Earthsea (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Ursula Kroeber
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Work: Novels
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—high fantasy
- Time of Work: Undefined, on another world
- Setting: A cluster of islands known as Earthsea
- Genres: Long fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Maturation or coming of age, Self-discovery, Folkloric or magical people, Magic or magicians, Other worlds, Islands, Good and evil, Witches or witchcraft, Science fiction, Life and death, Temptation
- Locales: Earthsea (mythic)
The Plot
Earthsea begins on the island of Gont, a land famous for wizards. There, a young goatherd named Ged, called Duny as a boy and called Sparrowhawk familiarly, overhears his aunt using a common, rustic spell on the animals. Ged duplicates the words, but without any understanding of them. The spell works, and the goats come running around Ged. He is terrified, because he has no knowledge of how to undo the spell.
The event is revealing. Ged has powers, but as a teenage boy he is naïve about those powers. He has no knowledge and thus no mastery, and power...
[The entire page is 1409 words long]
