Tales from Earthsea
Encyclopedia
Tales from Earthsea is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin
, first published in 2001. The stories are set in the Earthsea
world.
Tales from Earthsea won the 2002 Endeavour Award
which recognizes distinguished novels or collections. The individual short stories "Darkrose and Diamond" and "Dragonfly" were each nominated for Locus Award
s for best novelette when they were originally published.
Also included is an article titled "A Description of Earthsea".
The stories collected in Tales from Earthsea make a huge effort to redress the balance. It is disclosed that Ogion, Ged's beloved tutor and mentor, had learned his magic from a master who himself learned from an "unauthorised" woman mage, and that the Roke school itself had been originally founded by women who were later excluded from it. Other stories feature strong and assertive women who in various ways challenge male dominance.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, first published in 2001. The stories are set in the Earthsea
Earthsea
Earthsea is a fictional realm originally created by Ursula K. Le Guin for her short story "The Word of Unbinding", published in 1964. Earthsea became the setting for a further six books, beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968, and continuing with The Tombs of Atuan, The...
world.
Tales from Earthsea won the 2002 Endeavour Award
Endeavour Award
The Endeavour Award, announced annually at OryCon in Portland, Oregon, is awarded to a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year....
which recognizes distinguished novels or collections. The individual short stories "Darkrose and Diamond" and "Dragonfly" were each nominated for Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
s for best novelette when they were originally published.
Contents
The collection contains the following stories:- "The Finder", which tells of the founding of the school of magic on Roke, one of the Islands of EarthseaIslands of EarthseaThe Islands of Earthsea are the hundreds of named islands, groups of islands, and unnamed islets that make up the lands of the largely oceanic fantasy world of Earthsea in the stories of Ursula K. Le Guin.-List of Islands and Places:...
- "Darkrose and Diamond" (previously published in October of 1999 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), a tale of romance between the daughter of a witch and the son of a rich merchant
- "The Bones of the Earth", wherein Ogion the SilentAihalAihal is the true name of a fictional character in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea fantasy series. In most of the Earthsea books he goes by the Hardic name Ogion or Ogion the Silent.-Biography:...
deals with an earthquake - "On the High Marsh", the story of the arrival of a mysterious healer in a remote village
- "Dragonfly" (previously published in October of 1998 in LegendsLegends (book)Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy is a collection of 11 novellas by a number of noteworthy fantasy authors, edited by Robert Silverberg. All the stories were original to the collection, and set in the authors' established fictional worlds...
), which provides a postscript to the novel TehanuTehanuTehanu is the fourth of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1990, and the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1991.-Plot summary:...
Also included is an article titled "A Description of Earthsea".
Themes
A common thread to all the stories is the effort to reinterpret the world of Earthsea. The books of the original trilogy presented Earthsea in general and the practice of magic in particular as strongly male-dominated. Women can only be witches, which is the lowest and most despised rank of the magical world, expressed in the proverb "Weak as women's magic, wicked as women's magic".The stories collected in Tales from Earthsea make a huge effort to redress the balance. It is disclosed that Ogion, Ged's beloved tutor and mentor, had learned his magic from a master who himself learned from an "unauthorised" woman mage, and that the Roke school itself had been originally founded by women who were later excluded from it. Other stories feature strong and assertive women who in various ways challenge male dominance.