peregrine very quickly begin to bicker after she brings up all his past crimes, including experimenting on Abe's soul, which she believes he is still harboring. Realizing she will not accept him, Myron storms off, only to appear minutes later on Caul's side. He captures Miss Peregrine again with the help of PT, claiming that he hoped all his efforts would result in her forgiveness and she would help him be released from Devil's Acre for his past involvement in Caul's plan. Once he saw this was no longer the case, he changed to aiding Caul. Millard appears and threatens Myron's life; in turn, Caul threatens Miss Peregrine's life if Millard hurt Myron. He also threatens to kill Myron if he complies with Millard. This results in Myron's release.
The group makes their way to Abaton where only the Bentham siblings, Jacob, and Emma enter. Caul only seems interested in making himself more powerful with the souls of former titans. He claims that Myron is too weak-willed to handle it. Caul takes the soul and begins to destroy Abaton. Myron uses Abraham's soul to enable himself to see the soul jars, then turns himself into a peculiar-god to battle Caul. He also gives Miss Peregrine the instructions for collapsing the loop, the same that was used by the Claywings in the 1908 incident. Because they are more experiences ymbrynes, they are able to close the loop without causing the destruction from the past, leaving Caul and Myron trapped inside.
A Map of Days[]
He was mentioned and presumed dead (or in Sharon's words, "permanently indisposed"), or else "extra-dimensionally inaccessible."
The Desolations of Devil's Acre[]
When Caul was resurrected, Myron appeared to be parasitically attached to him. After Nim tells Jacob Myron wants to speak to him, Myron tells Jacob how he can help defeat Caul. He tells Jacob about Jacob's ancestry of hollowgast-like peculiars, and that Jacob must consume a soul jar from the Library of Souls to become a hollowgast that could protect Noor Pradesh. Myron gives instructions on how to get to the Library and when asked how Noor is supposed to defeat Caul, Myron says that Caul's light must be drained.
Myron's voice guides Jacob as he runs through the Library. When Noor appears, Myron calls for her to drain Caul's light. He is not heard from again and may have died with Caul.
Description[]
Physical[]
Myron Bentham is an older man who relies on his pet grimbear, P.T. for companionship and transport as he tires easily due to having his legs broken by Caul prior to the books for betraying him. He wears a top hat, gloves, a high-white collar rising from the top of his dark jacket, and carries a cane.
Personality[]
Myron is an intelligent man with a complex moral character. Often seen smiling, he is charming but very selfish and cunning, often putting himself before others. He is an opportunist and will betray people to gain what he wants. He is not above threatening lives, as threatening Reynaldo was how he got Mother Dust to help him with holding live peculiars still with dust in his museum. He also kidnapped said peculiars in what may have been an attempt to power up the Panloopticon with them, and did not release them after this did not work. Miss Peregrine thinks that "part of him did want to do the right thing, and when he helped [Jacob] and [Emma], he did so genuinely." However, he made preparations for betrayal at the same time in case it were to become advantageous.
Peculiarity[]
Although Myron's original peculiarity is unknown, he gains at least one part of the librarians' powers after consuming Abraham Portman's soul through ambrosia, having the ability to see the Library of Souls's soul jars. Almost immediately after, the soul from the library he takes transforms him into a huge, insect-like creature.
Relationships[]
Caul (Jack) Bentham[]
Jack is Myron's brother. Growing up, Jack and Myron were "chums, thick as thieves," as they were close in age and mentality, as well as being the only males living at the Ymbryne Academy. However, there was a darkness in Jack that Myron refused to see, and he kept telling himself that Jack wasn't as dangerous as he seemed.
They shared a dream of uniting peculiardom and founded the Claywings together, but Myron soon found that their goals diverged as he wanted to connect peculiardom so they didn't need to be guarded by ymbrynes all the time, but his brother intended to rule peculiardom as an immortal being. Disturbed, Myron tried to stop his brother, who had him beaten and imprisoned with the entire organization turning on him. This made him realize how little he meant to Caul.
After Caul evolved from a hollowgast into a wight, he found his brother again and tortured him, breaking Myron's legs, which never healed properly. Myron then became Caul's prisoner and slave for many years, which he despised Caul for. However, when it appears more beneficial to him, Myron rejoins Caul's cause and betrays the children by kidnapping Miss Peregrine. Caul, however, turns on Myron again, telling him he is too weak to handle a powerful soul and begins to take over Abaton without him. Myron switches sides once more and fights Caul, with both ending up trapped in the collapsed Abaton and presumed dead. After Caul's resurrection, Myron helps Jacob and Noor end Caul once and for all.
Alma Lefay Peregrine[]
Little is known about the early relationship between the siblings. When Myron took part of Abe's soul, Miss Peregrine saw it as the last straw in their relationship. Myron expresses concern about her when she is captured by Caul and aids in her rescue. He hopes to appeal to her and become freed from Devil's Acre. They argue almost immediately after seeing each other. Miss Peregrine tells him she believes that he only looks out for himself and that she doesn't trust him. Ironically, this causes him to turn on her and re-kidnap her out of anger. In the end, he sacrifices himself to save her and her wards, as well as the peculiar world. Overall, it is implied that he cares about her but ultimately looks out for himself until his final selfless act. They have always had a strained relationship. Despite still looking down on him after his supposed first death, Miss Peregrine wonders if she could've been a better sister to him and Caul instead of being so occupied in her studies.
Sharon[]
Myron helped Sharon with his ambrosia addiction. In return, Sharon is grateful to Myron and feels that his life is owed to him until his betrayal. Myron is friendly to Sharon in return.
Mother Dust[]
Mother Dust is Myron's healer. Like Sharon, she too was an ambrosia addict and Myron weaned her out of it as he did for Sharon. However, their relationship was not completely harmonious, as he coerced her into using her dust to hold peculiars in suspended animation for his museum.
Trivia[]
- Myron took the surname of his ancestor, Jeremy Bentham, as a tribute, and named his Panloopticon after the Panopticon.[5]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Chapter 6)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Library of Souls (Chapter 4)
- ↑ Library of Souls (Chapter 9)
- ↑ Library of Souls (Chapter 8)
- ↑ Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders (Eminent Figures from History You Might Not Have Realized Were Peculiar)