Earthsea is a fictional realm created by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was created for her short story "The Word of Unbinding", published in 1964, but became more famous in the novel A Wizard of Earthsea, first published in 1968.
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The world of Earthsea is a vast archipelago surrounded by an ocean. It is not known whether there are other landmasses, though reference is made to lands "beyond the west" where the dragons have their realm.
The word "Archipelago" is used by characters in the books to refer only to the central grouping of islands around the small Inner Sea. Those outlying are loosely grouped in to four "Reaches" - one for each point of the compass, and the Kargad Lands - four large islands to the north-east. Some of the islands featured in the stories include Havnor and Roke at the Inner Sea, Gont next to and Atuan in the Kargad Lands.
The Creation of Éa is a 31 Stanza poem which is the oldest part of the oral tradition of Earthsea. It describes how Segoy raised the islands of Earthsea from the Ocean by naming them in the true speech.
(The name Éa is coincidentally similar to J. R. R. Tolkien's "Eä", the entirety of existence of which Middle-earth is only a part, as described in The Silmarillion.)
Little is known of the original inhabitants of Earthsea, but scattered legends suggest that both humans and dragons decedended from the same race. The ancient Pelnish lore and Kargad legends suggest that there was an agreement to separate, called the Vedurnan or Verw Nadan.
Geography
History
Prehistory
The first Kings
The Dark Years
To be written:
The Earthsea books:
External links
