Revisiting The Lioness

I am currently listening to Tamoras Pierces “Protector of the Small” series on audiobook. I read the original series in my mid-teens. Back then Pierces’ books were some of the only ones I could find which featured girls that I could relate to; female heroines who were allowed to be grumpy, vulnerable and kick-ass without falling into the usual traps of fantasy featuring “strong female roles” (in books usually written by men).

The Alanna books are by far and large my favourites in the series, set as they are in a typical middle-earthish land of fantasy adventure. The books are filled quests, court intrigue, and rides through the fantastic landscapes imagined by Pierce; from the Bazir tribes of the Southern desert to the slums of Corus where we meet Alannas future husband and King of Thieves George. Effectively all the themes we find in fantasy except with female characters. Although the idea of a girl disguised as a boy in order to become a warrior is as old as gender roles itself, other tellings neglected that they were also dealing with teenage girls. Periods, hormones, inappropriate crushes, the whole she-bang wrapped up in britches and a breast-binder and learning to kill. For some reason Alannas various ‘coming-out’s have always stuck with me. Maybe because everyone in Tortall is so damn nice and reasonable, that it was positively utopic compared to the institutionalised sexism the rest of us grew up in.

Re-listening/reading Protector of the Small I am surprised to see how much Tortall has changed in the 20 years between Alanna and Keladrys time as pages. For a start Pierce has gone full-on fantasy kitchen sink; the kingdom is now populated with Immortals (basically any fantastic beast you have ever heard of, plus a couple) and animals which are so intelligent they may as well talk. In all it’s a lot more cutesy then Alannas adventures which I seem to remember played with darker themes as well as the wholesome ones.

Protector of the Small takes a lot more of an insular view of palace life. Whereas Alannas close relationship to Prince Jonathon placed her at the heart of court intrigue from early on in her career, Keladrys point of view is much more typical of someone who lacks influence. Her contact with the heroes of the proceeding books is at once more distant and her day-to-day far removed from the political dealings and conspiracies that Alanna dealt with, with the first two books reading much more like high-school teen lit than adventure novels.

For a start the two girls couldn’t have a more different perspective. Alanna spends years having to hide her true nature, but she is never called upon to prove herself as good as a boy, because by the time everyone knows she isn’t one, she’s already the one of the best swords…persons in the kingdom. Her identity as a woman is formed by secrecy and her struggle is one in isolation from women. Keladry however is exposed to the blunt end of female oppression from the very start and takes in the experiences of the various women who support her. The most notable incident may be when Keladry walks in on the attempted assault of her maid by an older page. This is the first time she is directly confronted with the sexual violence confronted daily by the female servants in the castle. Like Kel, this is the first time readers see the Kings Palace from a less than cheery perspective, Pierce had barely hinted at such behaviour in previous books. What makes the event stand out is Lalassas reaction to Kels threat to report the attempted rapist. Kel, as an idealistic noble, is shocked that Lalassa doesn’t want to incident to be reported, for how it could affect her job and reputation. As a child this shocked me, as an adult I think it’s the most realistic event that’s ever happened in Tortall. Likewise with the resulting tension which could refer to any workplace harassment incident in our world; working class Lalassa is scared that reporting the incident will lose her her job and reputation, and Kel, the confident noble, can’t understand why her maid doesn’t trust the authorities to resolve the issue.

Pierce was clearly wary of creating Alanna 2.0, and both women are immersed in very different experiences. Even their religious beliefs and experiences. Alanna is selected as the Goddess’s own right from the start, wielding powerful magic with a foreboding warning that she must use her healing and killing skills in equal measure hanging over her. But Keladry has no magic, and prays to the male god of war Mithros, though neither he nor the Goddess intervene directly in her story. Despite her friendship with magic users and animals she remains as removed from the workings of gods and high magic that characterise the rest of Pierces books. Alanna is famously short, famed for her temper and her adventures are alone or with a group of friends, she’s a classic lone hero. Whereas Keladry is bulky and stoic as a rock, she appears early as a compassionate and competent commander shaped by her squire years with the kings own. She doesn’t even have her own real adventure until she’s given one by the Chamber of The ordeal. As Alanna confesses to Keladry “I thought I must be a freak…but you, you’re so real!”

One thing that gets me with Kel however, is her obsession with duty and the law, as opposed to Amannas natural penchant for rebellion. If their generations had been inverted, Kel would never have been a knight. What made me love Alanna as a kid was that she was always the braver, more determined version of me, she let me know it was okay to be a freak and to not let others determine my own femininity. I relate a lot less to Kel, but I guess neither of us would be the woman we are today without growing up with the Lioness.

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