A glossary of people, places & objects in Earthsea

Now showing glossary items starting V

Valmouth

Harbour town in the south of Gont, on Valmouth Bay at the mouth of the river Kaheda, a day's sailing from Gont Port. The district is governed by a mayor and council

Sources: Finding Words, T; The Dolphin, T; Home, T

'…a sleepy, sunny little harbour town where a ship trading from the Andrades was a great event, and most of the conversation of the inhabitants concerned dried fish.'

'…the little huddle of slate roofs, the spires of blue smoke, a few glass windows catching the westering sun, and the docks and piers of Valmouth on its bay of satiny blue water.'

[Finding Words, T/The Dolphin, T]

Valmouth Bay

Bay in southern Gont on which the port town of Valmouth lies; busy with fishing vessels

Sources: The Dolphin, T; The Master, T

'…the docks and piers of Valmouth on its bay of satiny blue water.'

[The Dolphin, T]

Var

Inland village or town lying near an unnamed river in the west of Gont, near Ketoleko and Solwes

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Vedurnan

Also known as: Division, the, Verw nadan

Ancient division of humans and dragons referred to in the oldest lore-books of the Roke School of Wizardry. Largely forgotten in the Archipelago and in Karego-At except in folk tales such as 'The Lass of Belilo' and the song of the Woman of Kemay, but remembered on Hur-at-Hur, and by the older dragons, who describe it as a bargain, choice or covenant whereby humans gave up knowledge of the Old Speech in exchange for skills and earthly possessions, while the dragons retained only Old Speech and their freedom of flight between this world and the timeless other wind. The pact is deemed to have been broken when the earliest Archipelagan mages (the Rune Makers) relearned Old Speech and partitioned the dragons' realm to create the dry land. Other accounts are various: in Karego-At, the involvement of the dragons is forgotten and it refers only to the division of human peoples over the practice of magic; on Paln, it's considered the earliest triumph of the art magic. A painting on an old fan on Gont, depicting dragons on one side merging with humans on the other, may relate to these legends

Sources: Going to the Falcon's Nest, T; Hawks, T; Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW; Rejoining, OW

'…in the beginning of time, mankind and the dragonkind had been one, but the dragons chose wildness and freedom, and mankind chose wealth and power. A choice, a separation.'

'"Kalessin said: 'Long ago we chose. We chose freedom. Men chose the yoke. We chose fire and the wind. They chose water and the earth. We chose the west, and they the east.'"'

[The Dragon Council, OW]

Related entries: Dragon-humans

Veil

See Yahan

Vemish

Small island in the northern East Reach, near Sattins and Venway; port town is Mishport

Sources: Iffish, WoE

Venway

Small island in the East Reach, near Vemish. Under Kargish rule for at least a generation in the time of Maharion. Exports glass beads

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q; The School for Wizards, WoE; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Verw nadan

See Vedurnan

Vetch

Also known as: Estarriol
Titles: Wizard of Iffish

Wizard; old friend of Ged, and one of the few to know his true name. Very dark-skinned and with a Reach accent. Father was a well-off sea-trader. Gained his staff at the School of Wizardry on Roke, and becomes wizard of Iffish in the East Reach, living in 'a spacious and strong-beamed house'^a in his home town Ismay; he later sends Brand of Venway to Roke. Younger brother Murre and younger sister Yarrow. Of his character it is said, 'there was always such village innocence in Vetch. Yet also he was keen, shrewd, direct to the centre of a thing'^a

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; Iffish, WoE (a); Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

'…a heavyset fellow called Vetch … He had the accent of the East Reach, and was very dark of skin, not red-brown like Ged and Jasper and most folk of the Archipelago, but black-brown. He was plain, and his manners were not polished.'

[The School for Wizards, WoE]

Vissti

Tiny island in the Inmost Sea, between Ilien and Kamery

Sources: The Finder, TfE

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