A Wizard of Earthsea

Ursula Le Guin

1968

Once upon a time, there was a lad, given the name Duny by his mother before her death left him in the care of his aunt and father. As Duny grew, he learnt to work the bellows of his father's smithy, but he preferred herding the goats. It's doing that that puts him on the path that would define his life, for Duny was a Gontish man, and Gont was known for its pirates and wizards and Duny was the youthful Sparrowhawk who was to be both Dragonlord and Archmage.

But now he was the unloved child overlooked by both aunt and father until he overheard his aunt charming the village goats. After his use of the charm showed he had the power, his aunt taught him her small store of Words. His village still looked on him with disdain until the Kargish raiders were turned from his village by Duny's mastery over the fog. The effort left him weakened though and it was only with the intervention of a stranger who introduced himself as Ogion the Silent, he who had silenced the earthquake threatening the main city of Gont, did he survive. Not only did Ogion give him life, but also the name the boy would carry through his adult life. Ogion took Ged on as his apprentice until the boy tried more than he was capable of. Hoping to curb the boy's indiscipline Ogion offered him an introduction to the School of Wizardry on the isle of Roke.

On Roke, Ged soaked up all that the Masters could teach him. But not all the students were enamoured of his abilities and one challenged him to a duel of sorcery. In his pride Ged accepts and calls on the spirit of one long dead.

But it wasn't the dead that answered his call. The dread creature that came took all the power of the Archmage to banish from Roke. Not to banish from the world, though. Nemmerle died of his efforts and Ged nearly died of his wounds. Ged lived, though and he went out into the world to seek his Shadow.

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All three books are available as part of The Earthsea Quartet.

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