Pern Appreciation Month: Dragonsong

I mentioned previously that “The Smallest Dragonboy” was picked up as a short story idea because Anne McCaffrey was working through a story about a girl called Menolly. After K’van’s adventure was published, she went back to her notes and fleshed out the basic idea some more. And in 1976, Dragonsong was published as a novel.

For me, it’s the point where the series properly grows up.

Let’s look at the story, though.

Menolly is one of a tribe of children born to Yanus and his wife Mavi. Yanus is the Holder of Half-Circle Sea Hold (not a Lord Holder, though, because he is beholden to Benden Hold (a large region on the planet of Pern). He is also under the protection of Benden Weyr, and its leaders, F’lar and Lessa (F’lar barely appears in this novel and Lessa is only a minor character, although it is interesting to see her through somebody else’s eyes).

Menolly is a gifted musician – or harper, as they’re called on Pern, and she enjoys some freedom to learn and compose under the auspices of Half-Circle’s harper, Petiron.

In the previous books, we’ve been led to understand that harpers are musicians who answer to the Masterharper, Robinton. Their roles have included performing music to the masses as well as acting like a sort of spy network to inform Robinton about things that are going on around the place.

In this book, though, it becomes clear that a major part of their duties also includes educating children. Petiron, who has been at Half-Circle for quite a long time now (taking the position to get out of the way of the success of his son Robinton’s career), has shielded Menolly from the ire of her father, a deeply traditional man who disapproves of Menolly’s musical talent.

So much so, that when Menolly cuts her hand gutting fish, her mother “heals” it in such a way that she could become unable to play music again.

This background of antagonism and abuse is what prompts Menolly to finally make a run for it. She packs her scant belongings and escapes from Half-Circle.

Unfortunately she gets caught in a fall of Thread and needs to take shelter in a cave in a cliff. She shares this time with some fire lizards, recognising them as a group that she helped save the eggs of some weeks before. When she realises that the hatchlings are flying out of the cave into Thread and being instantly killed, she starts feeding them in order to save them. What Menolly doesn’t realise though, is that she is Impressing them (establishing a telepathic bond with them, similar to that of dragons and their riders, who are the lizards larger, genetically-engineered cousins). After the fall, she realises that she has managed to Impress nine lizards.

Menolly’s adventures eventually take her to Benden Weyr, where she meets Lessa, the most formidable and legendary figure currently on Pern, and Masterharper Robinton, who is desperately trying to find Petiron’s lost apprentice…

The Menolly books, known as the Harperhall Trilogy (although I have reason to question that title, as we’ll find out in Dragondrums), are among the most beloved books in the series. Many readers came to them as children and identified with the brave but downtrodden Menolly and her nine fire lizards.

You could make an argument that this is just a “horse girl” book with miniature dragons taking the part of horses.

But that’s a snobbish argument usually made by folks with no joy in their souls who enjoy looking down their noses at other people’s preferred books, so we can ignore it quite happily.

What Dragonsong is, however, is a novel for kids that portrays how abuse can turn even the most confident and responsible person into a nervous, depressed wreck. It also shows how abusers aren’t always brutes but can be respected and valuable members of society (I have to say that this was not an uncommon theme in the children’s literature of the 1970s).

Yanus and Mavi are considered to be quite sensible, with skills that make them valuable to the general society of Pern at large. However, they are also regarded as being very traditional and conservative in views and practices, with many other characters nodding in a knowing and understanding way when they discover why Menolly has run away. Menolly herself has internalised her treatment by her parents until a chance remark from Manora, headwoman of Benden Weyr, reveals to her that Mavi may have intended her injury to heal badly.

It’s then that her mind becomes made up to never return to Half-Circle and, instead, seek her fortune with Robinton at the Harperhall. There’s a lovely scene near the end where Robinton and the other grownups at Benden conspire to trick Menolly into revealing that she is Petiron’s missing apprentice through her music. After the hellish time Menolly has had with her family, it seems quite childish and silly, but comes as a relief to the reader that Menolly is going to be looked after, despite being such a passive participant in this conclusion.

Something else that charmed me in this book was the domesticity of the Weyr scenes. After two books that feature political intrigues and life-and-death struggles, it’s wonderful to have a montage of life in the Weyr as seen through Menolly’s eyes which includes things like baking, getting fitted for new clothes, making new friends and teaching the Weyr children how to make model boats which the young dragons-in-training blow across the bathing pool for a race.

We also meet Manora again, the head woman of Benden Weyr, who takes Menolly under her wing, as well as Mirrim, a fosterling of Brekke’s (who we met back in Dragonquest) who also helps take care of Menolly. Mirrim has a lot more pages devoted to her in this book, leading us to believe that she is strong-willed and occasionally abrasive to those around her when she is preoccupied with other things (It’s important to remember this because she does not get a very good press the next couple of times we meet her and the reader is inclined to dislike her).

These moments of calm are relaxing and necessary after the turmoil of Menolly’s earlier life in the book, but they are interrupted by a Hatching, which Menolly manages to be a witness to as well.

It’s the same hatching that we saw in Dragonquest, where Brekke finally recovered from the death of her queen dragon, and where Jaxom Impressed his white dragon, Ruth. Seeing it from the viewpoint of an involved but unrelated third party (namely Menolly) reveals a little more of the impact of the event to the ordinary people of Pern.

It’s also a scene that reminds us that there is a larger world out there that has been covered by other books, but Menolly still has another adventure ahead of her, so that other side of Pern will need to wait a little longer…

Coming Up Next: Dragonsinger: Harper Of Pern