A few words on Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle.
Written by Alex Bamforth
Contains mild spoilers.
Throughout her life author Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) sporadically released The Earthsea Cycle through several short stories and its first three novels between 1968 and 1972. A fourth novel was released in 1990 and the final two in 2001. It was a fantasy epic that used subversion to talk about gender roles, something unheard of within the genre before and something Le Guin did with considerable originality. Her writing brought new issues to fantasy and continues to inspire writers to do the same decades later.
In each novel Le Guin introduces characters who expand upon the world of Earthsea with their stories of adventure, growth and magic. They are complex characters in a complex world. More often than not they tend to share one similar trait; empathy or a lack of it. Some characters learn empathy throughout the course of their stories whilst others teach it. It is an important part of the Earthsea stories, not only in the characters but in the world Le Guin creates. She takes us to different places with their own cultures, religions and customs and brings her characters to these places where they are met with the unfamiliar and the unknown and forced to adapt to survive.
The most prevalent characters throughout The Earthsea Cycle are Sparrowhawk, first introduced in A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), and Tenar who is first introduced in The Tombs of Atuan (1970). Sparrowhawk's journey begins with him as a young boy living in a village on the island of Gont and continues to him becoming a powerful archmage, travelling much of the world. In contrast to his arc, Tenar’s is almost the opposite. She goes from being a high priestess surrounded by wealth and worship to living on a farm and raising a family. It may seem typical that when the two character’s stories once again become intertwined that it is Sparrowhawk who has lived a life of adventure whilst Tenar has settled for the opposite. In Le Guin’s novel; Tehanu Sparrowhawk seeks the help of Tenar who is now a widow living alone on her farm. Tenar saves Sparrowhawk’s life but he is never to be the powerful wizard he once was. As a result of this he falls into a deep depression. Only through Tenar’s way of life does Sparrowhawk find peace, agreeing to live with her as a goatherd, raise a child and rekindle their forgotten love.
The narrative is subverted throughout Tehanu to make it a story that challenges expectations within fantasy. The reader is always expecting a triumphant recovery for Sparrowhawk so that he can be the hero but it never comes. Instead the story is Tenar’s. It is the story of a lonely widow, who is without magic in a world filled with it. She endures hardships that could be solved easily by a character like Sparrohawk but her triumphs come as a result of her ability to connect with other characters on a humane level. Through desperation and a need to help others Tenar’s will is tested unlike any other character in the Earthsea stories and it is her tribulation that sees her excel within her environment.
The Earthsea Cycle is filled with interesting character progression such as Tenar’s. Le Guin writes with such thoughtful appreciation of growth and how it can be taught to characters and audience alike that makes her writing resonate. Whilst the Earthsea books may lack that which other fantasy epics pride themselves on, it delivers one of the most meaningful reads in the genre and is a classic example of quality over quantity.
