“List of characters in Earthsea”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

This is a list of the names of characters in the stories about the fantasy world of Earthsea, created by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Nomenclature

In Earthsea, one character often has several names. This is because in Earthsea, the true name of a person has power and a wizard can wield total power over someone whose name he knows. Consequently, any person guards his true name closely and only shares it with those whom he or she can totally trust. Through childhood up to puberty, children are known by a child-name; at their rite of Passage, about the age of thirteen, children are given a true name in the Old Speech, usually by a wizard, that they will keep for the rest of their lives. In the Kargad lands this is not done and a name given to a child functions as that person's name for life: it may, or may not, be the person's true name.

In dealings with most people, the Hardic peoples of Earthsea use a "use-name", usually a common word in the Hardic language (rendered into English) by which they are identified. Use-names are often words referring to animals (Dragonfly, Goha, Hare, Hawk, Hound, Lark, Murre, Otak, Otter, Sparrowhawk, Tern), plants (Alder, Apple, Aspen, Beech, Hemlock, Heather, Ivy, Lily, Littleash, Moss, Rose, Rowan, Vetch, Yarrow), stones and other substances (Diamond, Flint, Golden, Ivory, Jasper, Onyx): but some are simply sequences of sound without obvious meaning.

A person may keep one use-name all his or her life, or may change it at whim, or may be known to one group of people by one name and to others by another name. While each true name only refers to one person, use-names may be shared by several people: there are, for instance, three different characters called Rose.

In the list below, true names are used where known, otherwise use-names and nicknames. A secondary list below gives the use-names and child-names of those whose true names are known.

Names

True names are shown in bold type, use names in italics. Child names, names of unknown status and nicknames are unmarked. Titles in brackets are the novels or stories in which the character appears.

Use-names and Child-names

Erreth-Akbe

Introduced in A Wizard of Earthsea, Erreth-Akbe is one of - and possibly the most important - characters in the historical back-story of the Earthsea novels.

Erreth-Akbe lived many centuries before the primary events that take place in the Earthsea novels. Erreth-Akbe was a famous hero and a great sorcerer, as well as counselor and good friend to King Maharion. Erreth-Akbe was a ‘dragonlord’, i.e. esteemed well enough by some dragons that they were willing to speak with him.^[2]

Erreth-Akbe gained undying fame when he fought and defeated the Firelord, a being of immense power who sought to conquer the lands of the inner sea and stop the sun at midday so there would be light unending.^[3]

In 440, he carried the Ring of Morred (known also as Elfarran's ring, later to be called the Ring of Erreth-Akbe) to King Thoreg of the Kargs, as a sign of peace between the Archipelago and the Kargad Lands. However, he found himself in the midst of a coup, organised by a Kargish High Priest, who broke the ring in half. Half of the ring was passed along the descendants of the Kargish royalty and eventually lost generations later when the last descendants were exiled to a remote unnamed and uncharted isle, while the other half was kept in the Tombs of Atuan.

In 448, Erreth-Akbe fought the ancient dragon Orm on Selidor, the remotest island in the West Reach. The battle resulted in the death of both Orm and Erreth-Akbe.^[4]

Later, after Ged found half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, he met the dragon Orm Embar, descendant of Orm, on Selidor. Orm Embar told Ged the history of the ring half he carried. When Ged was an archmage, he met the ghost of Erreth-Akbe summoned by Cob, in the place where the hero died.

The dragons on Selidor and in the West Reach remember Erreth-Akbe and respect him. Ged later said of his meeting with Orm Embar:

References

1. ^The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, eds. Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 2000), pages 180.
2. ^The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, eds. Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 2000), pages 180.
3. ^{{cite book | title=The Dictionary of Imaginary Places | last=Manguel | first=Alberto | publisher=Harcourt Brace & Company | location=New York | edition= | date=2000 | isbn=0-15-100541-9}}
4. ^{{cite book | title=The Tombs of Atuan | last=Le Guin | first=Ursula K. | authorlink=Ursula K. Le Guin | publisher=Atheneum | location=New York | edition=1st | date=1971}}
5. ^{{cite book | title=A Wizard of Earthsea | last=Le Guin | first=Ursula K. | authorlink=Ursula K. Le Guin | publisher=Parnassus | location=Berkeley | edition=1st | date=1968}}
6. ^{{cite book | title=The Farthest Shore | last=Le Guin | first=Ursula K. | authorlink=Ursula K. Le Guin | publisher=Atheneum | location=New York | edition=1st | date=1972}}