The Farthest Shore
Encyclopedia
The Farthest Shore is the third of a series of books written by Ursula K. Le Guin
and set in her fantasy
archipelago
of Earthsea
, first published in 1972. It follows on from The Tombs of Atuan
, which itself was a sequel to A Wizard of Earthsea
. It is the Earthsea series novel which inspired the Studio Ghibli
animated film Tales from Earthsea
. It won the 1973 National Book Award for Children's Books.
, the Archmage Ged leaves Roke Island to find the cause on his boat Lookfar. They head south to Hort, chief port of the island of Wathort where they encounter a drug addled wizard called Hare, who almost tricks them into following him into the Dry Land to their deaths. They realise that Hare and many others are under the malign influence of a powerful wizard, who is literally sucking the life out of the world. They head further south again to the island of Lorbanery, which was once famous for its dyed silk. All knowledge of dyeing has been lost however, and the local people are apathetic and hostile to the visitors.
Fleeing the sense of sickness and evil they encounter there, Ged and Arren again head west and south, out to the furthest parts of the Reaches. Increasingly they are coming under the influence of the dark wizard themselves. Ged is injured by a spear thrown from an island where they attempt to land, and Arren does little to help him. He can feel his life and energy ebbing from him and they both drift away on Lookfar out into the open ocean. Their lives are saved by the Raft People, who live on great wooden rafts in the open ocean, only coming to land once a year to repair them. The Raft People are so far unaffected by the spreading evil and Ged and Arren recover their wits and strength there. However, the sickness does reach the Raft People on the shortest night of the year, when the traditional singers are struck dumb, unable to remember the songs.
Before Ged can decide what to do about this, the dragon Orm Embar flies over the rafts and tells Ged to sail to Selidor, the most western isle of all Earthsea, and the traditional home of the dragons. Orm Embar tells Ged that the dark wizard is there and the dragons are powerless to defeat him without Ged's help. Ged and Arren set out on the long journey to Selidor in Lookfar.
After travelling over the open ocean Ged and Arren come to the Dragons' Run, a series of many small islands south of Selidor. There they encounter dragons flying about them in a state of madness. The dragons have lost the power of speech and are attacking each other. They manage to survive the Dragons' Run, and land at last in Selidor. Orm Embar is waiting for them, but he too has lost the power of speech. After a search they find the wizard in a house he has made of dragon bones at the extreme western end of Selidor - the end of the world.
Ged recognises the wizard as Cob, a dark mage whom he defeated many years before. After his defeat Cob went and became an expert in the dark arts of how to cheat death and live forever. In doing so he has opened a breach between the worlds which is sucking all the life out of the world of the living. Cob and Ged confront each other and Cob starts to gain the upper hand. With the last of his wits Orm Embar launches himself at Cob and destroys his physical body, but is killed in the process. The grotesque remnant of Cob's body, which cannot be killed, crawls into the Dry Land of the dead, and Ged and Arren are forced to follow. In the Dry Land Ged manages to defeat Cob, robbing him of life and closing the breach in the world. However, Ged pays a high price for this as it means that he sacrifices all his magic power in the process.
When they emerge back into the world of the living, after a dreadful journey over the Mountains of Pain, the dragon Kalessin carries them back to Roke island, many miles away. Kalessin leaves Arren on Roke and flies on with Ged to Gont, Ged's home island. Arren realizes that he has become the fulfilment of the prediction of the last King
of Earthsea many centuries before: "He shall inherit my throne who has crossed the dark land living and come to the far shores of the day." In the intervening time, the realm had broken up into smaller principalities and domains, with little peace between them. Now that Arren will be crowned as King Lebannen (his true name) they can be reunited.
Le Guin originally offered two endings to the story. In one, after Arren's coronation, Ged sails alone out into the ocean
and is never heard from again. In the other, Ged returns to the forest
of his home island
of Gont. In 1990, seventeen years after the publication of The Farthest Shore, Le Guin opted for the second ending when she continued the story in Tehanu
.
Ged
: Archmage of Roke. Called Sparrowhawk.
Kalessin : The eldest dragon.
Lebannen : Young prince of Enlad. The name means "rowan tree" in the Old Speech. Called Arren.
Orm Embar : A powerful dragon of the West Reach descended from Orm. Killed by Cob.
. The story is told mostly from the point of view of Arren, who develops from the boy who stands overawed in front of the masters of Roke, to the man who addresses dragons with confidence on Selidor, and who would eventually become the first King in centuries and unify the world of Earthsea.
Ged has also matured. He is no longer the impetuous boy who had himself opened a crack between the worlds in A Wizard of Earthsea
, or the foolhardy young man who sailed the Dragon's Run and went alone into The Tombs of Atuan
. Though the task before him is every bit as difficult and dangerous as any he had attempted before, necessity alone guides his actions now.
In a sense, Cob is Ged's alter ego
- a Ged who did not turn back from the dangerous road of summoning the dead, in which Ged dabbled in his youth, but continued along it to the ultimate conclusion. Thus, Ged's final confrontation with Cob and the closing of the hole between the worlds of the living and the dead is in fact a kind of repetition of his confrontation with the Shadow in the first book, who was Ged's alter ego in a more explicit way.
With a greater understanding of the Balance and Equilibrium that encompasses Earthsea (fundamental parts of Taoism
, a philosophy Le Guin encourages in her works), and how life comes from death as much as death comes from life, Ged is portrayed as a more wise and sagely archmage.
Ged's closing of that evil hole, at the cost of completely losing his magic power (and very nearly his life), can also be considered as finally fulfilling his wish "to undo the evil" which as a youth he had expressed to then-Archmage Gensher (and which, as the Archmage told him, he was at the time not capable of achieving).
reported that it was "fantasy with a logic of execution that is usually found only in science fiction. . . . rich in ideas, color and inventions."
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...
and set in her fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
of 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...
, first published in 1972. It follows on from The Tombs of Atuan
The Tombs of Atuan
The Tombs of Atuan is the second of a series of books written by Ursula K. Le Guin and set in her fantasy archipelago of Earthsea, first published in 1971. Its events take place a few years after those in A Wizard of Earthsea and around two decades before those in The Farthest Shore...
, which itself was a sequel to A Wizard of Earthsea
A Wizard of Earthsea
A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968, is the first of a series of books written by Ursula K. Le Guin and set in the fantasy world archipelago of Earthsea depicting the adventures of a budding young wizard named Ged...
. It is the Earthsea series novel which inspired the Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli
is a Japanese animation and film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro...
animated film Tales from Earthsea
Tales from Earthsea (film)
is a 2006 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Gorō Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli.The film is based on a combination of plots and characters from the first four books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore and Tehanu. The...
. It won the 1973 National Book Award for Children's Books.
Plot summary
A strange, inexplicable malaise is spreading throughout Earthsea. Magic is losing its power; songs are being forgotten; people and animals are sickening or going mad. Accompanied by Arren, the young Prince of EnladIslands of Earthsea
The 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:...
, the Archmage Ged leaves Roke Island to find the cause on his boat Lookfar. They head south to Hort, chief port of the island of Wathort where they encounter a drug addled wizard called Hare, who almost tricks them into following him into the Dry Land to their deaths. They realise that Hare and many others are under the malign influence of a powerful wizard, who is literally sucking the life out of the world. They head further south again to the island of Lorbanery, which was once famous for its dyed silk. All knowledge of dyeing has been lost however, and the local people are apathetic and hostile to the visitors.
Fleeing the sense of sickness and evil they encounter there, Ged and Arren again head west and south, out to the furthest parts of the Reaches. Increasingly they are coming under the influence of the dark wizard themselves. Ged is injured by a spear thrown from an island where they attempt to land, and Arren does little to help him. He can feel his life and energy ebbing from him and they both drift away on Lookfar out into the open ocean. Their lives are saved by the Raft People, who live on great wooden rafts in the open ocean, only coming to land once a year to repair them. The Raft People are so far unaffected by the spreading evil and Ged and Arren recover their wits and strength there. However, the sickness does reach the Raft People on the shortest night of the year, when the traditional singers are struck dumb, unable to remember the songs.
Before Ged can decide what to do about this, the dragon Orm Embar flies over the rafts and tells Ged to sail to Selidor, the most western isle of all Earthsea, and the traditional home of the dragons. Orm Embar tells Ged that the dark wizard is there and the dragons are powerless to defeat him without Ged's help. Ged and Arren set out on the long journey to Selidor in Lookfar.
After travelling over the open ocean Ged and Arren come to the Dragons' Run, a series of many small islands south of Selidor. There they encounter dragons flying about them in a state of madness. The dragons have lost the power of speech and are attacking each other. They manage to survive the Dragons' Run, and land at last in Selidor. Orm Embar is waiting for them, but he too has lost the power of speech. After a search they find the wizard in a house he has made of dragon bones at the extreme western end of Selidor - the end of the world.
Ged recognises the wizard as Cob, a dark mage whom he defeated many years before. After his defeat Cob went and became an expert in the dark arts of how to cheat death and live forever. In doing so he has opened a breach between the worlds which is sucking all the life out of the world of the living. Cob and Ged confront each other and Cob starts to gain the upper hand. With the last of his wits Orm Embar launches himself at Cob and destroys his physical body, but is killed in the process. The grotesque remnant of Cob's body, which cannot be killed, crawls into the Dry Land of the dead, and Ged and Arren are forced to follow. In the Dry Land Ged manages to defeat Cob, robbing him of life and closing the breach in the world. However, Ged pays a high price for this as it means that he sacrifices all his magic power in the process.
When they emerge back into the world of the living, after a dreadful journey over the Mountains of Pain, the dragon Kalessin carries them back to Roke island, many miles away. Kalessin leaves Arren on Roke and flies on with Ged to Gont, Ged's home island. Arren realizes that he has become the fulfilment of the prediction of the last King
Monarch
A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...
of Earthsea many centuries before: "He shall inherit my throne who has crossed the dark land living and come to the far shores of the day." In the intervening time, the realm had broken up into smaller principalities and domains, with little peace between them. Now that Arren will be crowned as King Lebannen (his true name) they can be reunited.
Le Guin originally offered two endings to the story. In one, after Arren's coronation, Ged sails alone out into the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
and is never heard from again. In the other, Ged returns to the forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
of his home island
Island
An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...
of Gont. In 1990, seventeen years after the publication of The Farthest Shore, Le Guin opted for the second ending when she continued the story in Tehanu
Tehanu
Tehanu 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:...
.
Major characters
Cob : A sorcerer whom Ged meets and defeats.Ged
Ged (Earthsea)
Ged , is the true name of a fictional character in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea realm. He is introduced in A Wizard of Earthsea, and plays both main and supporting roles in the subsequent Earthsea novels...
: Archmage of Roke. Called Sparrowhawk.
Kalessin : The eldest dragon.
Lebannen : Young prince of Enlad. The name means "rowan tree" in the Old Speech. Called Arren.
Orm Embar : A powerful dragon of the West Reach descended from Orm. Killed by Cob.
Themes
Like both previous books in the trilogy, this is a bildungsromanBildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
. The story is told mostly from the point of view of Arren, who develops from the boy who stands overawed in front of the masters of Roke, to the man who addresses dragons with confidence on Selidor, and who would eventually become the first King in centuries and unify the world of Earthsea.
Ged has also matured. He is no longer the impetuous boy who had himself opened a crack between the worlds in A Wizard of Earthsea
A Wizard of Earthsea
A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968, is the first of a series of books written by Ursula K. Le Guin and set in the fantasy world archipelago of Earthsea depicting the adventures of a budding young wizard named Ged...
, or the foolhardy young man who sailed the Dragon's Run and went alone into The Tombs of Atuan
The Tombs of Atuan
The Tombs of Atuan is the second of a series of books written by Ursula K. Le Guin and set in her fantasy archipelago of Earthsea, first published in 1971. Its events take place a few years after those in A Wizard of Earthsea and around two decades before those in The Farthest Shore...
. Though the task before him is every bit as difficult and dangerous as any he had attempted before, necessity alone guides his actions now.
In a sense, Cob is Ged's alter ego
Alter ego
An alter ego is a second self, which is believe to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The term was coined in the early nineteenth century when dissociative identity disorder was first described by psychologists...
- a Ged who did not turn back from the dangerous road of summoning the dead, in which Ged dabbled in his youth, but continued along it to the ultimate conclusion. Thus, Ged's final confrontation with Cob and the closing of the hole between the worlds of the living and the dead is in fact a kind of repetition of his confrontation with the Shadow in the first book, who was Ged's alter ego in a more explicit way.
With a greater understanding of the Balance and Equilibrium that encompasses Earthsea (fundamental parts of Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
, a philosophy Le Guin encourages in her works), and how life comes from death as much as death comes from life, Ged is portrayed as a more wise and sagely archmage.
Ged's closing of that evil hole, at the cost of completely losing his magic power (and very nearly his life), can also be considered as finally fulfilling his wish "to undo the evil" which as a youth he had expressed to then-Archmage Gensher (and which, as the Archmage told him, he was at the time not capable of achieving).
Reception
Reviewing the novel for a genre audience, Lester del ReyLester del Rey
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
reported that it was "fantasy with a logic of execution that is usually found only in science fiction. . . . rich in ideas, color and inventions."