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: Tern
Length: 37 pages
Setting: Havnor, Roke, and other islands of the Inmost Sea
More than half this chapter follows Medra’s escape from Havnor, search for Roke, and the slow building of the Roke we know in the time of Ged.
Roke is a revolutionary thing, a resistance to the brutality of warlords and the misuse of magic by the sorcerers who work with warlords. It doesn’t grow as a means to end their power but to protect and teach those with a talent for magic. There are flaws and divisions even in its early days, but it’s a step away from the darkness.
The other part of this chapter deals with Medra’s dangerous return to Roke and with the defeat of Early, apprentice to Gelluk and puppet master of Losen. Early wants to destroy Medra and to destroy Roke. Medra eludes him, and Roke unmakes him. The wizards of Roke don’t travel to Losen’s court to unseat him. Early goes to them as a would be conqueror, and he dashes himself against the rocks.
Medra gets in trouble for doing more than what he must and blames himself for the destruction sewn by Early. I’m not sure where I land on that. I think it’s true enough in the situation as Le Guin writes it, but I’m not sure I agree with the philosophical argument. I do not think “do only what you must” gets us much of anywhere in a world where most people don’t abide by that rule.
I digress. Our next chapter is a short one as Medra returns to Roke to live out the rest of his life.
Until next time.
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