Sadler's Lectures

Ursula K Leguin, Tehanu - Tehanu And Segoy, Two Dragons - 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 culmination of the novel, in which Therru is revealed as actually a dragon, and calls Kalessin, the eldest of the dragons, who also turns out to be Segoy, the maker of Earthsea itself

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Duration:: 15m
Broadcast on:: 10 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. The culmination of Ursula K. Le Guine's fourth Earthsea novel, "To Hanoo," comes with the revelation of who this child, Theru, is and that she is in fact, the "To Hanoo" that is named in that very work. And the book begins with her and ends with her. It begins in complete passivity and ruin. She is nearly dead and it ends with a revelation of who and what she really is. So Theru, a name that is given to her by Tenar, who becomes her adoptive mother, a kargish name that means burning, is a horribly abused, traumatized and scarred child who nearly dies after being thrown into a fire after her abusers, her mother and father and two other men have raped her, malnourished her, beaten her nearly to death, thrown her into a fire to conceal their crimes. She's brought to Lark, who then gives her to Tenar and she's been terribly maimed, her entire right side of her face is ruined, burned down to the bone, the eye gone and the same with her right hand as well. It's essentially a claw. She is at the same time as she grows, they find a person with power and nobody's quite sure what to make of this. Ogion in dying is going to use his dying words to tell Tenar what she needs to do, to teach her to teach Theru. It's not clear what that teaching means and there's actually a lot of space devoted to Tenar's own thoughts and quest to find ways to teach Theru. But he also says they will fear her. And when Tenar is talking with Ivy, a witch about taking Tenar on as an apprentice, Ivy says, I won't do it. And Tenar says, well, why not? And Ivy says, I'd be afraid to. And Tenar says, well, what are you afraid of? A child, an ill-used child. And then Tenar thinks, maybe it's because of her loss of virginity, she says, must apprentice which be a virgin then? And Ivy says, that's not what I mean. I mean, I don't know what she is. When she looks at me with that one eye seeing and one blind, I don't know what she sees. I see you go about with her like she was any other child and I think, what are they? What's the strength of that woman for? She's not a fool to hold a fire by the hand, to spin thread with the whirlwind. They say mistress that you lived as a child yourself with the old ones, the dark ones, the ones underfoot and you were queen and servant of those powers. Maybe that's why you're not afraid of this one. What power she is, I don't know. I don't say but it's beyond my teaching. I know that or beaches or any other witch or wizard I ever knew. I give you my advice mistress free and fearless. It's this, beware, beware her the day she finds her strength. That's all. So this is a person of power saying, eh, I'm not gonna mess with that myself. I don't know how you do it, Tenar. The other thing that comes up early on is that we should probably bring up. There is this wonderful story that Tenar tells to Thero as they are climbing the way to Ray Albie to go see sick OGN. They don't realize at that point that he's dying. And she tells her, this is a story that OGN told me about a woman who was actually a dragon. The woman of Khmer, you know, reveals herself as something. She doesn't say exactly whether she's a woman putting on dragons form or a dragon putting on a woman's form or something different. And she tells the story of the origin of both human beings and dragons from the time that Sagoi brought up the islands from the sea. There's other foreshadowing that takes place in this story before we get to the final chapter. Thero's response to hearing the word Colesseine after Colesseine, the great dragon, the oldest of the dragons, has brought Ged to Tenar to be taken home, to be tended, hopefully to see OGN. Unfortunately, OGN is dead by then. And this is the three women, Moss, Heather and Tenar talking together and then Thero is there as well. And Tenar is trying to say what happened to her. She tried to say the word dragon and could not. Her lips and tongue would not form the word, but a word formed itself with them, making itself with their mouth and breath. Colesseine, she said. Thero was staring at her. A wave of warmth, heat, seemed to flow from the child as if she were in fever. She said nothing but moved her lips as if repeating the name and that fever heat burned about her. This is a foreshadowing of what's going on. Thero is responding on a very basic level, a bodily level to this name that somehow she knows. There's also some interesting speculation about how Thero sees the world. We saw Ivy talks about that. Tenar herself is going to bring that up as well. And this will be quite interesting. So she's brushing her hair, combing her hair. And she asks, Thero came to stand behind her watching. Tenar turned and saw her so intense, she was almost trembling. What is it, bird lip? The fire flying out, the child said, with fear or exaltation all over the sky. It's just the sparks for my hair. Tenar said a little taken aback. Thero was smiling and she did not know if she'd ever seen the child smile before. Thero reached out both her hands, the whole one in the burned, as if to touch and follow the flight of something around Tenar's loose floating hair. The fire is all flying out, she repeated and she laughed. At that moment, Tenar asked herself how Thero saw her, saw the world and knew she did not know that she could not know what one saw with an eye that had been burned away. And Ogion's words, they will fear her return to her, but she felt no fear of the child. Instead, she brushed her hair again vigorously so the sparks would fly. And once again, she heard the little husky laugh of delight. Thero is seeing the world in a different way, through a different eye, you could say. A little bit later, this is actually in chapter 12, there's an interesting discussion. The burned and deformed side of her face was made rigid by the destruction of muscles and the thickness of the scar surface. But as the scars got older and as Tenar learned by long usage not to look away from it as deformity, but to see it as face, it had expressions of its own. When Thero was frightened, the burned and darkened side, closed in as Tenar thought drawing together hardening when she was excited or intent. Even the blind eye socket seemed to gaze and the scars reddened and were hot to touch. Now as she went out, there was a queer look to her, as if her face were not human at all. An animal, some strange, horny skinned wild creature with one bright eye, silent escaping. So this is another prefiguration as well we could say. And we have yet another one in talking about wanting to fly. Now this is in a world where only birds and dragons fly. I suppose wizards can as well, generally transforming themselves into, you know, a bird or a dragon to do so. Thero is talking to Ged, her face scarred and whole. Seeing and blind was intent fiery. The king came in a ship. He had a sword. He gave me the bone dolphin. His ship was flying, but I was sick because Handy touched me. But the king touched me there and the mark went away. She showed her round thin arm. Tenar stared, she'd forgotten the mark. Someday I want to fly to where he lives, Thero told Ged. He nodded. "I will do that," she said. Do you know him? So this is interesting. Could fly mean sail or does fly really mean fly? Ged is nodding along. It's not quite clear what she actually does mean. We find out what's actually going on in the final chapter. There's a little bit of just before the final chapter where we see that Thero turns aside precisely because she realizes that her mother and father are going the wrong way. Tenar has been bewitched. So to the left were the roofs of Ray Albee slanting down towards the cliff edge, to the right, the road that went up to the manor house. This way, Tenar said. No, the child said pointing left to the village. This way, Tenar repeated and went off on the right hand way. Ged came with her. And this is where they run into the evil wizard, Aspen of Ray Albee. Thero has gone off and here we go, the child turned left and went some way before she looked back, letting the blossoming hedgerow hide her. And now we get to see how she in fact sees part of the world. The one called Aspen, whose name was Erisen, whom she saw as a forked and writhing darkness had bound her mother and father with a thong through her tongue and a thong through his heart and was leading them up toward the place where he hid. The smell of the place was sickening to her, but she followed a little way to see what he did. He led them in and shut the door behind him. It was a stone door. She could not enter there. And now what do we read? She needed to fly, but she could not fly. She was not one of the winged ones. So she runs and she goes to Auntie Moss's house to find out what's going on with Auntie Moss. And she finds Moss is indeed very, very sick, but it's a sickness brought about by wizardry. The old woman was hiding in her bed. She says, he made my flesh rot and shrivel and rot again, but he won't let me die. He said, I'd bring you here. I tried to die. I tried, but he held me. He held me living against my will. He won't let me die. And Theorus says, well, you shouldn't die. And then the old woman says, child, deary, call me by my name. Hatha, the child says. Now notice that within the space of two pages, this child knows the true names, not only of the witch who's never repeated a tour and of Aspen who definitely would not have revealed his true name to her. And then Moss says, set me free, deary. And Theorus says, I have to wait till they come. Till who come, deary? Moss says, my people. Who are her people? Well, we find out when Tenor couldn't speak but pointed to the sky above the sea. This is when they're about to have dead fall off of the cliff. Albatross, he said. She laughed aloud. In the gulfs of light from the doorway of the sky, the dragon flew fire trailing behind the coiled male body. Tenor spoke then. She's able to break the spell. "Calassian," she cried. And then turned, seizing Geds' arm, pulling him down to the rock. As the roar of fire went over them, the rattle of male on the hiss of wind in upraised wings, the clash of the talons like Sith blades on the rock. The evil wizard of Ray Albee and his followers have all been destroyed by Colassian the dragon. Ged was beside her. They were crouched side by side. The sea behind them and the dragon before them. It looked at them side long from one long yellow eye. Ged spoke in a horse shaking voice in the dragon's language. Tenor understood the words, which are only our thanks eldest. Looking at Tenor, Colassian spoke in the huge voice of a broom of metal dragged across a gong. "Arro Tehanu?" The child, Tenor said, "Thero." She got to her feet to run to seek her child. She saw her coming down the ledge of rock between the mountain and the sea towards the dragon. "Don't run the Thero," she cried. But the child had seen her and was running, running straight to her. They clung to each other. "Tehanu," the dragon said. The child turned to look at it. "Colassian," she said. Then Ged, who would remain kneeling, stood up, though shakily catching Tenor's arm to steady himself. He laughed. "Now I know who called you eldest." He's talking to the dragon. And then, Thero, or Tehanu, says something really, really important. I did. I did not know what else to do. Sagoi. Colassian is Sagoi. This is a massive revelation in the world of Earthsea. Colassian, these oldest of dragons, is the one who created Earthsea itself. So Colassian, whether male or female or neither, is not merely a dragon, not the oldest of the dragons, but the oldest of being. And has named Thero Tehanu, his daughter. He says to her, "It was well, child. I have sought thee long." And then Thero says, "Shall we go there now? Where the others are on the other wind?" And Colassian says, "Would you leave these?" And Thero says, "No, can they not come? They cannot come. Their life is here. I will stay with them," she said, with a little catch of breath. Colassian turned aside to give that immense furnace blast of laughter, contempt, or delight, or anger. Ha, then looking at the child. It is well, thou hast work to do here. I know the child said, I will come back for the Colassian said in time. And to get in Tenar, I give you my child as you will give me yours. In time, Tenar said. Colassian's great head bowed very slightly and the long, sore-tooth mouth curled up at the corner. Get in Tenar drew aside with Thero's, the dragon turned, dragging its armor across the ledge, placing its talent feet carefully, gathering its black haunches like a cat, till it sprang aloft. So, they go on, and Ged says, "Her native tongue, her mother tongue. Tehanu," said Tenar. Her name is Tehanu. She has been given it by the giver of names. She has been to Hanu since the beginning. Always she has been to Hanu. We know now what Thero was and is, and we see her restored. She still remains the scarred child, but now with her identity coming to light, everything can be worked upon, can be fixed, and there is more stories yet to come as a result. - 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)