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 10: The Dolphin
Length: 19 pages, 140 paragraphs
Setting: At sea aboard the Dolphin
Tenar and Therru’s time on The Dolphin imitates those rest chapters of Ged and Lebannen at sea in The Farthest Shore. It is comforting to see from another, more grounded perspective, that Lebannen is the caliber of person that Ged took him to be in The Farthest Shore. Any king that passes Tenar’s sniff test has my vote.
At the same time, this chapter continues on a lesser theme of this Scouring of Gont. A good king can do some good, but a good king alone does not restore order to every corner. Even a king is only a person.
I love how Le Guin employs the Master Windkey here. He is good and honest and also reflexively sexist. There is a moment when Tenar runs into the safety of Lebannen’s ship where we’re meant to sigh in relief. And there is relief from the asocial danger of Handy but not from the deeper hierarchal danger posed by Aspen and the broader societal issues that plague Tenar and Therru.
I am stopping, with this chapter, the business of cataloging the first appearances of characters. This was much more noteworthy in A Wizard of Earthsea when named characters were few and far between.
By Tehanu characters and their names and their relevance may be introduced pages and chapters apart in bits and pieces. It seems notable that when Tenar is our lens on Earthsea, most people seem to get the dignity of a name.
Until next time.
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