A couple of days ago, I said in my post on The Two Towers that there are many strong female characters in Fantasy (although only 2 in LOTR), so I thought today, I’d share one of my favorites: Aerin in The Hero & The Crown.

There are actually two strong female characters in this book: Aerin and her childhood bully, Galanna. Aerin and Galanna live in Damar, a remote and fairytale kingdom where the royal family has magical powers. (Galanna’s power is said to be that she is impossible to please, which tells you enough about her.) But Aerin, even at age 15, had not shown any sign of a magical talent. After losing a dare with Galanna that almost kills her – and leaves her weak, seeing double, and clumsy for months afterwards – Aerin befriends her father’s injured and retired war-horse and, together they return to health.

During her recovery, Aerin also discovers a book about how to fight dragons and begins to experiment with the fire-proofing techniques it describes. (Dragons, in Damar, are mostly small stumpy, land-based Alligators, more feared for their teeth than their flame.) The next time Aerin hears about a dragon infestation, she sneaks off on her horse with a head-start on her father’s men, obtains a little real-world experience in fighting dragons, and is forced by the official dragon-slayers to report the results to her father, in public. The court is surprised but not terribly impressed, dragons being more of a nuisance than anything else. Aerin has found her niche – but it hasn’t earned her the respect, appreciation, and acceptance that she craves.

One day, just as her father and his men are setting off to quell yet another border rebellion, a breathless messenger gasps out a plea for help: his village has been attacked by a dragon, one of the great dragons of myth and legend. The king declares he will deal with it when he returns and, as soon as he rides away, Aerin grabs her gear and goes into action. But this is no nuisance-dragon; this is one of the great supernatural beasts, as large as a hill with breath of fire and a voice of evil.

Throughout this book, Aerin – like many of us – desperately seeks to change her situation. She thinks that if she can just change herself, to be more like what she should be, she will win her father’s love, her people’s respect, triumph over Galanna’s dirty tricks. What Aerin doesn’t see is that she is already enough: her father loves her, her people secretly admire her (and prefer her to Galanna). Aerin doesn’t need to change who she is to get what she wants; she needs to accept who she is and grow into it.

This story also provides insights into nature of learning. Aerin’s chosen learning path is to plunge into change. For example, she gulps down an entire branch of the hallucinogenic leaves that the royal family use to reveal their magic powers, instead of just one leaf, as is usual (and safe). And she fails so spectacularly that she almost dies. When she takes a more measured approach toward learning – as she does when winning the trust of her father’s warhorse or testing out fire-proofing recipes – she is more successful. This carries over to her interactions with Galanna: when Aerin’s thoughts are so distracted by her fire-proofing formula calculations that she fails to react to Galanna’s provocations, she inadvertently gains the high ground, pissing Galanna off more than Aerin’s past confrontative approaches did.

The lessons about mastery continue from there: Aerin’s first battle with dragons doesn’t go any better than my first battle with an alligator would. Even without flame, these little suckers are mean; they have teeth, claws, and prodigiously strong tails. Although she wins her first skirmish, she doesn’t come out of it unscathed, and she learns valuable lessons about practice over theory and the gradual path towards mastery. But even when she has mastered one level of dragon-slaying, she learns that her experience fighting small dragons is of limited use when faces the great dragon, Maur. Facing a dragon that powerful requires a team effort.

I think this is why I often give this book to girls who are entering their teen years: I like what it says about accepting yourself, mastering change, the importance of finding friends and allies, and rising above the petty bullying that every girl faces in school. Important lessons for girls coming into their power.

Aerin is a strong female character: although she struggles, she takes action, learns from her mistakes, and gets results.