Talk:Earthsea

message: 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)
replies: text: This is, without reservation, completely false on both accounts.  RandomCritic 14:39, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Etymology of Éa 

message: How do I put an Accent on Ea? -- Daran
:You mean like Éa --Astrokey44 14:30, 29 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Putting an accent on Ea 

message: 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)
thread_title: Miniseries 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)

text: "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)
replies: text: 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)

text: 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)
thread_title:  Dragon Tongue 

message: 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)
thread_title: Miniseries

message: 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)
thread_title: Plagiarism

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  General comments 

message: The movie isn't mentioned in the article anywhere! -- Sy / (talk) 01:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: This is the television miniseries, which is discussed here >.  Shot info 08:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Movie 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title: Is this history of Earthsea accurate?

message: :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.
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BetacommandBot 02:48, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Earthseadvd.jpg

message: :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)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Wizardearthsea.jpg

message: :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)
thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Gedo6sn.jpg

message: 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)
replies: text: Should perhaps then we rename the section 'Racial Groups' rather than ethnic?Ged UK (talk) 20:42, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Re: Deletion of Karg/Inca reference 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)

text: 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)
thread_title: Possible Improvements?

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Audio? 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Archmage second to the king  

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Main image for article 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)

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

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Kalessin redirect? 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Havnor Area 

message: :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)
thread_title:  Origin at Parnassus Press 

message: 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)
thread_title: Adaptations

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Iron Age setting?