Dragonsinger characters

Appears from the start

A fisherman's daughter from a remote coastal hold, newly brought to the Harper Hall as the Masterharper's own apprentice. She plays every instrument in the hall, writes songs already being sung across Pern, and is bonded to nine fire lizards, the first person known to have Impressed them deliberately. She is also the first girl the Hall has taken as an apprentice, arrives with a badly scarred hand, no craft training, no idea what she is entitled to, and a settled conviction from her upbringing that she is a nuisance who will shortly be sent home.

Appears from the start

The Masterharper of Pern, head of a craft whose halls and posted harpers reach every hold on the planet, which makes him both Pern's teacher and its best-informed politician. Genial, hard to mislead and given to arranging things several steps ahead, he brought Menolly to the Hall himself and has not explained to her, or to most of his craftmasters, exactly why.

Appears from the start

The gold queen of Menolly's nine fire lizards and the leader of her clutch: small, brilliantly possessive and unwilling to be more than a few feet from her. The other eight take their cue from her, which means Menolly's moods arrive in a room before she does.

First appears in chapter 2

Headwoman of the Harper Hall, who runs its kitchens, stores, laundry and lodgings and knows more about its people than any of the craftmasters. Warm and briskly sensible, she is the first person at the Hall to work out that the new apprentice has arrived with nothing and expects less.

First appears in chapter 2

A large, simple-minded man who carries and scrubs in the Harper Hall kitchens under Silvina's eye. Slow of speech and easily confused, he is entirely captivated by the fire lizards and becomes devoted to the business of feeding them.

First appears in chapter 2

The woman who keeps the cottage where the Hall's girl students are lodged. Anxious about her own standing and about the well-connected families whose daughters she houses, she resents having an apprentice, a fisherman's daughter and nine fire lizards imposed on her.

First appears in chapter 3

A young apprentice with a celebrated treble voice, an unerring instinct for what is going on anywhere in the Hall, and a habit of trading information for advantage. Cheerful and quite unimpressed by rank, he attaches himself to Menolly early and explains the Hall's politics to her whether or not she asks.

First appears in chapter 3

A journeyman harper who works closely with the Masterharper and travels on his errands. Quiet, observant and easy to underestimate, he is one of the few people at the Hall who treats Menolly as a colleague from the start.

First appears in chapter 3

The granddaughter of a Lord Holder, lodged in the same cottage as Menolly to be taught the accomplishments expected of a hold's daughter. Conscious of her family's standing and quick to organize the other girls, she takes the arrival of a sea hold's daughter with an apprentice's status as an insult.

First appears in chapter 4

The Harper Hall's master of composition: exacting, sardonic and openly sceptical that the Masterharper's new apprentice is anything but a fashionable acquisition. He sets Menolly work designed to find the limits of what she can actually do.

First appears in chapter 4

The Hall's voice master, an enormous man who teaches by bellowing and who cares about nothing except whether a singer is producing the sound properly. He takes Menolly's training in hand without any reference to the argument going on around her.

First appears in chapter 5

The craftmaster in charge of making instruments, absorbed in wood, glue and tuning to the exclusion of Hall politics. He judges people by what their hands produce, which turns out to be a fairer test than Menolly expects.

First appears in chapter 5

An elderly craftmaster who teaches musical theory and the strict forms, and who regards the notion of a girl apprenticed to the Harper Craft as an affront to the way things are done. He examines Menolly with the clear intention of finding her wanting.

First appears in chapter 5

One of the girls lodged at the cottage, less certain than the rest that the newcomer deserves what is being done to her. She is genuinely interested in music rather than in accomplishments, which puts her at odds with the others.

First appears in chapter 6

Masterhealer of Pern, based near the Harper Hall: a small, stooped, extremely capable man who is the first person to look properly at the scar across Menolly's palm and to say what can be done about it. He is blunt about what her family's treatment of the wound cost her.

First appears in chapter 12

Lord Holder of Fort Hold, the largest hold on Pern and the Harper Hall's neighbour: loud, choleric, conventional in his views about women and crafts, and determined to have a fire lizard of his own now that he knows they can be Impressed.