Talk:Earthsea

Etymology of Éa

I have a problem with this line: (The name Éa is coincidentally similar to J. R. R. Tolkien's "Eä".) It's not coincidental; they are both derived from the indo-european root word Ea, meaning Dawn. However, I'm not sure how to fix this without unnecessary explanation. The name Éa derives from the same root as J. R. R. Tolkien's "Eä", an Indo-European root word for dawn

I've replaced the sentence with "The name Éa derives from the same root as J. R. R. Tolkien's "Eä", an Indo-European root word for dawn". It's nearly double the length but it doesn't seem excessive to me. 60.225.160.189 03:51, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

This is, without reservation, completely false on both accounts. RandomCritic 14:39, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

The deity Ea pre-dates Tolkien's work by a long stretch. Ea was a water god in Babylonian mythology, and also considered a father-figure god, much as Zeus was "father" to the other Greek gods, even when he wasn't literally their father. Just to note, the Babylonians were not Indo-Europeans. KateH 15:41, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Earthsea rules

earthsea rulesVera Cruz

Putting an accent on Ea

How do I put an Accent on Ea? -- Daran

You mean like Éa --Astrokey44 14:30, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Miniseries

The SciFi Channel (I assume US but I'm not sure) are apparently making a TV version: where should this go? --Phil | Talk 16:24, Sep 1, 2004 (UTC)

I just took a stab at it here, under the heading "other media". The Skiffy Channel's adaptation is apparently to be called "Earthsea" tout court, so perhaps it's best here (with a link or at least a nod from A Wizard of Earthsea?) I hope I wasn't too disparaging in what I wrote, but the quick look I just gave the official site depressed me immensely. –Hajor 17:44, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Back in July someone added an entry to the Wikipedia about the miniseries. I found that entry today along with a request for it to be cleaned up, which I have now done. To avoid being biased I updated the information present in that entry to also detail that Le Guin was not involved in the production of the greatly altered Earthsea stories in any way. -- Kenguest 01:31, August 11, 2005 (UTC)

The race issue

This will probably make everyone hate me, but...
I have never seen the skin colours in Earthsea as reflecting the racial issues in the real world. I've always felt that having the majority, including the main protagonist and hero, black-skinned is just a fresh new twist. Just because most of the people in the Western world are white-skinned doesn't mean most of the people in fantasy worlds have to be. They can be any colour the author likes. But I have never seen this as a statement against oppression in real life.
Sure, I understand why UKL is angry at the folks who made the Sci-Fi channel TV movie. I'd be pissed as hell too if they changed a black character into a white one. I'd also be pissed if they changed a white character into a black one. But this is purely because I think the author has the right to define his/her character, not because I think blacks are any better or worse than whites. — JIP | Talk 15:36, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)

While your opinion is your own, I'm afraid Le Guin herself disagrees with you. A Frankenstein's Earthsea notes that she started with the premise of having the protagonists brown and the minority characters white specifically because it is rarely this way in most other novels - think about it, when's the last time you read a novel that didn't have a white protagonist? And by casting the way they did ("colorblind", which often means having a white protagonist with non-white support, because of systemic unequal opportunities in Hollywood itself) they essentially destroyed her premise. Also note that race isn't the only thing she complains about - she complains about the watering down of much of messages in the novel, thereby turning it into a generic fantasy. --ColourBurst 05:42, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, I never said there could not be any race issue behind the setting of the books. It's just that I never saw one there. JIP | Talk 17:22, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

JIP, I agree with you, I also never saw this race message Le Guin was trying to communicate. I suppose this is only because I have just recently read these books and i am 22 so have been used to anti-racism for most of my memory. We all have to remember when Le Guin actually wrote this series, things were very different back then and those memories and values may still stand with her today. As to what ColourBurst is saying, its just as Le Guin has said many times over, as an Author one has very little control over what is done to their work. Unfortunate really but true.

I also have another point to make which reflects on a lot of people's ignorance (mine included) "God created man in his own image". Most of us do exactly that. If I'm white living in a white dominant society, my imaginery characters will quite likely be white, like me. It's unresearched to say that novels with a non-white protagonist rarely exist, this statement is only true in a white society. I think i can assure everyone that in a non-white dominant country, say, India, they have novels with non-white protagonists aplenty! After all, Jesus is full blooded African in Africa. And Jesus could not possibley have been Caucasian because he was Israeli, the Romans remade him in their own image.

So just to conclude my rant, in a fictional piece of work having a non-white dominant world nowadays is probably quite unremarkable seeing as whites are still a smaller population ratio in the world. But for back when the novel was written, Le Guin was pretty damned brave and this also reflects on a how non-judgemental she is! She's quite something!

PS, I have read a couple of the books in Tad Williams' Otherland series. The main character is Irene, an African woman. Supporting character is a native African Bushman. Quite a good read if a little difficult to digest! TheTragicUglyDuckling 21:09, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

If you don't understand why the race issue is important in Earthsea, read the following: Ursula's links to articles on Earthsea and race -- Pay particular attention to "The Shame of Earthsea" by Pam Noles.

This is not about a "race message" as such, other than that LeGuin puts non-white races in her books partly to remind readers that just as in real life, they shouldn't expect everyone to be white. By casting white actors as non-white characters, the filmmakers completely screw that up. It is also a matter of identification. Children should be able to see and read about heroes who look like them. --Bluejay Young 16:09, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Dragon Tongue

The article says that dragons can tell lies in the Dragon Tongue, while humans can't. I think what the books actually say (in A Wizard of Earthsea when Ged first confronts the dragon out in the Western Reaches) is that dragons can't neccessarily lie in the Dragon Tongue, but since it's their native language they have such a good grasp of it that they can say tricky things which aren't lies but which can mislead a less fluent listener. In a similar vein to how, in the stories about genies granting wishes, the genie has to grant the exact wish of the person with the lamp, but can take advantage of looseness in their language to make the wish be not exactly what it knows they really intended.

However, it's been two years since I read A Wizard of Earthsea and I don't have a copy of the book anymore so I can't check to make sure whether this is right or not. --4.246.0.68 17:07, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

This is correct. Dragons cannot lie, but can deceive. Clarityfiend 09:51, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

So regarding the statement in the article "One vital aspect of magic is that it is impossible to lie in the old language" should be change, correct? Though the book did say it was Old Speeck. Which I assume is Old Language. The exact quote from the book would be "Although the use of the Old Speech binds a man to truth, this is not so with dragons. Blindwaves 14:08, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

"Although the use of the Old Speech binds a man to truth, this is not so with dragons. It is their own language, and they can lie in it, twisting the true words to false ends, catching the unwary hearer in a maze of mirrorwords each of which reflects the truth and none of which leads anywhere." It is said specifically that dragons can lie, so I think that it should be changed. Requiem mn 12:35, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

UKL in Tales from Earthsea, an anthology of her stories, clarifies that the dragons themselved have said they can lie in the Language of Making, so either this is true, or the dragons are lying - proving it true. Dragons can lie in the True Speech. 72.49.43.222 (talk) 03:49, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

It appears dragons cannot tell direct untruths, but can take the assumptions and implied meanings inherent in human speech and make seemingly contradictory statements. This would appear to mean that any dragon lie is calculated and deliberately constructed.Mdw0 (talk) 22:28, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Chatter About Tolkein

I'd like to see it kept to a minimum. Even if we believed, for example, that LeGuin was paying tribute to Tolkein with bits of the Language of the Making as discussed, which the author of the section in this article expressly doubts, it doesn't really enhance an understanding of LeGuin's work, which doesn't resemble Tolkein's opus nearly so much as people are fond of saying. The section on the meaning of Tolkein in the old speech should go.

Miniseries

I've removed Category:Television Miniseries from this page as the article is about the location and literary works, and because Legend of Earthsea already belongs to the miniseries category, thus making a miniseries category here redundant. Ergative rlt 20:11, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

Plagiarism

I removed the section that alleged "plagiarism" of Earthsea by several authors. Plagiarism is a serious charge that requires greater foundation that a few shared concepts (which, in this case, far predate either work). As far as I could see, what was written in the section could not be easily expanded into a legitimate section. A full section on influence Earthsea had, if better sourced than this, would be welcome, however. PotatoKnight 01:59, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

I wish you had removed the section, or at least changed it to read "Influence on other Authors". It's still there when I read the page. I tried to edit it it and the link would not work. Plagiarism is more than simply being influenced by someones work or having similar ideas. For example, Terry Pratchett alludes to Earthsea in his wonderful Discworld series when the character Granny Weatherwax talks about the dangers of borrowing (which is like shape-shifting) and the importance of staying in balance. Terry Pratchett is a wonderful author who was just giving a nod towards the great authors and ideas that influenced him. If someone wants to add a section of works that were influenced by Ursula Le Guin that would be fine.

General comments

I've thought about this for a long time, and I'm thinking more and more that with Earthsea, Ursula Le Guin has managed to write the perfect fantasy book series. I've read The Hobbit, and part of the Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien, and over 40 Dragonlance books. Still, having read every Earthsea book by Le Guin (not having seen the TV series, though), I can say that Earthsea tops them both.

I understand Le Guin is purposely promoting both gender and race issues. But I never cared about them when I read Earthsea. In fact, I never even noticed them. What I find novel and refreshing, however, is that the world in Earthsea is almost all sea, with all land consisting of islands, no continents, and that there's no special named "evil" - the only evil comes from humans themselves. No other fantasy series has ever managed that, especially the latter one.

I was also impressed by Le Guin's idea of the "true speech" and how saying things in it caused them to be true, by definition. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

In short, Earthsea remains my favourite fantasy series ever, over both LOTR and Dragonlance. I only wish Le Guin would continue her work.

(In contrast, I tried reading some of Le Guin's other work - a compilation of her sci-fi stories. That turned out so boring I was simply flipping the pages without paying attention to the text. How is it possible that one series of her work is so much better than anything else?) JIP | Talk 19:52, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Go back and read Left Hand of Darkness, Lathe of Heaven, Always Coming Home, and The Dispossessed in a few years. You might also look for a copy of Language of the Night, which is her essays about fantasy writing. The second edition is heavily annotated to bring it up-to-date in terms of insights she's had, particularly on gender. If you're interested in the idea of the true speech, you might want to read True Names by Vernor Vinge, on line here... this book was the prototype for Neal Stephenson's work. --Bluejay Young 16:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Movie

The movie isn't mentioned in the article anywhere! -- Sy / ^(talk) 01:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[1]

This is the television miniseries, which is discussed here >[2]. Shot info 08:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

A new novel for anime?

According to Ms. Masako Shimizu, Le Guin is working on a new novel. But Le Guin does not want to talk about it before its release, as you can read here. The novel might have something to with the offer Le Guin made to Mr. Miyazaki: to write the (untold) story of Ged, in the years between The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore. The inbetween years.

Is this history of Earthsea accurate?

Having just read "The Isolate Tower" an Earthsea Compendium created by Ursual Le Guin, which you can find on >http//www.tavia.co.uk/earthsea/, I am concerned that the history of Earthsea listed in this entry is not accurate. Specifically, that only one year passes between Ged defeating the shadow spirit in A Wizard of Earthsea (1032) and his visiting the Tombs of Atuan in 1033. I feel that the timeline listed on the site I have mentioned should replace the one which is currently in this entry. How does one go about doing that? --Aylessa1 15:38, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Edit away...make the changes you want and if they are inaccurate, I'm sure other editors will alter :-) Shot info 22:11, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Earthseadvd.jpg

Image:Earthseadvd.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot 02:48, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Wizardearthsea.jpg

Image:Wizardearthsea.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot 12:00, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Gedo6sn.jpg

Image:Gedo6sn.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot (talk) 21:15, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Re: Deletion of Karg/Inca reference

I just deleted the following passage under the Ethnic Groups section in the Earthsea article: "In other respects the Kargs seem to resemble the Incas." This sentence had appeared after a racial description of the Kargs. The section is entitled "Ethnic Groups", and ethnicity may encompass culture, but in this section, only race is discussed. Since Le Guin describes Kargs as being similar in appearance to northern Europeans, only in some other way could they be considered to resemble Incas. The notation "citation needed" had been placed after the Inca statement. I would venture to guess that the person who originally wrote that sentence was not using any statement made by Le Guin, but rather something they came up with on their own. (This may also be true for the Viking statement also.) S. Neuman (talk) 20:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Should perhaps then we rename the section 'Racial Groups' rather than ethnic?Ged UK (talk) 20:42, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Technically they are the same "race" (human) but different ethnic groups. I personally would prefer that "Ethnic Groups" is used - as well as the removal of the editorialising. Shot info (talk) 00:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Possible Improvements?

I'd like to see Earthsea get good enough to be an A article like Middle-earth. Some improvements I would like to see to this article include sources for the direct color comparisons with real world ethnic groups in People and Cultures. In fact, more sources in general would be great. I suggest that the list of dates in the History of Earthsea is too long and unnecessary, and should probably be relegated to an external link. I'd like to see perhaps a gender section in Magic; in fact, I think it should be divided into several subsections (of which Roke could be one), like the influence of geography, and perhaps the relationship of magic and religion. I think the "examples of magic" is silly and should be removed.

Other suggestions? Comments? Mistsrider (talk) 12:43, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree that the history section is faaaar too long and totally disrupts the flow. If we really think we ought to keep it in some form, then I would suggest a separate article.I also agree that the examples of magic are unnecessary, but we do need to keep in the central concept of naming, because that is critical to the concept. Again, I agree with the gender and magic idea, because of the male-centricness of magic in the Isles during most of the series, but considering that Le Guin had women using high magic in the earlier tales. Ged UK (talk) 09:46, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

OK, i've done some of these today. Not had time to redo the magic section, and i'd really need to re-read some of the books before I'd feel comfortable with it. Maybe over the weekend Ged UK (talk) 20:00, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

I think the quality of this article should be rated at "C" - probably at the last time it was rated, there were only Start and B classes, with no distinction in between. The article has a lot of information, but with only 5 in-line citations and one reference, I think it falls short of B class.Npd2983 (talk) 01:25, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Audio?

New section for musicians who have written songs about Earthsea or been inspired by the books. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ade mc (talk • contribs) 07:13, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

If it's properly sourced with interviews or the like where they say that this is the case, i don't see why not. Not a whole load of links to songs though, that would be spamming i think. --Ged UK (talk) 09:07, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Archmage second to the king

We cannot say that Archmages were loyal to the kings, because when kings ruled Archipelago there was no Archmage and vice wersa. 62.93.36.156 (talk) 13:54, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

gates of horn and ivory

I would like to make mention of and wikify the dragon tooth/ivory doorway and the horn door that Ged passes through on his way into the magical school at Roke. Would that be appropriate on this page or on the Wizard of Earthsea page? I am thinking here because (pure speculation) I suspect the gate and door are a permanent part of the school, not unique to Ged's journey in WoE. I think it is relevant because it draws on a notable trope of Greek mythology.Npd2983 (talk) 15:47, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

If you can find a reliable source that agrees with you, then fine, otherwise it's speculation, and shouldn't be in any article. I really, really can't see the point of wikilinking 'the dragon tooth/ivory doorway and the horn door' because that's never going to be notable enough to have it's own article. GedUK  16:06, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

I would wikilink to the article Gates of horn and ivory, not create a new one. The novel describes Ged passing through a doorway of ivory with a door of horn. I would think the novel's narrative itself would stand on its own, but I'll search for a reference nevertheless.

Ah, sorry, I didn't realise that article already exists; seems reasonable to me, and that other article does list other occurances in English literature. GedUK  09:09, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Main image for article

I am thinking about removing the book scan of A Wizard of Earthsea and replacing it with a map of Earthsea. A similar approach is used on the page middle-earth. I think this would be appropriate for this article since the article is about the entire realm as opposed to the one novel. Npd2983 (talk) 06:03, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Aaaah, my eyes! How long has that purple monstrosity been there? Take it away, take it away! Clarityfiend (talk) 06:40, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I put the map on the Islands of Earthsea page. Unfortunately it is very small to comply with non-free fair use. It would probably look comically small on this page. That being said, the size of the purple book is a bit big, also the book itself is not significant. If the image were replaced with the cover image of a compilation of Earthsea novels, a first-edition paperback or an Easton Press edition, that would be preferable. Npd2983 (talk) 15:49, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I have decided that the cover of the '80s trilogy box set would be visually pleasing and appropriate for this page - will upload it in the next couple of weeks.Npd2983 (talk) 16:12, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Dragonlords Discontinuity

Under the "Dragons/Dragonlords" section, the article states that the only two living dragonlords are Ged and Tenar. However, several times in The Farthest Shore the dragons Kalessin and Orm Embar speak with Lebannen/Arren. Doesn't this make him a dragonlord too? Anyone opposed to changing the article to reflect this?

Diyforlife (talk) 21:44, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't recall him ever being explicitly called a dragonlord, so unless you can find it, that would be WP:OR. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:32, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure Tenar qualifies either. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:40, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Kalessin redirect?

Kalessin redirects here, but is never mentioned in the article. For someone who (like me) is trying to figure out what Kalessin is, this is pretty frustrating. 213.64.153.102 (talk) 15:46, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Kalessin is the oldest dragon, so old nobody knows whether it is male or female. It/she/he plays a role in The Farthest Shore and makes a brief appearance at the end of Tehanu. I'm not sure how (or whether) to shoehorn this into this article. I'll think about it. In the meantime, I'm going to redirect it to Characters in Earthsea. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:06, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Havnor Area

380 miles is about 600 klometers. A circle with a diameter of 300 kilometers would have an area of about 280 000 km2. As Havnor is roundish in shape albeit has a large bay in the middle I believe that 'about the size of Great Britain' (cca 230 000 km2) is a correct estimate. The areas given previously here and in currently Islands of Earthsea article (which put Havnor as 'about the size of Sicilly') are obviously wrong, consistently about ten times too small. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.24.147.14 (talk) 12:11, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

Origin at Parnassus Press

posted also at Talk:A Wizard of Earthsea --P64

"March 16", Anita Silvey's Children's Book-a-Day Almanac. 2011-03.
quote

"March has been set aside to recognize the contribution of small presses to our literary heritage. ...

"Le Guin was best known, probably as she still is today, as a writer of adult science fiction and fantasy novels like The Left Hand of Darkness. In 1967 the publisher of the small California publishing house Parnassus Press, Herbert Schein, wrote to Le Guin, asking her to consider writing a book for children/young adults. Schein had published Ishi: Last of Her Tribe by anthropologist Theodora Kroeber, Le Guin’s mother. Although Le Guin had not considered writing for this audience, she crafted a coming-of-age story, A Wizard of Earthsea, set in a fantasy world.

unquote --P64 (talk) 15:42, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

Adaptations

See above: #miniseries1; #miniseries2; #movie; #new; #Audio?

There are now three subsections of section #Earthsea#Adaptations: Radio, Television, and Anime. Occasionaly there has been subsection Movie. Confusion is predictable. Many other kinds of adaptation are supposedly "named" in other articles (not necessarily as section headings): Audiotape, Film, Screen, Stage, Play, Drama, Graphic (novel), Miniseries, and probably others. Some are identified by media, others are not. What happens if the "anime" is broad- or narrowcast to television screens? or a made-for-TV movie is shown in a theatre? --P64 (talk) 17:10, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

ISBN

For A Wizard of Earthsea 1st ed., our citation {{cite book}} includes this comment
: Please check ISBN|reason=Check digit (5) does not correspond to calculated figure.

ISFDB does not give any ISBN for that edition, or any Parnassus edition. I have checked the

For The Tombs of Atuan 1st ed., ISFDB gives (ISBN-10: 1-874703-23-X; ISBN-13: 978-1-874703-23-5) which does not match our nominally 1st ed. data.

For the last three novels and Tales from Earthsea, ISFDB confirms our IBSN-13 data. --P64 (talk) 19:12, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I have edited ISBN-13 for A Wizard so that it is a valid number. I doubt that it designates the first edition as we say, because internet search for that ISBN-13 we give for The Tombs (1971) hits a record of the 1976 edition. (Internet search is perilous, at least for a while now, because so many sites reflect English wikipedia --among other reasons to doubt internet search.)

"Ursula K. Le Guin" at Books by ISBN does give for the first editions of Wizard and Tombs the ISBN-13 that we now list here. Is that site reliable? --P64 (talk) 00:54, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Earthsea. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Corrected formatting/usage for http://archive.hbook.com/bghb/past/past.asp
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110717214649/http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html to http://www.ursulakleguin.com/GedoSenkiResponse.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 00:24, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Lead paragraph and novels -v- books for listing section

Hello. I'm not a "Wikipedia regular" but I have edited a few items before. I'm also a librarian, and I've been lending Earthsea books for decades, so I do know something of the topic.

Yesterday and today I made simple edits to do two things:

• make clear that the five Earthsea novels form a single story arc (spread across much of Ged's lifetime), and reach a firm conclusion; it is not that there is a "trilogy" and "other stuff" - the author herself referred to The Earthsea Quartet after Tehanu came out, and while I never heard her speak of a "Quintet", The Other Wind was in turn in direct continuity from Wind...
• while clarifying that "Tales of Earthsea" is a collection of short-form writing, spread over a much wider in-world timespan - there are stories and essays, designed to give more depth to the world (in addition to two stories in another Le Guin collection, and others); it's a good book but in no way part of the main story flow, rather it enriches the world, and, Le Guin was quite clear, "reinterprets" or "better explains" matters concerning women and others.

Today I also made a correction to clarify that if the first three books are YA, the later two are definitely not so defined or limited.

In addition, there was a logic error in the structure of the listing section - if one section references short works, the other should reference novels. Having short fiction and "books" - mixing up novels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the collection - makes no sense, and I fixed this. In fact the form of publication is not important, so Tales of Earthsea should probably simply be discussed in the Short Works sub-section.

My careful edits today were reversed without explanation by a fairly new editor, but I don't think this requires personal debate, rather I propose to raise a discussion here, and if there are no (reasoned) objections, restore those edits later this week. I'm on vacation, so my access is intermittent, but I have time.

I actually came to this article because I was getting more and more queries looking for the "6th book of the Earthsea saga / cycle / etc" - young and not-so-young readers who were afraid they'd missed a bit, or thought there was something "after The Other Wind" and were puzzled because that book firmly wrapped-up the story, and it turned out that this article was one source of this wrong impression, because it was presented as if the main storyline indeed had six books. No one lists collections as part of sequential book series order lists, unless every short story in a collection falls firmly between two books of the main series.

As a close, out of courtesy to those of us in the great mass who occasionally try to help your wonderful resource with a little editing, could you consider making it mandatory that reversals of edits are properly explained, or better still, debated before reversal? Just having someone wipe out careful work without explanation is both impolite and discouraging. Thanks.

2A00:1370:8117:40AC:8565:D390:3D80:E4EA (talk) 08:24, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

You have got a point on the YA thing, this is improper labelling, and would have annoyed the author, from what I've read. On the books, it's more complex. I agree that it is important to be clear about the order of the novels, ans they do carry the main storyline (which sometimes jumps in decades) BUT Tales of Earthsea contained, among all the other stuff, one critical story, which actually does form a bridge from Novel #4 to Novel #5. I think it was called Dragonfly. Let me have a go at wording which reflects this. 194.186.53.164 (talk) 12:55, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

The problem with these edits is that the article was correct in its original form. Earthsea is a six-book series, as determined by its author and its publisher. Any change to the article which tries to obscure this is wrong. I've reverted most of 194.186.53.164's edit.

FWIW, back in 2018 I added the line, "Unusually for a series, Tales from Earthsea is a short story collection; the rest are novels," but that was later removed. Obviously, I think it would be fine to add it back. Dan Bloch (talk) 16:21, 6 September 2021 (UTC)

FYI, the inside flap of The Books of Earthsea refers to "all 6 Earthsea novels". In the introduction to the book, Le Guin explicitly calls Tales from Earthsea the fifth book and The Other Wind the sixth novel. She even says "this fifth book has been treated as marginal, but it's integral". Olivaw-Daneel (talk) 22:23, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Iron Age setting?

The setting is not "early Iron Age" at all. Technologically, the world is at least a thousand years more advanced than the end of real world's protohistory. There's castles and a long history of writing and recording history, for example. 158.181.79.135 (talk) 06:38, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

Iron Age refers to human history, not Earthsea's. Any resemblance to our Iron Age is purely conjecture, so I've taken that out. Clarityfiend (talk) 13:08, 11 August 2023 (UTC)