The Voyage of Dawn Treader

It’s generally regarded that the story of Dawn Treader is a creation myth which borrows from various other mythical and historical personages, including the Six Princesses common to the latter days of the ‘Age of Magic’ tradition of storytelling. Given the especial difficulty of translating names, this has led to a number of arguments I wish not to rekindle (for instance, the common claim that the one who places a geis upon Treader is the Dowager-Princess Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Celestia), and so I’ve resorted to the use of titles wherever possible.

Calling this story a ‘creation myth’ is a controversy in itself, as some object to it as part of that category of fable, and others reject it as mythical in the first place. Against the former, I’d argue that the nature of the story is one of change and creation, even though it doesn’t attempt anything so grandiose as a complete explanation of the cosmos, and it implies that storytellers of the past had some suspicion or means of knowing the discrepancies between the age of our planet and its star. Although it doesn’t govern the workings of the heavens, it nevertheless implies where we are now.

As for the latter objection, oral history is largely impossible to chart, but modern dating methods have established that the earliest known tablets mentioning Dawn Treader were written anonymously in 62 CE, at least a thousand years after she was claimed to live. Many scholars studying in the tradition of the ‘Age of Magic’ believe that Dawn Treader was a true historical personage, while others believe that there truly was an Age of Magic in which the events recounted by the tablets are literally true, and that other, better accounts were wiped out by the ending of magic. It’s not my place to tell ponies what they should or shouldn’t believe, but in my earnest professional opinion, there is no reason to think that these stories are any more likely than those of Star Swirl the Bearded or Spike the Dragon.

The theme of this myth is one of the struggle against inevitability. I find it personally an uplifting one, of the possibility for ponies to accomplish great things in the name of high principles, and have their destinies tattooed on their flanks for all the world to see. Its historicity may leave much to be desired, but it’s a fantastical thing to imagine. Reading the translation made by Annalist Harptone as a foal inspired me to my calling as a historian of stories, and it’s held a special place in my heart ever since. Engaging with it, trying to put it into the language i think is truest to the grand meaning of the original, has been one of the most rewarding projects of my career.

So I hope you’ll forgive my intrusion, and my request to take this not as a holy story but as an inspiring fiction on those unknown realms now lost to us, as I let you get onto your reading.

Yours,

-Stardust Palynologist, 4323