Sye Johnson - Fan Fiction

Leaving Ogion was one of the most difficult things Ged had ever done.  Not difficult physically, for it was a mere walking out the door, but mentally as he knew what it meant and what was to come.  Leaving his master meant he was now dedicated to hunting the shadow that had plagued him.  For good or for nought he would hunt it down and stop its evil from spreading.  As he walked away from his old, beloved master’s hut he knew all this but he was filled with fear.  He was weary from his struggles and he did not know where to begin. 

He could feel the inexplicable pull that drove him northward, towards the fleeing shadow.  He knew that it too was frightened, frightened of him and the oncoming battle that could only result in one of their demise.

He was not yet ready for the fight.  He had the resolve and the knowledge that he must do this but the courage he was struggling with.  Leaning against his staff he paused for a breath.  The animals of the forest came to him and pressed against their warmth against him.  It was as if they were reminding him that it was for them that he must fight, that he must destroy the shadow so that it would not destroy the world.

“I have to do something first” Ged whispered softly to the beasts and the birds.  They all bowed their heads as if nodding and slowly departed.  “To go forward one must first know the way back” as Archmage Nemmerle used to tell him.  “I must go back”.

The journey was not as long as he thought it would be though on the way he did come across a grave.  A small mound of twisted tree branches topped with a large stone which it was out of place among the greenery.  Moss was only just beginning to grow on top of the rock but it was turning a dried, dead brown.  “There is something wrong with this” Ged thought “it is stained with evil magic”.  What he did not know was this grave belonged to the poor witch-girl he had met as a small boy, the one he had tried so hard to impress with his magic.  She had died tampering with the spirits of the dead, the fate that Ged had almost suffered.

The sun rose on the twelfth day after he left Ogion and he saw it on the horizon.  The small village once he had once thought of as lonely he now saw was peaceful.  Ten Alders stood before him.  He was at his beginning, his true home.

“Noth hierth malk man, hiolk han merth han!” Ged shouted out and, like they had so many times before, the goats came to him.  They looked at him, their yellow eyes staring with recognition.  It was so familiar that he laughed long and loudly.  It had been a long time since he had laughed that it sounded odd to him, as if it were someone else voicing his unexpected joy.

He walked down the slope towards the nearest hut.  The goats walked with him patiently as he hobbled.  The villagers stopped and stared at the strange hooded man surrounded by goats.  He passed through the village coming to a stop outside the bronze-smith’s hut.  The tall, broad-shouldered, unspeaking man has busy hammering a heated piece of metal.

“Excuse me” Ged said to the man “I need to speak with you”.  The man looked up in irritation.  He stared at Ged waiting for him to speak, instead Ged removed his hood.  The man raised his eyebrows in shock and took three steps to stand directly in front of him.  He raised his hand and placed his fingers against the scars that marred Geds face.  “Duny” he whispered then embraced his son.

They sat at his dinner table as Geds father listened to the tale of the shadow.  He listened in silence, his face impassive and as unmoving as stone.  When he had arrived at the end of his tale he took a breath and looked at his father.  “Now I must go hunting but I am scared, this shadow is like nothing else, it is evil embodied and I don’t know if I can defeat it”. 

“Fear will kill you first” his father said in his deep rumbling voice “do not worry about having the courage, I know you are strong and I know you can succeed”.  The belief that his father had in him was unexpected and it warmed Geds heart. 

“But if I fail it will become much more powerful and it will rain evil upon the world and there will be none to stop it”. 

“If you were to avoid doing things because you have the chance to fail you will never attempt anything of worth”. 

The wisdom his father was displaying shocked Ged to the core.  He would have never guessed that the silent man was capable of this level of understanding.  This had been the right decision Ged thought to himself.  His fathers advice and conviction in his abilities gave him new strength and the courage he had been lacking.

“Thank you father, you have given much perhaps even the power to succeed” Ged said with all the gratitude he could express.  He stood and began to leave knowing now that he could face whatever lay ahead.

“Duny” his father stopped him and held out his hand.  “Take this, please, and let it give you strength and remind you that wherever you go, your family is behind you”.

“To go forward you must first know the way back” he smiled to himself, finally understanding.  “Thank you father.  I will succeed”.

Ged set out with a renewed conviction.  “I will succeed” he stated to himself.  The sun rose behind him as he headed in the direction of the shadow, following the strange pull and through that link he felt the shadow flee.

“I will succeed”.

EXEGESIS:

I chose to write my fan fiction on the Wizard of Earthsea.  We studied the Ursula Le Guin text during the fantasy section.  The reason I chose to work on this text is that the world of Earthsea and the character of Ged captured my imagination early into the paper.  The world of Earthsea has an abundance of possibilities through the world of magic and landscape that is developed in the novel and the character of Ged is a well rounded hero that is constructed by his flaws and failures rather than his successes, an aspect which I find compelling. 

I chose to set my fan fiction in the period of the text that follows after Ged has released the shadow and has left his mentor Ogion but before he sets out to hunt the shadow down.  I chose this moment as the decision to change from fleeing to fighting is the biggest moment of the novel and the biggest change in Geds character.

I wanted to develop this period and further explain the change by using what Vogler (1998) refers to as the “Crossing the Threshold”.  Within the ‘mythic structure’ this is the period at the end of act one after the hero has consulted with his mentor (Geds discussion with Ogion) and before the hero is tested (Geds hunting of the shadow).  Personally I found this period is somewhat glossed over during the original novel and I wanted to further develop the moment and create an understanding about Geds resolve.

I used Voglers (1998) character archetypes of the hero and the mentor.  The hero being Ged and the mentor being his father.  Within the original text the mentor is that of Ogion and the Archmages at the wizards school but for the purposes of this story I wanted to expand on the role of the father.  The mentors role within the fantasy archetypes is “to guide”.  I wanted to expand on the idea that a father is a source of wisdom that a child can turn to at times of great strife.

The role of the hero is to “serve and sacrifice”.  The hero is the protagonist of the story and is the one who must set out on the quest which restores the worlds balance or to achieve a personal growth, win a competition, heal a wound or even find a love.  As with the case of Ged the hero does not need to be entirely good.  Ged is a character riddled with flaws and he is the one that creates the quest he as the hero must undertake.  It was through the “crossing the threshold” that I wanted to further express some of Geds strengths and his weaknesses. 

The main reason I wanted to tell this particular story is that within a world where close to anything is possible I find the best stories are those that are about real people and real worries and concerns.  Problems that regular people face in the world outside the book are more relatable than problems about a dragon attacking a village.  So by making the story about Geds fear of the future and seeking his fathers advice I wanted to make the story one that people could have experienced themselves.

 

References:

 

Vogler, C. 1989. The writer’s journey: Mythic structure for writers. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.

Le Guin, U. 1968. A Wizard of Earthsea. Parnassus Press.