Sadler's Lectures

Ursula K Leguin, Tehanu - Dragons And Human Beings - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's novel, Tehanu, the fourth of six Earthsea books

It focuses specifically on the new information about the interconnections between dragons and human beings in Earthsea, revealed by a story in a story in a story. Tenar tells Theru about the experience Ogion had with the woman of Kemay, who turns out to be a dragon, and the story of the origins of human beings and dragons she tells him.

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Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 14 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) Welcome to the Sadler Lectures Podcast. Responding to popular demand, I'm converting my philosophy videos into sound files you can listen to anywhere you can take an MP3. If you like what you hear and want to support my work, go to patreon.com/sadler. I hope you enjoy this lecture. In Tohannu, her fourth Earthsea novel, Ursula K. Le Guine is going to provide us with some new and very important information about the relationship between dragons and human beings, which other than in the previous novel, the farthest shore towards the end of the novel has been rather antagonistic across the bored dragons. Are these massive creatures who, you know, you can't look into their eyes, they speak the true language, they're incredibly dangerous to deal with. There are very few dragon lords because there are not just very few people the dragons will speak with, but very few who survive the encounters. In this, we find out that there was actually a deeper connection between human beings and dragons. And in both cases, it is relying on a story that is a story within a story within a story. So, Ogion the Mage is the person who is relating the story originally, a story that he learns from somebody else who happens to be a dragon. And then he tells Tenar, and then Tenar is going to tell this early on in the novel to Theru, her adopted child, and then later on to Ged, her by that time, lover, really husband and adoptive father of Theru as well. And let's pick up with the second one. In both cases, the story comes up in a kind of offhand way. Ged and Tenar are talking about how Theru ought to be educated, and Tenar tells him, well, you know, I only told her one word of the old or the true language. And Ged says, well, why did you do that? And she says, well, I thought it was because I'd never truly spoken that language, never used it in majory. I thought perhaps she should learn it from a true speaker of it. And Ged said, well, no human being is actually a true speaker of that. The dragon speak it as their native tongue. And then she asked, do they learn it? And Ged says, I don't know. What do we know about them? What would they teach as we do, mother to child, elder to younger? Or are they like the animals teaching some things but born knowing most of what they know? Even that we don't know. But my guess would be the dragon and the speech of the dragon are one, one being. And then Tenar says, they don't speak any other language. And he says, yeah, they don't learn. They simply are and they start to talk about Thiro singing and whether she sings at all and what the song she's singing in. And Tenar says, that story, did Ogia never tell you about the woman of Kamei? And Ged says, no, tell me. And she told him the tale as she spun in the purr and hush of the wheel went along with the words of the story. And so that is one telling of it later on. Ged is now fully informed. What was the earlier telling? She starts out by saying, one of the things wizards can do, this is talking to Thiro, is to turn into something else, take another form. And then she says, the story I'm gonna tell you is about something like shape-changing but Ogia said it was beyond all shape-changing because it was about being two beings, two beings at once and in the same form. And he said, this is beyond the power of wizards but he met with it in a little village around the northwest coast of Gaunt, a place called Kamei. There's an old woman there and a fish or woman, not a witch, not learned it but she made songs. And that's how Ogia came to hear of her. She apparently has come up with this song that he hears farther west than west beyond the land. My people are dancing on the other wind. And Ogia says, where did this song come from? And they said, well, the woman of Kamei, you know, it's her song, go check her out. And here's where it gets really interesting. So Ogia goes to Kamei and he finds her little place, her house down by the harbor. He knocks on the door with his major staff. She comes and opens the door. And then here's where Tenar is teaching therapy. She says, now, you know, we remember when we talked about names, how children have child names and everyone has a use name and maybe a nickname too. Different people may call you differently. You're my hero but you'll have a heartache use name when you get older. Also, when you come into your womanhood, you will, if all be rightly done, be given your true name. It will be given you by one of true power, to wizard or a mage because that's their power, their art naming. And that's the name you'll never tell another person because yourself is in your true name. It's your strength, your power, but to another it is risk and burden, only to be given an utmost need and trust. But a great mage, knowing all names, may know it without you telling him. So Ogion, who is a great mage, stood at the door of the little house there by the sea wall and the old woman opened the door. Then Ogion stepped back. Held up his oak staff, put out his hand too like this as if trying to protect himself from the heat of the fire. And in his amazement and fear, he said her true name allowed, Dragon. Now notice this is quite interesting. Dragon is a class name, but in the case of this woman, it is also her true name. So she's a dragon called Dragon. So that's perhaps a funny twist. And in that first moment, he told me, it was no woman he saw at all in the doorway, but a blaze and glory of fire, a glitter of gold scales and talons and the great eyes of a dragon. Then that was gone and he saw no dragon, but an old woman standing there in the doorway, a bit stooped, a tall old fisherman with big hands. She looked at him as he did at her and she said, "Come in Lord Ogion." So he went in. She served some fish soup and they ate and they talked by her fire. And he's wondering, well, what is she? Is she a shape changer? But is she a woman who can change herself into a dragon or a dragon who could change herself into a woman? So he asks her at last the question, "Are you woman or are you dragon?" And she didn't say, but she said, "I'll sing you a story that I know." And here we get the vital bit of information, the new lore about dragons and human beings. That is gonna prove very important in this work and in the others as well. So this is the story. When Segoy raised the islands of the world from the sea in the beginning of time, the dragons were the first born of the land and the wind blowing over the land. So the song of the creation tells. But her song told also that in the beginning, dragon and human were one. They were all one people, one race, winged and speaking the true language. They were beautiful and strong and wise and free. So human beings and dragons go back to a common ancestor from the very beginning of Earthsea when Segoy raises the islands from the water itself and creates living beings, living rational beings. What happens? In time, nothing can be without becoming. So among the dragon people, some became more and more in love with flight and wildness and would have less and less to do with works of making or with study and learning or with houses and cities. They only wanted to fly farther and farther, hunting and eating their kill, ignorant and uncaring, seeking more freedom and more. Others of the dragon people came to care little for flight but gathered up treasure. Well, things made, things learned. They built houses, strong roots to keep their treasures in so they could pass all they gained to their children. Ever seeking more increase and more and they came to fear the wild ones who might come flying and destroy all their dear horde, burn it up in a blast of fire out of mere carelessness and ferocity. The wild ones feared nothing, they learned nothing. Because they were ignorant and fearless, they could not save themselves when the flightless ones trapped them as animals and killed them. But other wild ones would come flying and set the beautiful houses of fire and destroy and kill. Those who were strongest or wild or wise were those who killed each other first. So we have conflict now between the peoples, the dragons and the human beings and those who are the strongest are opposing each other, fighting each other and ultimately dying. She goes on and says, "Those who were most afraid, "they hid from the fighting when there was no more hiding, "they ran from it, they used their skills of making "and made boats and sailed east away from the Western Isles "where the great winged ones made war "among the ruined towers like at Salador, for example." So those who had been both dragon and human changed becoming two peoples, the dragons. Always fewer and wild or scattered by their endless, mindless greed and anger in the far islands of the Western Reach and the human folks, always more numerous in their rich towns and cities filling up the inner isles and all the south and east. And then there's a little wrinkle to it. Among them, there were some who saved the learning of the dragons, the true language of the making. These are now the wizards. So some humans can speak this original language, at least parts of it, and that is what allows them, their craft, their wizardry, in the case of the mages, their majorry as well. So now we've got two very different groups, don't we? There's a fourth wrinkle to this. Also, the song said, "There are among us those "who know they once were dragons, "and among the dragons there are some "who know their kinship with us." And these say that when the one people were becoming two, some of them, still both human and dragon, still winged, went not east, but west. On over the open seat, until they came to the other side of the world, there they live in peace, great winged beings, both wild and wise with human mind and dragon heart. And so she's saying, farther west than west, beyond the land by people are dancing on the other wing. And then Ojian says, "When I first saw you, "I saw your true being, this woman who sits across "from the hearth for me is no more than the dress she wears." She shook her head and laughed and all she would say is, "If only it were that simple." And Ojian himself speculates about this. Ever since that day, I've wondered if anyone man or dragon has been farther west than west than who we are and where our wholeness lies. Ojian, instead of taking this as well, this is a cool origin story, he's thinking about, "How can we reunite, be reintegrated together?" There are these people further west, great winged beings with both wild and wise with human mind, dragon heart. And then there are this connection between the dragons who still exist, some of whom still remember the origins, the human beings, some of whom are still interested in connecting with the dragons, many of whom are opposed to each other. And there's also this question, well, what about human beings that seem like they could be dragons? And we do also find out that every once in a while, a very unusual thing happens, a human being is born among human beings who is actually a dragon, a reversion back to the original stock, you might say, in the case of this story. So we now know that dragons are not just some evil mythical beast that comes in and must be opposed and destroyed, but rather that dragons and human beings bear a lineage that goes back to the very creation and might in some respects be reintegrated within the world of Earthsea. - Special thanks to all of my Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. You can find me on Twitter @Philos470 on YouTube at the Gregory B. Sadler channel and on Facebook on the Gregory B. Sadler page. Once again, to support my work, go to patreon.com/sadler. Above all, keep studying these great philosophical works. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)