The Dowry of Angyar

"The Dowry of Angyar" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in 1964.

"The Dowry of Angyar" drew comments for its stylistic devices, while a review praised Le Guin's writing as "crystalline prose".

The story depicts the plan soon after "starlords", who are emissaries of the League of Worlds, have begun to land on the planet and levy taxes on its population.

[5] In an introduction to the story written for a later anthology, Le Guin said that "The Dowry of Angyar" was most characteristic of her early science fiction writing.

[8] Amy Clarke stated that the nocturnal Gdemiar in Le Guin's story were the analogs of the dwarves in the Norse myth, while the diurnal Fiaa were similar to the elves.

[9] Suzanne Reid notes that while the Freya of legend is greedy for gold, Le Guin portrays Semley as wanting the necklace only to live up to the expectations of noble society.

[10] A commentary in Science Fiction Studies stated that the story mixed Norse mythology with the notion of time dilation from Einsteinian relativistic physics.

Additionally, Semley as a character is shown as not being self-aware in the way Rocannon is, and especially unaware of the consequences of her action in travelling on the spaceship.

[13][better source needed] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction described the story as exploring the subjective nature of time in the folkloric concept of Faerie, and providing a "Technofantasy justification" for it.

Semley's journey lasts a single night or two, but cruelly she discovers too late that time dilation has resulted in many years having elapsed at home.

[15] An obituary for Le Guin in the web publication The Conversation described the story as the "finest of its kind" in the genre of fantasy, and went on to say that its "crystalline prose [was] equal to Semley’s tragic fate".

These included directly addressing the reader in a manner that engaged the audience in creating the story, and involving the central character in an identity-related guessing game.

The framing story, set in a museum of the Ekumen, used scientific and technical language, in keeping with the character of Rocannon, a style typical of conventional science fiction.