I love how this novella fits into the greater scheme of Earthsea things - it reads like a fairy tale/myth and serves the purpose of telling the story of how Roke was founded. Le Guin managed to explain the shift between this (as part of the 5th Earthsea book, but in reality very much a prequel story) and how Earthsea is described in the first three books. While the explanation of "men wanted all the power and kicked out women in the process" is presented in quite a heavy-handed manner, I don't think it's out of place, given the events told in Tehanu. I do feel like Otter is placed in a bit of an outsider position, with him not being a big mean man, but instead a weak man, who relies on women and is thus not seen as a threat - once again, I just don't think Earthsea as a society (especially at the time of the founding of Roke) had the vocabulary for men to reflect on this at all, but it does strike me as noteable.
One thing I am wondering, now that I've reached the 5th book in the series: will there be a female protagonist whose story and decisions are not shaped by trauma? While the male protagonists go through their fair share of traumatic events (Ged multiple times, even), I never got the feeling like gender-based trauma (see Tenar and how her life was shaped by the isolation she was forced into, as well as the religious trauma and just.... mistreatment of her in general, a situation that a male child would not have been subjected to, I assume. Also Therru but that goes without saying) played much of a role in their biographies. Once again, I feel like these experiences are realistic, both in the real world and Earthsea, but it would be nice to have a protagonist who isn't male and who isn't traumatized from childhood on. Also also: this isn't putting Tenar or Therru down (I'd say Tenar is one of my very favorite characters in fiction), but it has been on my mind for a bit.
Either way: it's been very nice to revisit the slow slow world of Earthsea. Le Guin seems to pick every word she writes with care and long treks are often so uneventful that they don't take up more than a single sentence. It's the best writing to read in pandemic times, I think.

Merged review:

Definitely the weakest link in Tales from Earthsea. While the theme of wizard celibacy is picked up again in Dragonfly, this story did not add much to me in terms of worldbuilding. Maybe it's just an aversion to ~ men who make music ~ that I have developed over the years? Who knows. Still: it was fun to see a more teenager-y story that actually focused on romance and sex with a different lense than, say, Tehanu.

Merged review:

Beautiful as always - I especially enjoyed the minuscule scale this was told on. I plan on rereading this at some point, though - I’m sure I missed a fair amount of layers. But hey: cows!

Merged review:

I very much enjoyed this further exploration of Earthsea's equilibrium, the role of women and how men try to take advantage of it. This would have made a great novella, allowing us to spend a bit more time exploring Roke, as well as getting to know Irian a bit better. While it is a bridge between Tehanu and The Other Wind, I do think that reading the other short stories in Tales from Earthsea first really helps shape the experience of reading Dragonfly. Furthermore, I would love to read a proper analysis of the topics of gender dynamics and aromantic/asexual identities that are briefly touched upon within this story. I'll try to write about it a bit in my full review of Tales from Earthsea, but I think there are some good conversations to have. Last but not least: I got my wish for a female protagonist whose trauma, while present, is not the main focus of her experiences within the story.