Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Novels

Earthsea is the creation of Ursula Le Guin. It is a world of sea and islands, of magic and dragons, of stories and the triumph of the human spirit.

I've just re-read the first three of these books, which I read many years ago, and read the fourth, Tehanu, for the first time. Like all great books, they mean more to me than last time I read them, as I have 'grown into' what have often been taken as fantasy novels for the young reader.

In A Wizard of Earthsea, Ged, a boy goatherd from the isle of Gont, discovers that he has the innate powers that will enable him to become a mage. After a short apprenticeship with Ogion the Silent, from whom in his youthful impatience he thinks he learns very little, he travels to Roke, the home of the Great School which trains all the wizards of Earthsea. There he makes rapid progress to become the most promising student of his generation.

But in his pride, and desire to outshine all others, he attempts to summon the dead, and in doing so releases a Shadow into the world. The rest of the book tells of his struggles to learn the Art Magic, and equip himself to undo the harm he has done, to mend the fabric of the world which he has torn.

The Tombs of Atuan is about the clash between the true Magic which understands, and works with, the natural powers of the universe, and the false religion which serves the dark Ancient Powers, and oppresses those who serve them. The central character, Tenar, is taken as a young child and dedicated to the Powers as the First Priestess. But as a young woman she encounters Ged, who has found a way into the underground labyrinth of her holy place in order to recover the lost half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe.

She's never seen a man before, and her first response is fear and mistrust; but something about him calls forth a different feeling. She comes to trust him, and that trust enables her to spare his life, and then to help both of them to escape the labyrinth, and the anger of the Old Ones she serves.

One of the themes of these novels, is the way our actions - even the apparently trivial ones - have consequences which we have to accept and deal with. There is no room here for fatalism, or passing the buck and blaming God! We have to take responsibility. In The Farthest Shore a terrible evil is being unleashed upon the world, which is destroying people's powers to use the Art Magic, and to know the true names of things. Ged, by now the Archmage of Roke, has to travel to the farthest west in search of the source of the evil, which turns out to be a sorcerer whose descent into the darkness really began when Ged tried to 'teach him a lesson' years earlier.

Tehanu feels more like an adult novel, in that it deals with 'what happened afterwards'. Ged's victory over the evil in The Farthest Shore cost him everything, all his magic powers, everything he knows himself to be. In shame and despair he retreats to Gont, his original home, where he meets again the now-widowed Tenar. Will they be able to make a life together in spite of all they have lived through? How will their lives fit into the pattern of the whole story of Earthsea?