A Wizard of Earthsea - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

Ged is a young boy on Gont, one of the larger islands in the north of the archipelago of Earthsea. His mother is dead, his much older siblings have all left home, and his father is a dour, taciturn bronzesmith with nothing in common with his son, so the boy grows up wild and headstrong. Ged discovers by accident that he has an extraordinary talent for magic. His aunt, the village witch, teaches him the little she herself knows, but his power far exceeds hers.

One day, he uses his talent and a fog-gathering spell he learned from a passing weatherworker to save his village from Karg raiders. The tale of his remarkable feat spreads far and wide, finally reaching the ear of a wise Gontish mage, Ogion the Silent. He recognizes that the boy is so powerful he must be trained so as not to become a danger to himself and others. In the rite of passage into adulthood, he gives the boy his "true name", Ged, and takes him as an apprentice. In this world, a magician who knows someone's true name has control over that person, so one's true name is revealed only to those whom one trusts completely. Normally, a person is referred to by his or her "use name". Ged's is Sparrowhawk.

The undisciplined young man grows restless under the gentle, patient tutelage of his master. One day, at the taunting of the daughter of the local lord - who, it is later revealed, is also a witch - Ged seeks a powerful spell from one of Ogion's old books to impress the girl. As he reads the spell, to his horror, a shadowy being manifests. The shade advances on Ged, but is driven away by the timely return of Ogion. Ogion finally gives him a choice: stay with him or go to the renowned school for wizards, on the island of Roke. Though he has grown to love the old man, the youngster is drawn irresistibly to a life of doing, rather than being.

At the school, Ged masters his craft with ease, but his pride and arrogance grow even faster than his skill and, in his hubris, he attempts to summon a dead spirit - a perilous spell which goes awry. The shadow seizes the chance to escape into the world and attacks him, scarring his face. It is driven off by the head of the school, the Archmage Nemmerle, who expends all of his power in the process and dies shortly thereafter.

Ged is wracked with guilt at causing the old man's death, but after a painful and slow recovery, he graduates from the school. Normally, Roke's wizards are much sought after by princes and rich merchants, but the new Archmage sends a willing Ged to a poor island group instead, to protect the inhabitants from a powerful dragon and its maturing sons, who have been seen scouting the region.

Ged eventually realizes that he cannot both defend the islanders against the dragon and himself against the nameless thing he summoned into the world. He takes a desperate gamble; in the old histories, he has found the true name of a dragon which might be the one he faces. His guess is right and by using the dragon's name, Yevaud, he is able to force the dragon to vow that neither it nor its offspring will ever trouble the islanders.

Then, with no idea how to deal with his other foe, Ged tries to return to the safety of Roke, but the magical, protective Mage-wind drives away the ship on which he is a passenger. On the far northern island of Osskil, his nemesis takes possession of a man and nearly catches him. Ged flees to what appears to be a safe haven in the castle of Benderesk, the lord of Terranon. Serret, his wife, is the same girl who taunted Ged years ago. She tries to enslave Ged using the power of a stone which harbors one of the "Nameless Ones", ancient malevolent powers that predate people. Fortunately Ged realizes his peril just in time and flies away in the form of a falcon.

He instinctively returns to Gont and Ogion, who advises him to turn the tables on his shadow. In following his master's wise guidance, the roles of Ged and his enemy become reversed, and the shadow becomes the hunted.

Ged pursues the shadow southwards across the ocean, but is nearly drowned when the shadow lures him into steering his boat onto rocks. The vessel sinks, but he manages to reach a small island inhabited by only two old people, a Kargish man and his sister, who were abandoned there as children and who have forgotten there is an outside world and other people. Despite their initial fear of him, they provide him with food and water. After Ged regains his strength, he constructs another boat. When he is ready to leave, he offers to take the pair wherever they want to go, but the man fearfully turns him down, and the woman does not seem to understand what he means. However, she gives him a parting gift of one of her few possessions, a broken half of an armlet. (The siblings' story and the gift's significance are revealed in the sequel, The Tombs of Atuan.)

Back at sea, the shadow nearly takes Ged unawares, but he senses it just in time and comes to grips with it, forging a bond that cannot be broken. Ged follows the shadow south. On the island of Iffish, his luck begins to improve. The resident wizard is Vetch (true name Estarriol), the only friend he made at school. Estarriol insists on accompanying him. The two wizards eventually leave behind the last known island of Earthsea and head out into the open sea. As they draw closer to the shadow, Ged perceives the water gradually congealing and turning into land, an immensely powerful magic. Though Vetch cannot see the transformation, the boat runs aground. Ged steps out of the boat and walks off to confront his waiting shadow. Though some of his teachers had thought it to be nameless, Ged and his adversary speak at the same moment, each naming the other "Ged". The two embrace and become one. The sea returns to its normal state; fortunately, Estarriol is able to fish his healed friend out of the water.