Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Favorite Fictional Character --- Polgara the Sorceress


I decided that April will be the month to showcase, briefly, some of my favorite female fantasy characters.  Fantasy has long been a genre that has done well at presenting strong female characters, so the choosing of only four is going to be a bit hard to do.  This week I'm going with one of David Edding's iconic characters, Polgara the Sorceress.


When I first met Polgara, I was a slightly nerdy (but still cool) kid in high school who was just starting to fall in love with fantasy.  She was beautiful, intelligent, and thousands of years old.  What's not to love about that combination.

Polgara started out in life as one of twin daughters born to her father Belgarath and her mother Poledra.  Belgarath was one of the most powerful sorcerers around and Poledra was a wolf that had learned to take human form when she chose to.  Now with such great parents you would think that Polgara would have had a wonderful childhood.  Instead her mother faked her own death to fulfill a prophecy, her father was never around, and the twins were raised by two of Belgarath's fellow sorcerers.

Skip ahead a few thousand years and you will find Polgara protecting generation after generation of the Rivan royal family in order to one day see one of them sit on the throne once again and defeat the evil god Torak.    One that boy is born, Garion later know as Belgarion, it's up to Polgara, her father, and those who have been prophesied to protect him, to make sure he fulfills his destiny.

This journey is told throughout ten different books, an "autobiographical" book about herself, and her father's "autobiography".  One I got started on these books I quickly realised what a fantastic character she truly is.  She is loyal and protective of those she loves, and she loves hard.   Despite her age, magic, and intelligence she is quick of temper and has no problem forcing those around her to go the way she wants them to.  she is willful,  stubborn, and willing to compromise all at the same time.  She is one of the most well drawn characters in fantasy and she is one of the reasons why I fell in love with the genre so much.

I would encourage everyone to get started on these books by David Eddings as soon as you can.  Inside them you will meet Polgara and a whole host of other remarkable characters, both good and evil.  You would start with the first 5 books of The Belgariad series, move on with the 5 books of The Malloreon series, then finish with Belgarath: The Sorcerer and Polgara: The Sorceress.  If you decide to take the journey, you won't be disappointed.  Trust me, these book and their characters are way more interesting than this meager post of mine can every get across.

7 comments:

bermudaonion said...

Since I rarely read fantasy, Polgara is new to me.

Simcha said...

Great post! I think Polgara was one of the first strong female characters that I read about and she has always remained one of my favorites.

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Amazing post Ryan. I need to go find these books now and see about reading them at some point. Amazing! Thank you for introducing me to a new character. :)

Hey, I hope you are doing well. It seems as it's been crazy and I haven't been able to stop by much. But I do hope you and your family are doing wonderfully!

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

Very interesting character. As you know, I love strong female characters. I will definitely check into getting my hands on these books. I have two library sales Saturday. Maybe I'll get lucky and find one or two of them!

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

I went over to Fantastic Fiction and made a list of the series and books you mentioned. Have you ever read any of his other series or books?

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

I first read the Belgariad when I was in elementary school, just after reading through Tolkien's books. I LOVED Polgara - she was so amazing. I think that is also where I got my fondness for wolves ...

tmeyerkorth@aol.com said...

could I please have some written permission to use the picture of polgara for my debit card I could give the address to you after I receive an email