DETAILS
Full Title: Dragonsdale: Skydancer
German: Drachenwelt – Die Schule der Drachenreiter
Italian: Maya sulle ali del drago
French: L’École des Dragons – Premier vol
Author: Salamanda Drake
Illustrator: Gilly Marklew
Cover Art: Gilly Marklew
Year: 2007
Original Publisher: Chicken House
Pages: 300
PLOT
At the end of the world, beyond the Veil, lie the fabled Isles of Bresal. A beautiful, yet dangerous world, where firedogs roam the moors and mighty dragons soar the skies, sworn to loyalty to their riders by the Trustbond – a pact that sealed a new era of peace and prosperity for both races.
Young, spirited Cara dreams of nothing but to feel the wind on her face as she rides her favourite dragon, a rare Goldenbrow named Skydancer. Despite being the daughter of Master Huw, owner of the best dragon stable in Seahaven, Cara’s days are filled with nothing but stalls to clean, dragonets to weight and plucky new apprentices to teach. After a freak accident killed her mother, Huw strictly forbade her from flying; an order Cara never dared to defy… until now.
With the Isle Championship looming on the horizon, Cara’s only concern is cheering for her best friend, Breena, as she wins the golden ribbon – and keeping Drane, the new stable boy, from getting into trouble. But as the annual Dragonsdale Fair comes around, so does Hortense: a spoiled, cruel and all-around mediocre dragon rider, Hortense can count on being the daughter of the High Lord of Seahaven to muscle her way into qualifying for the Championship… and get away with tormenting everyone around her. But when Cara lashes out to protect one of their dragons, she sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to take away the most precious thing she has: Skydancer. Spurred by humiliation, Hortense will stop at nothing to get her payback and win the Championship: to save her beloved dragons, Cara must choose whether to obey her father’s wishes… or risk everything for a leap of faith.
WHERE DRAGONS AND DREAMS TAKE FLIGHT
Far out in the ocean, beyond all the shores we know, hangs a huge bank of mist – the Veil.
The shimmering white curtain of the Veil hides a wonderful secret.
For beyond the Veil lie the Isles of Bresal – The Land of the Blessed.
The Isles are home to humans and merfolk, pards and perytons, howlers and firedogs…
… and dragons.
It began, like all things, with a Google search. You see, while I was hunting for content on Goodreads, it suddenly dawned on me that, despite having been a certified Horse GirlTM and an equally avid reader for more than two decades, I didn’t actually own many ‘horsey’ books. Sure, I was familiar with some of the classics, like Black Beauty or War Horse, but most beloved children and young teen literary sagas, like The Phantom Stallion or The Pony Club Secrets, never set hoof in my home country, likely on account of having very little market. While this wasn’t a tragedy by any means, it posed the significant problem of finding a good title for my opening piece. As it turned out, the solution was much closer than I thought because, perched proudly on my shelf, sat Dragonsdale: Skydancer. Now, you may argue that Skydancer is not exactly a horse book – if anything, on account of containing no horses. But is that really the truth? Or is there something more at play here? Well, Pathfinders, strap on your steel helmets and flight goggles – let’s find out!
Written by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore under the pen name of Salamanda Drake, and the first book of the titular quadrilogy, Dragonsdale: Skydancer follows Cara on her quest to become a famed dragon rider. Relegated to the job of simple stable hand by her father, Cara finds solace with her best friends, Breena, Drane and Skydancer, a wild dragon whom she raised since he was a hatchling. However, their unbreakable bond will be put to the test when the spoiled Hortense sets her eyes on winning the Isle Championship.
Touching on themes like friendship, grief and staying true to yourself Dragonsdale: Skydancer proves that simplicity can be an asset in and of itself. While the plot is fairly predictable, it does come with a few welcome twists: the titular Dragonsdale is shown to be every bit as worthy of its illustrious reputation, rather than coasting on past glories or facing threats of foreclosure. Cara is well-established in her home grounds as a skilled, competent worker with many close ties within the community. Finally, having been nurtured for many years, the bond between girl and dragon is grounded in more than righteous teenage angst, only waiting for the right chance to fully spread its wings.
Blending low-stakes fantasy, British folklore, and Victorian country charm, Cara’s adventure in the faraway land of Bresal takes pretty much every major trapping of pony club literature and neatly wraps them up in steel, leather and dragonfire. The equestrian roots of Dragonsdale are especially apparent in Clear Flight competitions, a thrilling display of speed and agility where riders must guide their dragons through an obstacle course with no mistakes – a pretty clear (pun intended) analogy for show jumping. Anyone who has ever worked in a stable will be familiar with the never-ending list of daily chores required to keep a large-scale breeding operation going, together with all the joys and sorrows that this entails. And what true Equestrian doesn’t believe that only a bond made of trust, love and respect can give you and your steed wings to fly?
Domesticated dragons with varying degrees of sentience have become a staple of modern fantasy, often depicted with several horse-like traits such as a higher affinity with the natural world and a tendency to bond with those who care and look after them. To ride one is a great honour, for a dragon will not accept just any rider; but when they do, both will be transformed forever. As I was diving into the world of Dragonsdale, I began to wonder: why is that dragons, of all the magical creatures, become such a perfect stand-in for horses?
© Gilly Marklew
A SONG OF FRIENDS AND FOES
Despite their long history as creatures of lore, being present in our collective legendarium since the dawn of civilization, dragons have often been relegated to one of two fates. Either as the literal embodiment of all evil, whose ravenous rampage for gold (and organic-raised, free-range maidens) will inevitably meet its end at the sword of a valiant knight; or as the proud guardians of the arcane, gifted with impossibly long lifespans that are the source of wisdom and power beyond belief. Both hoarder and keeper, creator and destroyer, this inherent duality speaks to the nature of man itself. Hic sunt dracones, wrote the cartographers of old on the vast uncharted waters, warning of great dangers ahead: here be dragons.
“Now shall you deal with me, young prince, and all the powers of hell!”
Maleficent – Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty © Walt Disney Productions
Horses stand on the other side of this literary battlefield. Symbolizing speed, courage, and readiness to serve king and country, they are noble, yet humble servants who will see their master through until the bitter end. Unlike their fire-breathing foes, they usually have little to no motives of their own besides devoting themselves to the hero’s quest, only to be quietly dispatched once their services are no longer needed. While some exceptions to this rule do exist, horses would have to wait well into modern times before they, too, could become heroes in their own right. At the forefront of this narrative shift proudly stands one of the most influential literary works dedicated to animal welfare: Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty.
Widely known as a beloved children’s book, Black Beauty was intended to shine a light on the cruel treatment of working horses in Victorian England, as seen through the eyes of one of the same. First published in 1877, five years after Charles Darwin’s The Expression of the Emotion in Man and Animals, the gripping tale of the iconic black horse, brought to life by Sewell’s extensive descriptions of realistic equine behaviour, captured the hearts of readers across the world. Following massive public outrage, new regulations were passed to protect horse welfare, marking a significant step forward for the animal rights movements. Almost a century later, in 1973, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize: the science of Ethology was born.
“We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us what they feel,
but they do not suffer less because they have no words.”
Anna Sewell – Black Beauty
Black Beauty © Warner Bros.
The notion that animals, just like people, could have rich internal lives of their own paved the way for a more compassionate approach to husbandry, and it didn’t take long for literature to follow suit. Nowadays, while most ‘horsey’ books are still centred on the struggles of the human protagonists, they all agree that the only way to gain the true loyalty of your companion (and hopefully win the first prize at the Big Show) is through mutual respect and understanding – a process the world of Dragonsdale refers to as ‘Trustbond’.
On Bresal, there’s no binding magical contract nor a literal merging of souls involved in the relationship between a human and their dragon: while some pairs may bond more strongly than others, it’s entirely plausible to fly successfully with several mounts, making them more akin to horses. What sets Bresalian dragons apart is their strong sense of self: throughout the book, it’s suggested they are active participants in the Trustbond and thus consciously refrain from doing anything that may harm their rider, who are responsible for their care and wellbeing. However, should the pact be broken, hundreds of years of domestication can come undone in the span of just a few seconds: faced with overwhelming torment and no other way out, a dragon will react according to their nature… often, with dire consequences.
Never tickle a sleeping dragon indeed!
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 © Warner Bros Pictures
The concept of Trustbond is at the forefront of one of the most successful animated franchises in recent years. Loosely based on the books of the same name by Cressida Cowell, How To Train Your Dragon follows Hiccup, a young Viking whose destiny changes forever when he meets a wounded Night Fury: renouncing the old traditions of his people, Hiccup spares the dragon, whom he names Toothless, and fashions him a prosthetic to replace his lost tail fin. What begins as a cautious truce between sworn enemies soon develops into a life-long friendship that will herald a new way of life for both tribes.
The significance of Toothless’ tail cannot be understated. As the one who set up the fateful trap, Hiccup owns up to his mistake and takes it upon himself to dismantle (both figuratively and literally) all his preconceptions about dragons. By leaving the safety of prejudice behind and embracing the traits that made him an outcast amongst his clan, the young viking sheds the armor of the slayer and dons the coat of the field scientist; and eventually, his remarkable curiosity and kindness becomes the key to something greater than he could have ever dreamed of.
What I find most interesting is that, as his new tail needs to be manually operated, Toothless is the only dragon who cannot fly without a rider; and yet, the Night Fury doesn’t resent neither Hiccup nor their arrangement, despite having ample chances to voice his displeasure. The tail is more than just a physical tether between two individuals brough together by a chance encounter: it represents both atonement for the past and hope for the future, a deliberate choice to renege the old struggle for dominance in favour of a friendship of equals. In a word, a Trustbond.
Another powerful piece of symbolism: Hiccup forges the New Tail out of the iron smelted from a sword and a shield,
both traditional Viking tools for war and dragon hunting.
How To Train Your Dragon © DreamWorks
When it comes to horses, this choice is often absent. The winged steed Pegasus is forcefully tamed by Bellerophon, who wields a magical golden bridle given to him by the goddess Athena. In the Ulster cycle, demigod Cú Chulainn tames his chariot horses, Liath Macha and Dub Sainglend, by having them run around Ireland for an entire day, until they are subdued. Black Beauty himself is shuffled from owner to owner during his life, with little choice but to obey the wishes of his current master regardless of his own suffering. And across art galleries worldwide, frothing mouths and flared nostrils are a stark reminder that, no matter how noble or mighty, a horse’s fate is to serve a will that is hardly ever his own.
Left to right: The Charging Chasseur by Theodore Gericault; Saint George and the Dragon by Peter Paul Rubens; Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David; Alexander I of Russia by Franz Krüger
Keeping this in mind, it’s easy to see why bareback riding is often used to convey the presence of a Trustbond. Horse lovers and Tolkien fans alike were swept up in the quiet majesty of Shadowfax, Lord of all Horses, who faithfully answers the call of Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers. From the get-go, we know this is no ordinary stallion: as the best of the Mearas, prized steeds of the kings of Rohan, Shadowfax can understand human speech and is able to run faster and longer than any other horse in Middle Earth. But for the wizard, he’s first and foremost a beloved friend and, although their shared history is barely touched upon in the movies, it’s clear the two have complete and utter trust in each other. Shadowfax comes to Gandalf willingly, being present during many pivotal moments of the War of the Ring, before choosing to sail with him to the Undying Lands so they won’t be parted ever again: it’s this choice to follow Mithrandir to the end of the world and beyond that makes their friendship so much more meaningful.
Throughout his works, Tolkien states clearly that Evil cannot create, only corrupt: and where there’s coercion or subjugation, no Trustbond can ever exist. To trust is to love, and to love means letting go: of ego, of control, of power. With no Golden Bridle to keep us safely in charge, we are asked to look inwards and potentially be greeted with some harsh truths: only by putting in the work to confront said truths can we become worthy of the immeasurable privileges we so often take for granted.
“Shadowfax. He’s the Lord of all Horses… and has been my friend through many dangers.”
Gandalf the White – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers © New Line Cinema
Dragons have captured our imagination for millennia. No other creature embodies so perfectly the terrible majesty of the natural world… except, perhaps, the horse: often divine or mythical in nature, bestowed upon mankind by a higher power, they were instrumental in shaping the world as we know it. Even in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, our fascination with them never faded; and in a curious twist of fate, the same progress that erased an entire workforce finally began to scratch the surface of their incredible inner world.
The story of the Horse is a story about power: the power to conquer, to dominate, to tame Nature. But it’s also a tale about facing the Unknown together: for the longest time, the Dragon represented this hidden face of the world, a power too terrible to be harnessed and who must be destroyed to for the greater good to prevail. Human history is notoriously written by the victors, and for centuries these ancient foes were left struggling to find a voice of their own; but once they did, our entire perspective began to change. Bresalians and Berkians alike remember a world where the Unknown was a real and terrible threat. But what their tale tells us is that friendship and domestication are two-way streets: once we are no longer ruled by hatred and fear, we will know vulnerability… and freedom.
In conclusion, yes, Dragonsdale: Skydancer does indeed qualify as a horse book. Not just because it lays a fresh coat of paint on many familiar sights of stable life, which is always a welcome change of pace. But, more importantly, because it goes straight to the heart of what it means to be an Equestrian: that it takes courage to face your dreams, perseverance to work for them and humility to remember that only together you can take to the skies… whether on hooves of fire, or wings of storm.
“Without fear there cannot be courage. But when we are together, it is our enemies who should be afraid.”
Saphira – Eragon
Eragon © 20th Century Fox
