The Other Wind
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Ursula K. Le Guin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Earthsea |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Published | 2001 (Harcourt Brace & Company) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 246 |
| ISBN | 0-15-100684-9 |
| OCLC | 46777444 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3562.E42 O84 2001 |
| Preceded by | Tales from Earthsea |
The Other Wind is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Harcourt in 2001. It is the fifth and latest novel set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea.[1][a] It won the annual World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and was runner up for the Locus Award, Best Fantasy Novel, among other nominations.[1][2]
The Other Wind is a sequel to Tehanu, the fourth novel, and to "Dragonfly", one story collected in Tales from Earthsea.
Plot
Alder, a village sorcerer from the island of Way, has been tormented by nightmares since the death of his beloved wife Lily. Every time he falls asleep, he is brought to the wall of stones; the border that divides the world of the living from the dry land of the dead. The dead, including Lily, beseech him and ask to be set free. He sought guidance on Roke island, where the Master Patterner advised him to travel to the island of Gont and to find Ged. Ged, the ex-archmage, is powerless but knows more of the world of the dead than any other living man. Alder finds Ged who now lives in his dead master Ogion's house in Re Albi. He is alone as his wife Tenar and adopted daughter Tehanu have been summoned to see the king in Havnor. Ged listens to Alder's tale and bids him to also travel to Havnor to speak to both the king and his family.
Alder sails to Havnor and tells his story. King Lebannen is concerned, having made a journey beyond the wall of stones as a young man with Ged, but he has many other worries. The Kargs, a warlike people from the East who despise sorcery, have demanded that he marry their princess to ensure peace and dragons have been menacing the islands in the West. Soon after Alder arrives, dragons encroach further east than they have ever been before and the king sails to meet them, with Tehanu in attendance. Tehanu is present because she has a kinship with dragons, having summoned the great dragon Kalessin as a girl, who referred to her as daughter. She speaks to a dragon who delivers a cryptic message that the dragons are angry that men have stolen part of their land in the furthest west. The dragons agree to send an envoy to Havnor and call a truce.
The party return to Havnor, where the dragon Orm Irien arrives shortly after, taking human form to address the king and his council. The legends of the dragons, the mages and the Kargs are told and compared and it becomes clear that the cycle of death, life and rebirth have been disrupted and that the true natures of both men and dragons are being threatened. The party decide to sail to Roke, the centre of the world, to find a resolution.
After arrival, they are re-united with the Masters who run the great school of Mages. They gather, and the men, women, mages and dragons travel together to the wall of stones where the dead are attempting to tear it down. With reality weakening, they come to realize that the world is in an unnatural state. Dragons and men were the same once, but dragons chose a life of freedom and immortality in the furthest west, while men chose a life of mastery, power and rebirth. However, the ancient mages cast spells that stole some of the west from the dragons for men to go to after death, little knowing that instead of eternal life, their acts had created a grey, windless and lifeless place for their souls to linger. Tehanu and Alder start to tear down the wall, assisted by both the others and the dead and the border is broken. Tehanu takes her true form as a dragon, Alder is briefly re-united with his wife before his death, and the dead are freed from the dry land, which returns to life and reclaimed by the dragons. As the rightful balance of the world is restored, the king marries the Kargish princess whom he has come to love and admire and Tenar returns to Gont and to Ged.
Analysis
The Other Wind continues the stories of Earthsea characters Lebannen, Tenar, Tehanu, and, in a minor role, Ged, from the previous books. With the exception of Tehanu, these characters are already fully developed, and there is little further development. Tehanu, now a young woman, is still very shy and emotionally dependent upon her adoptive mother, Tenar. Nevertheless, she reluctantly agrees to accompany the King on a mission to meet and parley with the dragons. On their first encounter with one, despite the creature's apparent hostility, and her own particular fear of fire, she rides forward to meet it in the hope that it would recognize and honor her kinship with the ancient Dragon Kalessin established in the book Tehanu. In the denouement of the book, she transforms into dragon form herself, and is thus freed from the burden of the injury inflicted upon her in childhood.
The theme of reconciliation underlies this book. In addition to Tehanu's personal reconciliation with her own nature, the sorcerer Alder is reconciled with his dead wife, Lebannen with his future bride, and through that marriage, a lasting peace with Kargad is forged. The disparate lores of Paln, Roke, and Kargad are each shown to be imperfect reflections of the true history of the world. The spell that created the Dry Land, which was intended to create an artificial afterlife, is broken, and the land itself returned to the dragons, from whom it had been stolen thousands of years ago. The dead at last gain their release, and the pattern of death and rebirth is reestablished for all.
Notes
- ^ Two short stories preceded the first novel (1968) and a collection of short stories and essays, Tales from Earthsea (May 2001) was published a few months before The Other Wind (September). See Earthsea Cycle series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
References
- ^ a b The Other Wind title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB).
- ^ "Ursula K. Le Guin". Index of Literary Nominees. The Locus Index of SF Awards. Locus. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
Sources
- Bernardo, Susan M.; Murphy, Graham J. (2006). Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion (1st ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-33225-8.
- Cadden, Mike (2005). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-99527-2.
- Drout, Michael (2006). Of Sorcerers and Men: Tolkien and the Roots of Modern Fantasy Literature (1st ed.). China: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 978-0-7607-8523-2.
External links
- A review of The Other Wind
- Earthsea series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- The Other Wind at Worlds Without End