Form and Genre in A Wizard of Earthsea

I have to admit that I am very resistant to this book, A Wizard of Earthsea. I have been resisting it even before I opened it up to the first page. Fantasy is not the kind of genre I would read outside of this class during my own freetime. When I actually began reading, the text enhanced my resistance as well. Right from the very first page, the narrator brings the reader into this make-believe world of “Earthsea,” and it throws out all these fictional names and places that are hard for me to grasp. For example, the narration starts out as the following: “The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards. From the towns in its high valleys and the ports on its dark narrow bays many a Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wonder working magic from isle to isle of all Earthsea” (1).  So, right away the text is very intimidating for readers who are not frequent fantasy-seekers. In order to read this book as it is, one has to truly submit to its fantasy aspects and truly believe it for what’s written on the pages. This is extremely hard for me to do, but I’ve been trying to push through all the nouns and places that don’t make sense to me.

So far in the novel, I noticed the use of the qualitative progressive form, which is prominent through the main character’s experiences so far in the book. The main character, Ged, is going to go through some type of magical transformation on his journey from childhood to adulthood. Readers know this will happen since there is a famous story told about Ged (it’s called Deed of Ged), which is brought to the attention of the reader on the very first page.

Ged first realizes he has the gift of magic inside of him when he uses a spell on some goats after seeing his aunt use the same spell on the same goats on page three. He is at first amazed by his power because he “laughed and shouted it out again, the rhyme that gave him power over the goats” (3). However he soon became frightened by how much power he had over the goats when he tried to run away from them, but they followed him all the way to his aunt’s house on page four. This first significant event is clear foreshadow that Ged indeed has great powers, but unless he knows fully how to use these powers, he could become very dangerous.

The next event that shows qualitative progression is when the small village Ged lives in with his father is threatened to be attacked by “a hundred men, which is not many; but in the village were only eighteen men and boys” (12). Ged becomes a hero of his small town when he uses his magic to circle the village with fog. The attackers don’t know the parameters of the town like the villagers do, so the villagers lure them off a peak (hidden by the fog) to their death, thus winning the battle. Ged becomes a hero, but he soon becomes very ill from using up so much of his power. This again foreshadows how powerful our main character Ged really is, but on the other hand, he can be extremely dangerous by exerting too much power.

The Mage of Re Albi, whose name is Ogion the Silent, comes to Ged and restores him to good health after the victorious battle. Ogion leaves, but then returns again once Ged turned 13 years old. Ogion offers to be Ged’s mentor of wizardry, and Ged accepts the invitation and begins to travel with him back to Ogion’s home to learn as much as he can from Ogion. As the story grows, so does our protagonist, Ged. He becomes wiser, he learns more about his power, and he starts to see the potential danger in his powerfulness. As Ged grows as a rising wizard, the qualitative progressive form also leads readers to the central plot of the story which is soon to come. I am guessing that something extraordinarily great will happen to Ged as his powers increase, but this will come with a price and/or consequence.