In this series, I’ll be working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea works and analyzing her prose chapter by chapter. Spoilers follow. I should also note here that I didn’t notice until the second chapter of Tehanu that I had substituted “deep read” for the academic term “close read.” Alas, I am a writer and only a layman in the academic arts. I’ve elected to keep the title of this series as is because while I quite like this series of posts, I do not think it stands up as a close read.
Chapter 4: Kalessin
Length: 17 pages, 98 paragraphs
Setting: Re Albi
Characters introduced: Sippy (a goat), Kalessin (a dragon), Ged (a man), Shandy, Tiff, Sis
A dragon, The Dragon, arrives on Gont carrying Ged to Tenar. Its arrival and departure seem to pass unobserved by the rest of the residents of Gont. This is Kalessin, though, so it’s no wonder.
Tenar wondered why Ogion wanted her to wait, and this seems to be the answer.
But that’s all grand and dramatic. I’m interested in smaller things. Two images, at least, will reoccur later in the book. When Kalessin appears on the horizon, Tenar mistakes the dragon for an albatross. Kalessin also leaves a scar on the cliff where the dragon’s tail dragged as it prepared to take flight. Both those images come back.
I am not sure how much to read into the trio of Tenar, Heather, and Moss. They certainly resemble Mother, Maiden, and Crone. Moss is an unmistakable wicked witch in the grandest tradition of the archetype. Stinky, strange, irascible, and rascally with a prominent nose and warts, Moss is an entity onto herself and moves beyond the proscribed limits of socially acceptable behavior and is the reliable support and confidante to motherly Tenar.
This leaves Therru a bit on the outside. There’s reason for that.
Until next time.
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