In this series, I’ll be working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea works and analyzing her prose chapter by chapter. Spoilers follow.
Chapter 3: Hort Town
Length: 24 pages, 154 paragraphs
Setting: Roke, at sea, Hort Town
Characters introduced: Hare, the nameless former sorceress
Thus far, I have avoided listing most characters that do not receive at least a title treated as a proper noun in these articles, but the textile merchant and former sorceress Sparrowhawk and Arren meet at Hort Town leaves a stronger impression than most of Le Guin’s nameless extras.
With Ged now in the roll of teacher and mentor to Arren, we are getting some of Le Guin’s philosophy more plainly spoken than it has been yet. Sparrowhawk learned from Ogion, but he doesn’t teach quite like Ogion.
Ged waxes philosophical for us about how we have to choose between being and acting, and how if we choose acting, deeds build on themselves, tie themselves to us and force us on into more action. He also tells us that we have a responsibility to act to maintain the balance (a much less hypothetical notion for him than us) because only another human can counter the influence of an evil human.
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t until I was making my notes for this post that I realized the wordplay in Sparrowhawk (Nuncle Hawk here) pursuing a man called Hare in this chapter.
Hare gives us a glimpse of the bigger plot. Folks are giving up their magic to become deathless in some way, and we catch a glimpse of our villain through Arren’s eyes.
I find the second to last paragraph really interesting on a structure level. Le Guin captures the feel of falling asleep while trying to maintain your train of thought so perfectly. The use of repetition and meandering sentences works so well it started to get to me, drew me into that space of being drowsy but wanting to go on, to get to the next paragraph, the next page.
And then she expertly snaps the reader back, especially the reader familiar with Earthsea. We see the country of death, but there is someone here who should not be trying to lure Arren onward.
That’s all for tonight. Until next time.
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