(waves rushing)
- I had written a couple of short stories
that took place on these islands
where there were wizards and dragons.
In 1968 when the
publisher, Parnassus Books,
came to me and said, "Would
you write a young adult novel?"
(gentle music)
These islands grew and, boom,
this is a whole archipelago of islands,
and now I draw the map, and I would name
the rivers, and the
mountains, and the cities,
but I didn't know anything about them
'til I went there with my characters.
(waves rushing)
As a boy, our hero was called Sparrowhawk,
'cause the wild hawks would
come when he called them,
but his true secret name is Ged.
Ged sails to Roke Island,
the Isle of the Wise,
hidden the heart of the archipelago.
From all over Earthsea,
young men come to Roke
to learn the art of magic,
the craft of wizardry.
This was not, at that
time, a well-known concept,
the idea of a wizard school.
- I don't think "Harry
Potter" could have existed
without "Earthsea" having existed.
That was the original,
the finest, and the best.
- "In winter, he was
sent across Roke Island
"to the farthest, northmost cape,
"where stands the Isolate Tower.
"There by himself lived the Master Namer.
"Kurremkarmerruk sat on a high seat,
"writing down lists of
names that must be learned
"before the ink faded at midnight,
"leaving the parchment blank again.
(waves rushing)
"He might say, 'He who would be Seamaster
"'must know the true name
"'of every drop of water in the sea'"
(gentle music)
(waves lapping)
(birds calling)
Magic exists in most societies
in one way or another.
And one of the forms it
exists in a lot of places
is if you know a thing's true name,
you have power over the
thing or the person.
And of course it's irresistible
because I'm a writer.
I use words.
And knowing the names of
things is, I do magic.
I do make up things
that didn't exist before
by naming them.
I call it Earthsea and
there it is, it exists.
(gentle music)
