BEFORE THERE WAS Harry Potter, there was Ged. In the 1968 fantasy novel A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin’s hero emerged as a boy, gifted but sometimes reckless, learning wizardry and struggling with powerful forces of darkness. Le Guin (b. 1929) followed Ged and a young priestess named Tenar through a series of books set in Earthsea, including The Tombs of Atuan (1970) and The Farthest Shore (1972). More than just a fantasy or young-adult writer, Le Guin has proved her versatility over the last half century with works of science fiction as well as with realistic novels, screenplays, critical essays, and translations. Think you’re a wizard of all things Le Guin? Take this quick quiz and see how you fare.
1. In the Earthsea novels, what is Ged’s commonly used name?
2. What Chinese-language classic did Le Guin spend forty years translating?
3. Which classic epic poem provided inspiration—and the title character—for Le Guin’s 2008 novel Lavinia?
4. Which Le Guin sci-fi novel features George Orr, a character whose dreams influence reality?
5. Which Earthsea sequel did not come out until 1990—eighteen years after the last book in the Earthsea trilogy?
ANSWERS
1. Sparrowhawk. Ged is his “true name”—a name too powerful to be spoken casually. More name trivia: before becoming a wizard, he was called “Duny.”
2. The Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu. Taoist elements, like the continuous interplay of darkness and light, can be found in many of Le Guin’s books.
3. The Aeneid, by Virgil. Lavinia is the woman who, at the end of the epic, will marry Aeneas; in Virgil’s poem, however, she never speaks.
4. The Lathe of Heaven (1971). In the novel, a therapist tries to harness the power of Orr’s dreams in order to create a utopia.
5. Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea.