The Muse of the Poets is a relatively obscure character only ever mentioned in the Rayman 2 French strategy guide “Rayman 2: The Great Escape: Le Guide Officiel.” In this guide, it mentions the true origin of the Teensies and Polokus’s former love-interest [I will refer to Polokus/The Bubble Dreamer only as Polokus for the remainder of this essay to refrain from any confusion, because they are canonically one in the same character.]
“Despite their bizarre appearance and behaviour, the Teensies are old and wise. According to legend, they are the sons of Polokus and the muse of the poets. This woman of infinite beauty was so ashamed of her descendants that she left and hid in the forest, to Polokus's great regret…”
This is extremely interesting. Other than Rayman, all life in The Glade of Dreams has been created exclusively by Polokus. This is the only other instance in the franchise where life was created by someone other than himself. The identity of the Muse is not only fascinating, but may be essential to deciphering more of how The Glade of Dreams operates.
The main problem is that there is a serious lack of information on the subject. There isn’t much to go on, so we’ll have to really dissect these ideas in order to find out what they mean.
Firstly, The Muse is a love-interest of Polokus. There is only one other instance where Polokus has any sort of love-interest: Mama Hite. Mama Hite is a deleted character from Rayman Origins. She was a member of Globox’s unnamed species, she was featured on the Daily Bubble along with witchcraft potions, and was intended to be the “Big Mama” boss before being removed. There is a deleted line of dialogue from Polokus (Presumably speaking to the Grand Minimus) which implies a past romantic relationship between her and Polokus.
“You still King? Way to go! Your coronation party rocked! Mamma Hité was looking fine! Do you think she'll take me back?”
This is a good start, but it ultimately doesn’t matter. Mama Hite never appeared in the final game nor any other piece of Rayman media, and the line of dialogue never appeared either. But, she was reworked into a new character: Voodoo Mama. Voodoo Mama is a Nymph who resides in the Land of the Livid Dead. At the end of the game, it is revealed that Voodoo Mama transforms into Big Mama, which was originally intended to be Mama Hite. So if elements of Mama Hite’s character were worked into Voodoo Mama, perhaps so would the romance between her and Polokus?
This is where the other elements of the Muse paragraph come into play. The paragraph made it very clear that the Muse of the Poets is the biological mother of the Teensies. This tidbit of information narrows down the possibilities by a ton. According to Rayman 2’s “Knowledge of the World,” it is explained that the only beings that were dreamed up before the Teensies were the Fairies. Therefore, the Muse must be a Fairy. Or in this case, a Nymph.
That’s not where the connections end, though. The paragraph also states that the Muse ran away into the forest. Where can Voodoo Mama be found at the end of the game? The Land of the Livid Dead, underneath the Snoring Tree, in the same forest where Polokus resides.
This is what I believe to be the true identity of the Muse. If there is any at all, it couldn’t be anyone but Voodoo Mama. This is exciting, but what does this mean? What knowledge do we gain by figuring this out? Well, the answer is a lot more substantial than you may think.
“Voodoo Mama” and “Big Mama” aren’t the only two names for this character. Her third name is “The Mama of all Nightmares.” That name doesn’t make sense when you think about it. Polokus is the Dreamer of the world and the only one to create life. If the Voodoo Mama theory is correct, this changes the entire way The Glade of Dreams works. There are two possible theories that could be currently taking place.
Theory One takes the concept more literally. After all this time, Polokus and Voodoo Mama are still subconsciously connected in forming the universe. Everything Polokus dreams up is also interpreted by The Muse in some way. Perhaps even, Nightmares are caused by a disagreement between the two Dreamers, creating an imbalance in the product. This could mean that the Primordial Core doesn’t just prevent Polokus from forming Nightmares, but breaks the connection between him and The Muse, allowing his creations to be pure. Then when the Primordial Core is destroyed or stolen, it causes The Muse to have influence and create imbalanced beings. This could also mean that not being dreamed up by Polokus is what qualifies a creature as a Nightmare. But by that logic, wouldn’t that mean that Rayman… is a…?
We’ll talk about that another day.
Theory Two has more of a psychological effect on Polokus’s dreams. The Glade was always a peaceful place before the events of The Muse. Perhaps said event had a lasting effect on Polokus throughout the rest of his life. He never moved on, and this event plagues not only his mind, but his dreams. It is entirely possible that this single incident is the source of all of Polokus’s Nightmares. It imbeds itself in all the evil and ripples through his every thought. If the Muse never left Polokus, the Nightmares would have never been conceived and there wouldn’t have ever been a need for Rayman at all. Not only that, but this isn’t something that he can just forget. His own children, the Teensies, are a living reminder of Polokus’s greatest regret. The reason his dreams are so unstable. The reason he can never grow up and stays so childish. The Muse is the Mother of All Nightmares in the sense that she is the source of all of Polokus’s discomfort and terror. Between both of these possible theories there is one constant: The presumed first Nightmare, Jano, isn’t actually the first Nightmare.
It’s the Teensies themselves.
So what do you guys think? This is my first attempt at a Rayman Theory and I think it came out well. I have more ideas in the works but this is my first completed concept. Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to see people's responses that bring new ideas to the theory. Or even telling me where I went wrong or what mistakes I made. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this. I really appreciate it!
[EDIT: A detail I forgot to mention in this essay is that in The Land of the Livid Dead when you meet the Voodoo Mama, you can see her applying makeup and nail polish. She appears to be absolutely obsessed with beauty. This further helps the theory considering how The Muse was also obsessed with beauty seen as she left Polokus due to their children being too ugly.
Lastly, I'd like to mention that there are ellipses at the end of the quote used in the wiki about The Muse. This implies that there could be more information that could be useful to uncovering the mystery. But I don't have access to the guide, nor can I read French, so all I can do is speculate.]
So let's wait when the developers decide to make the Muse of the Poets appear officially in some future Rayman game.
