Kalessin
Kalessin is the Eldest, the oldest and most powerful dragon of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, first appearing in The Farthest Shore (1972), an ancient, unknowable being who speaks the Old Speech of making.
| Also known as | The Eldest |
|---|---|
| Type | dragon |
| Tradition | Ursula K. Le Guin (Earthsea) |
| Category | Literature |
| Earliest source | The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1972 |
| Wings | Yes |
| Breathes fire | Yes |
| Guards treasure | Not specified |
| Nature | Ambivalent |
The Story
In Le Guin's Earthsea, dragons live in the far west of the archipelago, beyond the islands of people. They are wise, dangerous, and not bound by human ideas of good and evil. Kalessin is the oldest of them, called simply the Eldest.
Kalessin first appears at the end of The Farthest Shore (1972). The Archmage Ged and the young prince Arren have gone to the westernmost island, Selidor, and beyond it into the dry land of the dead, to close a breach between life and death. They return exhausted and stranded. Kalessin arrives, Ged speaks to the dragon in the Old Speech, and Kalessin carries them both on its back to the island of Roke. From there the dragon bears the spent Ged home to Gont, while Arren goes on to be crowned king.
Kalessin returns in Tehanu (1990) and The Other Wind (2001), where it plays a key part in the fate of the girl Tehanu and in revealing the ancient bond between dragons and humans. Those later books change much of what readers thought they knew about Earthsea, so their details are best discovered by reading.
Appearance and Powers
Le Guin describes Kalessin as huge, iron-colored, and very old. Earthsea dragons fly, breathe fire, and speak the Old Speech, the language of true names in which magic is worked. Dragons speak it as naturally as breathing and, unlike human wizards, can even lie in it. Le Guin deliberately leaves Kalessin's sex unstated.
Origins and Sources
Le Guin wanted her dragons to be truly wild and other, neither pets nor plain monsters. In her lecture Earthsea Revisioned (1993) she explains how she rethought Earthsea in Tehanu, linking dragons with freedom and with power outside the male world of wizards. Some readers connect Kalessin with Segoy, the maker of the islands in Earthsea's creation song, a link the later books hint at without settling.
Legacy
Earthsea's talking, morally ambiguous dragons influenced fantasy writers for decades. The 2006 Studio Ghibli film Tales from Earthsea, directed by Gorō Miyazaki, includes dragons but departs heavily from the books. For other riddling dragons compare Smaug, and for Earthsea on the shelf see dragon books.
Related
- Orm Embar: Orm Embar is a great dragon of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea in The Farthest Shore (1972), who seeks the Archmage Ged's help against the sorcerer Cob and gives his life to destroy him.
- Smaug: Smaug is the greedy, cunning fire-breathing dragon of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (1937), who seizes the dwarves' treasure under the Lonely Mountain and is killed by Bard the Bowman.
- Glaurung: Glaurung is the first of the fire-drakes in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium, a wingless, fire-breathing dragon of Morgoth whose cruel spells and lies destroy the hero Túrin Turambar and his sister Nienor.
- Dragon Books
Sources and Further Reading
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore (Atheneum, 1972)
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea (Atheneum, 1990)
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Other Wind (Harcourt, 2001)
- Ursula K. Le Guin, Earthsea Revisioned (Children's Literature New England / Green Bay Publications, 1993)
Cite this entry: “Kalessin,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/kalessin.