Letter to a young reader

Art by Charles Vess

Dear Reader,

Most dragons don’t know how to read. They hiss and fume and guard their hoard. A tasty knight is what they need

For dinner (they spit out the sword),

Then go to sleep on heaps of treasure. They’ve no use for the written word.

But I learned early to take pleasure

In reading tales and poetry,

And soon I knew that I preferred

Reading a book to fighting knights.

I lived on apple pie and tea,

Which a kind lady made for me,

And all my days and half my nights

Were spent in reading story-books,

A life more thrilling than it looks.

Now that I’m old and cannot see

To read, the lady’s youngest child

Comes every day to read to me,

A cheerful child named Valentine.

We’re both as happy as can be

Among the treasures I have piled

In heaps around my apple tree.

No other dragon watches curled

Around such riches as are mine,

My Word-hoard, my dear Library:

For every book contains a world!

Yours truly,

Bedraug (Smaug’s second sousin once removed)

Ursula Le Guin

1929 - 2018