Winter's King
Encyclopedia
"Winter's King" is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin
, originally published in the September 1969 issue of Orbit, a fiction anthology. The story is part of the Hainish Cycle and explores topics such as the human effect of space travel at nearly the speed of light, as well as religious and political topics such as feudalism
.
"Winter's King" is notable because it was one of four nominees for the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Short Story
.
Le Guin revised the story, focusing on pronoun gender, for its inclusion in her 1975 short story collection, The Wind's Twelve Quarters
.
, the same planet shown in more detail The Left Hand of Darkness
. It was in fact Le Guin's first vision of that place:
The original story centred on the idea that someone could age 12 years while the rest of their world had aged sixty. (Itself one of many to address the point made by Einstein: that if he could travel far enough and fast enough he could return and be younger than his own son.) A similar idea was used by Le Guin's in the earlier short story Semley's Necklace, later expanded as Rocannon's World
. But that was a Rip Van Winkle-type fairy tale, where a person goes underground in the company of dwarves or elves, spending an apparently brief time but on emerging finding whole generations had elapsed. Here, the Gethenians understand the science of what has happened. The focus is psychological, someone confronting their own child who is now much older than they are.
It also includes the idea of mind manipulation, used earlier and rather differently in City of Illusions
.
On this planet (Ollul) she is cured of the mind alterations, which would have made her a paranoid tyrant had she tried to carry on. There she lives and studies for 12 years, learning about the wider society of many planets and about people with two fixed sexes, very alien to her.
She then learns that things are going badly back home and is persuaded to go home, which takes another 24 years. Sixty years have now passed: her child is now old and has become a tyrant. Public opinion is with her and she is restored, with Emran committing suicide.
The story ends there. But the 1995 short story "Coming of Age in Karhide" (which appears in a collection called The Birthday of the World
) mentions in passing the first and second reigns of Argaven, saying little but indicating that the second reign was a success.
theme precedes and produces the story's androgeny theme.
Susan Wood deems the story notable because of its scientific extrapolation of topics such as sub-lightspeed travel and alien biology, topics which "provide a framework for powerful psychological studies."
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, originally published in the September 1969 issue of Orbit, a fiction anthology. The story is part of the Hainish Cycle and explores topics such as the human effect of space travel at nearly the speed of light, as well as religious and political topics such as feudalism
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
.
"Winter's King" is notable because it was one of four nominees for the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Short Story
Hugo Award for Best Short Story
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
.
Le Guin revised the story, focusing on pronoun gender, for its inclusion in her 1975 short story collection, The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by Ursula K. Le Guin first published by Harper & Row in 1975.Le Guin describes the collection as a retrospective. It includes many stories which had been published previously or expanded into novels. Others take place in locations that...
.
Conception
The story takes place on GethenGethen
Gethen is a fictional planet in Ursula K. Le Guin's Ekumen universe. It is the setting for her science fiction novel The Left Hand of Darkness.-The planet:...
, the same planet shown in more detail The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness is a 1969 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is part of the Hainish Cycle, a series of books by Le Guin all set in the fictional Hainish universe....
. It was in fact Le Guin's first vision of that place:
- "When I wrote this story, a year before I began the novel The Left Hand of Darkness, I did not know that the inhabitants of the planet Winter of Gethen were androgynes. By the time the story came out in print, I did, but too late to amend such usages as 'son', 'mother', and so on..."
- "In revising the story for this edition... I use the feminine pronoun for all Gethenians - while preserving certain masculine titles such as King and Lord, just to remind one of the ambiguity... The androgyny of the characters has little to do with the events of the story."
The original story centred on the idea that someone could age 12 years while the rest of their world had aged sixty. (Itself one of many to address the point made by Einstein: that if he could travel far enough and fast enough he could return and be younger than his own son.) A similar idea was used by Le Guin's in the earlier short story Semley's Necklace, later expanded as Rocannon's World
Rocannon's World
Rocannon's World is Ursula K. Le Guin's first novel. It was published in 1966 as an Ace Double, along with Avram Davidson's The Kar-Chee Reign, following the tête-bêche format. Though it is one of Le Guin's many works set in the universe of the technological Hainish Cycle, the story itself has many...
. But that was a Rip Van Winkle-type fairy tale, where a person goes underground in the company of dwarves or elves, spending an apparently brief time but on emerging finding whole generations had elapsed. Here, the Gethenians understand the science of what has happened. The focus is psychological, someone confronting their own child who is now much older than they are.
It also includes the idea of mind manipulation, used earlier and rather differently in City of Illusions
City of Illusions
City of Illusions is a 1967 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set on Earth in the distant future in her Hainish Cycle. City of Illusions is significant because it lays the foundation for the Hainish cycle, a fictional world in which the majority of Ursula K...
.
Plot
"Winter's King" tells the story of Argaven, ruler of a large kingdom on Gethenian, a planet whose inhabitants do not have a fixed sex. She has been kidnapped and her mind apparently altered. Fearing this, she abdicates in favour of her infant child, with a reliable regent to rule till the child Emran is old enough. With the help of aliens from distant worlds (who include Earth-humans) she travels to another planet 24 light-years away, using a Nearly-As-Fast-As-Light ship. This means 24 years pass but she is no older. News passes by means of an instantaneous communicator (ansible) and all seems well.On this planet (Ollul) she is cured of the mind alterations, which would have made her a paranoid tyrant had she tried to carry on. There she lives and studies for 12 years, learning about the wider society of many planets and about people with two fixed sexes, very alien to her.
She then learns that things are going badly back home and is persuaded to go home, which takes another 24 years. Sixty years have now passed: her child is now old and has become a tyrant. Public opinion is with her and she is restored, with Emran committing suicide.
The story ends there. But the 1995 short story "Coming of Age in Karhide" (which appears in a collection called The Birthday of the World
The Birthday of the World
The Birthday of the World is a collection of short fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin, and first published in March, 2002 by HarperCollins. All of the stories except "Paradises Lost" were previously published individually elsewhere....
) mentions in passing the first and second reigns of Argaven, saying little but indicating that the second reign was a success.
Literary significance and criticism
Charlotte Spivack points out that the story's winterWinter
Winter is the coldest season of the year in temperate climates, between autumn and spring. At the winter solstice, the days are shortest and the nights are longest, with days lengthening as the season progresses after the solstice.-Meteorology:...
theme precedes and produces the story's androgeny theme.
Susan Wood deems the story notable because of its scientific extrapolation of topics such as sub-lightspeed travel and alien biology, topics which "provide a framework for powerful psychological studies."