DOCSLIB.ORG

Rilke and Le Guin

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Rilke and Le Guin Volume 16 Number 2 Article 9 Winter 12-15-1989 Rilke and Le Guin Barbara J. Bucknall Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bucknall, Barbara J. (1989) "Rilke and Le Guin," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 16 : No. 2 , Article 9. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol16/iss2/9 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: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico • Postponed to: July 30 – August 2, 2021 Abstract Seeks similarities in Rilke and Le Guin, especially in the power of naming and the view of death as a necessary part of life. Notes in particular parallels between Rilke’s Duino Elegies and The Farthest Shore. Additional Keywords Le Guin, Ursula K. Earthsea books—Sources; Names in fantasy; Rilke, Rainer Maria—Influence on Ursula K. Le Guin; Rilke, Rainer Maria. Duino Elegies—Influence on The arF thest Shore 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/vol16/iss2/9 Page 62 (JUlnccR 1989 CPyTtiLORe 60 Rilke and Le Quin ftaR&aRa). Buchnall '^T'he Earthsea Trilogy, as everyone here knows, is easy magic more literally than does Le Guin. But both speak to I to read but very difficult to write about. It seems to the subconscious through their magic, even though Le hark back to an age prior to literary criticism, when the Guin is much less obscure. Both draw on the collective thing to do with a text was not to explicate it but to quote unconscious. it — if necessary, learn it by heart and recite it. Such texts Speaking of the collective unconscious, it is rather un­ have to be instantly comprehensible, at least at the con­ nerving to consider the very striking parallels between Le scious level, and win instant assent. The age of the Trilogy's intended readers only accounts in part for this. Guin and Rilke in the light of the equally striking parallels No wonder the Earthsea Trilogy is so difficult to comment between Le Guin and Jung. But Le Guin has a long history of reading poetry and revering poets, and she has named on — you just end up saying, "How true!" Rilke as a great poet and a profound thinker on at least one If one persists in explicating the unquestionable, the occasion, in "Myth and Archetype in Science Fiction." only possible approach, or so it seems to me, is to ask "Why (Ibid., pp. 77-78.) The specific poem to which she there does this text seem unquestionable to me? How does it alludes is in Rilke's New Poems, but it is hardly thinkable command my assent?" The immediate answers seem to that someone with such an admiration for Rilke would be of a psychological and cultural as much as of a literary have failed to read the Duino Elegies, which are his most nature. I expect readers of Le Guin are familiar with the famous work. Furthermore, there are such close parallels, way people supposed, when the Earthsea Trilogy first in matters of precise detail, as opposed to vast general came out, that Le Guin had been reading Jung. And indeed concepts, between the Tenth Duino Elegy and The Farthest the parallels are very close. First of all, a man has to come Shore, that it is difficult for me to believe that she was not to terms with his shadow. Then he has to come to terms thinking of it. with women. Finally he has to come to terms with death. Both Jung and the Earthsea Trilogy in a nutshell. But the I do not claim that Le Guin carried over Rilke's ideas unfortunate flaw in this assumption of Jung's influence wholesale or unaltered into the Earthsea Trilogy. What was that Le Guin hadn't been reading Jung.1 She read him seems to have happened is that an image here, a line or an afterwards and found him rewarding, but the resemblance entire poem there, spoke to her in a very profound way, was coincidental. Still, it does show that Le Guin had given and became transformed as she worked on it. One of the a great deal of thought to human psychology. chief differences is Le G uin's clarity as opposed to Rilke's obscurity. It takes a lot of mental work to arrive at this By another coincidence, the magic involved in the simplicity. There are certain elements in Rilke which Le Earthsea Trilogy seems to be very closely connected with Guin has apparently made so completely her own, just as what Jung called the collective unconscious. We tend to she has made elements from the collective unconscious, forget that it is not so long ago that a belief in magic was that the Earthsea Trilogy forms a complete, coherent so widespread as to be almost universal. There are pockets whole, with no trace of joins. This is possible because of of it around even today, to be found among people who Rilke's psychological depth. are not necessarily insane. I have relatives in the Outer Hebrides who believe in magic just as much as they believe Rilke's poems are beautiful but difficult, because they in God. My brother Roddy, as a little by, was staying on are very condensed and allusive. For an English speaking their island when he saw a rabbit rush madly across a field reader, they are somewhat reminiscent of T.S.Eliot, but and up a wall. He went into the house and told our they are actually more difficult because the metaphysical relatives, who declared that the rabbit was being ridden charge they carry is not an easily recognizable one. by a fairy and they would have to put out milk for the fairy T.S.Eliot's Christianity is a generally available key to his or it would drain the cows. Magical activity had been poems, but Rilke, far from being Christian, seems to have identified, and there was a simple, practical, obvious solu­ made up his own religion, which you have to feel for tion. My Hebridean relatives were as matter-of-fact about through his poems. He attempted to explain his doctrine it as a North American or Siberian shaman, even if they'd in a few letters to certain people who asked for explana­ never heard of Malinowski. tions, but these letters are not very long, and it is obvious that he experienced great difficulty in separating his mes­ Of course neither Rilke nor Le Guin believes in magic sage from his poetry. like a Hebridean or a shaman. But there is a magical intention in Rilke's poems, just as much as there is a There are, however, certain themes that recur in the deliberate use of the practical approach to magic in the Duino Elegies. One is that death is the other side of life and Earthsea trilogy. His poems are incantations as much as that we deny life if we deny death. Another is that there is invocations. It is even possible that he believed in his own a transcendent element in life which he calls the Angel. It CPyTHLORe 60 (UlnrcR 1989 Page 63 is difficult to tell what exactly the Angel is, except that it is an But not only people have a name on Earthsea. Every single essence which impinges on the visible world from time to creature or natural object has a name in the Speech of the time, and which, although it has no other relationship to Making. As in the case of people, to know that name is to have humanity, perceives in a special way some of the works and power over the thing. But it is not just a case of power. Naming deeds of humanity, that is to say, those that have entered the something creates a bond between you and it, as in the case sphere of the invisible. of the rabbit which Ged summons to show Tenar, towards the Rilke sees some kind of privilege attached to being in­ end of The Tombs ofAtuan, but which he cannot kill for supper visible. It would be absurd to suppose that this has anything once he has called it by its name. This is magic in the old style, to do with the advantages of invisibility, as recounted in fairy since any traditional magician uses special forms of words, tales. The invisibility on which he lays such stress is created but it is also the same thing that Rilke meant when he said by the poet naming so rightly that the names of things take on that we are here to name things — quite ordinary things, a a spiritual dimension that lives on in our hearts. In other pitcher no less than a tower.2 It is not a question of inventing words, the spiritual aspect of things is the proper domain of new names for them, but of uttering the names that they poetry, which is in fact Rilke's religion.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mythlore Index Plus
    MYTHLORE INDEX PLUS MYTHLORE ISSUES 1–137 with Tolkien Journal Mythcon Conference Proceedings Mythopoeic Press Publications Compiled by Janet Brennan Croft and Edith Crowe 2020. This work, exclusive of the illustrations, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. Tim Kirk’s illustrations are reproduced from early issues of Mythlore with his kind permission. Sarah Beach’s illustrations are reproduced from early issues of Mythlore with her kind permission. Copyright Sarah L. Beach 2007. MYTHLORE INDEX PLUS An Index to Selected Publications of The Mythopoeic Society MYTHLORE, ISSUES 1–137 TOLKIEN JOURNAL, ISSUES 1–18 MYTHOPOEIC PRESS PUBLICATIONS AND MYTHCON CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS COMPILED BY JANET BRENNAN CROFT AND EDITH CROWE Mythlore, January 1969 through Fall/Winter 2020, Issues 1–137, Volume 1.1 through 39.1 Tolkien Journal, Spring 1965 through 1976, Issues 1–18, Volume 1.1 through 5.4 Chad Walsh Reviews C.S. Lewis, The Masques of Amen House, Sayers on Holmes, The Pedant and the Shuffly, Tolkien on Film, The Travelling Rug, Past Watchful Dragons, The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America, Perilous and Fair, and Baptism of Fire Narnia Conference; Mythcon I, II, III, XVI, XXIII, and XXIX Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Janet Brennan Croft .....................................................................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • DRAGON Magazine
    April 1981 Dragon 1 Dragon Vol. V, No. 10 Vol. V, No. 10 April 1981 Publisher . E. Gary Gygax Editor . Jake Jaquet Assistant editor . Kim Mohan Editorial staff . Bryce Knorr Coming Attractions Dept. the ballot elsewhere in this issue). The Marilyn Mays With no small amount of pride, Dragon final voting will be done by members of Sales & Circulation . Debbie Chiusano Publishing is pleased to announce some the newly formed Academy of Adventure Corey Koebernick upcoming features that will be appear- Gaming Arts and Design. Membership in Office staff . Dawn Pekul ing in DRAGON magazine. Next month’s the Academy is open to those individuals Cherie Knull magazine will feature a cover by Tim Hil- who have made a contribution to the Jean Lonze debrandt and contain an exclusive inter- products and/or general advancement Contributing editors . Roger Moore view with the artist. In July we’ll have a of the hobby in any, some, or all of the Ed Greenwood cover by Carl Lundgren, whose work major divisions: boardgames, miniature most of you will recognize from the games, role-playing games, and compu- This month’s contributing artists: ter game programs; for example, de- many fantasy novel covers he has illus- Phil Foglio Steve Swenston trated. And in August, the cover will be signers, developers, authors, artists, edi- Cheryl Duval Mike Carroll done by Boris Vallejo, and we’ll have tors, writers, reviewers, convention or- Roger Raupp Dave Trampier another exclusive interview with the ar- ganizers, or any professional or amateur Kenneth Rahman Darlene tist. In all cases, the artwork for these who can prove a contribution to the Robert Liebman J.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Readers' Guide
    Readers’ Guide for by J.R.R. Tolkien ABOUT THE BOOK Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit— a hairy-footed race of diminutive peoples in J.R.R. Tolkien’s imaginary world of Middle-earth — and the protagonist of The Hobbit (full title: The Hobbit or There and Back Again), Tolkien’s fantasy novel for children first published in 1937. Bilbo enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. He does not seek out excitement or adventure. But his contentment is dis- turbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum, and entwine his fate with armies of goblins, elves, men and dwarves. He also discovers he’s more mischievous, sneaky and clever than he ever thought possible, and on his adventure, he finds the courage and strength to do the most surprising things. The plot of The Hobbit, and the circumstances and background of magic ring, later become central to the events of Tolkien’s more adult fantasy sequel, The Lord of the Rings. “One of the best children’s books of this century.” — W. H. AUDEN “One of the most freshly original and delightfully imaginative books for children that have appeared in many a long day .
    [Show full text]
  • Ursula Le Guin to Give First Robert C. Elliott Memorial Lecture
    Ursula Le Guin to give first Robert C. Elliott Memorial Lecture April 7, 1982 Ursula Le Guin, author of the award-winning novels "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed," is scheduled to give the first Robert C. Elliott Memorial Lecture Wednesday, April 21, at the University of California, San Diego. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be." It will begin at 8 p.m. in room 107 of the Third College Lecture Hall. Le Guin will also hold an informal question and answer session covering her work at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 22, in room 111A of the Administrative Complex at UC San Diego. The Robert C. Elliott Memorial Lecture has been made possible by gifts from colleagues and friends of Elliott, a professor of English literature who died a year ago while hiking in the Anza-Borrego Desert. Elliott, one of the founders of the UC San Diego Department of Literature, joined the university faculty in 1964 and served as chairman of the literature department from 1968 through 1971. Le Guin has written 15 novels as well as a book for children, two collections of short stories and two books of poetry. Born in Berkeley, she received a B.A. degree from Radcliffe College in 1951 and an M.A. degree in French and Italian Renaissance literature from Columbia University in 1952. She received a Fulbright fellowship in 1953 and has received honorary degrees from Bucknell University and Lawrence University and an award for distinguished service from the University of Oregon.
    [Show full text]
  • Mythcon 50 Program Book
    M L o o v o i k n i g n g F o r B w a a c r k d Program Book San Diego, California • August 2-5, 2019 Mythcon 50: Moving Forward, Looking Back Guests of Honor Verlyn Flieger, Tolkien Scholar Tim Powers, Fantasy Author Conference Theme To give its far-flung membership a chance to meet, and to present papers orally with audience response, The Mythopoeic Society has been holding conferences since its early days. These began with a one-day Narnia Conference in 1969, and the first annual Mythopoeic Conference was held at the Claremont Colleges (near Los Angeles) in September, 1970. This year’s conference is the third in a series of golden anniversaries for the Society, celebrating our 50th Mythcon. Mythcon 50 Committee Lynn Maudlin – Chair Janet Brennan Croft – Papers Coordinator David Bratman – Programming Sue Dawe – Art Show Lisa Deutsch Harrigan – Treasurer Eleanor Farrell – Publications J’nae Spano – Dealers’ Room Marion VanLoo – Registration & Masquerade Josiah Riojas – Parking Runner & assistant to the Chair Venue Mythcon 50 will be at San Diego State University, with programming in the LEED Double Platinum Certified Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union, and onsite housing in the South Campus Plaza, South Tower. Mythcon logo by Sue Dawe © 2019 Thanks to Carl Hostetter for the photo of Verlyn Flieger, and to bg Callahan, Paula DiSante, Sylvia Hunnewell, Lynn Maudlin, and many other members of the Mythopoeic Society for photos from past conferences. Printed by Windward Graphics, Phoenix, AZ 3 Verlyn Flieger Scholar Guest of Honor by David Bratman Verlyn Flieger and I became seriously acquainted when we sat across from each other at the ban- quet of the Tolkien Centenary Conference in 1992.
    [Show full text]
  • From Master to Brother: Shifting the Balance of Authority in Ursula K. Le Guin's Farthest Shore and Tehanu
    From Master to Brother: Shifting the Balance of Authority in Ursula K. Le Guin's Farthest Shore and Tehanu Len Hatfield Children's Literature, Volume 21, 1993 , pp. 43-65 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/chl.0.0516 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/chl/summary/v021/21.hatfield.html Access provided by Virginia Polytechnic Inst. __ACCESS_STATEMENT__ St.University __ACCESS_STATEMENT__ (Viva) (7 Feb 2014 09:28 GMT) From Master to Brother: Shifting the Balance of Authority in Ursula K. Le Guin's Farthest Shore and Tehanu Len Hatfield In literature as in "real life," women, children, and animals are the obscure matter upon which Civilization erects itself, phallologically. That they are Other is (vide Lacan et al.) the foundation of language, the Father Tongue. By climbing up into his head and shutting out every voice but his own, "Civilized Man" has gone deaf. He can't hear the wolf calling him brother—not Master, but brother. He can't hear the earth calling him child—not Father, but son. He hears only his own words making up the world. He can't hear the animals, they have nothing to say. Children babble, and have to be taught how to climb up into their heads and shut the doors of perception. No use teaching woman at all, they talk all the time, of course, but never say anything. This is the myth of Civilization, embodied in monotheisms which assign soul to Man alone. [Le Guin, Buffalo Gab 9-10] In recent years Ursula K.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender Politics in Earthsea
    Edith Cowan University Research Online Theses : Honours Theses 2004 Visions must be re-visioned : Gender politics in Earthsea Audrey Barton Edith Cowan University Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons Part of the Fiction Commons, and the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons Recommended Citation Barton, A. (2004). Visions must be re-visioned : Gender politics in Earthsea. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ theses_hons/1001 This Thesis is posted at Research Online. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses_hons/1001 Edith Cowan University Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorize you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. Where the reproduction of such material is done without attribution of authorship, with false attribution of authorship or the authorship is treated in a derogatory manner, this may be a breach of the author’s moral rights contained in Part IX of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Courts have the power to impose a wide range of civil and criminal sanctions for infringement of copyright, infringement of moral rights and other offences under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hobbit and Tolkien's Mythology Ed. Bradford Lee Eden
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by SWOSU Digital Commons (Southwestern Oklahoma State University) Volume 37 Number 1 Article 23 10-15-2018 The Hobbit and Tolkien's Mythology Ed. Bradford Lee Eden David L. Emerson Independent Scholar Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Emerson, David L. (2018) "The Hobbit and Tolkien's Mythology Ed. Bradford Lee Eden," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 37 : No. 1 , Article 23. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol37/iss1/23 This Book Reviews 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: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico • Postponed to: July 30 – August 2, 2021 Additional Keywords Hobbit; Lord of the Rings This book reviews is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol37/iss1/23 Reviews moves on to the other element of his cross-disciplinary equation and provides a short history of modern fantasy and theories about the genre; much of this will already be familiar to most readers of Mythlore, at least.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is the Mythopoeic Society and Mythlore?
    Volume 1 Number 1 Article 14 1-16-1969 What is The Mythopoeic Society and Mythlore? Mythlore Staff Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Mythlore Staff (1969) "What is The Mythopoeic Society and Mythlore?," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 1 : No. 1 , Article 14. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol1/iss1/14 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 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/vol1/iss1/14 48 W hat Is The M ythopoeic Society And M ythlore? The Tolkien explosion of 1965-1966 has considerably sub­ sided, but in its wake has come a renewed general interest in fantasy and myth, and in the mythopoeic writers in particular.
    [Show full text]
  • Full Screen View
    THE QUEST FOR SELFHOOD IN URSULA LE GUIN'S WIZARD OF EARTHSEA AND THE FARTHEST SHORE by Jerry K. Durbeej A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida December 2000 THE QUEST FOR SELFHOOD IN URSULA LE GUIN'S THE WIZARD OF EARTHSEA AND THE FARTHEST SHORE By Jerry K. Durbeej This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Robert Collins, Department ofEnglish. It was submitted to the faculty of The Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Arts. SUPERVISORY COMMJTTEE: ~£i c.r02~ Chairman, Thesis Advisor /ff/IUZ~ Chairperson, Department ofEnglish Vice Provost Date ii ABSTRACT Author: Jerry K. Durbeej Title: The Quest for Selfhood in Ursula Le Guin's The Wizard ofEarthsea and The Farthest Shore Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Robert Collins Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2000 In A Wizard ofEarthsea and The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. Le Guin presents the theme of selfhood, of maturity, and of identity through the character heroes of Ged and Arren. Ofthese two, Ged experiences the quest for selfhood on two levels: first, from boy to manhood, and then from manhood to the awareness of death. Both novels deal with the struggle to create, which is primarily a struggle with self, with one's own powers, and with the need to control these powers and their consequences.
    [Show full text]
  • The Search for Self in Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea
    ===================================================================== Language in India www.languageinindia.com ISSN 1930-2940 Vol. 19:5 May 2019 India’s Higher Education Authority UGC Approved List of Journals Serial Number 49042 ==================================================================== The Search for Self in Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea P. Rini Melina Dr. C. Shanmugasundaram Ph. D Research Scholar Research supervisor Department of English Assistant Professor Annamalai University Department of English Annamalai Nagar 608 002 Annamalai University [email protected] Annamalai Nagar 608 002 [email protected] Abstract Ursula K. Le Guin was an American author. she was best known for her works of speculative fiction, including the science fiction works sets in the Hainish Universe and the fantasy series of Earth Sea. She began writing full time in the 1950s and achieved major critical and commercial success with A Wizard of Earth Sea (1968). For the latter volume Le Guin won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel, becoming the first woman to do so. This research paper deals with the self-identity in the maturation of fantasy super-hero Ged, or sparrow hawk, the title character. Over the course of the novel, he learns the true meaning of Wizardry its limits as well as its capabilities. One of the main attractions of the novel, in addition to Ged himself, the fantasy and the adventure, is Le Guin’s skill at showing the friendships that make Ged’s success and mistakes seem so important. Keywords: Ursula K. Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea, Self-Identity, Imaginative, Trickster, Wizard, Magic, Witch In the Wizard of Earthsea, Ged's voyage to selfhood is chiefly a battle to find and name the strange shade which persistently pursues him.
    [Show full text]
  • CS Lewis's Use of Modern Fairy Tales
    Volume 30 Number 3 Article 8 4-15-2012 Watchful Dragons and Sinewy Gnomes: C.S. Lewis's Use of Modern Fairy Tales Ruth Berman Independent Scholar Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Berman, Ruth (2012) "Watchful Dragons and Sinewy Gnomes: C.S. Lewis's Use of Modern Fairy Tales," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 30 : No. 3 , Article 8. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol30/iss3/8 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 Companion to her study of Tolkien’s use of the Andrew Lang fairy tale collections (in #99/100) with a piece on how Lewis used them as well, but tended to look favorably on and use more modern fantasy sources than Tolkien.
    [Show full text]