The Wind's Twelve Quarters...
...has arrived, courtesy of the exceeding generous & hyperefficient altariel1. I've now read the two Earthsea stories, 'The Word of Unbinding' & 'The Rule of Names', which were originally published in 1964, four years before A Wizard of Earthsea. It's fascinating to get a fix on how Le Guin's early ideas for Earthsea originated. One or two observations cf other Earthsea stories, as well as Tolkien & Potter...
'The Word of Unbinding' seems to be an early writing of the central ideas from The Farthest Shore. Though it's set in a much more generic fantasy universe* than the rest of the Earthsea writings, the Dry Land originates here and was obviously central to Le Guin's conception of the universe, which makes a lot more sense of The Other Wind's focus on that land at the close of the series.
I've been compiling a list of Potterverse characters that echo Earthsea ones, and I'd already identified Voldemort with Cob, so it's amusing that the Cob figure in 'The Word of Unbinding' is called... wait for it... Voll.
*Le Guin writes in her author's note, 'trolls became extinct in Earthsea at some point'
'The Rule of Names' feels very much like it's set in the Shire; it even features a Bilbo-esque character called Mr Underhill, who lives in a cave. I won't give away the plot here; suffice to say if I'd read the story unannotated I'd have thought it was someone's crossover with The Hobbit.
The fact that the Earthsea universe in these two stories is somewhat different in feel and detail from that developed in the later novels/stories gives rise to indexing nightmares for Isolate Tower, so I thought I'd resort to a poll....
Poll On indexing 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters'
'The Word of Unbinding' seems to be an early writing of the central ideas from The Farthest Shore. Though it's set in a much more generic fantasy universe* than the rest of the Earthsea writings, the Dry Land originates here and was obviously central to Le Guin's conception of the universe, which makes a lot more sense of The Other Wind's focus on that land at the close of the series.
I've been compiling a list of Potterverse characters that echo Earthsea ones, and I'd already identified Voldemort with Cob, so it's amusing that the Cob figure in 'The Word of Unbinding' is called... wait for it... Voll.
*Le Guin writes in her author's note, 'trolls became extinct in Earthsea at some point'
'The Rule of Names' feels very much like it's set in the Shire; it even features a Bilbo-esque character called Mr Underhill, who lives in a cave. I won't give away the plot here; suffice to say if I'd read the story unannotated I'd have thought it was someone's crossover with The Hobbit.
The fact that the Earthsea universe in these two stories is somewhat different in feel and detail from that developed in the later novels/stories gives rise to indexing nightmares for Isolate Tower, so I thought I'd resort to a poll....
Poll On indexing 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters'