Ramoth
Ramoth is the golden queen dragon of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, first appearing in "Weyr Search" (1967), who bonds with Lessa and becomes the senior queen of Benden Weyr.
| Also known as | Ramoth of Benden Weyr |
|---|---|
| Type | dragon |
| Tradition | Anne McCaffrey (Dragonriders of Pern) |
| Category | Literature |
| Earliest source | "Weyr Search," by Anne McCaffrey, Analog Science Fiction (October 1967); expanded in Dragonflight (1968), 1967 |
| Wings | Yes |
| Breathes fire | No |
| Guards treasure | No |
| Nature | Benevolent |
The Story
On the planet Pern, a deadly organism called Thread falls from the sky whenever a wandering planet, the Red Star, passes close. Dragons and their riders protect the land by burning Thread out of the air. When the story opens, Thread has not fallen for four hundred years, and most people have stopped believing in it. Benden Weyr, the last dragon settlement, is weak, and its only queen dragon is old and failing.
The bronze rider F'lar goes searching for a young woman to stand at the hatching of the new queen egg. He finds Lessa, the hidden survivor of a murdered noble family, working as a drudge in her own family's hold. At the hatching, the golden queen chooses Lessa, who names her Ramoth. As Weyrwoman and queen, the pair lead Benden through the return of Thread. In Dragonflight, Lessa and Ramoth even travel back through time to bring help from the past. Ramoth remains one of the central dragons across the series.
Appearance and Powers
Ramoth is a gold, the largest and rarest color of Pern dragon and the only one that lays eggs. Pern dragons have four legs and wings and are bonded for life to a single rider, with whom they speak telepathically. Fighting dragons chew a mineral called firestone to breathe flame, but queens traditionally do not, since firestone is believed to make them sterile. Dragons can also teleport through a cold void called between, and, as Lessa discovers, can jump through time.
Origins and Sources
"Weyr Search" appeared in Analog in October 1967 and won the Hugo Award for best novella. Its sequel "Dragonrider" won the Nebula. McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction. The two were combined into the novel Dragonflight (1968). Though they read like fantasy, the Pern books are science fiction: Dragonsdawn (1988) explains that the dragons were genetically engineered by human colonists from a small native creature.
Legacy
Pern's telepathic, bonded dragons and their "Impression" at hatching shaped decades of dragon fiction. The series runs to more than twenty books, some later co-written with McCaffrey's son Todd. For other dragon-rider stories, see the best dragon books; the artist Michael Whelan painted many classic Pern covers.
Related
- Saphira: Saphira is the sapphire-blue dragon of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle, which begins with Eragon (2002); she hatches for the farm boy Eragon and becomes his telepathic partner as a Dragon Rider.
- Temeraire: Temeraire is the black Chinese Celestial dragon at the heart of Naomi Novik's alternate-history series beginning with His Majesty's Dragon (2006), who serves in Britain's Aerial Corps during the Napoleonic Wars.
- Tairn: Tairn is the huge black dragon of Rebecca Yarros's Fourth Wing (2023), one of the most powerful dragons of Navarre, who unexpectedly chooses the fragile cadet Violet Sorrengail as his rider.
- Dragon Books
- Michael Whelan
Sources and Further Reading
- Anne McCaffrey, "Weyr Search," Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, October 1967
- Anne McCaffrey, Dragonflight (Ballantine, 1968)
- Anne McCaffrey, Dragonsdawn (Del Rey, 1988)
Cite this entry: “Ramoth,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/ramoth.