Various Errors found within The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern

The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern © is copyright 1989, 1997
by Bill Fawcett and Associates

One of the reasons why some Pern fans don't particularly like The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern (or DLG) is due to the many disagreements between it and the Pern novels by Anne. Because of those disagreements, they don't accept any of what the book has to say as true about Pern--instead it's more like one fan's opinion of Pern. But since Jody did consult & interview Anne before (and likely during) writing, there are many "facts" about Pern hidden among the errors. I thought that if we could separate out the parts that we know to be untrue, what we're left with could be considered reliable (until Anne writes something else contradictory

There are also a number of other errors that could have been fixed by better editing--misspellings, mislabeled graphs, etc. Some of these errors are exceedingly obvious, others more subtle. These errors personally offend me, especially the obvious ones in the "dragondex" at the end of the book, and the ones not fixed between editions 1 & 2 (I know, I'm weird. But I would have edited it for free and fixed them, had anyone asked me

So I'm making a catalog of all the changes that need to be made to the DLG, in an effort to 'perfect' it. This catalog applies to both editions, as all of the first edition is included in the second without any changes to it, and with the same page numbers as well. For more information about what is different between the two editions, visit my page which details them. I will add my list of corrections to the dragondex, once it's complete. This'll take awhile, as I compile cast lists from each book and cross-check information.

I should point out that a majority of these errors have to do with information in The Chronicles of Pern, which had yet to be published when the first edition DLG came out. It seems likely that Anne had sketched out some of the stories in Chronicles already and shared those notes with Jody, but that details then changed when the stories were finalized.

As indicated above, there are two main types of errors, which I will color code in the catalog: information contradictory with the novels by Anne, and misprints or other silly mistakes.

If you know of any errors I've missed, please email me with the details so I can update the list.
Thanks to Hartley Patterson for a number of new errors, some of which are pretty technical!

And now for the
Catalog of Errors found within the Dragonlover's Guide to Pern:

Page	Column & paragraph / other location	Description of error and change that needs to be made.
1	col 2; end 3rd para	Hartley was surprised at the description of the cut in sunlight received by the outer planets, due to the asteroid belts: "What are they, shattered Ringworlds? :-)"
1-2		Hartley: "Distances are based on the assumption (from G=0.9) that Pern is slightly smaller than Earth. It is in fact a_lot_smaller."
2	picture	The globe of Pern is oriented with north downwards; the image should be rotated 180°.
3	diagram	Label doesn't quite match picture, as the Oort Cloud isn't actually shown. Also, what's that blobby outline supposed to depict--a Thread cloud?!
3	col 2; last para	Hartley: Since Pern is smaller than Earth, perhaps the moons should be smaller, too, in proportion. Some astronomers suggest that this may be a prerequisite for an Earth-like planet.
3	col 2; last para	How exactly would a "constant thirty-mile-an-hour head wind" be caused by the tides? ((I'll be doing so weather research soon to check into this one.))
4	col 1; end of 2nd para	Castor is said to have a broken ankle, but in the story it's his leg (at least that's the natural assumption when he's said to have compound fractures, and has a gelicast on his leg).
5	col 1; end 2nd full para	The surveyors are said to ascribe the bare circles to a local fungus or vegetable plague. This theory is mentioned when they notice the spots in orbit, but is not postulated again once they land and actually examine the circles. Also, it says that they don't understand why the winds haven't reseeded these spots, when in fact they remark in the story that it has been reseeded and succession is progressing.
6	col 2; 1st full para	Hartley: The mud flats mentioned are actually in the delta of the central river of the Northern Continent.
7	col 1; 1st full para	I don't recall any potential landing sites being indicated in the north, and Dragonsdawn only mentions the three in the south. But I could be wrong on this one.
7	col 2: sidebar	Ezra Keroon was Captain of the Bahrain, and James Tillek Captain of the Buenos Aires (which is weird, since the dolphins are in the Bahrain, but that's the way it was).
8	col 1; last para	Admiral Benden did not spend the entire trip awake, only the first and last five years; he was in cold sleep the other five. This probably applies to the others mentioned as having spent the entire trip awake as well--most likely they were only awake for one five-year watch.
9	col 1; 1st full para	It says that landing specialists were woken six months before landing. This is not directly indicated in the book, and sounds a bit too early to me.
9	map	Hartley: "Nonsense! Stationary geosynchonous orbit must be directly above the equator" and would take "lots of orbits to get down from" instead of that short path from ~Fort to Landing.
11	col 2; end 1st para	It says that the EEC survey team arrived 20 years after the last pass, but I think it was only a few years, because there's nearly 200 years between their survey and the colony's Landing.
17	col 2; 1st para	Cows are said to have served as carriers for newly bred horses and other animals, but I think Dragonsdawn described horses bearing horses, which had been in cold sleep on the ships.
21	col 1; 2nd para	It says the nomads were "assigned lands." This is imprecise--in the initial landing settlement, space at the edge was set aside for them, but they mostly all melted away into the countryside. Also, they did not start using caves for shelter until Threadfall, which is why a high percentage was killed.
24	col 1; end 1st full para	Threadfall is said to have "doubled back" from Macedonia to strike Bordeaux. All I have to say is huh?
25	col 1; 3rd full para	Thread is said to elongate into a filament as it passes through the atmosphere. In Dragonsdawn, it says that the outer most shell layer burns off in the atmosphere, leaving an inner capsule intact; 15,000 feet above the surface, the inner capsule opens into ribbons.
27	col 2; 1st para	"carbon" should probably be "calcium." Fire-lizards are carbon-based as we are, but the have boron instead of calcium in their bones; a lighter element which assists flight.
31	col 1; last para	Kitti Ping is legendary throughout the FSP; she's the only human to have been trained directly by the Eridani
31	col 2; picture	Kitti Ping's name is misspelled, and her Asian ethnicity is not well-depicted.
33	col 2; 1st para	The results of the first three different groups of bioengineered eggs is not stated in Dragonsdawn, but the complete tally of golds, bronzes, and browns adds up correctly.
33	col 2; 1st para	The group engineered by Wind Blossom after Kitti's death only hatched 6 dragons, not 9, and only 3 were golds, the rest unspecified (but most likely bronze or brown).
38	upper graph	The fill patterns for "memory" and "empathy" are reversed.
39	col 2; 1st para	"Fort Hold" should be "Fort Weyr"
39	col 2; 1st para	It did not take the whole pass for Fort Weyr to reach full strength--they weyrs were overfull 20 years into the Pass when Sean decided to split to form three new Weyrs. Sean could fly 20 wings, 33 dragons each, at any Fall, plus golds and injured dragons equals nearly 700 dragons. Later, DLG says full fighting strength is considered to be 10 wings.
40	col 1; end 3rd para	Ramoth was not the only queen dragon when Lessa jumped between for the Oldtimers--Prideth had been hatched and was breeding more dragons in the Southern Continent experiment. Lessa's not that stupid!
43	col 1; 2nd full para	In Dragonsdawn it says that whers are not Impressible, while the DLG says they are. As we know, both are imprecise; whers don't Impress to one life-long mate the way dragons and fire-lizards do, but they do become attuned to & protective of one or more people (akin to dogs, in my view).
43	col 1; 2nd full para	"can see in total darkness"--yeah, sure! An oxymoron often used by fantasy writers (lots of dwarves can do this, too).
58	diagram	Altitude labels would make this picture more meaningful!
65	diagram	One of these knots should be for the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman; probably the upper left one which is designated as Wingleader, since the center one is also for Wingleaders.
66	col 1	I question a lot of the description of Threadfalls. In Dragonflight, Fall is clearly straight east to west, and this also seems to be the case in Dragonsdawn as well. As the pass continued, the location of Threadfalls did shift. In Dragonsdawn Falls shift 5° northwards. Hartley says the map is correct and related to axial tilt (which I do believe--same should happen in the north, only tilted the opposite way, I think. Hard to wrap my head around the rotation involved...)
66	col 1; 2nd para	In describing F'lar's construction of Fall Charts from records, it makes it sound like the Oldtimers had charts which were lost. This isn't true--we're told in Dragonflight that the Oldtimers had no charts, they "just knew" when Thread was due.
67	col 2; last para	Imprecise--we know now that the Long Intervals were not caused by natural eccentricities in the Red Star's orbit.
68	col 2; 1st full para	Neither Hartley or I believe that the fire-lizards that Ruth talked to actually witnessed Mt. Garben erupt over 2500 turns ago, and this was never thought of by Jaxom & pals in the books. Fire-lizards maybe long-lived, but 2500 turns--sheesh!
72	col 1; 3rd para	It says that most people remained south until the 1st Pass ended, but all besides the Ierne Islanders had come north by 20 years into the pass, at which time they came, too (info from "Second Weyr").
72	col 1; 3rd para	It says that the dragonriders started out in Fort Hold after moving north, but in Dragonsdawn it implies a direct move into Fort Weyr.
72	col 1; 4th para	We now know from Chronicles of Pern that Ruatha was not the first major Hold after Fort to be founded; South Boll preceded it.
73	col 1; 1st full para	It says it's a day's fast ride from Fort Hold to Fort Weyr, but in Masterharper it takes only a few hours.
73	col 1; end 3rd full para	Milk products were rare, and usually reserved for children.
73	col 2; 1st para	Klah is brewed from ground bark, not "infused" like tea.
76	col 1; 1st full para	Now it says everyone but Ierne Islanders was north by year 40; again, they moved north in the 28th colony year.
76	col 1; 2nd full para	On page 3 a Pernese year is said to last 362 days, not 366 (366 earth days is an equivalent amount of time to a Pernese year, as the Pernese day is slightly longer).
76	col 2; 4th para	Benden is considered the pre-eminent winecrafthall, though it may not have authority over others. There may not be one dominant art crafthall, and certainly different types of artists may be accommodated by other crafts, but there are dedicated art crafthalls, such as Hall Domaize in Dragonseye/Red Star Rising where Iantine learns to paint.
78	col 2; 2nd full para	Says that the Harpering is the only craft to have only one hall. However, I don't remember reading about any other Healer Halls, either, and I think that if the Healers were de-centralized that even more knowledge would be lost to them (there aren't enough experts to form splinter halls).
82	col 2; start 1st full para	"Will be sought until he dies" should now be made past tense.
82	col 2; 2nd full para	We now know that Robinton did marry once.
85	col 2; 2nd full para	Imprecise--Healercraft is the oldest Craft on Pern, not just one of the oldest.
87	col 1; end 2nd full para	Although technically correct, the term "surgeon" implies more than it should. The "surgeons" of modern Pern perform mostly field-surgery; i.e. they stitch up wounds. Other types of surgery besides appendectomies, tonsillectomies, and Cesarean Sections are not performed until after Aivas is re-discovered.
88	col 2; 1st full para	I think stating that half of the population was killed by the plague in the 6th Pass is an overstatement.
89	col 1; 2nd full para	It says there is no social stigma attached to suicide. This may be true in terms of euthanasia, but holders have been shocked by the notion that a dragonrider might suicide if his/her dragon is killed.
89	col 1-2	It says there is still plenty of land to hold in the 9th Pass; this is only true of the Southern Continent--the north is full to bursting, which is why Holders have been discreetly sending younger sons south to Toric.
90	col 1-2	Again, I was pretty sure that the dragonriders started out in Fort Weyr after the 2nd Crossing, not Fort Hold.
91	col 1; middle 1st full para	It says that the original dragons were much smaller than the original Fort weyrs could accommodate--so why was weyrling Alaranth of Torene incredibly cramped in her quarters? (Okay, so the Weyr had 100 more dragons than weyrs so she was stuffed where space was available...)
91	col 1; end 1st full para	It says that dragons grew larger until the 2nd Pass, and then remained the same size until the 8th Interval. This seems an unlikely and unnatural evolution of draconic sizes. A slow, steady increase until the 9th Pass would be more likely.
91	col 1; 3rd full para	It says the ratio of support staff to dragonriders is nearly 3:1. This seems awfully high to me, even including children and extended family members, and the diagrams of the lower caverns don't show enough room to accommodate this many people.
91-92		These characters do not appear in any books (and the same is true of other characters mentioned in DLG). I find the idea of a non-Oldtimer Headwoman and head Cook in Fort Weyr improbable at the beginning of the pass. Also, the name of the new headwoman, Margetta, is awfully close to Margatta, a Fort queenrider, which makes me doubt that Anne would ever use this character.
94	col 2; 1st full para	It says that Weyrs train their own healers; this is imprecise and implies that the Healer Hall doesn't send them healers. As said earlier in DLG, the Healer Hall does send them healers, trained to tend to humans. It is dragon care that is taught within the Weyr.
95	col 1; 1st para	We now know from The Second Weyr that this account of the founding of Benden Weyr is incorrect in many ways. Mihall and Torene were not yet mated when Benden was founded, Mihall was only 18, and he was not designated as the new Weyrleader in advance--that would have been nepotism which was assiduously avoided by most folk. He became the Weyrleader when his Brianth flew Alaranth in her first mating flight. (She was not designated as Weyrwoman in advance either; her dragon happened to be the first of the new Benden queens to rise to mate).
95	col 2; 1st full para	Benden Weyr was not named over the objections of Admiral Benden, he was dead already. And the Weyr was established in the 28th colony year, not the 18th Also note that the DLG contradicts itself over the timing of the founding of Benden Weyr - in the first paragraph of this section, it said that the Weyr was founded in the First Interval.
95	col 2; 2nd full para	It says that Mihall was fostered because Sorka's time was filled by care for Faranth; I'd say her time was filled because she was Weyrwoman, not just a queenrider. Even so, Brekke took on fosterlings, and she effectively did all the Weyrwoman's duties in Southern Weyr; time can be found! (Though as a site vistor has pointed out, Sorka was doing essentially the jobs of both Weyrwoman and Headwoman at that time, while Brekke was not acting as a Headwoman too.)
95	col 2; last full para	The stories never explicitly say anything about the clutch that Mihall's Brianth came from, but it is possible that he came from Faranth's fourth. (I will post my calculations of how often queens mated elsewhere, given the population growth from year 10 to 28; my conclusion is that they mated every 3 years or so, not 2-3 times a year as the stories say they can).
95-96		The Second Weyr never indicates that Torene was brought up in Ruatha; her parents live in Telgar Hold and she has a close relationship, so it is most likely that she grew up there. It is possible that she was fostered for a few years in Ruatha
97	col 2; end last para	The sites for the other four Weyrs were chosen at the time Benden was formed, not during the First Interval.
99	col 1; 1st para	Major differences between the Star Stones at each Weyr is unlikely, as they were all constructed at the same time during the 2nd Pass.
102	col 2; last full para	"Scurvy" should be "rickets." Scurvy is caused by a vitamin C deficiency and has nothing to do with bones; rickets is caused by a calcium (or vitamin D) deficiency and affects the bones.
103	col 1; 2nd full para	Hartley found the use of longbows surprising, since crossbows are available and much easier to use.
103	col 2; last para	C'gan is said to have inadvertently Impressed Tagath; this is not the impression I got from Masterharper of Pern, but my memory isn't crystal to this point. The main reason I question this is that C'gan does not seem to have formal training as a Harper, or at least not complete training. I think it more likely that he was Searched as an apprentice from the Harper Hall.
105	col 1; 3rd para	I am confused as to the shape of a dragon's tail--I don't see how it can be both forked and spade-shaped. The description from Anne is always forked, but artists always draw it spade-shaped.
105	col 1; end 5th para	"Weyrwomen's" should not be capitalized. (This is an exceedingly common error, I think even by Anne. While the dictionary in the back of the books indicates that junior weyrwomen should not be capitalized, it seems that they are when the junior is dropped; maybe this is to distinguish them from non-riding women in the weyrs, who could also be referred to as weyrwomen?)
105	col 1; end 5th para	Given the map of Benden Weyr (which I think is upheld by descriptions in the books), Lessa's weyr should not have a service shaft as it is on the opposite side of the bowl from the lower caverns. Besides the junior weyrwomen's quarters, a few other weyrs on that side of the bowl have service shafts, e.g. F'lar's.
107	col 1; last para	Why would the Harper Hall be the place where jugglers are trained? This is news to me!
107	col 2; 1st para	Benden Hold was founded at the same time as Benden Weyr in colony year 28. Benden Hold was founded by colonists from the Longwood and Orkney Stakeholds on Ierne Island.
111	col 2; last para	As Gorton never appears in any of the stories, I dispute that he is an old friend of Robinton's; however, one would expect that they have met since Robinton became Masterharper and his reputation for familiarity with Benden wines became known.
113	col 1; 1st para	I find the claimed Pernese population of four to five million a bit high, as the major Holds only have around 10,000 people in rural areas that look directly to them. (I also find the number 10,000 high, but it is stated in Nerilka's Story.)
113	col 2; 1st full para	Hartley wants to know why mass starvation isn't caused by farming less land in Passes than Intervals. I question this too, though can accept the explanation that some of the extra food produced in Intervals may be stored up for Passes.
115	col 2; 2nd para	I've never heard of imprisonment used as a punishment, and it seems that the holders shy away from a death penalty as well. Instead, more common punishments are rendering offenders holdless, and isolating them somewhere, such as on an island.
115	col 2; last para	I dispute that maladjusted individuals received psychiatric care, unless they requested it; Ted Tubberman was definitely maladjusted after the first Fall killed his daughter, and everyone knew it, but no one forced psychiatric care on him.
116	col 1; 1st full para	The apprentice system was based upon that used in times long past on Earth. DLG implies that it was used in modern times on Earth and First Centauri, and this is not indicated in the books.
117	col 2; 1st full para	I dispute that Menolly fosters her children with Silvina, and that her inclination is not towards child rearing. In Dolphins of Pern she takes Robse with her to Paradise River Hold, and actively takes care of him. Possibly when her children grow older she will find it expedient to leave them with Silvina more often.
118	col 2; 1st para	I've never heard mention of a Harper Hall in Ista, and earlier the DLG said that Harpering is one of the only crafts to have only a central Hall.
118	col 2; 3rd full para	The description of the value of a mark versus changes in supply, are backwards to my intuition and the economic theory of supply and demand.
119	col 1; last para	Nine marks for a runnerbeast sounds steep; I thought Sebell sold some for only a few marks at the Nabol Gather.
119	col 2; 1st para	Info about the ocean currents & gulf stream is contradicted by the map in Dolphins of Pern, and by common sense.
120	col 1; 2nd full para	Dragonflight and Masterharper of Pern disagree over how Crom was "acquired" by Fax. In MoP he marries Gemma before actively conquering Crom, rather than passively assuming Crom because he married her.
120	col 1; end 2nd full para	The Lord Holder of Ruatha and father of Lessa is Kale, not "Micawl."
120	col 2; 1st full para	Missing information: Lord Bargen of High Reaches Hold is a son of the Lord Holder killed by Fax.
121	col 2; 1st para	High Reaches was not the third Weyr; it was fifth or sixth.
122	col 1; 1st para	F'lar killed T'kul in a duel years after the Oldtimers were sent to Southern Weyr; no other Olditimers moved south at this time, save D'ram who went to revitalize them. I believe Kylara was already dead at this time.
122	col 2; 1st para	Zi Ongola was the founder of Tillek Hold, which wasn't named for several years, and was named after Jim Tillek's death. It is possible that Jim did help found the Hold.
126	col 2; 2nd full para	Coastal charts made by the Ancients should be dreadfully inaccurate by the 9th Pass; it is known within the books that the coastline has changed significantly over the years.
130	col 1; 1st para	Ruatha is not the 2nd Hold, South Boll is.
130	col 1; end 2nd para	Ruatha was never called "Red's Ford;" Red Hanrahan named it "Rua Atha" or Ruatha from the start.
130- 131		Alessan also bred the beasts that his father wanted; the sprinters were a side benefit.
131	col 1; 2nd full para	I thought the construction was begun by Lord Leef, not Alessan.
131	col 2; 1st para	Lessa's 2nd jump between times did not confirm the phenomena--she was still completely confused; F'lar's purposeful jump between times confirmed it.
132	col 2; 1st para	Emily Boll dies in colony year 16, not 33.
135	col 1; last para	Earlier (page 75), the DLG implied that only Fort Hold makes slubbed fabrics; Masterweavers making them in the Hall in South Boll contradicts this.
140	col 1; last para	While traders may have regular routes, it would not make sense for them to all follow the same route! In Renegades of Pern, the Lilcamp train does winter near Telgar, but sets off in a different direction than what the DLG describes; and they don't see to have a regular route.
143	col 2; 1st para	Telgar was the third or fourth Weyr to be occupied, not the final northern one.
144	col 2; last para	The books never mention a Healer Hall in South Telgar Hold. (And as I mentioned earlier, I don't think Pern has enough qualified Master Healers to be able to split into two teaching Halls.)
146	diagram	Clarification: this is the Fort Harper Hall, and not the one mentioned in Ista.
147	col 2; 1st para	Ista hatching grounds were used even before Benden Weyr was built, and Ista became the third or fourth Weyr, not the fifth.
147	col 2; last para	Ista should have reached full size before year 258.
153	col 2; last para	Ezra Keroon was Captain of the Bahrain, not the Buenos Aires.
153	col 2; last para	Calling Keroon Hold the home hold of Moreta is imprecise; her family had a small hold within the Keroon region--they were not part of Keroon Hold proper. Moreta's home hold is described correctly three paragraphs later.
154	col 1; 4th full para	This is overly picky, but the meeting at the Red Butte in Moreta's time was between five Weyrleaders and one Wingleader, as the sixth Weyrleader, Sh'gall, was ill.
156	col 2; 1st para	The first two sentences imply that Benden was the second Hold in the north, but we know that at least four other major Holds preceded it. This whole paragraph could be Anne's original plan for the migration, before actually writing about it.
158	col 1; 2nd para	I find it unlikely that forests were not started until Lord Asgenar's father propagated them late in the 8th Interval; more likely they began much earlier in the long interval.
160	col 2; 1st para	The idea of granite being shipped all over from Greystones strikes me as unlikely and unnecessary--granite should be found in large quantities all over the northern continent. Even on Earth, granite rarely used far from its source, due to the cost of shipping. On the other hand, the Pernese do use much more stone for building than we do, and the Greystones Granite may be a particularly beautiful variety which is in demand for its decorative value.
160	col 2; last sentence	Typographical error--"beastfold" should be "beasthold"
164	col 1; last para	There are fosterlings sent to and from Half-Circle Sea Hold before Harper Elgion arrived.
166	col 2; last para	People had gone back to the South before Lessa and F'nor went in the 8th Interval: Landing was checked up on in the 2nd Pass, sailors visited it in the 6th Pass and brought back the plague, and other sailors were likely blown off course to the south at other times.
168	col 1; 1st full para	D'ram did not wait for most of the Oldtimers in Southern Weyr to die before requesting a new queen; he requested additional riders and a queen when he decided to take over.
169	picture	The label is wrong; this harp appears to be the one described as a present to Robinton and kept now in Cove Hold on pages 170-171.
170	col 2; last para	The Harpers mentioned in this paragraph never appear in any of the books, nor does the harp they made for Robinton. They do however, feature in Nye's "Dragonharper" book.
173	col 2; 1st para	Mount Garben did not show signs of eruption, Mount Picchu did, even though Garben is the one that erupted.
173	picture	In Dragonsdawn, the colony flag is not described as having a map of Pern on it, only that it has the plow and sickle in the upper left corner, and that it is blue, white, and yellow.

I will review the rest of the DLG for errors later, when I've re-read AtWoP, RoP, and DoP more recently. But please feel welcome to email me any errors you've found from page 175 onwards (or any others I missed before that). I'm also quite willing to discuss any of these errors in more depth over email.

Corrected corrections (I do goof up sometimes, too!). Thanks to emails, I know now the DLG was right about these things:
p95 Moreta really is blonde. Description is in Nerilka's Story
p155 Feline carrying the plague is spotted in Moreta, so probably is one of the cheetahs descended from Ted Tubberman's experiments.
p156 There is in fact a Yukon territory staked out in the Southern Continent, on a map in the back of Dragonsdawn.
p170 As numerous people have pointed out to me - and as I have finally started to notice on my own, Masterharper Robinton has indeed always loved Benden white wines, not reds.