Earthsea

This article is about the books. For other uses, see Earthsea (disambiguation).

The Earthsea Cycle, also known as Earthsea, is a series of high fantasy books written by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin. Beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Tombs of Atuan, (1970) and The Farthest Shore (1972), the series was continued in Tehanu (1990), and Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind (both 2001). In 2018, all the novels and short stories were published in a single volume, The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, with artwork by Charles Vess.

Earthsea

Cover of The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, with art by Charles Vess.
A Wizard of Earthsea The Tombs of Atuan The Farthest Shore Tehanu Tales from Earthsea (collection) The Other Wind
Author	Ursula K. Le Guin
Illustrator	Pauline Ellison Ruth Robbins Anne Yvonne Gilbert Gail Garraty Margaret Chodos-Irvine Kelly Nelson Marion Wood Kolisch Charles Vess Cliff Nielsen
Country	United States
Genre	Fantasy, young adult fiction (first three books)
Publisher	Parnassus Press, Atheneum Books, Harcourt, Saga Press (US)
Published	1964–2018 (novels, 1968–2001)
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook

Setting

Main article: Earthsea (universe)

See also: List of characters in Earthsea

The world of Earthsea is one of sea and islands: a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by mostly uncharted ocean. Earthsea contains no large continents. The largest island, Havnor, at approximately 380 miles (610 km) across, is about the size of Great Britain. The cultures of Earthsea are literate non-industrial civilizations and not direct analogues of the real world. The overall climate of Earthsea is temperate, comparable to the mid-latitudes (over a distance of about 1,800 miles or 2,900 kilometres) of the northern hemisphere of the Earth. There is a yearly transition from warm summers to cold and snowy winters, especially on northern islands like Gont and Osskil. In the southern regions of Earthsea, it can be much warmer.

Most of the people of Earthsea are described as having brown skin. In the Archipelago, "red-brown" skin is typical; however, the people of the East Reach have darker "black-brown" complexions. The people of Osskil in the north are described as having lighter, sallow complexions, while the Kargs of the Kargad Lands are "white-skinned" and often "yellow-haired". Le Guin has criticized what she described as the general assumption in fantasy that characters should be white and the society should resemble the European Middle Ages.

Magic is a central part of life in most of Earthsea; the exception being the Kargish lands, where it is forbidden. There are weather workers on ships, fixers who repair boats and buildings, entertainers, and court sorcerers. Magic is an inborn talent which can be refined with training. The most gifted are sent to the school on Roke, where, if their skill and discipline prove sufficient, they can become staff-carrying wizards.

The Dry Land is where most people go after they die, with the exception of the Kargs. It is a realm of shadow and dust, of eternal night where the stars are fixed in the sky, and nothing changes. The souls who reside there have an empty, dreary existence, and even "lovers pass each other in silence". Le Guin has stated that the idea of the Dry Land came from the "Greco-Roman idea of Hades' realm, from certain images in Dante Alighieri's work, and from one of Rainer Maria Rilke's Elegies". In the fifth and last novel of the series, The Other Wind, it is revealed that the Dry Land is a part of the dragons' domain that was stolen from them by the earliest mages in an attempt gone awry to obtain immortality. The Dry Land is restored to the dragons at the end of The Other Wind.

Series

Books

Book	Year	Publisher
A Wizard of Earthsea	1968	Parnassus
The Tombs of Atuan	1971	Atheneum
The Farthest Shore	1972
Tehanu	1990
Tales from Earthsea	2001	Harcourt
The Other Wind	2001

Le Guin originally intended for A Wizard of Earthsea to be a standalone novel, but she wrote The Tombs of Atuan as a sequel after considering the loose ends in the first book; The Farthest Shore followed after further consideration. These three books were written in quick succession, from 1968 to 1972, and are sometimes seen as the "original trilogy". Nearly twenty years later, Le Guin wrote a fourth book, Tehanu (1990), and followed it with Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind in 2001. The latter three books are sometimes referred to as the "second trilogy". The series as a whole is known as the Earthsea Cycle, and was published in a single volume in 2018 as The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, with art by Charles Vess.

Short stories

Le Guin published nine short stories of Earthsea. Seven appear in two collections of her work (and some have been reissued elsewhere). Two early stories were originally published in 1964, and were collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters (Harper & Row, 1975). These helped to define the setting of Earthsea. Five much later stories were collected in Tales from Earthsea (Harcourt, 2001), where three were original. In October 2014, a new novella set in Earthsea was published as a stand-alone, "The Daughter of Odren". A final 12-page short story, "Firelight", was published in June 2018, covering the last days of Ged.

Tales from Earthsea also includes about 30 pages of fictional reference material titled "A Description of Earthsea" (2001).

• "The Word of Unbinding", Fantastic Stories of Imagination, January 1964 ^+Q
• "The Rule of Names", Fantastic Stories of Imagination, April 1964 ^+Q
• "Dragonfly", Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy, Tor Books, 1998 ^+T
• "Darkrose and Diamond", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct-Nov 1999 ^+T
• "The Bones of the Earth" (2001) ^T
• "The Finder" (2001) ^T
• "On The High Marsh" (2001) ^T
• "The Daughter of Odren" (2014) ^EB
• "Firelight", Paris Review, Summer 2018, issue 225

Notes:

^+Q Collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters

^+T Collected in Tales from Earthsea

^T   Original to Tales from Earthsea

^EB   Originally released as a stand-alone eBook

All of the stories are included in The Books of Earthsea.

Unsubmitted story

After "The Rule of Names" and before "A Wizard of Earthsea", Le Guin wrote a long story about a prince in search of the Ultimate. He travels south-west from Havnor through the archipelago into the open sea. There he finds a raft-colony and sea-people, whom he joins in the sea. The prince wears out, sinks and finds the Ultimate. This story was never submitted for publication because "it never worked out itself well". However, the theme of a raft-colony and sea-people was later taken up as an important ingredient in the plot of The Farthest Shore.

Awards

Each book in the series has received a literary award:

Book	Awards
A Wizard of Earthsea	Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (1969) Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1979)
The Tombs of Atuan	Newbery Honor (1972)
The Farthest Shore	National Book Award for Children's Books (1973)
Tehanu	Nebula Award for Best Novel (1990) Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1991)
Tales from Earthsea	Locus Award for Best Collection (2002)
The Other Wind	World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2002)

On November 5, 2019, the BBC News listed The Earthsea Trilogy on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

Adaptations

Audiobooks

There have been a number of audiobook readings by different narrators and publishers. In the early 1990s, Robert Inglis narrated the first three books of the series for Recorded Books.

Radio

A BBC-produced two-hour radio dramatization of A Wizard of Earthsea was originally broadcast on Radio 4 on December 26, 1996. This adaptation was narrated by Dame Judi Dench, with Michael Maloney as Ged, and used a wide range of actors with different regional and social accents to emphasize the origins of the Earthsea characters (for instance, Estarriol and others from the East Reach were played by actors with Southern Welsh accents). The adaptation was subsequently released on audio cassette.

In April and May 2015, BBC Radio 4 aired a new, six-part dramatization of the Earthsea works, encompassing the storylines and motifs of the novels A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore. The first of the six 30 minute-long episodes premiered on April 27 and the last on May 5. The characters of Ged and Tenar were portrayed by three actors at different stages in their lives (Kasper Hilton-Hille, James McArdle and Shaun Dooley as Ged; Nishi Malde, Aysha Kala and Vineeta Rishi as Tenar). The radio drama was adapted by Judith Adams, directed by Sasha Yevtushenko and featured original music composed by Jon Nicholls. Following the premiere radio broadcast, each of the episodes were made available for online streaming on BBC Radio 4 Extra for a month, via the BBC iPlayer service. The adaptation was created and aired as part of a thematic month centered on the life and works of Ursula Le Guin, in commemoration of her then-recent 85th birthday. In addition to the Earthsea radio drama, the thematic month included the airing of a two-part radio adaptation of The Left Hand of Darkness earlier in April, as well as exclusive interviews with Le Guin and some of the writers she inspired.

Television

Miniseries, 2004

Main article: Earthsea (miniseries)

In December 2004, the U.S.-based Sci Fi Channel broadcast a three-hour loose adaptation of A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan for television, entitled Legend of Earthsea (later, simply Earthsea). It was broadcast in two parts on Channel 4 in the UK at Easter 2005. Sci Fi Channel had angered Le Guin and fans of the Earthsea novels with its announcement that Ged and the vast majority of the other characters would be played by Caucasians and with the dramatis personæ posted on an official website. The latter revealed several original characters – such as "The Archmagus" and "King Tygath", "Diana", "Penelope", and "Marion" – and it referred to "Kargide" characters rather than Kargad, Karg, or Kargish. The religious practices of Atuan were portrayed differently in the adaptation, and the celibacy of Earthsea wizards overlooked as Ged and Tenar become sexually involved. Referring to the writers of the show, Le Guin said "I have blasted them for whitewashing Earthsea, and do not forgive them for it."

One month before the U.S. broadcast, Le Guin posted on her website "A Reply to Some Statements Made by the Film-Makers" published in the December 2004 issue of Sci Fi Magazine. She opened with the observation, "I've tried very hard to keep from saying anything at all about this production, being well aware that movies must differ in many ways from the books they're based on, and feeling that I really had no business talking about it, since I was not included in planning it and was given no part in discussions or decisions." (Director Robert Lieberman, too, had stated that she was not involved.)

"That makes it particularly galling of the director to put words in my mouth." Le Guin disavowed some specific interpretations both by Lieberman and by executive director Robert Halmi Sr., and concluded (quoting Lieberman):

I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended ..."[,] would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?

Planned TV series

In May 2018, it was announced that the series had been opted for a film adaptation by producer Jennifer Fox. In 2019, it was decided to produce a TV series instead.

Nothing has been heard of this proposed series since.

Animated film, 2006

Main article: Tales from Earthsea (film)

Studio Ghibli's 2006 film Tales from Earthsea is loosely based in the Earthsea mythology. It was directed by Gorō Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki. Le Guin granted Studio Ghibli the rights due to her love of Hayao Miyazaki's films. Le Guin called the adaptation "disappointing" and "entirely different" from her creation.

References

General and cited references

• Attebery, Brian (1980). The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guin (1st ed.). Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press. ISBN 978-0-253-35665-9.
• Bernardo, Susan M.; Murphy, Graham J. (2006). Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion (1st ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33225-8.
• Cadden, Mike (2005). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97218-5.
• Cummins, Elizabeth (1990). Understanding Ursula K. Le Guin. Columbia, South Carolina, US: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-87249-687-3.
• Le Guin, Ursula (1968). A Wizard of Earthsea (1st ed.). Berkeley, CA: Parnassus Press. ISBN 978-0-395-27653-2.
• Le Guin, Ursula (1971). The Tombs of Atuan (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum Books. ISBN 978-0-689-20680-1.
• Le Guin, Ursula (1972). The Farthest Shore (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum Books. ISBN 978-0-689-30054-7.
• Le Guin, Ursula (1975). The Wind's Twelve Quarters (1st ed.). New York: Harper and Row. ISBN 978-0-06-012562-2.
• Le Guin, Ursula (1990). Tehanu (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum Books. ISBN 978-0-689-31595-4.
• Le Guin, Ursula (1993). Earthsea Revisioned. Green Bay Publications. ISBN 978-0-948845-03-1. OCLC 29598010.
• Le Guin, Ursula (2001). Tales from Earthsea (1st ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 978-0-15-100561-1.
• Le Guin, Ursula (2001). The Other Wind (1st ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 978-0-15-100684-7.
• Martin, Philip (2009). A Guide to Fantasy Literature: Thoughts on Stories of Wonder & Enchantment (1st ed.). Milwaukee, WI: Crickhollow Books. ISBN 978-1-933987-04-0.
• Miller, Timothy S. (2023). Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea: A Critical Companion. Palgrave Science Fiction and Fantasy: A New Canon (1st ed.). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-24640-1. ISBN 978-3-031-24639-5. S2CID 257293086.
• Petty, Anne C. (2004). Dragons of Fantasy: The Scaly Villains & Heroes of Tolkien, Rowling, McCaffrey, Pratchett & Other Fantasy Greats (1st ed.). Cold Spring Harbor, New York: Cold Spring Press. ISBN 978-1-59360-010-5.

External links

• Le Guin's homepage – her own map of Earthsea, truncated
• Earthsea series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The World of Earthsea – with Le Guin's own map and published illustrations including maps
• "Ursula Le Guin's Magical World of Earthsea" by Jan M. Griffin, The ALAN Review 23.2 (Spring 1996)
• The Isolate Tower: An Earthsea Compendium – fan encyclopedia or companion book
• "To Light A Candle: An Unofficial Earthsea Companion" – fan encyclopedia or companion book