A Wizard of Earthsea

“This was Duny’s first step on the way he was to follow all his life, the way of magery, the way that led him at last to hunt a shadow over land and sea to the lightless coast of death’s kingdom. But in those first steps along the way, it seemed a broad, bright road.”

This quote is referencing Ged—Duny was the name he was born with. It foreshadows the quest that Ged undertakes over the course of the novel, speaking in terms that sound metaphorical but end up being literal.

“He looked down at his arms, wet with cold fog-dew, and raged at his weakness, for he knew his strength. There was power in him, if he knew how to use it…but need alone is not enough to set power free: there must be knowledge.”

Ged struggles with this feeling even after he begins his education on Roke; he constantly feels like his strength and potential outpace his knowledge and the things that people are willing to teach him. This is one of the factors that leads him to unleash the shadow as an attempt to finally exercise his true power. 

“And if he prove apt I will keep him as prentice, or see to it that he is schooled as fits his gifts. For to keep dark the mind of the mageborn, that is a dangerous thing.”

This quote also discusses the danger of ignorance when combined with power. As a novel that often references education and knowledge, this is a powerful idea.

“Ged crouched among the dripping bushes wet and sullen, and wondered what was the good of having power if you were too wise to use it…”

Here, Ged is frustrated with the slow pace of Ogion’s teachings. Ged’s impatience and overconfidence will eventually lead him to unleash the shadow, and he spends much of the novel learning the answer to this rhetorical question he ponders while caught in a rainstorm with his mentor.

“Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light? This sorcery is not a game we play for pleasure or for praise. Think of this: that every word, every act of our Art is said and done either for good, or for evil. Before you speak or do you must know the price that is to pay!”

Here, after Ged’s first encounter with dark magic in one of Ogion’s spell books, Ogion tries to impart upon him the importance of full knowledge when it comes to exerting power. Unfortunately, the lesson is lost on Ged at the time; he must first unleash the shadow before he realizes the true gravity of his power.

“Clouds hung dark to north and east and south a mile off all about the island. But over Roke stars were coming out one by one in a clear and quiet sky.”

This passage is Ged’s first sighting of Roke, and it sets the scene of the island as a magical place. Further, weather and the ocean are powerful forces, literally and metaphorically, in the world of Earthsea.

“But you must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard’s power of Changing and of Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow…”

Here, yet another experienced Wizard warns Ged of the dangers of overreaching one’s power. And again, Ged fails to fully heed his warning. This quote also incorporates the imagery of light and dark that Le Guin draws on throughout the novel.

“Ged sighed sometimes, but he did not complain. He saw that in this dusty and fathomless matter of learning the true name of every place, thing, and being, the power he wanted lay like a jewel at the bottom of a dry well. For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing.”

This quote discusses the importance of names to the wizardry of Earthsea. It also serves to highlight Ged’s character at this point in the story: a smart and power-hungry young wizard who is at odds with the powerful but humble wizard he will become.

“These moments of fear and darkness, he said to himself, were the shadows merely of his ignorance. The more he learned, the less he would have to fear, until finally in his full power as Wizard he needed fear nothing in the world, nothing at all.”

Here, Ged’s reasoning for pursing a magical education is clear: He wants power and the freedom from fear he believes will come with that power. The pursuit of knowledge is a common theme throughout the novel, though Ged’s reasoning for that pursuit changes as he learns more about the world and about magic.

“He no longer cared about Jasper. Now that they stood on Roke Knoll, hate and rage were gone, replaced by utter certainty. He need envy no one. He knew that his power, this night, on this dark enchanted ground, was greater than it had ever been, filling him till he trembled with the sense of strength barely kept in check. He knew now that Jasper was far beneath him, had been sent perhaps only to bring him here tonight, no rival but a mere servant of Ged’s destiny. Under his feet he felt the hillroots going down and down into the dark, and over his head he saw the dry, far fires of the stars. Between, all things were his to order, to command. He stood at the center of the world.”

This quote highlights just how much inborn power Ged has. It also elucidates his intentions and motivations behind the spell that accidentally unleashed the shadow; he sought to prove his power and control over all things. 

“Only for a moment did the spirit glimmer there. Then the sallow oval between Ged’s arms grew bright. It widened and spread, a rent in the darkness of the earth and night, a ripping open of the fabric of the world. Through it blazed a terrible brightness. And through that bright misshapen breach clambered something like a clot of black shadow, quick and hideous, and it leaped straight out at Ged’s face.”

This is the first time Ged encounters the shadow he will spend the rest of the novel pursuing and being pursued by. This passage also emphasizes the connection between light and dark, a common theme throughout the book. 

“I am no seer, but I see before you, not rooms and books, but far seas, and the fire of dragons, and the towers of cities, and all such things a hawk sees when he flies far and high.”

Here, Vetch tells Ged what he foresees in Ged’s future. These things all eventually come to pass, and the emphasis on adventure and discovery hint at Ged’s character in later novels.

“At the Stone’s command, said the book, he did speak to raise up a dead spirit out of the realm of the dead, but his wizardry being bent awry by the Stone’s will there came with the dead spirit also a thing not summoned, which did devour him out from within and in his shape walked, destroying men.”

This quote foreshadows Ged’s encounter with the Terrenon. It also touches on the theme of agency, reinforcing the idea that taking someone’s agency away leads to evil outcomes. 

“In the later months of his own long sickness the Master Herbal had taught him much of the healer’s lore, and the first lesson and the last of all that lore was this: Heal the wound and cure the illness, but let the dying spirit go.” 

This quote recalls yet another warning Ged has been given about knowing the limits of one’s power. In this situation, Ged recalls the lesson but overextends himself anyway in the hopes of helping his friend’s sick child. This decision shows Ged’s development since the loosing of the shadow: This time, he overexerts his power in the service to a friend.

“The shadow did not have the shape of man or beast. It was shapeless, scarcely to be seen, but it whispered at him, though there were no words in its whispering, and it reached out towards him. And it stood on the side of the living, and he on the side of the dead.”

This is Ged’s first encounter with the shadow after he initially sets it free. The passage describes the shadow in supremely unsettling and uncanny terms; it is not quite a creature and not quite a shadow. These contradictions serve to make the shadow all the more terrifying.

“It was only the dumb instinctive wisdom of the beast who licks his hurt companion to comfort him, and yet in that wisdom Ged saw something akin to his own power, something that went as deep as wizardry. From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove long to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees.”

This quote touches on many themes, ideas, and motifs that run throughout the novel. It shows Ged’s admiration for animals and the natural world, highlights the importance of silence and patience, and emphasizes the fact that there are different kinds of wisdom and power besides that of magecraft.

“There are happenings here not dealt with by the loremasters of the South, and things here not named in the Namers’ lists. What one does not know, one fears.”

This quote addresses the fact that there are different types of magic and power in Earthsea. It also returns to the idea of knowledge and how it relates to fear and the unknown or unknowable.

“He who throws away his power is filled sometimes with a far greater power.”

Though spoken by Serret in a reference to stripping Ged’s will to fill him with the power of the Terrenon and the shadow, this quote can be seen to have another meaning. In the beginning of the novel, Ged wonders what the use of power is if you don’t use it. Here, he is beginning to realize restraint and the decision to use one’s power only for good is actually another kind of power in and of itself.

“A man would know the end he goes to, but he cannot know it if he does not turn, and return to the beginning, and hold that beginning in his being. If he would not be a stick whirled and whelmed in the stream, he must be the stream itself, all of it, from its spring to its sinking in the sea. You returned to Gont, you returned to me, Ged. Now turn clear round, and seek the very source, and that which lies before the source. There lies your hope of strength.”

This quote discusses the idea of returning to the literal or metaphorical beginning to complete a journey of self-discovery. It also references water and the ocean, which are powerful forces in the world of Earthsea.

“There was a great wish in him to stay here on Gont, and forgoing all wizardry and venture, forgetting all power and horror, to live in peace like any man on the known, dear ground of his homeland. That was his wish; but his will was other.”

Here, Ged’s development as a character is plain to see. He no longer wishes for power or recognition, and he would be willing to leave behind magic altogether in favor of a peaceful life. However, he has also come to recognize his responsibilities as a wizard of great power.

“But until that time, and elsewhere than that place, there would never be any rest or peace for Ged, day or night, on earth or sea. He knew now, and the knowledge was hard, that his task had never been to undo what he had done, but to finish what he had begun.”

This quote emphasizes that Ged is on a quest of self-discovery rather than a quest to simply right a wrong he had committed. This unquestionably adds more depth and more meaning to Ged’s journey and makes his encounters with the shadow all the more complex. 

“All power is one source and end, I think. Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man’s hand and the wisdom in a tree’s root: they all arise together. My name, and your, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name.”

Here, Ged explicates his view of power and the interconnectedness of the world. This quote speaks of the true nature and weight of power as well as all the different kinds of power at play in Earthsea. He also seems to have finally learned the lesson about the importance of Equilibrium he has been trying to learn over the course of the entire novel.

“Aloud and clearly, breaking that old silence, Ged spoke the shadow’s name and in the same moment the shadow spoke without lips or tongue, saying the same word: ‘Ged.” And the two voices were one voice.”

During Ged’s final confrontation with the shadow, he realizes it is a part of him. The fact that they share a true name speaks to this connection, further emphasizing Ged’s story as one of self-discovery and self-mastery. This quote also references silence, a common motif that runs throughout the novel.