One of the big reasons is that they aren’t allowed to change too much-for all the trials they overcome and friends they lose, the story usually isn’t about their development as people, it’s about them saving the world. A lot of fantasy writers get caught up in the particulars of their magic system, but Le Guin demonstrates that magic should be an expression of the fantasy world as a whole.įantasy heroes are often the least interesting character in their own stories. So much reverence and wonder is packed into this scene, and it shows that True Names aren’t just words of power used by humans- everything is made of words, and in understanding them, you begin to understand the nature of life. RELATED: Grand Master Jane Yolen on Why It's Important to Just 'Write the Damn Book' “In that moment, Ged understood the singing of the bird, and the language of the water falling in the basin of the fountain, and the shape of the clouds, and the beginning and the end of the wind that stirred the leaves: it seemed to him that he himself was a word spoken by the sunlight.” A lot of fantasy magic (and real-life ritual magic) is based on magical names, but what makes Earthsea special are scenes like the one where Ged enters a small courtyard with a fountain and meets the Archmage for the first time. In Earthsea, everything from goats to islands to thistle plants has a True Name, and wizards gain power over those things by speaking their names.
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