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Norse and Celtic Elements in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy

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Norse and Celtic Elements in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy Volume 15 Number 1 Article 4 Fall 10-15-1988 Going North and West to Watch the Dragons Dance: Norse and Celtic Elements in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy Christine K. Thompson Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Thompson, Christine K. (1988) "Going North and West to Watch the Dragons Dance: Norse and Celtic Elements in Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea Trilogy," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 15 : No. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol15/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Sees the world-view of Earthsea, as well as much of the symbolism, characteristic of pre-Christian Nordic and Celtic thought. Focus on present life rather than future is a significant theme. Additional Keywords Celtic mythology—Influence on Ursula K. Le Guin; Le Guin, Ursula K. Earthsea books—Sources; Nordic culture—Influence on Earthsea books; Norse mythology—Influence on Ursula K. Le Guin; Time in the Earthsea books This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol15/iss1/4 MYTHLORE 55: Autumn 1988 Page 19 Qoing (J\[prth and West to Watch the (Dragons (Dance: 9{prse and Celtic ‘Elements in Ursula Le Quin s Earthsea 'Trilogy Christine % Thompson n all of her novels Ursula Le Guin is concerned with the of the key concepts in the ethical thinking of the dwellers Iproblem of how her characters experience time in their in Earthsea, and as been noticed about the narrative, Ged, lives. In works involving space travels, characters like the hero, is vulnerable to evil when the light is weakening Genly Ai in The Left Hand of Darkness sacrifice a present life between Midsummer and Sunretum, while his successful with family and familiarity for the sake of contributing to ventures happen during the other half of the year (Man- the future; but they are haunted thereafter by a sense of love, p. 293). personal loss. In other works^Jike the recent Always Com- ingHome or the early Earthsea Trilogy, the connections be­ In Earthsea, as in the religious world of the Norse, trees tween past, present and future are imbedded within a den­ and the well or fountain are revered. Roke, the island sely constructed cultural milieu, rather than being em­ where the wizards are trained, is in the center of the world, bodied in the personal circumstances of a particular and the central room of the School in the House of the character. Wizards is an open courtyard with a fountain surrounded by trees. In The Farthest Shore those trees are named as ash, Le Guin's debt to Northern European mvth has been elm and rowan, all trees that have magical significance in noted by several commentators on her w ork? She herself Nordic and Celtic culture. The young hero Arren is first acknowledges the influence,2 but explains that she did not seen sitting under a rowan tree, indeed his true name we deliberately construct the world of Earthsea so much as leam is Rowan. Since this is the tree planted all over Scot­ discover it in her subconscious. She considers that "a land by houses to ward off harm, and Arren's destiny is to genuinely mythic dimension in a work of literature cannot be the king who hps been prophesied to unite all of be imposed... consciously" (Spivack, p. 133), that rather "it Earthsea in a new age of peace and harmony under his arises in the process of connecting the conscious and un­ wardenship, he is appropriately named. Ged himself was conscious realms" (Language of the Night, p. 79). However, bom in the village of Ten Alders, and his mage stick is what surfaced from her unconscious, in the process of dis­ made of yew wood, another two trees from Celtic lore. The covering the world of Earthsea, and what she intuitively Immanent Grove, the sacred spiritual center of Earthsea recognized as requisite for her purposes was a culture where the Wardens of Roke, meet to do the work entrusted reflecting pagan European values and the physical world to them of maintaining Equilibrium and Balance in their out of which such values arose. world, is an oak grove, another of the sacred trees of the Celtic and Germanic world: "It is said that the trees of the Her familiarity with and profound respect for an Grove themselves are wise. It is said that the Master Pat- anthropological persepective is apparent in the extent to tem er learns his supreme magery there within the Grove, which concrete details of her imagined world are woven and if ever the trees should die so shall his wisdom die" into a complex of social values and attitudes. Thus if one (FS, p. 13). As in the Nordic world, there is no building to looks more closely at the elements from early Germanic house the sacred. and Celtic sources, one can appreciate how the values of such a society are consonant with Le Guin's attitudes to Apart from the fountain on Roke, water is a recurring time. The heroes of each of the three novels face and over­ symbol throughout the trilogy. Ged's gift to the old couple come a potentially fatal attitude to time — an overregard­ cast away in youth on a sandy shoal, who give him as a ing of past or future and an inability to value the present. parting gift half of the ring of Erreth Akbe, is to charm up In this paper I will concentrate on the first and last novel a spring of pure water for them. The narrator says of the of the trilogy where the Nordic elements are stronger.3 sea that "there rise stones and monsters, but no evil powers: evil is of the earth" (WE, p. 152). What typifies the The geographic of the world of Earthsea, depicted in land of the dead is the lack of water: "there is no sea, no consummate detail, is that of a northern temperate zone running river or spring, in the dark place where once Ged similar to the Celtic and Viking world. In such a climate had gone. Death is the dry place" (FS, p. 198). the central factor is the shift between light and dark, from summer to winter. The ceremonies of the novel are rituals In addition to these concrete details of the physical to mark the passage of the solstices, and the turning year world there are several concepts that reflect the influence is measured by Midsummer and Sunretum, as the Winter of Northern myth: the use of the number nine, and the Solstice is called, by the uncertain days surrounding these symbolism involved in traveling towards the north and point of change, and by the Equinoxes, when the planet is west. Nine of course is the magical number that recurs briefly balanced between light and dark, and symbolical­ throughout Norse and Celtic myth. In The Wizard of ly, good and evil, life and death. Balance is of course one Earthsea Ogion tells Ged early in his apprenticeship that Page 20______________________________________ MYTH LORE 55: Autumn 1988 "mastery is nine times patience" (WE, p. 28) - a truth Ged Loki-like shape-changing abilities of Nemmcrle and Ged. does not want to hear; there are nine Masters of Wizardry The words to describe magic: spells, runes, binding, un­ on the magic island of Roke, and they set up nine walls of binding, making and unmaking, wizard, shadow, staff, silence around them when they are choosing a new deeds are all Teutonic or Celtic in origin. Then if one looks Archmage. There are nine dragons on the island of Pendor at the names of people and places, words which exist in that Ged goes to do battle with, and the dragon Yevaud of­ obsolete or modem English like Ged, Cob, Yarrow, Min­ fers Ged nine precious stones from his treasure hoard to now, Murre, Rood, Roke, the Reaches, are once again leave him in peace. And in The Farthest Shore the con­ Anglo- Saxon or Celtic, and many of the invented names stellation which is ascendant over Ged and Arren's voyage and place names have an Anglo-Saxon or Celtic ring to to find the door "through death" is made up of nine stars them: Gont, Morred, Iffish, Pendor, Perregal, Yevaud, in the shape of the Rune of Ending, in the shape of the num­ Andrad, Kop and Koppish, Sneg and the Gontish Sea. ber nine. C.N. Manlove lists several other configurations of nine in both novels (pp. 289-290). The style of the novel incorporates several features of Old English and bardic literature, such as the use of al­ As insistent as the magical nines is the significance in literation.
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