A glossary of people, places & objects in Earthsea

Now showing glossary items relating to places

Allage

Inland village or town lying near an unnamed river in the southwest of Gont; upriver from Essary

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Allernots

Also known as: The Allernots

A group of three islets in the eastern North Reach, north of Ferrins and south of Komokome and Sort

Amrun

Town in the South Reach with a market where slaves are sold

Sources: Magelight, FS

Andanden

Also known as: Mount Andanden

Huge silent volcano with a broken cone on the island of Semel; land around it is black lava. Said to be 'a most sacred place to the dragons, where they came to drink fire from the earth in ancient days.'^a

Sources: On the High Marsh, TfE; Palaces, OW (a)

Andrad

Medium-sized, hilly northern island, near Orandrad and the Andrades; it lies north of Gont. Exports include fleecefell

Sources: The Hawk's Flight, WoE; Hort Town, FS

'So he had … gone on and on, east by south, the hills of Oranéa faint to his right and the hills of Andrad fainter to his left, and before him only the sea…'

[The Hawk's Flight, WoE]

Andrades

Group of small northern islands lying north of Andrad and south of the easterly islands of the North Reach; possibly also used to encompass the entire group, including Andrad and Orandrad. Exports include fine wine, fleecefell, and probably furs and ivories

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; Mice, T; Dragonfly, TfE

Aol

Also known as: Forest of Aol

Forest of the island of Enlad. According to 'The Masters of Roke', in the east, though it's shown in the west in the map from Tales from Earthsea

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS

Apso

Islet in the western East Reach, near Kopp and Rolameny

Ar

Also known as: River Ar

River on the island of Gont, arising near Ten Alders and flowing down the Northward Vale. Its mouth is called Armouth; several towns lie along its length, including Medu, Lotin, Chodur and Toss

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; Frontispiece map, T

'…the pools of the River Ar that like all Gontish rivers ran very quick and cold…'

[Warriors in the Mist, WoE]

Archipelago

Also known as: Western Isles, Hardic lands

All islands of Earthsea outside the eastern Kargad Lands; sometimes the four Reaches are also excluded

'"…there are many islands. Four times forty, they say, in the Archipelago alone, and then there are the Reaches; no man has ever sailed all the Reaches, nor counted all the lands. And each is different from the others."'

[The Great Treasure, ToA]

Ark

Small island in the Inmost Sea, adjacent to Ilien and part of that principality; described as rich with many cities, including Sesesry on the east coast. Ruled by the Lord of Ark

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; The Masters of Roke, FS; On the High Marsh, TfE

'…the two fair islands Ark and Ilien, towered and terraced with cities…'

[The Shadow, WoE]

Armed Cliffs

Also known as: Gates of the Port

Steep cliffed headlands on either side of a narrow channel at the mouth of the long narrow bay on which Gont Port stands; only 100 feet apart at the narrowest point. Bowmen are positioned in forts high on the cliffs. Ogion holds them apart when they are threatened by earthquake ten years before 'The Shadow' [WoE]

Sources: The Dolphin, T; The Bones of the Earth, TfE

'The ship was passing between the Armed Cliffs, towering grim walls that seemed to lean above the sails. Bowmen on guard in little forts like mud-swallows' nests high on the cliffs looked down at them on deck…'

[The Dolphin, T]

Armouth

Coastal area at the mouth of the river Ar in Northward Vale in the east of Gont; in some sources, also a town or village. Hundreds of Kargish invaders were massacred on the beaches here in around 1012

'Farther down the Northward Vale those warriors got their fill of fighting. The towns of the East Forest, from Ovark to the coast, had gathered their men and sent them against the invaders of Gont. Band after band they came down from the hills, and that day and the next the Kargs were harried back down to the beaches above East Port, where they found their ships burnt; so they fought with their backs to the sea till every man of them was killed, and the sands of Armouth were brown with blood until the tide came in.'

[Warriors in the Mist, WoE]

Arrins

Small island in the southerly end of the West Reach, near Near Kaltuel and west of Ensmer

Astowell

Also known as: Lastland

Small seldom-visited isle, in the East Reach, near Kornay and Gosk; the most easterly of all the islands. Its single port lies in the north, on a creek mouth between rocky hills; its inhabitants live in wattle huts, facing north or west towards the rest of Earthsea. The people are wary and ignorant of much about the Archipelago beyond the East Reach; they have no wood and nothing to trade, use tools of stone or shell, weave coracles of reeds (which aren't strong enough to reach the neighbouring islands), and burn goat-dung and broom-faggots for fuel. Ruled by an Isle-Man or chief

'…an isle of pinnacled cliffs above which the sea-gulls wheeled in huge flocks whose mewing clamour could be heard from far over the sea.'

[The Open Sea, WoE]

Ath's House

Old two-storey, stone house with a courtyard at the end of a lane in Telio on Pody, in which the mage Ath once stayed; originally a handsome house with high-ceilinged, elegant rooms, it was very dilapidated at the time of 'The Finder' [TfE]

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Atnini

Small island off Hur-at-Hur in the Kargad Lands. Ruled by the Godking from Karego-At until it is conquered by the Hur-at-Hur warlord Thol, around ten years after the restoration of the Archipelagan monarchy

Sources: Palaces, OW

Atuan

Also known as: Holy Land

Island of the Kargad Lands, west of Karego-At; location of the Tombs of Atuan. Major cities are Tenacbah and Gar; other towns include Entat (and possibly Ossawa); other features include the Western Mountains and Cloud Cape. An island of contrasts: relatively fertile hill country lies in the north, and lowland plains with grassland, farms & pine forests lie on the west coast; however, the interior is desert, and barren plains are found in the east

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; The Western Mountains, ToA

Aurun

See Lips of Paor

Awabath

Titles: the Sacred City, the Holy City

City on Karego-At, fifty miles from Hupun. Originally the centre of the worship of the Twin Gods. After the rise of the Priest-Kings in around 440, capital of the Kargad Lands, and eventually seat of the Godking

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; A Description of Earthsea, TfE; Palaces, OW

Back door

The main entrance to the Great House of Roke. The doorway is of solid ivory, cut from a tooth of the Great Dragon, said to be found on Mount Onn. The door is of polished horn, carved on the inside with the motif of the Thousand-leaved Tree. There is no grand entrance to the school, however: from the outside it appears as an ordinary small wooden door, opening straight from a narrow street near one corner of the outer wall of the Great House. The door is guarded by the Master Doorkeeper, one of the nine Masters of Roke, and it is said that no spell could open it if the Doorkeeper has closed it

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; Dragonfly, TfE

'"…from inside you see that the door is entirely different---it's made out of horn, with a tree carved on it, and the frame is made out of a tooth, one tooth of a dragon that lived long, long before Erreth-Akbe, before Morred, before there were people on Earthsea. … They found the tooth on Mount Onn, in Havnor, at the center of the world. And the leaves of the tree are carved so thin that the light shines through them, but the door's so strong that if the Doorkeeper shuts it no spell could ever open it."'

[Dragonfly, TfE]

Balatran

See Roads of Balatran

Barnisk

Medium-sized island in the Gontish Sea to the north-east of Havnor, near Torheven and Oranéa

Sources: The Shadow, WoE

Bars of Uny

String of islets in the southeast of the Archipelago, lying north of Uny and east of O in the Closed Sea

Bay of Havnor

Also known as: Great Bay of Havnor, Havnor Bay

Huge calm bay in the south of Havnor Island, fed by the Onneva river and reached from the Ebavnor Straits via natural portals named the Gates of the Bay. The huge port of Havnor City lies at its north-east

Sources: Voyage, ToA; The Mending of the Green Pitcher, OW; Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW

'…the bay that lies locked in the heart of Havnor…'

[Voyage, ToA]

Bay of Thwil

See Thwil Bay

Beech Springs

Inland village or town in the southeast of Gont, presumably the location of a spring; near Ovark, Wiss and Down Wiss

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Bereswek

Medium-sized island in the North Reach, near Udrath and N&S Enwas; the inhabitants are white skinned

Sources: Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

Berila

Also known as: City of Ivory

Capital of Enlad in the west of the island, described as being 'white above its bay'^a (the Bay of Berila), with golden roofs and 'bright, cool streets'^b. It has a marketplace where cattle and sheep are sold. Historically, Berila was the seat of the monarchy from before the time of Morred until Akambar moved the court to Havnor City

Sources: Hunted, WoE (a); Hort Town, FS (b)

Related entries: King of All the Isles

Besu

Islet off the west coast of Havnor island in the Pelnish Sea, near Bishi; its port town may be Esen

Big House

House in the Place of the Tombs on Atuan where the lesser priestesses and novices live. Stone built, it contains a narrow refectory, long low-beamed dormitories, attic weaving room, workrooms, kitchens, cellars and store rooms, and a courtyard with water cisterns and a well. The cellar beneath the kitchens has a concealed spyhole to the Labyrinth

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; The Man Trap, ToA

Bishi

Islet off the east coast of Semel, in the Pelnish Sea; near Ebishi and Besu

Black Well of Fundaur

Also known as: Fundaur, Black Well of

The capping of the Black Well of Fundaur is reckoned among Ged's famous deeds. Emanations from Fundaur are mentioned as making the Acastan Spells powerless. It may have been a site where the Old Powers were strong

Sources: The Rowan Tree, FS; The Bones of the Earth, TfE

Boatwright Street

Street in the old part of Havnor City, near the harbour and the shipyards, where lives a small community of people from Paln; has a tavern

'The houses were ancient, crowded close, with the bridges between roof and roof that gave Havnor Great Port a second, airy web of streets high above its paved ones./…[The roof] was joined to other roofs by a bridge on each side, so that there was a regular cross-roads and thoroughfare across it. Awnings were set up by the low parapets, and the breeze from the harbor cooled the shaded air.'

[Dolphin, OW]

Bog Lake

Lake near Re Albi in the south of Gont

Sources: The Bones of the Earth, TfE

Borilous Rocks

Rocks in the Inmost Sea, to the east of Roke, a danger to ships in poor visibility

Sources: The Shadow, WoE

Borth

Small island in the west of North Reach, north-west of Rogmy and south of Hogen Land. Osskili is probably the language spoken there

Sources: A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Cave at Aurun

See Lips of Paor

Chemish

Small elongated island in the eastern North Reach, near Komokome and Sort

Chodur

Inland village or town by the river Ar in the east of Gont; near Toss, Medu and Lotin

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

City of the Kings

See Hupun

Closed Sea

Sea south and east of the isle of O containing small rich isles including the Bars of Uny which, in the Dark Years at least, did not trade with the islands of the Inmost Sea

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Cloud Cape

Rocky headland on the west coast of Atuan; it has cliffs above a sandy beach, a narrow cave 30 feet long just above the high water level, and a freshwater stream

Sources: Voyage, ToA

Colleges

Centres of learning termed colleges are located on Ea and the Enlades; described as old, they may date from the ancient monarchy. Whether they teach both men and women isn't stated. The Roke School of Wizardry also appears to have a similar function, though its learning is divulged only to men

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW

Cottages

See Huts

Council Room

Long dark-walled, low-beamed room in the Great House of Roke in which the Masters of Roke meet. It has a row of high, pointed windows under which a table is set, a stone hearth opposite, and is reached by a corridor whose walls are engraved with runes, some inlaid with silver

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS; Dragonfly, TfE

'Arren followed him into a long, low-beamed room, where on one side a fire burned in a stone hearth, its flames reflecting in the oaken floor, and on the other side pointed windows let in the heavy light of a foggy morning.'

[The Masters of Roke, FS]

Court of the Fountain

Central roofless court of the Great House of Roke. The first part of the Great House to be built, it forms its heart and is the home of the Archmage. Open to the sky, the little walled court contains a fountain, small central grass lawn, marble paving, and various trees including rowan, ash and elm

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Rowan Tree, FS; The Finder, TfE

'In the Court of the Fountain the sun of March shone through young leaves of ash and elm, and water leapt and fell through shadow and clear light. About that roofless court stood four high walls of stone. … the central place of the House is that small court far within the walls, where the fountain plays and the trees stand in rain or sun or starlight.'

[The Rowan Tree, FS]

Court of the Terrenon

Also known as: Terrenon, Court of the

Tall, stone tower-keep on a hilltop in the Keksemt Moors, home of Lord Benderesk and Lady Serret. The Stone of Terrenon is locked in an underground room

'…like a tall white tooth in the dusk…'

[The Hawk's Flight, WoE]

Cutnorth Cliff

Cliff on the Gont Port bay, just north of the city, near an unnamed village; a cove and beach lie below

'…the dark jagged bulk of Cutnorth Cliff, above which the snowy fields of the mountain rose up into cloud.'

[Hunting, WoE]

Dark Pond

Small pond at the top of Semere's high pasture, on the slopes of Gont Mountain, a mile above Re Albi, where, according to the sorceress Ard, the mountain can be read

'It was small, half mud and reeds, with one vague, boggy path to the water, and no tracks on that but goat hoofs. The water was dark, though it lay out under the bright sky and far above the peat soils. … It was absolutely silent. / No wind. No birdcall. No distant lowing or bleating or call of voice. As if all the island had gone still. Not a fly buzzed. / He looked at the dark water. It reflected nothing.'

[The Bones of the Earth, TfE]

Derhemen

Medium-sized island in the northerly West Reach, near Narveduen and Onon

Desi Port

Port town or village in the west of Gont

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Down Wiss

Coastal village or town in the east of Gont, near Beech Springs, Wiss and Tant

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Dragons' Run

Also known as: Dragon's Run

Cluster of small, rocky isles in the West Reach largely scattered along an east--west line. It is inhabited by many dragons, including Kalessin. Includes the Keep of Kalessin, an island with sheer basalt cliffs three hundred feet high. The Dragons' Run was sailed by Ged more than twenty years before The Farthest Shore, and by Ged and Lebannen in FS, but not travelled by any other living man

'The water was a maze of blue channels and green shoals, and among these, by hand and word and most vigilant care, he [Ged] and Arren now picked their boat's way, between the rocks and reefs. Some of these lay low, under or half-under the wash of the waves, covered with anemone and barnacle and ribbony seafern; like water-monsters, shelled or sinuous. Others stood up in cliff and pinnacle sheer from the sea, and there were arches and half-arches, carven towers, fantastic shapes of animals, boars' backs and serpents' heads, all huge, deformed, diffuse, as if like writhed half-conscious in the rock. The sea-waves beat on them with a sund like breathing, and they were wet with the bright, bitter spray.'

[The Dragons' Run, FS]

Dragons' Way

A path in the mountains of Hur-at-Hur along which small, flightless dragons crawl annually to the Place of the Sacrifice for the spring sacrifice; it's taboo to set foot on it. Also used as a synonym for the other wind, the realm of dragons

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW; Rejoining, OW

'"It's a path, all smooth dust, made by their bellies crawling along it every year since time began."'

[The Dragon Council, OW]

Dromgan

Farmed islet of the Ninety Isles, lying near Hosk

'the rainy pastures of Dromgan…'

[Hunted, WoE]

Dry river

A dry river at the heart of the dry land (the lands of the dead)

Sources: The Dry Land, FS

Dunnel

Islet near Misk, Set and Wasny, at the northeastern edge of the South Reach

Ea

Titles: the Old Island

Island in the Sea of Éa in the north of the Archipelago, south of Enlad and near Taon and Ebéa; said to be the first land that Segoy raised from the sea. An old-established college is located here. Formerly one of the principalities of the kingship it was ruled by the Prince of Éa who was of royal lineage

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS; The Finder, TfE; The Dragon Council, OW

Ea, Sea of

See Sea of Éa

Ear, Isle of the

See Isle of the Ear

Earthsea

The planet, including all the islands of the Archipelago, the Reaches and the Kargad Lands, as well as the Open Sea and any undiscovered islands beyond the map. The existence of a magnetic north suggests the planet may have a molten metallic core

Related entries: World view

East Creek

Region of Sattins island, presumably in the east

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q

East Forest

Region in the south-east of Gont, with several towns including Ovark and possibly Wiss; hilly and presumably at least partly forested

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE

East Hand

See Hands

East Port

Port town in the east of Gont island, near Armouth; Kargish raiders landed here in around 1012 and burned the town

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE

East Reach

Group of predominantly small islands to the south-east, including the northerly cluster: The Hands, Venway, Vemish, Sattins and Yor; the northeast cluster: Koppish, Sneg and Far Toly; the southerly cluster: Korp, Kopp, Apso, Rolameny, Gale, Holp, Tok, Insmer, Soders, The Sellets and Iffish; and the easternmost cluster: Pelimer, Kornay, Gosk and Astowell. The inhabitants are dark-skinned, and speak Hardic with varying degrees of accent

Sources: Iffish, WoE; The Open Sea, WoE

Eastern Isles

See Kargad Lands

Easthill

Town in west Havnor, near Glade

Sources: Darkrose and Diamond, TfE

Ebavnor Straits

Broad channel between Havnor and Ark & Ilien, part of the Inmost Sea, from which Mount Onn is visible in clear weather. A crowded shipping lane, with traders and fishing vessels of all sizes

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; The Finder, TfE

'…the next day passed the northern cape of O and entered the Ebavnor Straits. There they dropped sail and rowed, always with land on either side and always within hail of other ships, great and small, merchants and traders, some bound in from the Outer Reaches with strange cargo after a voyage of years and others that hopped like sparrows from isle to isle of the Inmost Sea.'

[The Shadow, WoE]

Ebéa

Small island in the Sea of Éa, near Ea, Oranéa and Havnor; in ancient times one of the islands at the heart of Earthsea. Ruled by the Lady of Ebéa

Sources: Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

Ebishi

Tiny islet in the Pelnish Sea, between Bishi and Besu; in some maps, this islet is identified as Besu

Sources: Frontispiece map, TfE

Ebosskil

Medium-sized northwestern island, lying southwest of Osskil and north of Semel

Sources: Orm Embar, FS; Selidor, FS

Elini

Market town in the hills of the island of Taon

Sources: Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

Emah

Name used by the Children of the Open Sea (raft people) for the beaches on the Long Dune in the South Reach where they come ashore annually in autumn

Sources: The Children of the Open Sea, FS

Endlane

Small farming village northwest of Mount Onn, near Faliern Forest, on the isle of Havnor. It has a straggling square, tavern and a stream, the Yennava

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Enlad

Also known as: Isle of the Myths

A rich and peaceful island in the north of the Archipelago, near Ea and Osskil; part of the Enlades. Ruled by the Prince of Enlad and the Enlades at the capital, Berila; other towns include Temere (on the south coast), Serilune and Semermine (in the hills behind Berila). The terrain includes hills, orchards, woods and forests, including the Forest of Aol. At the eastern end of the island are two strings of islets, the North & South Teeth, with the sea channel, the Jaws of Enlad, between them. One of the principalities of the kingship, tracing its line of descent from Morred, via Serriadh and the House of Enlad. The people of Enlad speak their own language or dialect, of which little is known

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Rowan Tree, FS; The Masters of Roke, FS; Hort Town, FS; The Children of the Open Sea, FS

Enlades

Group of small islands in the north of the Archipelago, in the Sea of Éa, next to Enlad. An old-established college is located on them. Associated from ancient times with magic

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW

Ensmer

Large island in the southwest of the Archipelago, lying at the southmost end of the Ninety Isles and near the southerly islands of the West Reach

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Dragon of Pendor, WoE

Entat

Town in the northern hill country of Atuan, with orchard vales to the west

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA

Enwas

Also known as: North Enwas, South Enwas

Two small islands, North & South Enwas, in the North Reach, near Bereswek; their inhabitants are white skinned

Sources: Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

Eolg

Domain on Havnor Isle

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE

Eppaln

Islet off the southeast coast of Paln, in the Pelnish Sea; it lies south of Lossow and north of Seppish

Esen

Port town of the islet of Besu off the west coast of Havnor island in the Pelnish Sea; alternatively, an islet near Besu

Sources: Hunted, WoE; frontispiece map, FS

Eskel

Islet off the east coast of Havnor. Also, in some sources, a name for Otrad, an islet off the east coast of Way

Essary

Lowland town or village in the south-west of Gont island; it lies near the mouth of an unnamed river, near Solwes, Kebas and Allage. Half a mile of the coastline here is said to have fallen into the sea during the first earthquake described on Gont, when Ogion was aged seven or eight

Sources: Frontispiece map, T; Kalessin, T; The Bones of the Earth, TfE

Etreke

Coastal village or town in the south of Gont, near Tettego and Gont South Port

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Ettil

Islet in the easterly West Reach, near Usidero and the Toringates

Falcon's Nest

See Re Albi

Faliern Forest

Great forest in the interior of Havnor island, west of Samory, near villages of Endlane and Woodedge. Its trees include oaks. The Old Powers are said to be strong there

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Faliern Mountains

Also known as: Faliorn Mountains

Range of mountains in the west of Havnor Island; its foothills lie immediately west of the sands of Onneva. A pass is found a day's ride from the sands of Onneva

'They had just emerged from woods on the crest of an open hillside and could see through the clear half light all the way to the pass. The mountains to either side of it massed black against the dull reddish glow of a cloudy dawn. / But they were looking west.'

[Palaces, OW]

Faltuel

Small island in the southerly end of the West Reach, near Arrins and west of Ensmer

Far Sorr

Small island, south of Lorbanery and the Isles of Sand in the South Reach

'"Sailors say that there are stars to be seen from the waters by the Isle of the Ear and Far Sorr that cannot be seen anywhere else, and that have never been named."'

[The Open Sea, WoE]

Far Toly

Islet in the eastern East Reach, near Sneg

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Felkway

Medium-sized island in the east of the Archipelago, between Way, O and Havnor; features include Felkway Bay, with an unnamed town at its mouth. The Passage of Felkway leads into the Ebavnor Straits. Ruled by the Lord of Felkway

Sources: The Shadow, WoE

Felkway Bay

See Passage of Felkway

Ferao

Town or city on Paln; home of the Pelnish wizard Seppel

Sources: Rejoining, OW

Ferrins

Small island in the eastern North Reach, north of the Andrades and south of the Allernots

Firn

Sheep-farming village in the west of Havnor isle, lower down the slopes of Mount Onn from Woodedge

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Forest of Aol

See Aol

Fundaur, Black Well of

See Black Well of Fundaur

Gale

Small island in the southwest of the East Reach, near Rolameny and Soders

Gar

City of the island of Atuan, to the north west of the Tombs of Atuan

Sources: The Wall Around the Place, ToA

Garden door

Second door of the Great House of Roke, called Medra's Gate after the first Master Doorkeeper. It is oak with an iron bolt, and leads to gardens and fields by Roke Knoll. Like the back door, it is kept by the Doorkeeper

Sources: The Finder, TfE

'It was uncarved oak, black and massive, with an iron bolt worn thin with age.'

[Dragonfly, TfE]

Garhirien

Also known as: Garhirion

Northern islet, lying off the east coast of Ea, west of Oranéa and south of the South Teeth

Gate of Selidor

Small island off the east coast of Selidor, in the West Reach

Sources: Frontispiece map, TfE

Geath

Islet in the east of the Ninety Isles, near Roke; centre of whaling. The town has oil sheds and stinks of whale products

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Finder, TfE

'There they fished for whales, as they still do. That was a trade he wanted no part of. Their ships stank and their town stank.'

[The Finder, TfE]

Glade

Town in the west of Havnor island, forty miles from Havnor South Port, near Reche and Easthill, set among oak- and chestnut-forested hills, in the Western domain. Has a village green and a smithy; the local river is the Amia

Sources: Darkrose and Diamond, TfE

Gmet

Small islet off the east coast of Paln, near Lossow, in the Pelnish Sea

God-Brothers, Temple of the

See Temple of the God-Brothers

Godking, Temple of the

See Temple of the Godking

Gont

Medium-sized island in the north east of the Archipelago, near the Kargad Lands, around a thousand miles from Roke. North lies the Northeast Sea; to the south, the Gontish Sea. Fifty miles wide and composed of the single high, wooded Gont Mountain; the interior is rocky and forested; the coastal regions are farmed, including Northward Vale in the north-east and Middle Valley in the south. Major towns are the capital Gont Port and East Port. Smaller towns and villages include Re Albi, Tettego, Etreke, Gont South Port, Lissu, Kahedanan, Oak Springs, Oak Village & Valmouth in the south; Korry, Up Selt, Desi Port, Ketoleko, Var, Solwes, Essary, Allage & Kebas in the west; Kemay, Tutok Bay, Kedun, Oskres & Selt in the northwest; Norvale & Up Norvale in the north; Ten Alders, Medu, Chodur & Lotin in the northeast; and Beech Springs, Wiss, Down Wiss, Ovark, Tant & Toss in the east. Other named features include East Forest, the rivers Ar & Kaheda, Armouth sands, Valmouth Bay, Cutnorth Cliff, High Fall, Kapperding Scarp, Hot Springs Mountain, Round Hill, Long Fells and the Overfell. The climate is cool, with fog and snow in winter. Suffered an earthquake in around 968 and again in 1004. Ruled by the Lord of Gont, at Gont Port; parts of it were under Kargish rule for at least a generation in the time of Maharion. Known for wizards, pirates and goatherds

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; Frontispiece map, T; The Bones of the Earth, TfE; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

'The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea, is a land famous for wizards. From the towns in its high valleys and the ports on its dark narrow bays many a Gontishman has gone forth to serve the Lords of the Archipelago in their cities as wizard or mage, or, looking for adventure, to wander working magic from isle to isle of all Earthsea.'

[Warriors in the Mist, WoE]

Further information on Gont

Gont Mountain

Also known as: Gont Peak

Mountain forming the island of Gont. Its multiple ridges, between which the Gontish valleys nestle, radiate from several central summits rising around 5000 feet (1600m) above sea level; Hot Springs Mountain above Lissu and a south peak are mentioned. Its lower slopes are forested

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; Frontispiece map, T; The Dolphin, T; The Master, T

'The island of Gont, a single mountain that lifts its peak a mile above the storm-racked Northeast Sea …'

[Warriors in the Mist, WoE]

Gont Port

Also known as: Great Port of Gont

Main city on Gont, situated in the south. Busy seaport on a long narrow bay, sheltered by the 100 foot wide channel formed by the Armed Cliffs. Built from stone and clay bricks; the streets are steep and cobbled. The gate on the landward side has two carved stone dragons; other features include a signal or watchtower, forts on the Armed Cliffs manned with archers, and a fish market. Inland of the city lie steep knotted hills. Lying on a fault line, it is threatened by earthquake damage. Seat of the Lord of Gont

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; Finding Words, T; The Dolphin, T; The Bones of the Earth, TfE; Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

'So to Ged who had never been down from the heights of the mountain, the Port of Gont was an awesome and marvellous place, the great houses and towers of cut stone and waterfront of piers and docks and basins and moorages, the seaport where half a hundred boats and galleys rocked at quayside or lay hauled up and overturned for repairs or stood out at anchor in the roadstead with furled sails and closed oarports, the sailors shouting in strange dialects and the longshoremen running heavy-laden amongst barrels and boxes and coils of rope and stacks of oars, the bearded merchants in furred robes conversing quietly as they picked their way along the slimy stones above the water, the fishermen unloading their catch, coopers pounding and shipmasters bellowing, and beyond all the silent, shining bay.'

[The Shadow, WoE]

Gont South Port

Also known as: South Port (Gont), South Port

Port town or village in the south of Gont, near Etreke

Sources: Frontispiece map, TfE

Gontish Sea

Sea to the south-west of Gont island, in which lie Oranéa, Barnisk, Torheven and the islet Kameber

Sources: The Shadow, WoE

Gosk

Tiny island in the easternmost region of the East Reach, near Kornay

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Gravels

Range of tiny islets lying between Ebosskil and Norst & Sorresk and into the western part of the Gut of Osskil, in the northwest of the Archipelago

Great Bay of Havnor

See Bay of Havnor

Great Hall of Gemal Sea-born

See Throne room

Great House of Roke

Also known as: Roke, Great House of, House of the Wise, House of Roke

Location of the School of Wizardry on Roke, built shortly after the foundation of the school in 650. A great castle-like building of grey stone with slate roofs on a hill above Thwil town. The main doorway, called the back door, is of ivory; its door is of horn; the oak garden door leads to Roke Knoll. Within is the central, roofless Court of the Fountain, the Court of Seeming, the Room of Shelves where lore-books are kept, the Hearth Hall where feasts are held, a Council Room where the Masters of Roke meet, the Chanter's Tower, a magicians' workroom in the south tower, a dining hall or refectory, kitchen, gallery, healing-chambers, wardrobe room, Doorkeeper's chamber and numerous small sleeping cells. Outside are kitchen gardens with vegetables, herbs, soft fruit and fruit trees

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Rowan Tree, FS; The Masters of Roke, FS; Orm Embar, FS; The Finder, TfE; Dragonfly, TfE; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

'…the Great House of Roke, which would stand any assault of war, or earthquake, or the sea itself, being built not only of stone, but of incontestable magic.'

[The Rowan Tree, FS]

Great Island

See Havnor

Great Port

See Havnor City

Great Port of Gont

See Gont Port

Great South Shoals

Long string of islets running southwest to northeast by the Isle of the Ear in the South Reach

Great Treasury of the Tombs

See Treasury of the Tombs

Grove, the

See Immanent Grove

Gut of Osskil

Sea channel running east--west between the two arms which form the western end of the island of Osskil; around 150 miles in length. Islets called the Gravels lie in its mouth

Hall of the Throne

Ancient and semi-derelict temple of the Nameless Ones at the Place of the Tombs on Atuan; a vast low hall with a crumbling dome. The Throne Room has double rows of columns and a huge black jewelled throne, the Empty Throne, on a high platform of red-veined marble. Behind lies a warren of small rooms, including storerooms, treasure rooms, robing rooms, attics & basements; one cell contains a trapdoor, the only exit from the Labyrinth; another has a small trapdoor to the Room of Chains within a minor labyrinth off the Undertomb which lies beneath the Hall of the Throne. The oldest temple in the Kargad Lands, it is destroyed when Ged & Tenar escape from the Labyrinth with the Ring of Erreth-Akbe

Sources: The Eaten One, ToA; The Prisoners, ToA; Light under the Hill, ToA; The Anger of the Dark, ToA

'Through cracks in the roof of the Hall of the Throne, gaps between columns where a whole section of masonry and tile had collapsed, unsteady sunshine shone aslant. … Dead leaves of weeds that had forced up between marble pavement-tiles were outlined with frost, and crackled, catching on the long black robes of the priestesses.'

'…the altars, the alcoves behind and beneath the altars, the rooms of chests and boxes, the contents of the chests and boxes, the passages and attics, the dusty hollow under the dome where hundreds of bats nested, the basements and underbasements that were the anterooms of the corridors of darkness.'

[The Eaten One, ToA/Light under the Hill, ToA]

Hands

Also known as: West Hand, East Hand, The Hands

Pair of mountainous inhabited islands at the northern edge of the East Reach, south of Karego-At and north of Vemish; named for their shape. The western isle has steep forests. So rarely are they visited by Archipelagan ships that songs made a hundred years ago are new there

Sources: Hunting, WoE; Iffish, WoE

'a pair of lonely isles that reach their mountain-fingers northward towards the Kargad Lands.'

[Hunting, WoE]

Hardic lands

See Archipelago

Havnor

Also known as: Great Island, King's Island, the Great Isle, Cold Hill

The largest island in the Archipelago, Havnor lies at its centre, and is the seat of the monarchy. A broad, rich, heavily farmed land with green hills and several mountain ranges, the Faliern Mountains, Revnian Mountains & Mount Onn. The Onneva river feeds into the Great Bay of Havnor, on which lies the capital city, Havnor City, also known as Havnor Great Port. South of this city lies the cave of Aurun, known as the Lips of Paor, a centre of the Old Powers. Other inhabitations include Havnor South Port, Glade, Reche, Easthill, Resbel and the villages of Endlane, Woodedge & Firn. Other features include Faliern Forest, the sands of Onneva and the rivers Amia, Serrenen & Yennava. The island is divided into domains, including Eolg and the Western domain

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS; The Finder, TfE; Diamond and Darkrose; TfE; Palaces, OW; Dolphin, OW

Havnor Bay

See Bay of Havnor

Havnor City

Also known as: Havnor Great Port, Great Port, The King's City

Walled city of the isle of Havnor, seat of the King of All the Isles. A large, bustling, wealthy port on the huge Bay of Havnor, it's a city of steep, wide paved streets and squares, little dark shops, shuttered houses, roof gardens, and many canals, decorated bridges and white marble towers. Features include the New Palace, where the imperial court is located & whose highest tower (Tower of the Kings) is crowned with the Sword of Erreth-Akbe; the River House; a harbour berthing a hundred ships; the king's shipyards; Boatwright Street in the old city; and the stream Serrenen, which runs within the city walls at the north of the city. The city is backed by Mount Onn to the north. To the south, the countryside is relatively poor, with rough ridged hills and marshy valleys; the cave of Aurun, called the Lips of Paor (a centre of the Old Powers), is located a few miles south of the city

Sources: The Great Treasure, ToA; Bettering, T; Palaces, OW; Dolphin, OW

'"…the fairest of them all, maybe, is Havnor, the great land at the centre of the world. In the heart of Havnor on a broad bay full of ships is the City Havnor. The towers of the city are built of white marble. The house of every prince and merchant has a tower, so they rise up one above the other. The roofs of the houses are red tile, and all the bridges over the canals are covered in mosaic work, red and blue and green. And the flags of the princes are all colours, flying from the white towers. On the highest of all the towers, the Sword of Erreth-Akbe is set, like a pinnacle, skyward. When the sun rises on Havnor it flashes first on that blade and makes it bright, and when it sets the Sword is golden still above the evening, for a while."'

'Now she was able to loiter and watch the street shows, the market booths, the various faces and clothing from all over the Archipelago, to go out of the direct way to let her footboy show her a street where the painted bridges from rooftop to rooftop made a kind of airy vaulted ceiling high above them, from which red-flowering vines looped down in festoons, and people put birdcages out the windows on gilt poles among the flowers, so that it all seemed a garden in the middle of the air.'

[The Great Treasure, ToA/The Dragon Council, OW]

Havnor Great Port

See Havnor City

Havnor South Port

Also known as: South Port (Havnor), South Port

Old city port in the south-west of Havnor island with cobbled streets; a centre of ship-building

'…the water stairs, the dirty harbor water sloshing at the next step down, the yells of gulls and dock workers wreathing the air with a thin, ungainly music…'

[Darkrose and Diamond, TfE]

High Creek farm

Farm owned by Flint and Tenar, presumably in the Middle Valley on Gont; later sold to Tholy for three Havnorian ivory pieces

Sources: The Master, T

High Fall

Cliff on Gont rising 100 feet above the springs of the River Ar; also the steep goat pastures that lie above it

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE

High Marsh

High marshy grassy plain on the island of Semel south of Andanden, formed due to ash deposition from the last volcanic eruption; sparsely populated, major livelihood is cattle farming. The water isn't safe to drink without boiling, and marsh fever and murrain are common. Villages include Purewells

'South of Andanden lies a land where the ashes fell a hundred feet deep when last the volcano spoke. Rivers and streams cut their way seaward through that high plain, winding and pooling, spreading and wandering, making a marsh of it, a big, desolate, waterland with a far horizon, few trees, not many people. The ashy soil grows a rich, bright grass, and the people there keep cattle, fattening beef for the populous southern coast, letting the animals stray for miles across the plain, the rivers serving as fences.'

[On the High Marsh, TfE]

Hill of the Tombs

Hill within the Place of the Tombs on Atuan, on which the Hall of the Throne and the Tombs of Atuan are set. The crest of the hill is encircled with a massive rock wall, the Tomb Wall

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA

Hille

Medium-sized island, the northernmost in the West Reach; near Derhemen

Hogen Land

Large ice-bound island in the northernmost part of the North Reach

'"Or to sail north into the ice-floes, clear to Hogen Land. Some say that is a land greater than all the Archipelago, and others say it is mere reefs and rocks with ice between. No one knows."'

[The Open Sea, WoE]

Holp

Small island in the East Reach, near Korp, Kopp and Tok

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; Iffish, WoE; Afterword, WoE

Holy Land

See Atuan

Hort Town

Main city of the island of Wathort, one of the Seven Great Ports of the Archipelago. It stands on three hills with steep valleys or gorges in between, in at least one of which runs a stream. Unlike the cities of the Inner Lands, the city is constructed of clay, plastered in colours, with tiled roofs. In the backstreets, the attics of the houses almost meet overhead across the street

'Hort Town, one of the Seven Great Ports of the Archipelago, rose from its noisy waterfront up the slopes of three steep hills in a jumble of colour. The houses were of clay plastered in red, orange, yellow, white; the roofs were of purplish-red tile; pendick-trees in flower made masses of dark red along the upper streets. Gaudy striped awnings stretched from roof to roof, shading narrow marketplaces. The quays were bright with sunlight; the streets running back from the waterfront were like dark slots full of shadows and people and noise. … Overhead the attics of the houses almost met across the street, cutting out light; underfoot the stones were slippery with water and refuse. … [Arren] breathed in the sweet stink of the city, a smell of garbage, incense, carrion and flowers.'

[Hort Town, FS]

Hosk

Large island on the west side of the Inmost Sea; major city is the port of Orrimy. The interior is a lawless region

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE; Hunted, WoE

Hot Springs Mountain

Mountain in the south of Gont, above Lissu and the Middle Valley. Possibly a subsidiary peak of Gont Mountain, or a local name for the mountain itself

Sources: Home, T

House of the Great Ones

Temple of the Children of the Open Sea to the Great Ones; located on their largest raft. It has idols of god figures, carved from a single tree and depicting a mixture of dolphin, fish, man and seabird

'This raft was larger and higher out of the water than any other, made of logs forty feet in length and four or five feet wide, blackened and smooth with use and weather. Strangely carven statues of wood stood about the several shelters or enclosures on it, and tall poles bearing tufts of seabirds' feathers stood at the four corners. … the large shelter near by: a kind of temple, it appeared to be, with a square design of great complexity above the doorway, and the doorjambs made of logs carved in the shape of grey whales sounding.'

[The Children of the Open Sea, FS]

House of the One Priestess

See Small House

House of the Sea-Guild

Also known as: Sea-Guild, House of the

Place in Gont Port which deals with local shipping business, presumably run by the local Seamasters. Has a buttery where people such as longshoremen, shipwrights and weatherworkers gather for food and conversation

Sources: Hunting, WoE

House of the Wise

See Great House of Roke

Houses, town

Buildings in towns or cities in the Archipelago are typically constructed of dressed stone, with roofs of slate or red tile. Unlike the rural huts, which are often single roomed, Vetch's 'spacious and strong-beamed' house^a in the town of Ismay clearly has several rooms. The house of the wealthy merchant Golden in Glade (Havnor island) has two storeys, as does Ath's House in Telio (Pody island). Buildings in towns of the Kargad Lands are typically built from yellow clay brick with red tile roofs

Sources: The Western Mountains, ToA; Iffish, WoE (a); The Finder, TfE; Darkrose and Diamond, TfE

Related entries: Building materials; Kargish architecture

Hupun

Also known as: City of the Kings

City on Karego-At, fifty miles from Awabath; former capital of the Kargad Lands at the time of Thoreg of Hupun, before the rise of the Priest-Kings

Sources: Voyage, ToA; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Hur-at-Hur

Largest and easternmost island of the Kargad Lands, part desert, part forested, mountainous and relatively impoverished; the inhabitants are considered barbarians by people of Atuan. Major town is called Mesreth. Produce includes opals, turquoises and cedar logs. Well-born women are segregated in women's quarters and wear the feyag (veil), which is not worn on Atuan or in Awabath. Small flightless dragons live in the mountains. Ruled by the Godking at Awabath on Karego-At, and by local warlords. Around ten years after the restoration of the Archipelagan monarchy, a warlord, Thol, consolidates power to become High King after deposing the Godking

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; Dragonfly, TfE; Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW

Huts

Also known as: Cottages

Cottages or huts with thatched rooves are the usual dwellings of the rural inhabitants of the Archipelago, usually constructed from wood. The poorer houses would be single roomed, low and windowless, with a central crosspole supporting the roof, earthern floors and a central firepit. Better houses might have a hearth and chimney, a sleeping area separate from the main room, possibly other back rooms, one or more shuttered windows, and perhaps a wooden floor. Conical roofs with an overhang 'like the fat red caps of toadstools'^a are found on Sattins island in the East Reach

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q (a); Warriors in the Mist, WoE; The Shadow, WoE

'The mage's house, though large and soundly built of timber, with hearth and chimney rather than a firepit, was like the huts of the Ten Alders village: all one room, with a goatshed built on to one side. There was a kind of alcove in the west wall of the room, where Ged slept. Over his pallet was a window that looked out on the sea, but most often the shutters must be closed against the great winds that blew all winter from the west and the north.'

[The Shadow, WoE]

Related entries: Houses, town; Building materials

Iffish

Hilly populous island in the East Reach, near Tok; main town is Ismay, also hill village of Quor. An Islandwoman of Iffish serves on the King's Council at the time of The Other Wind. Tiny dragon-lizards called harrekki are native there

Sources: Iffish, WoE; The Dragon Council, OW

'…the low blue hills of a great island… The smoke of hearthfires lingered blue over the slate roofs of little towns among those hills, a pleasant sight in the vast sameness of the sea.'

[Iffish, WoE]

Ilien

A small island in the Inmost Sea. One of the principalities of the kingship, tracing its descent from Gemal Sea-born via Maharion. Described as having many towns and cities

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; The Masters of Roke, FS

'…the two fair islands Ark and Ilien, towered and terraced with cities…'

[The Shadow, WoE]

Immanent Grove

Also known as: Grove, the

Grove of trees on Roke, near Roke Knoll: 'the oldest trees in the world, and the source and center of magic'^a. Said to have been planted by Segoy, and considered to be a manifestation of the Old Powers; Kalessin referred to it as the forest that is at the centre. Said by Elehal to stretch '"As far as the mind goes"'^a, it is larger inside than out; Azver claimed that the roots of the trees 'mingled with the roots of all the forests that were or might yet be.'^b Though the outer trees are varied (including oak, willow, alder, chestnut, ash, hemmen, fir & other evergreens), the trees towards the middle are predominantly of a single type with no name in Hardic (arhada in the Old Speech, though in 'The Finder' each of the trees is said to have its own name), whose leaves have a hint of gold. There is always a faint light under the trees, and the Grove burns with a light like moonlight when the nine Masters of Roke meet there. The leaves of the trees are said to speak to those who know how to listen. Generally south west of the Great House of Roke, but appears to move location; actually, the Grove is stationary while the world moves around it. The paths and clearings within are never in quite the same place. Near its margins stands the Otter's House and the Thwilburn flows out of the Grove. Home of the Master Patterner; ordinary people, especially women, and novices are forbidden entry

Sources: The Rowan Tree, FS; The Finder, TfE (a); Dragonfly, TfE (b); Mending the Green Pitcher, OW; The Dragon Council, OW; Rejoining, OW

'There is no place for it on maps, and there is no way to it except for those who know their way to it. But even novices and townsfolk and farmers can see it, always at a certain distance, a wood of high trees whose leaves have a hint of gold in their greenness even in the spring. And they consider -- the novices, the townsfolk, the farmers -- that the Grove moves about in a mystifying manner. But in this they are mistaken for the Grove does not move. Its roots are the roots of being. It is all the rest that moves.'

'"If the Grove were cut, all wizardry would fail. The roots of those trees are the roots of knowledge. The patterns the shadows of their leaves make in the sunlight write the words Segoy spoke in the Making."'

'"You can walk and walk in their shadow, in their light, and never come to the end of them."/ "But is Roke so large an island?"/ … "The forests here on Gont Mountain are that forest," he said. "All forests are."'

[The Rowan Tree, FS/The Finder, TfE/Rejoining, OW]

Ingat

Small island in the easterly West Reach, near Risk and the Toringates

Sources: The Dragons' Run, FS

Inmost Sea

Central sea of the Archipelago between Havnor in the north and Wathort in the south, in which lies Roke, Ark, Ilien, Leng, Vissti, Kamery, Issel and other small islands

'…they entered on the long waves, full of light, of the Inmost Sea.'

[Hort Town, FS]

Inner Isles

See Inner Lands

Inner Lands

Also known as: Inner Isles, the West

A Kargish term for the Archipelago; also used among Archipelagans & inhabitants of the Reaches to denote the Archipelago, as opposed to the Reaches. The Inward Isles seems to denote a rather smaller region: Oranéa is said to be the eastmost Inward Isle

Sources: The Shadow, WoA

Inns

Also known as: Lodgehouses

Inns are found in towns on many islands in the central Archipelago and the Reaches, including Lorbanery, Semel, Way, Iffish and Sattins; they provide accommodation and food to travellers, as well as beer or wine to townsfolk. The inn at Ismay on Iffish is called The Harrekki. Ged pays two silver trade-counters for several nights' accommodation at the inn in Lorbanery.

In other places, such as Serd (Ninety Isles), hospitality to travellers is provided at a Sea-House, and Astowell has a place called a lodgehouse; taverns or pothouses seem to provide drink, but usually not food or accommodation

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q; Hunted, WoE; Iffish, WoE; Lorbanery, FS; On the High Marsh, TfE

Insmer

Islet near Tok and Holp in the East Reach

Inward Isles

Also known as: Inward Lands

Islands of the central Archipelago, excluding outlying islands such as Gont, as well as the Reaches. Oranéa is the eastmost of the Inward Isles; Pendor lies in their west

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Iria

Large, beautiful and formerly prosperous domain on the island of Way, with oak forests, hills and rich farming land, including vineyards. Divided between four families a hundred years before the events of 'Dragonfly' [TfE], and in decline

'That prosperity and the beauty of the meadows and upland pastures and oak-crowned hills made the domain a byword, so that people said "as fat as a cow of Iria", or "as lucky as an Irian." … But though the farmers and shepherds went on from season to season and year to year and generation to generation as steady and regenerative as the oaks, the family that owned the land altered and declined with time and chance. … By the time the girl called Dragonfly was born, the domain of Iria, though still one of the loveliest regions of hill and field and meadow in all Earthsea, was a battleground of feuds and litigation. Farmland went to weeds, farmsteads went unroofed, milking sheds stood unused, and shepherds followed their flocks over the mountain to better pastures.'

[Dragonfly, TfE]

Iria Hill

Hill in the centre of Old Iria in the domain of Iria on the island of Way. The Old Iria mansion house stands on top of it, the unnamed village of Old Iria lies at its foot, and a shallow pool with a spring lies immediately beneath it

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE

Iron door

Underground door between the Labyrinth and the Undertomb at the Place of the Tombs; sealable from the Undertomb side with a long iron lever in a fashion that resists Ged's opening spells. It has a pocked surface

'He spoke, one word only, in a low voice. "Emenn," he said, and then again, louder, "Emenn!" And the iron door rattled in its jambs, and low echoes rolled down the vaulted tunnel like thunder, and it seemed to Arha that the floor beneath her shook. / But the door stayed fast.'

[Light under the Hill, ToA]

Isle of the Ear

Also known as: Ear, Isle of the

Large uninhabited island to the east of the South Reach

'"…the Isle of the Ear where men do not go. …a disagreeable part of the world, they say, full of bones and portents. Sailors say that there are stars to be seen from the waters by the Isle of the Ear and Far Sorr that cannot be seen anywhere else, and that have never been named."'

[The Open Sea, WoE]

Isle of the Wise

See Roke

Isles of Sand

Also known as: Sand Isles

Scattered set of tiny islands between Obehol and Lorbanery in the South Reach; source of pearls

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW

Ismay

Small port town on the island of Iffish, in the East Reach. Features include The Harrekki inn and a town square

'…a light snow was falling, and [Ged] idled about the lanes and byways of the town to watch the people busy at their doings. He watched children bundled in fur capes playing at snow-castle and building snowmen; he heard gossips chatting across the street from open doors, and watched the bronze-smith at work with a little lad red-faced and sweating to pump the long bellows-sleeves at the smelting pit; through windows lit with a dim ruddy gold from within as the short day darkened he saw women at their looms, turning a moment to speak or smile to child or husband there in the warmth within the house.'

[Iffish, WoE]

Isolate Tower

Tower on the furthest northmost cape of Roke Island, thirty miles from the Great House; home of the Master Namer. Here students come to learn lists of names in Old Speech. The tower houses the Book of Names of the Mage Ath, as well as many lesser books of names, maps and charts

'…to the furthest northmost cape, where stands the Isolate Tower. There by himself lived the Master Namer… No farm or dwelling lay within miles of the Tower. Grim it stood above the northern cliffs…'

[The School for Wizards, WoE]

Issel

Small island in the south of the Inmost Sea, near Roke and Wathort

Sources: Hort Town, FS

Jackass Hill

Hill near Westpool on the island of Way

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE

Jaws of Enlad

Great sea channel to the east of Enlad, running between strings of islets called the North & South Teeth

Sources: The Hawk's Flight, WoE

Jessage

Medium-sized, inhabited island in the southerly end of the West Reach, near Obb. Has farms and orchards

Sources: Orm Embar, FS; Palaces, OW

'Land lay ahead, low and blue in the afternoon like a bank of mist. … the eastern isle, Jessage, looked burned and black as far as they could see inland from the shore, and a haze hung blue and dull above it.'

[Orm Embar, FS]

Kaheda

Also known as: River Kaheda

Calm river of the Middle Valley in south Gont. Its springs arise at the valley head; the port of Valmouth lies at its mouth; near Oak Farm, it runs through meadows and reed beds

Sources: Bettering, T; Home, T

'…the placid, silvery Kaheda.'

[Home, T]

Kahedanan

Inland village by the river Kaheda in Middle Valley in the south of Gont. It lies downriver from Lissu, upriver from Oak Village and near Round Hill

Sources: Frontispiece map, T; Home, T; Winter, T

Kaltuel

Medium-sized island in the southerly end of the West Reach, near Simly and Near Kaltuel

Sources: The Dragons' Run, FS

Kameber

Also known as: Kameber Rock

Small hilly islet in the Gontish Sea off the west coast of Gont; on a clear day its hills can be seen from the Old Mage's House in Re Albi

Sources: Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

Kamery

Small island on the east of the Inmost Sea, south of Ilien and near O; nearest of the eastern islands to Roke

Sources: The Shadow, WoE

Kapperding Scarp

Rocky slope with a cave near Ten Alders in the northeast of Gont

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE

Karego-At

Large, wealthy main island of the Kargad Lands in the north east of Earthsea; capital is Awabath, location of the Godking's court. Other cities include the old capital, Hupun

'…the distant loom of hills like clouds, the great island of the Godking.'

[Voyage, ToA]

Kargad Lands

Also known as: Eastern Isles, Kargad Empire, the Four Lands, Empire of the Sky

Four islands in the north-east: Karego-At, Atuan, Hur-at-Hur and Atnini, which do not form part of the Archipelago. Awabath on Karego-At is the capital. The white-skinned inhabitants, Kargs, are ruled by the Godking and, after civil war in around 1061, the High King. They have a very different culture, religion and language (Kargish), from the rest of Earthsea, with magic and writing being outlawed. The Kargad islands have few mineral resources

Related entries: Priest-Kings; Legal and punitive systems; War; Religion and the afterlife; Place of the Tombs; Reincarnation

Kargish architecture

A typical Kargish town is built of yellow clay brick with red tile roofs and is walled around with overhanging battlements, a single gate and watchtowers at each of the four corners. Houses in the desert of Hur-at-Hur have thick walls with window slits

Sources: The Western Mountains, ToA; Palaces, OW

Related entries: Building materials; Houses, town

Kebas

Coastal village or town in the southwest of Gont, near Essary and the islet of Kameber

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Kedun

Coastal village or town lying on an unnamed inlet in the northwest of Gont, near Tutok Bay and Oskres

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Keep of Kalessin

Island in the Dragons' Run with sheer basalt cliffs three hundred feet high; named the Keep of Kalessin by dragons. Possibly constructed by Kalessin or another dragon, or a natural rock formation

'…ahead of them loomed an island like a tower. Its cliffs were black, and made up of many cylinders or great pillars pressed together, with straight edges and plane surfaces, rising three hundred feet sheer from the water.'

[The Dragons' Run, FS]

Keksemt Moors

Large area of bleak rolling moorland in the interior of the island of Osskil, bounded by the Mountains of Os in the north and the coast around Neshum in the south; described as bare, brown and treeless. Though crossed by several tracks, it appears to lack habitations, apart from the Court of the Terrenon

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Hawk's Flight, WoE

'…over the low brown hills that went on houseless and treeless and changeless, clear to the sunwashed winter sky.'

[The Hawk's Flight, WoE]

Kemay

Little coastal village, a fishing port on a headland in the north-west of Gont, near Tutok Bay. Home to the Woman of Kemay

Sources: Going to the Falcon's Nest, T

Kember

Also known as: River Kember

River in the northwest of Way; its mouth is the port of Kembermouth

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE

Kembermouth

Prosperous walled port city at the mouth of the River Kember in the northwest of Way; it lies two days' journey from Westpool

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; Dragonfly, TfE

Ketoleko

Inland village or town lying on an unnamed river in the west of Gont, near Var

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

King's House

See New Palace

King's Island

See Havnor

Komokome

Small elongated island in the eastern North Reach, north of the Allernots, near Sort and Chemish

Kopp

Small island in the East Reach, near Korp, Apso and Holp

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE

Koppish

Small, elongated, inhabited island in the East Reach, near Sneg and Iffish; it has small villages

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Open Sea, WoE

'…first raised land off the southernmost cape of Koppish. Over the waves they saw cliffs of stone rise like a great fortress. Seabirds cried wheeling over the breakers, and smoke of the hearthfires of small villages drifted blue on the wind.'

[The Open Sea, WoE]

Kornay

Tiny island in the easternmost region of the East Reach, near Gosk

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Korp

Small westernmost island of the East Reach, near Kopp. An Islandwoman of Korp serves on the King's Council at the time of The Other Wind

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Dragon Council, OW

Korry

Coastal village or town in the northwest of Gont; it lies on an unnamed inlet

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Labyrinth

An extensive maze of tunnels under the Place of the Tombs with a network of spyholes; the Labyrinth guards the treasures of the Tombs of Atuan, trapping any who try to steal them. Believed to be ancient, the Labyrinth's origins are unknown. It contains the mural-decorated Painted Room, Room of Bones, Six Ways, the long Outmost Tunnel by the river, and, in its heart, guarded by a pit, the Great Treasury of the Tombs. Less sacred than the Undertomb, which it adjoins, the Labyrinth can only be accessed via the Undertomb by an iron door, which can be sealed via a lever on the Undertomb side. Unlike the Undertomb, light is permitted within the Labyrinth, but there are no landmarks; the greyish-yellow stone-lined tunnels are all alike, about five feet wide by twelve to fifteen feet high with a vaulted roof. The maze extends from the Hall of the Throne to the river half a mile away, but the distance underground is many times greater, about twenty miles in total. No map exists; the only way of negotiating the maze is to remember turnings taken and passed; these instructions are passed from priestess to priestess without ever being written down. The Labyrinth is at least partially demolished by an earthquake when Ged and Tenar escape with the Ring of Erreth-Akbe

Sources: Dreams and Tales, ToA; Light under the Hill, ToA; The Anger of the Dark, ToA

'There was a weariness in that tracing of the vast, meaningless web of ways; the legs got tired and the mind got bored, forever reckoning up the turnings and the passages behind and to come. It was wonderful, laid out in the solid rock underground like the streets of a great city; but it had been made to weary and confuse the mortal walking in it, and even its priestess must feel it to be nothing, in the end, but a great trap.'

[Light under the Hill, ToA]

Further information on Labyrinth

Lastland

See Astowell

Lef

Small island in the North Reach, north of Udrath

Leng

Small island in the east of the Inmost Sea, near the isle of O

Library of the Kings

Famous ancient library, possibly on Havnor or Enlad; destroyed by the time of the Dark Years

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Lips of Paor

Also known as: Aurun, Cave at Aurun, Cleft called Aurun

A cave a few miles south of Havnor City whose mouth is a twenty-foot wide crack in the ground. Called the Lips of Paor in ancient maps of Paln, it's a centre of the Old Powers, and is said to have spoken in ancient times. At the time of The Other Wind, used to dump foul-smelling tannery waste

'…they came suddenly to a great crack in the ground, a black gap twenty feet wide or more, right across their way./It was as if the spine of rock had been cracked apart by a wrenching of the earth and had never healed again.'

[Dolphin, OW]

Lissu

Inland village or town by the head of the river Kaheda and of Middle Valley in the south of Gont; upriver from Kahedanan. Above it are the Long Fells and Hot Springs Mountain

Sources: Frontispiece map, T; Home, T

Lodgehouses

See Inns

Long Banks

Coastal region of Sattins island

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q

Long Dune

Trails westwards from Wellology; visited by the Children of the Open Sea (raft people) in autumn. Beaches are called Emah by those people

Sources: The Children of the Open Sea, FS

Long Fells

High sheep & goat pastures above Lissu and the Middle Valley on Gont

Sources: Home, T

Lorbanery

Titles: Isle of Silk

Island in the South Reach, famous for high-quality silks, and for bright blue or crimson (dragon's fire) dyes, which are mined there as ores. Harbour village Sosara. Covered in hurbah trees on which silkworms feed, which make it appear bright green from a distance. Climate is warm

Sources: Hort Town, FS; Lorbanery, FS

Lossow

Also known as: Losso

A small islet in the Pelnish Sea, between Paln and Havnor

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE

Lotin

Inland village or town by the river Ar in the east of Gont; near Medu and Chodur

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Low Torning

Westernmost township of the Ninety Isles, looking out towards Pendor. Barley is grown there and there are groves of the red-flowering pendick-tree. Ged is briefly their wizard when they are threatened by Yevaud, the Dragon of Pendor

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE; Hunted, WoE

Magicians' workroom

Room in the south tower of the Roke School of Wizardry crammed with equipment for alchemy, glass-blowing, metal refining and healing

'…a magicians' workroom cluttered with retorts and alembics and great-bellied, crook-necked bottles, thick-walled furnaces and tiny heating-lamps, tongs, bellows, stands, pliers, pipes, a thousand boxes and vials and stoppered jugs marked with Hardic or more secret runes, and all such paraphernalia of alchemy, glass-blowing, metal-refining, and the arts of healing…'

[Orm Embar, FS]

Medu

Inland village or town by the river Ar in the east of Gont; near Ten Alders, Chodur and Lotin

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Meoni

Principal city of the island of Taon

Sources: Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

Mesreth

Major town on the island of Hur-at-Hur, located in the interior

Sources: Frontispiece map, TfE

Middle Valley

Lowland farming valley of the river Kaheda in the south of Gont. Its major town is the harbour Valmouth; other towns or villages include Lissu at the head of the valley, Kahedanan and Oak Village. As in other parts of southern Gont, herding cattle, goats and sheep is a major livelihood here

Sources: Frontispiece map, T; A Bad Thing, T; Mice, T; The Dolphin, T

'She pointed past the town, inland, where Middle Valley lay broad and sunlit between two arms of the mountain, like a lap. … "It's a pretty corner of your kingdom."'

[The Dolphin, T]

Mill Lane

Lane probably in Oak Village in Middle Valley on Gont

Sources: Home, T

Mishport

Little port town of Vemish in the East Reach

Sources: Iffish, WoE

Misk

Islet south of Sowl, near Set and Dunnel, at the northeastern edge of the South Reach

Morred's Isle

In the Dark Years, island south of Havnor believed by the scattered women of the Hand to be a place where just rule was maintained and the old arts of magic were practised and taught. Medra identified Morred's Isle as Roke, though it is 'both less and more than the hope and rumor he had sought for so long.'^a

Sources: The Finder, TfE (a)

'"They say … that there's an island where the rule of justice is kept as it was under the Kings. Morred's Isle, they call it. … There they say the women of the Hand have kept the old arts. And they teach them, not keeping them secret each to himself, as the wizards do."'

[The Finder, TfE]

Mount Andanden

See Andanden

Mount Onn

Also known as: Onn, Mount

High mountain on Havnor, geographical centre of the Archipelago. Its lower slopes are farmed; the mountain village of Woodedge lies on them. Described as having long ridges and a domed summit

'Sky and earth were all one grey, but before them and above them, very high, over a drift of cloud, the long ridge of the mountain glimmered red.'

[The Finder, TfE]

Mountains of Os

Also known as: Os, Mountains of

Range of mountains to the east of Osskil, north of the Keksemt Moors and the city of Neshum

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Hawk's Flight, WoE

'…far to the north small white peaks stood sharp against the blue'

[The Hawk's Flight, WoE]

Mountains of Pain

Also known as: Pain, Mountains of, Mountains called Pain

High black range of mountains or volcanoes called Pain at the far side of the dry land (the lands of the dead) from the wall of stones; crossed by a road forbidden to the dead, they border with the living world. The rocks are hot to the touch, and cut the flesh. At the end of The Other Wind, fire breaks from the mountains

Sources: The Dry Land, FS; The Dolphin, T; Rejoining, OW

'The rocks were rough, burning the hands like molten iron. … There was a torment in the touch of this earth. It seared like live coals: a fire burned within the mountains.'

'"The stones … The stones cut, and the cuts are long to heal."'

[The Dry Land, FS/The Dolphin, T]

Namien

Small island in the Closed Sea at the southeast of the Archipelago, near Uny and Sowl; it lies south of O, east of Wathort and north of the easterly islands of the South Reach

Narveduen

Medium-sized island, one of the most easterly of the West Reach. One of the early places where magic fails in The Farthest Shore

Sources: The Rowan Tree, FS

Near Kaltuel

Small island in the southerly end of the West Reach, near Simly, Kaltuel and Arrins

Nepp, Seawall of

See Seawall of Nepp

Nesh

Islet of the Ninety Isles, lying near Hosk; it has a harbour town

'past the wharves of Nesh…'

[Hunted, WoE]

Neshum

Major trade city and port in the south east of Osskil; behind it lie hills and the Keksemt Moors

'…a low coast lashed by rainy wind, a grey town crouching behind the long stone breakwaters that made its harbour, and behind the town treeless hills under a snow-darkened sky.'

[Hunted, WoE]

Net House

In the Dark Years, meeting hall by the wharf in Thwil on the island of Roke where fisherwomen mended nets and people gathered to listen to readings from books of history

Sources: The Finder, TfE

New Palace

Also known as: Palace of Maharion, King's House

Main palace in Havnor City on Havnor. The throne room dates from the reign of Gemal Sea-born; his heirs built a larger palace around it, and Heru and her son Maharion raised three towers above it. At the restoration of the Archipelagan monarchy, Lebannen rebuilds the palace and has his court there. Within sight of the harbour, it's described as on the other side of the city from the River House in the north. As well as the throne room, the walled palace contains an audience room (the Long Room), meeting room, banquet hall, marble roof terrace, school, the king's dressing room & bedroom, and numerous anterooms, offices & guest suites; it is topped by the Tower of the Queen, Tower of Alabaster and the Tower of the Kings, in which the sword of Erreth-Akbe is set, and surrounded by gardens with roses, flowering shrubs, willows, fountains & pools

Sources: Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW

'…from the broad outer steps of the palace to high anterooms, staircases with gilded banisters, inner offices with tapestried walls, across floors of tile and marble and oak, under ceilings coffered, beamed, vaulted, painted,…'

[Palaces, OW]

Ninety Isles

Cluster of tiny islands between Hosk and Ensmer, to the west of Roke. The furthest south is Serd, thirty miles from Roke in the Inmost Sea, and the furthest north is Seppish, near Paln. The islets are organised into townships of ten or twenty islets apiece. There are few bridges and the islanders travel everywhere by boat. Although heavily populated with farms and fishing villages, there are no large towns. The economy revolves around whaling and turbies, an oily fish. Includes the harbour towns of Nesh and Serd, pastures in Dromgan, oil sheds in Geath and the township of Low Torning

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE; Hunted, WoE; The Finder, TfE

'West of Roke in a crowd between the two great lands Hosk and Ensmer lie the Ninety Isles. The nearest to Roke is Serd, and the farthest is Seppish, which lies almost in the Pelnish Sea; and whether the sum of them is ninety is a question never settled, for if you count only isles with freshwater springs you might have seventy, while if you count every rock you might have a hundred and still not be done; and then the tide would change. Narrow run the channels between the islets, and there the mild tides of the Inmost Sea, chafed and baffled, run high and fall low, so that where at high tide there might be three islands in one place, at low tide there might be one.'

[The Dragon of Pendor, WoE]

Norst

Islet near Sorresk, west of Ebosskil; it lies on the northwestern edge of the Archipelago, facing the Open Sea

North Enwas

See Enwas

North Reach

Group of islands with a cold climate lying to the north of Osskil and the Andrades. They include Borth, Rogmy, Udrath, Lef, Bereswek, Enwas, Ferrins, the Allernots, Komokome, Sort, Chemish, the Whale Isles and the large but untravelled Hogen Land among the ice floes

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Open Sea, WoE

'…the islandless vastness of the North Reach.'

[Hunted, WoE]

North Sudidi

Also known as: Sudidi, North

Island in the Ninety Isles

Sources: The Finder, TfE

North Teeth

See Teeth

Northeast Sea

Ocean to the northeast of the Archipelago, in which Gont lies

'…the storm-racked Northeast Sea…'

[Warriors in the Mist, WoE]

Northward Vale

Steep valley of the River Ar, in the north-east of Gont island, headed by Ten Alders village. The lower parts are farmed, with fields, orchards and cattle pastures; several towns lie on the river: Lotin, Medu, Chodur and Toss

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; Frontispiece map, T

'Below the village the pastures and ploughlands of the Vale slope downwards level below level towards the sea, and other towns lie on the bends of the River Ar…'

[Warriors in the Mist, WoE]

Norvale

Town or village at the mouth of an unnamed river in the north of Gont; near Up Norvale

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

O

Elongated island at the east of the Inmost Sea near Ilien and Felkway; the Ebavnor Straits and Passage of Felkway lie to its north and the Closed Sea to its east. Towns include O-Tokne in the north, O Port in the south-east, and unnamed ports on the north coast. Known for its fine silverwork. Ruled by the Lord of O

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; The School for Wizards, WoE; The Masters of Roke, FS

O Port

Major port on the island of O; lies in the south east, on the Inmost Sea

Oak Farm

Farmstead of Flint and Tenar, later owned by their son Spark, half a mile from (presumably) Oak Village in Middle Valley on Gont. Located by a grove of oaks, the stone farmhouse is built into the hillside; it has small-paned windows, a stone-floored kitchen, pantry, cool-room, dairy, hall, living room, two bedrooms and a loft. The farm comprises four fields (growing flax among other crops), sheep & cattle pasture, apple & pear orchard, raspberry canes, bean patch, hay barn, lean-to, woodhouse, well-house, pump, two tenants' cottages and a family graveyard; red wine and sheepskins are the major produce mentioned

Sources: Frontispiece map, T; A Bad Thing, T; Going to the Falcon's Nest, T; The Dolphin, T; Home, T; Winter, T; The Master, T

'Beyond the cool-room was the dairy. The house was built against a low hill, and both those rooms ran back into the hill like cellars, though on a level with the rest of the house.'

[Home, T]

Oak Springs

Village on the road between Middle Valley and Re Albi in south Gont; has a small inn

Sources: Going to the Falcon's Nest, T; The Master, T

Oak Village

Inland village on the river Kaheda in Middle Valley in the south of Gont, downriver from Kahedanan and upriver from Valmouth. Probably the village near Oak Farm

Sources: Frontispiece map, T; The Dolphin, T

Obb

Medium-sized, inhabited island in the southerly end of the West Reach, near Jessage

Sources: Orm Embar, FS; Palaces, OW

'Land lay ahead, low and blue in the afternoon like a bank of mist.'

[Orm Embar, FS]

Obehol

Also known as: Ohol

Large island in the South Reach; white sandy beaches backed with forest, with great green peaks in the interior. Called Ohol by the Children of the Open Sea (raft people)

Sources: The Madman, FS; The Children of the Open Sea, FS

Ohol

See Obehol

Old Iria

Area within the domain of Iria on Way, held by the Master of Iria. Includes a vineyard, pastures, oak woods, the half-ruined mansion house on Iria Hill and an unnamed village at its foot

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE

Old Mage's House

Timber-built house on the wind-swept Overfell a little north of Re Albi on Gont, home successively to Heleth, Ogion and Tenar, Ged & Tehanu. Variously described as 'large and soundly built'^a and 'a low, small house'^b, it has a large single room with a polished oak floor containing a sleeping alcove, larder, hearth, chimney and one or more shuttered windows. Outside there is a goat shed, milking shed, henhouse, poultry yard, woodshed, springhouse, small orchard with peach & plum trees, vegetable patch and goat pasture. Tehanu and The Other Wind mention a well, though in A Wizard of Earthsea, Ogion fetches water from a local spring. Below the house, steep boulder-strewn fields run down to the sea; to its north, the Overfell becomes sheer cliff; inland lies forest

Sources: The Shadow, WoE (a); Going to the Falcon's Nest, T (b); Hawks, T; Mending the Green Pitcher, OW; The Bones of the Earth, TfE

'The mage's house, though large and soundly built of timber, with hearth and chimney rather than a firepit, was like the huts of the Ten Alders village: all one room, with a goatshed built on to one side. There was a kind of alcove in the west wall of the room, where Ged slept. Over his pallet was a window that looked out on the sea, but most often the shutters must be closed against the great winds that blew all winter from the west and the north.'

[The Shadow, WoE]

Omer

Small island in the Inmost Sea and Ebavnor Straits, south of Havnor and near Ark

'The black basalt columns of the Isle of Omer towered off the ship's right side as she worked across the Ebavnor Straits'

[Dolphin, OW]

Onn, Mount

See Mount Onn

Onneva

Also known as: River Onneva

Major river on Havnor island, which feeds into the Great Bay of Havnor; at its mouth, under the shoulder of Mount Onn, lie the sands of Onneva

Sources: The Finder, TfE; Palaces, OW

Onneva Sands

See Sands of Onneva

Onon

Small island in the northerly West Reach, near Derhemen

Ontuego

Medium-sized island on the easterly side of the West Reach, lying near the Toringates, west of Paln. The mage Ath is said to have been killed by the dragon Orm there

Sources: The Stone of Pain, FS; Dolphin, OW

Open Sea

The sea bordering all the islands. Unclear whether it stretches infinitely, wraps back (ie, Earthsea is spherical) or terminates in other unknown lands. According to the dragons, there are lands beyond any that humans have sailed to

'…the Open Sea going on past all knowledge; …'

[Sea Dreams, FS]

Related entries: World view

Oraby

Town on the island of Semel with an inn and a whorehouse

Sources: On the High Marsh, TfE

Oranéa

Eastmost of the Inward Isles, lying just north of Barnisk in the Gontish Sea, near Havnor, the South Teeth, Garhirien, Ea and Ebéa. Its blue hills are visible from Re Albi on Gont

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; Kalessin, T

Orandrad

Small northern island, east of Andrad and north of Gont

Orrimy

Major port on the east coast of Hosk, on the Inmost Sea

'Orrimy is an old town, built heavily of stone and brick, walled against the lawless lords of the interior of Hosk Island; the warehouses on the docks are like forts, and the merchants' houses are towered and fortified.'

[Hunted, WoE]

Os, Mountains of

See Mountains of Os

Oskres

Coastal village or town lying near the head of an unnamed inlet in the northwest of Gont, near Kedun and Selt

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Ossawa

Town in the Kargad Lands, possibly on Atuan. It has a minor temple to the Godking

Sources: The Wall Around the Place, ToA

Osskil

Also known as: Ravenland

Large Y-shaped island in the north-west of the Archipelago, north of Enlad and south of the North Reach. The main city is Neshum in the east; the Court of the Terrenon is located on the Keksemt Moors in the interior. Other features include the Mountains of Os and the Gut of Osskil, the sea channel between the arms of the Y. Language spoken is Osskili not Hardic

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Hawk's Flight, WoE

'"There are happenings here not dealt with by the loremasters of the South, and things here not named in the Namers' lists."'

[The Hawk's Flight, WoE]

Osskil Sea

Sea between Osskil and Enlad, at the northern edge of the Archipelago, south of the North Reach

Sources: Hunted, WoE; The Hawk's Flight, WoE

'Then as a red sun rose they rowed out on the Osskil Sea, into the northeast winds that blow unhindered from the islandless vastness of the North Reach.'

[Hunted, WoE]

Other wind

Also known as: West beyond the west

Realm of dragons in the west beyond the west, outside time; dragons inhabit it in body, while men can only go there in spirit. Knowledge of it has been lost in the Archipelago, but it's referred to in the Song of the Woman of Kemay. The dragons claim that half this realm was stolen in ancient times by mages (the Rune Makers) making walls of spells to exclude dragons; the stolen region became the dry land of the Archipelagan afterlife. At the end of The Other Wind, these barriers are destroyed; the other wind is made whole again, and restored to the dragons

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

'"Do you think we dragons fly only on the winds of this world? Do you think our freedom, for which we gave up all possessions, is no greater than that of the mindless seagulls? That our realm is a few rocks at the edge of your rich islands? You own the earth, you own the sea. But we are the fire of sunlight, we fly the wind!"'

[Rejoining, OW]

O-tokne

Capital of O, an inland city towards the north. Seat of the Lord of O and Lady of O-tokne

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE

Otrad

Also known as: Eskel

Islet off the east coast of Way, in the east of the Archipelago; sometimes known as Eskel. One of the nearest islands to the East Reach

Otterhide

See Woodedge

Otter's House

Small hut or house at the edge of the Immanent Grove on Roke, in a meadow by the Thwilburn. Built by Medra (Otter) & Elehal, and possibly later occupied by other Patterners, though when Irian stays there in around 1058 it appears to have been empty for some time. Eight years later, it's described as decrepit

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE; Rejoining, OW

'…a low, moss-ridden roof half hidden by the afternoon shadows of the trees.'

[Dragonfly, TfE]

Outer Innran

Tiny islet south of Way, near Perilane, in the east of the Archipelago; one of the nearest islands to the East Reach

Ovark

Town in the East Forest region in the east of Gont island. Near Wiss, from which it is separated by a high pass

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; The Shadow, WoE

Overfell

West-facing cliff top or rocky ledge of red sandstone in southern Gont, described as an 'air-swept shelf of rock'^a jutting out from the mountainside, 2000 feet above the sea. The village of Re Albi is located on the cliff top; the Old Mage's House lies on a steep grassy slope near the cliff edge, just north of the village. Further back from the cliff edge, the Overfell becomes a narrow strip of marsh, Overfell Marsh, behind which rise the wooded slopes of Gont Mountain

Sources: Going to the Falcon's Nest, T; Kalessin, T (a)

'Ogion's house stood apart from the village and closer than any other house to the edge of the Overfell, here a steep grassy slope broken by ledges and outcrops of rock, where goats could be pastured. As you went on north the drop grew ever steeper, till it began to fall sheer; and on the path the rock of the great ledge showed through the soil, till a mile or so north of the village the Overfell had narrowed to a shelf of reddish sandstone hanging above the sea that undercut its base two thousand feet below. / Nothing grew at that far end of the Overfell but lichens and rockworts and here and there a blue daisy, wind-stunted, like a button dropped on the rough, crumbling stone.'

[Kalessin, T]

Pain, Mountains of

See Mountains of Pain

Painted Room

Also known as: Room of Pictures

Mural-decorated room in the Labyrinth on Atuan. The murals depict 'bird-winged, flightless figures with eyes painted dull red and white'^a, which may represent non-reincarnated spirits of Archipelagan people trapped in the sterile afterlife of the dry land. The date at which they were painted is unknown, as is the artist/s. No similar paintings are found elsewhere in the Place of the Tombs. The room has a door with iron bolts and a large spy hole in its arched roof, located in the treasury of the Temple of the God-Brothers

Sources: Light under the Hill, ToA; The Great Treasure, ToA (a); Palaces, OW

'[Arha] was going to the Painted Room. She liked sometimes to go there and study the strange wall drawings that leapt out of the dark at the gleam of her candle: men with long wings and great eyes, serene and morose. No one could tell her what they were, there were no such paintings elsewhere in the Place, but she thought she knew; they were the spirits of the damned, who are not reborn.'

[Light under the Hill, ToA]

Related entries: Decorative arts

Palace of Maharion

See New Palace

Paln

Large island in the west of the Archipelago, immediately south of Semel; over 300 miles from Havnor City and separated from Havnor by the Pelnish Sea. The north is mountainous and wild; the only town mentioned is Ferao. The inhabitants speak accented Hardic (Seppel's accent is described as clipped and singing) and have many words of their own dialect; they have a reputation for uncanniness in the rest of the Archipelago. Ruled by the Lords of Paln, who in ancient times refused fealty to the King of All the Isles. Famous for wizards who do not attend Roke School of Wizardry and are trained in the Lore of Paln, a different tradition from that of Roke. Also said to be great shipbuilders

Sources: Palaces, OW; Dolphin, OW; Rejoining, OW

'…in the mountains of the north part of the island, wild country without farms. Hunters used to go there to hunt mountain sheep and catch falcons to tame…'

[Palaces, OW]

Passage of Felkway

Also known as: Felkway Bay

Channel between the islands of Felkway and O leading to the Ebavnor Straits; also termed Felkway Bay in some sources

Sources: Palaces, OW

Pelimer

Tiny inhabited island in the easternmost region of the East Reach, three days' southeast of Soders. At the time of The Wizard of Earthsea, its main town has a deranged sorcerer. Hardic is spoken there with a strong accent

'…a small isle humped high above the high grey seas.'

[The Open Sea, WoE]

Pelnish Sea

Broad sea channel between Paln & Semel to the west and Havnor to the east; it lies north of the Ninety Isles

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE

Pendor

Island to the west of the Archipelago; spoiled by Yevaud, the Dragon of Pendor. In the Dark Years, before Yevaud's arrival, a peaceful, prosperous island, whose lords were then described as 'good men. They remember the kings. They don't seek war or plunder'^a, though they send men west hunting dragons for sport. Later, however, they were said to be 'pirates, slave-takers, war-makers, hated by all that dwelt in the southwest parts of Earthsea'^b

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE (b); The Finder, TfE (a)

'Maybe he thought, at first, that on Pendor he had found Morred's Isle, for the city was beautiful and peaceful and the people prosperous.'

[The Finder, TfE]

Perilane

Islet off the southern tip of Way, near Outer Innran, in the east of the Archipelago

Perregal

Small island north-east of Gont, one of the nearest islands in the Archipelago to the Kargad Lands. Under Kargish rule for at least a generation in the time of Maharion

Sources: A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Place of Atuan

See Place of the Tombs

Place of the Sacrifice

A place on Hur-at-Hur to which small, flightless dragons crawl annually along the Dragons' Way for the spring sacrifice

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW

Place of the Tombs

Also known as: Place, the, Place of Atuan
Titles: Most Sacred Place of the Tombs

Sacred place in the interior of the island of Atuan where the Tombs of Atuan and Hall of the Throne are located, as well as the Temple of the Godking, Temple of the God-Brothers, Small House, Big House, accommodations for eunuch wardens, slaves & guards, farm buildings, store rooms, stables, barn, goat pens, sheep folds & apple/peach orchard. Around 200 people live there. Set in the desert, half a mile from a river, hemmed in by the Western Mountains and two days' walk from the coast; the nearest town is over 20 miles away. Though it's the oldest and most holy place in the Kargad Lands, by the time of The Tombs of Atuan, few pilgrims visit and the Godking no longer consults the One Priestess

'It looked like a little town, seen from a distance, from up on the dry hills westward where nothing grew but sage, wire-grass in straggling clumps, small weeds and desert herbs.'

[The Wall around the Place, ToA]

Further information on Place of the Tombs

Place, the

See Place of the Tombs

Pody

Small fertile island, south of the Ninety Isles, near Ensmer and Wathort. Major town is the old port of Telio. Linen making is a major industry, with flax-retting houses in the weavers' quarter of Telio. At the time of 'The Finder', the island had been ruled by the lords of Wathort for a century, and was very run down

'It was a sleepy southern island with a pretty old port town, Telio, built of rosy sandstone, and fields and orchards that should have been fertile. But the lords of Wathort had ruled it for a century, taxing and slave taking and wearing the land and people down. The sunny streets of Telio were sad and dirty. People lived in them as in the wilderness, in tents and lean-tos made or scraps, or shelterless.'

[The Finder, TfE]

Pothouses

See Taverns

Prisoners' Door

See Red rock door

Purewells

Small village on the High Marsh on the island of Semel. Features include a single street, tavern and a well with pure water

Sources: On the High Marsh, TfE

Queen Heru's Tower

See Tower of the Queen

Queen's House

See River House

Queen's Tower

See Tower of the Queen

Quor

Hill village on Iffish in the East Reach

Sources: Iffish, WoE

Re Albi

Also known as: Falcon's Nest

Village on the edge of the high cliff of the Overfell in the south of Gont, fifteen miles from Gont Port. Governed by the Lord of Re Albi. The name means Falcon's Nest, and it commands views of Gont Port, the harbour and the Armed Cliffs. The village has a weaver's house, smithy, sawmill and a small square with a fountain; nearby lies the Old Mage's House, Overfell Marsh, Bog Lake and the Dark Pond. Farming goats, sheep and cattle is a major livelihood here

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; Mice, T; Hawks, T; The Bones of the Earth, TfE; Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

'There were scattered small houses, a small dusty square, a fountain with one thin stream of water falling.'

[Mending the Green Pitcher, OW]

Re Albi mansion house

The manor house of the Lord of Re Albi is built on a rocky outcrop above the Overfell, up the hill from Re Albi. Surrounded by hay fields and cherry & walnut orchards, it has marble external steps and marble floors

Sources: Ogion, T; Finding Words, T; The Master, T

Reaches

Four groups of islands outside the central Archipelago: the North Reach, East Reach (which excludes the Kargad Lands), South Reach and West Reach. Though nominally subject to the King of All the Isles after the restoration of the Archipelagan monarchy, many of the islands in the Reaches are very isolated, with rather different ways of life than in the main Archipelago. As is commonly said, 'Rules change in the Reaches.'^a

Sources: Iffish, WoE (a)

Reche

Village or town in the west of Havnor island, near Glade, above which are chestnut forests

Sources: Darkrose and Diamond, TfE

Red rock door

Also known as: Prisoners' Door

Door to the Undertomb at the Place of the Tombs on Atuan, in an outcropping of red lava near the Tomb Wall. It can only be opened from outside, using a long-shafted iron key with two ornate wards (one of the ring of keys)

'A few yards down the slope an outcropping of red lava made a stair or little cliff in the hill. When she went down to it and stood on the level before it, facing the rocks, Arha realized that they looked like a rough doorway, four feet high.'

[The Prisoners, ToA]

Resbel

Town in the southwest of Havnor Island, a hundred miles from the sands of Onneva and on the western side of the pass in the Faliern Mountains

Sources: Palaces, OW

Revnian Mountains

Range of mountains in the northeast of Havnor island

Risk

Islet in the easterly West Reach, near Usidero

River Ar

See Ar

River House

Also known as: Queen's House

Small, beautiful palace on the northern edge of Havnor City on Havnor, built fitting into the old city wall, with a shady courtyard, halls, anterooms, a dark inner audience room, and balconies over the River Serrenen. Built by Queen Heru, and frequently called the Queen's House, Lebannen had it rebuilt on ascending the throne, and uses it for summer festivities, as a retreat and to meet his mistresses

Sources: Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW; Dolphin, OW

'…it was a lovely, peaceful place, sparsely furnished, with dark, polished, uncarpeted floors. Ranks of narrow door-windows slid aside to open up the whole side of a room to a view of the willows and the river, and one could walk out onto deep wooden balconies built over the water.'

[ The Dragon Council, OW]

River Kaheda

See Kaheda

River Kember

See Kember

River Onneva

See Onneva

River Serrenen

See Serrenen

Roads of Balatran

Also known as: Balatran

Place where the rafts of the Children of the Open Sea meet and come together in summer for the Long Dance

Sources: The Children of the Open Sea, FS

Rogm

See Rogmy

Rogmy

Also known as: Rogm

Medium-sized island north of Osskil in the west of the North Reach, near Borth and Udrath. Osskili is probably the language spoken there

Sources: A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Roke

Also known as: Isle of the Wise, Isle of the Wizards, Morred's Isle

Island in the Inmost Sea; said to be the heart of Earthsea and the second land raised from the sea. Location of the legendary Morred's Isle. Famous for the School of Wizardry, it is governed by the Archmage. Main town is Thwil on Thwil Bay in the south east, which is the only harbour; other named features include Roke Knoll, the Immanent Grove, Thwilburn and the Isolate Tower. The island is partly farmed, partly oak wooded, with green hills, heaths, pastures and granite cliffs

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Finder, TfE

Roke Bay

See Thwil Bay

Roke Knoll

A high green hill on Roke Island above Thwil, near the Immanent Grove; steep, round & treeless, it's covered in long grass and sparkweed. Said to be the first land to stand above the sea at the Creation, and whose roots go down to the centre of the earth. In 'The Finder' [TfE], however, it states that Roke was the second island to be raised, after Ea. A site where the Old Powers are manifest; all things take their true form there

Sources: The Loosing of the Shadow, WoE; The Finder, TfE; Dragonfly, TfE

'The presence of that hill where many wonders had been worked was heavy, like a weight in the air around them. As they came on to the hillside they thought of how the roots of it were deep, deeper even than the sea, reaching down even to the old, blind, secret fires at the world's core.'

[The Loosing of the Shadow, WoE]

Roke School

See School of Wizardry

Roke, Great House of

See Great House of Roke

Rolameny

Also known as: Rolomeny

Medium-sized island in the southwestern East Reach, south of Kopp and west of Soders

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Rood

Medium-sized island in the South Reach, near Lorbanery and Toom

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Room of Bones

Room in the Labyrinth of the Place of the Tombs where the remains of some of those who died within the Labyrinth are left

Sources: The Man Trap, ToA

Room of Chains

Large underground room at the Place of the Tombs which houses prisoners. Accessed via a minor labyrinth off the Undertomb, it lies beneath the Hall of the Throne. It has a wooden door without lock, walls with rings driven into the rock, and iron chains with padlocks; the ceiling has a small wooden trapdoor to one of the rooms behind the Empty Throne

Sources: The Prisoners, ToA; The Man Trap, ToA

'…a large low room, walled with hewn stone and lighted by one fuming torch hung from a chain.'

[The Prisoners, ToA]

Room of Pictures

See Painted Room

Round Hill

Hill near Kahedanan in the south of Gont; site of an old slaughterhouse

Sources: Winter, T

Samory

Silver and cinnabar (quicksilver or mercury ore) mines in lowland valley near Mount Onn on Havnor, said to be old during the Dark Years when they are worked by the warlord Losen and his mage Gelluk; Licky is the foreman. Buildings include barracks and a grey stone roaster tower where ore is heated to extract the quicksilver (mercury) metal as a vapour (see metal refining); the stream Yennava runs to its west

'…the stone tower, stacks of wood by its wide doorway, rusty wheels and machines by a pit, great heaps of gravel and clay. … the drifts and levels were so low and narrow the miners had to stoop and squeeze their way. In places the ceilings had collapsed. Ladders were shaky. The mine was a terrifying place…'

[The Finder, TfE]

Sand Isles

See Isles of Sand

Sands of Onneva

Also known as: Onneva Sands

Sandy coastal region in the west of the Bay of Havnor, at the mouth of the Onneva river and under the shoulder of Mount Onn

Sources: Palaces, OW

Sattins

Small island in the northern East Reach, near Vemish and Yor. It has farm land with sheep and cows, pine woods and a high green hill with a cave. The main town has an inn; the main harbour is Sattins Harbor; other named features include West Shore, East Creek and Long Banks

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q

Sattins Harbor

Main harbour of Sattins island, home to a fishing fleet of around forty vessels

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q

School of Wizardry

Also known as: Roke School, College on Roke

School of magic and central home of wizardry, founded in around 650 by Elehal, Yahan, Medra and others of the group called the women of the Hand; later ruled by the Archmage and nine Masters of Roke. Its ethics are codified in the Rule of Roke. Located in the Great House of Roke at Thwil Town, as well as the Isolate Tower & Immanent Grove. Boys come to the school from all over the Archipelago to learn the high arts of magic, and only here is it considered that true wizards are made. At the time Ged attends as a boy, there are around a hundred students, all male.

The Archmage and Masters hold considerable political power in the kingless years, but after the restoration of the Archipelagan monarchy and the loss of the Archmage, the political role of the school is in doubt; for example, the sorcerer Ivory says: '"Roke is no longer where the power is in Earthsea. That's the Court in Havnor, now. Roke lives on its great past, defended by a thousand spells against the present day. And inside those spell-walls, what is there? Quarreling ambitions, fear of anything new, fear of young men who challenge the power of the old. And at the center, nothing. An empty courtyard. The Archmage will never return"'^a

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Finder, TfE; Dragonfly, TfE (a); A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Sea of Éa

Also known as: Ea, Sea of

Sea north of Havnor and south of Enlad. The islands of Taon, Ea and Ebéa lie in it, and Soléa before it was engulfed was located there

Sea-Guild, House of the

See House of the Sea-Guild

Sea-House

Lodging house, found on Serd and other islands of the Inmost Sea, which provides free food and lodging to travellers and traders, financed by the local township. The Sea-House of Serd has a long raftered hall where guests sleep on pallets

'He went to the Sea-House of Serd, where travellers and merchants ate together of good fare provided by the township, and might sleep in the long raftered hall; such is the hospitality of the thriving islands of the Inmost Sea.'

[Hunted, WoE]

Related entries: Inns

Seawall of Nepp

Also known as: Nepp, Seawall of

Building the deep-founded seawall of Nepp is reckoned among Ged's famous deeds; no details are known

Sources: The Rowan Tree, FS

Selidor

Also known as: the Farthest Isle

Desolate westernmost isle of the Archipelago, around a thousand miles from the Inmost Sea, in the West Reach. Uninhabited, largely without birds or animals. A fairly large island, the south coast has dunes, and reedy marshes and lagoons, with low hills towards the interior. 'As long ago as for ever, as far away as Selidor'^a is the Archipelagan equivalent of 'once upon a time'

Sources: Selidor, FS; The Stone of Pain, FS; Finding Words, T (a)

Sellets

Also known as: The Sellets

Group of three islets off the south coast of Soders in the East Reach

Selt

Coastal village or town in the northwest of Gont, near Oskres and Up Selt; it lies at the head of an unnamed inlet, near the mouth of an unnamed river

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Semel

Medium-sized island in the north west of the Archipelago, near Paln and Havnor. Forested, with cattle and sheep farming. Landscape dominated by the volcano Andanden, with a high marshy grassy plain, the High Marsh, formed by ash deposition during the last eruption. Southern coast is most populated; major towns include Oraby

'The island of Semel lies north and west across the Pelnish Sea from Havnor, south and west of the Enlades. Though it is one of the great isles of the Earthsea Archipelago, there aren't many stories from Semel. Enlad has its glorious history, and Havnor its wealth, and Paln its ill repute, but Semel has only cattle and sheep, forests and little towns, and the great silent volcano called Andanden standing over all.'

[On the High Marsh, TfE]

Semermine

Town in the hills behind Berila on Enlad; a summer retreat of the Enlad royal family. It has apple orchards

'He thought he was in the apple orchards of Semermine, where the princes of Enlad pass their summers, in the hills behind Berila; he thought he was lying in the thick grass at Semermine, looking up at the sunlight between apple boughs.'

[The Children of the Open Sea, FS]

Seppish

Northernmost islet of the Ninety Isles, lying southeast of Paln and Eppaln, just south of the Pelnish Sea

'West of Roke in a crowd between the two great lands Hosk and Ensmer lie the Ninety Isles. The nearest to Roke is Serd, and the farthest is Seppish, which lies almost in the Pelnish Sea;'

[The Dragon of Pendor, WoE]

Serd

Islet at the southern end of the Ninety Isles near Pody, in the Inmost Sea; the nearest of those isles to Roke, which lies thirty miles away. Described as thriving, its main port is Serd Inner Port

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE; Hunted, WoE

'West of Roke in a crowd between the two great lands Hosk and Ensmer lie the Ninety Isles. The nearest to Roke is Serd…'

[The Dragon of Pendor, WoE]

Serd Inner Port

Main port of the island of Serd in the Ninety Isles; it lies on the side of the Inmost Sea and has a Sea-House

Sources: Hunted, WoE

Serilune

Town on the island of Enlad; it has a market place. The skin of the dragon Bar Oth is preserved there

Sources: Hort Town, FS

Serrenen

Also known as: River Serrenen

Stream or small river in Havnor City, which runs within the old city walls in the north of the city, lined with willows. A paved way runs alongside it, and the River House has balconies over it

Sources: Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW

'…through the willow boughs at the quiet, shallow stream below them.'

[The Dragon Council, OW]

Sesesry

City on the east coast of Ark

Set

Tiny islet near Misk and Dunnel, at the northeastern edge of the South Reach

Shelieth

Also known as: Shelieth of the Fountains

Capital of the island of Way, located in the south. Seat of the Lords of Way, the city has law courts and is famous for its fountains, which are praised in the Deed of the Young King. One of the old royal lineages is found here

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS; Hort town, FS; Dragonfly, TfE

'Praised are the Fountains of Shelieth, the silver harp of the waters'

[Hort Town, FS]

Shops

Shops are described in larger towns and cities across the Archipelago. Thwil has a shop selling writing materials and jewelry, while shops in Hort Town sell a huge range of hardware, clothes and fabrics. In Gont Port, shop have shutters; the shop in Thwil has strings of red red clay beads ornamenting its doorway; in Havnor City, they're described as small and dark; in Hort Town, they're little more than booths piled high with wares. Even in major Archipelagan cities, goods are also commonly sold at market

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS; Hort Town, FS; Finding Words, T; Dolphin, OW

Showl

Place in the South Reach where slaves are sold; possibly a town, or a mistake for the island of Sowl

Sources: Magelight, FS; Dolphin, OW

Simly

Medium-sized, inhabited island in the southerly end of the West Reach, lying near Kaltuel, north-east of Jessage and west of Ensmer; grain is grown there

Sources: Palaces, OW

Small House

Also known as: House of the One Priestess

House in which the One Priestess lives after dedication, in the Place of the Tombs on Atuan. It has a windowless sleeping cell, hallway, an inner walled courtyard with a cistern, a porch where the One Priestess's eunuch sleeps, and a small closet with a concealed spyhole onto the Labyrinth, near the iron door

Sources: The Eaten One, ToA; Dreams and Tales, ToA; Light under the Hill, ToA

'It was in a house that had been locked for years, unlocked only that day. The room was higher than it was long, and had no windows. There was a dead smell in it, still and stale.'

[The Eaten One, ToA]

Sneg

Small island in the East Reach, near Koppish

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Open Sea, WoE

Soders

Small, hilly inhabited island in the East Reach, a hundred miles south of Iffish; it has a port

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Sodeva

Town or village in Middle Valley in the south of Gont; has a Round Barn which serves as a council chamber for the villages of the valley

Sources: Home, T

Soléa

Northern island in the Sea of Éa known for its orchards; engulfed in the sea by the spell of the Enemy of Morred one or two thousand years ago, drowning everyone on it, including Elfarran

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE; Hort Town, FS; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Solwes

Coastal village or town in the southwest of Gont, near Essary and Var

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Sorra

Location of the siege of Sorra; presumably a town on Wathort or in the South Reach

Sources: Palaces, OW; Dolphin, OW

Sorresk

Small island off the west coast of Osskil, near Norst and Ebosskil; it lies on the northwestern edge of the Archipelago, facing the Open Sea

Sort

Islet in the eastern North Reach, northeast of the Allernots, near Komokome and Chemish

Sosara

Wealthy harbour village on the island of Lorbanery, governed by the Mayor of Sosara; the houses are thatched with twigs from the local hurbah trees. Features include an inn, and worksheds for the major industry of silk weaving and dyeing

'The houses were curious, with little windows set randomly, and thatches of hurbah-twigs, all green with moss and lichens. It had been a wealthy isle, as isles of the Reach go, and this was still to be seen in the well-painted and well-furnished houses, in the great spinning wheels and looms in the cottages and worksheds, and in the stone piers of the little harbour of Sosara, where several trading galleys might have docked.'

[Lorbanery, FS]

South Enwas

See Enwas

South Port (Gont)

See Gont South Port

South Port (Havnor)

See Havnor South Port

South Reach

Group of islands lying south and southwest of Wathort, described as 'the place least known and fullest of mysteries' in all of Earthsea^a. They include the Isle of the Ear & the Great South Shoals in the east; Wasny, Misk, Dunnel & Set in the northeast; Toom, Rood, Lorbanery, Far Sorr & the Isles of Sand in the south; and Obehol, Wellology & the Long Dune in the southwest, near the West Reach. The climate here is generally warmer than in the rest of Earthsea. Slavery is practised in parts of the South Reach

Sources: Sea Dreams, FS (a); The Open Sea, WoE; The Madman, FS

'"A strange part of the world, where the fish fly, and the dolphins sing, they say."'

[Sea Dreams, FS]

South Teeth

See Teeth

Sowl

Small island in the South Reach east of Wathort and near Namien; exports gauze fabric to Hort Town, and also markets slaves

Sources: Hort Town, FS; Dolphin, OW

Spevy

A small island between Gont and the Kargad Lands. Taken by the Kargs around a year before the start of A Wizard of Earthsea; the land was looted and laid waste, and the people taken into slavery. Previously under Kargish rule for at least a generation in the time of Maharion

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Springwater Isle

Rocky sand bar near Karego-At on which Ensar and Anthil, the last descendants of the House of Hupun, were stranded. The isle was named for the spring of freshwater that Ged charmed

Sources: Hunting, WoE

Sudidi, North

See North Sudidi

Tant

Coastal village or town in the east of Gont, near East Port and Wiss

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Taon

Titles: Isle of the Harpers

Small island in southern part of the Sea of Éa, near where Soléa formerly was found; less than 100 miles from the island of Semel. Ruled by the Prince of Éa. Main city is Meoni; other habitations include the market town of Elini. Known for singers, schools of music and the making of fine harps, such as the one owned by Vetch

Sources: Iffish, WoE; Mending the Green Pitcher, OW

'Taon is at the southern end of the Sea of Éa, not far from where Soléa lay before the sea whelmed it. That was the ancient heart of Earthsea. All those islands had states and cities, kings and wizards, when Havnor was a land of feuding tribesmen and Gont a wilderness ruled by bears. People born on Éa or Ebéa, Enlad or Taon, though they may be ditchdigger's daughter or witch's son, consider themselves to be descendants of the Elder Mages, sharing the lineage of the warriors who died in the dark years for Queen Elfarran.'

[Mending the Green Pitcher, OW]

Taverns

Also known as: Pothouses

Kept by a taverner, taverns or pothouses serve beer and wine; unlike inns, they usually don't provide food or accommodation. Probably ubiquitous throughout the Archipelago, they're mentioned in Havnor City and various villages on Semel, Havnor and elsewhere

Sources: The Finder, TfE; On the High Marsh, TfE; Dolphin, OW

Teeth

Also known as: North Teeth, South Teeth

Two strings of islets, the North & South Teeth, line the Jaws of Enlad. They run east--west, from the east of Enlad towards Andrad and the Andrades

Telio

Old port town on the island of Pody, in the Ninety Isles. Linen making is a major industry, with flax-retting houses in the old weavers' quarter, which has a little cobbled square. Other features include Ath's House. At the time of 'The Finder' [TfE], Pody had been ruled by the lords of Wathort for a century, and the town was very run down

'…a pretty old port town, Telio, built of rosy sandstone…The sunny streets of Telio were sad and dirty. People lived in them as in the wilderness, in tents and lean-tos made or scraps, or shelterless.'

[The Finder, TfE]

Temere

Large port on the south coast of Enlad; Lebannen says that it trades with all the Reaches

Sources: Hort Town, FS

Temple of the God-Brothers

Also known as: God-Brothers, Temple of the, Temple of the Twin Gods

Temple to the Twin Gods on Atuan, set on a little knoll in the Place of the Tombs. A windowless cube of white plastered stone, with a newly gilted roof and a low porch, it is centuries older than the Temple of the Godking, but much more recent than the Hall of the Throne. Its little vaulted treasury has a large concealed spyhole onto the Painted Room of the Labyrinth

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; The Man Trap, ToA

'Even from away off on the eastern plains, looking up one might see the gold roof of the Temple of the Twin Gods wink and glitter beneath the mountains like a speck of mica in a shelf of rock.'

[The Wall around the Place, ToA]

Temple of the Godking

Also known as: Godking, Temple of the

Temple to the Godking on Atuan. The newest and showiest temple in the Place of the Tombs, it has a high portico and thick white columns of solid cedar logs with carved & painted capitals. At the rear are accommodations for the High Priestess serving the Godking.

There is also a minor temple to the Godking in Ossawa

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; Dreams and Tales, ToA; The Man Trap, ToA

'The columns with their carved capitals stood white with hoar-frost in the starlight, like pillars of bone.'

[The Man Trap, ToA]

Temple of the Twin Gods

See Temple of the God-Brothers

Ten Alders

Small village high on Gont Mountain, at the head of the Northward Vale in the north-east of Gont. It lies over the springs of Ar, beneath the High Fall cliffs; the nearest village is Medu. It has a single street, with a bronze-smith's forge & smelting pit, tannery, thatched houses/huts and a great yew tree. Birthplace of Ged

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; Frontispiece map, T

Tenacbah

Major city of the island of Atuan, to the north west of the Tombs of Atuan; said to have a thousand houses

'And first we went to Tenacbah, which is a great city, though those who've seen both say it's no more to Awabath than a flea to a cow. But it's big enough for me, there must be ten hundred houses in Tenacbah!'

[The Wall Around the Place, ToA]

Terrenon, Court of the

See Court of the Terrenon

Tesk

Islet at the northern end of the Ninety Isles, near Hosk

Sources: The Dragon of Pendor, WoE

Tettego

Coastal village or town in the south of Gont, near Gont Port and Etreke

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Throne room

Also known as: Great Hall of Gemal Sea-born

Formerly the great hall of Gemal Sea-born; the oldest part of the New Palace of Havnor City in which the King's Council meets. A long, plainly-decorated room with a high-beamed ceiling and high, narrow windows, furnished with cushioned benches for the councillors. On a dias at the end of the hall facing the councillors' benches stands the throne, Morred's High Seat; behind the dias is a curtained doorway. Described in the Havnorian Lay: 'A hundred warriors, a hundred women/sat in the great hall of Gemal Sea-Born/at the king's table'^a

Sources: Bettering, T; The Dragon Council, OW (a)

'But the throne room, once the beamed ceiling was rebuilt, the stone walls replastered, the narrow, high-set windows reglazed, he left in its old starkness. … Some of the rich people who came to admire their expensive palace complained about the throne room and the throne. "It looks like a barn," they said, and, "Is it Morred's High Seat or an old farmer's chair?"'

[The Dragon Council, OW]

Thwil

Also known as: Thwil Town, Thwil Harbour

Main habitation in the south east of Roke Island, a small town rising above Thwil Bay; it is the only harbour on the island. Location of the Great House of Roke, the heart of the Roke School of Wizardry. The streets are steep, narrow & tortuous, and in some places cobbled; there is a small market square

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; The Finder, TfE

'Few and short as were the streets of Thwil, they turned and twisted curiously among the high-roofed houses, and the way was easy to lose. It was a strange town, and strange also its people, fishermen and workmen and artisans like any others, but so used to the sorcery that is ever at play on the Isle of the Wise that they seemed half sorcerers themselves. They talked … in riddles and not one of them would blink to see a boy turn into a fish or a house fly up in the air, but knowing it for a schoolboy prank would go on cobbling shoes or cutting up mutton unconcerned.'

[The School for Wizards, WoE]

Thwil Bay

Also known as: Roke Bay, Bay of Thwil

Small bay in the southeast of Roke, backed by the rounded hill of Roke Knoll; location of the harbour town of Thwil. It's said that here 'there's no wind but the wind they want'^a, as the bay is protected by the Roke wind

Sources: The Shadow, WoE; The School for Wizards, WoE; Dragonfly, TfE (a)

Thwilburn

Clear-running stream in the south east of Roke Island, running out of the Immanent Grove, beside Roke Knoll and, presumably, into Thwil Bay. It has a wooden footbridge near the Great House of Roke

Sources: The School for Wizards, WoE; Dragonfly, TfE

Tok

Small island in the East Reach, near Iffish, Holp and Insmer

Sources: Iffish, WoE; Afterword, WoE

Tomb Wall

Ancient mortarless stone wall behind the Hall of the Throne and encircling the summit of the Hill of the Tombs; it completely surrounds the Tombs of Atuan. Originally three times the height of a person, by the time of The Tombs of Atuan it has partly fallen down in several places

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; The Prisoners, ToA

'The rocks it was built of were massive; the least of them would outweigh a man, and the largest were big as wagons. Though unshapen they were carefully fitted and interlocked. Yet in places the height of the wall had slipped down and the rocks lay in a shapeless heap.'

[The Prisoners, ToA]

Tombs of Atuan

Also known as: Tombstones, Place of the Old Powers

Nine black stones, eighteen to twenty feet high, behind the Hall of the Throne, within an encircling wall, the Tomb Wall. Sacred to the Nameless Ones, they are said to have stood there since the creation of Earthsea. The name also encompasses the Undertomb beneath the Tombstones, where the power of the Nameless Ones is at its strongest. The Tombstones fall into the Undertomb in the earthquake that follows Ged and Tenar's escape from the Labyrinth with the Ring of Erreth-Akbe

Sources: The Wall around the Place, ToA; The Anger of the Dark, ToA

'Inside the loop of the wall several black stones eighteen or twenty feet high stuck up like huge fingers out of the earth. Once the eye saw them it kept returning to them. They stood there full of meaning, and yet there was no saying what they meant. There were nine of them. One stood straight, the others leaned more or less, two had fallen. They were crusted with grey and orange lichen as if splotched with paint, all but one, which was naked and black with a dull black gloss to it. It was smooth to the touch, but on the others, under the crust of lichen, vague carvings could be seen, or felt with the fingers -- shapes, signs. These nine stones were the Tombs of Atuan. They had been planted in the darkness when the lands were raised up from the ocean's depths. They were older by far than the Godkings of Kargad, older than the Twin Gods, older than light. They were the tombs of those who ruled before the world of men came to be, the ones not named, and she who served them had no name.'

[The Wall around the Place, ToA]

Tombstones

See Tombs of Atuan

Toom

Medium-sized island in the South Reach, near Rood

Sources: The Open Sea, WoE

Torheven

Moderately large island in the Gontish Sea to the north-east of Havnor, near Barnisk, Way and Gont, and relatively close to Karego-At; the Torikles lie off its southern end. Under Kargish rule for at least a generation in the time of Maharion

Sources: A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Torikles

Cluster of small islands south of Torheven; among the closest of the Archipelago to Karego-At. Under Kargish rule for at least a generation in the time of Maharion

Sources: A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Toringates

String of tiny inhabited islands running north--south in the West Reach, east of the Dragons' Run. Has farms

Sources: Palaces, OW

Torning

Islet at the northern end of the Ninety Isles, near Hosk; possibly one of the islets of the Low Torning township

Toss

Village or town by the river Ar in the east of Gont; near Armouth, East Port and Chodur

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Tower of Alabaster

Tower of the New Palace in Havnor City, built by Heru and Maharion. Perhaps another name for either the Tower of the Kings or the Tower of the Queen, perhaps a third distinct tower

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW

Tower of Erreth-Akbe

See Tower of the Kings

Tower of the Kings

Also known as: Tower of the Sword, Tower of Erreth-Akbe, Sword Tower

Highest tower of the New Palace of Havnor City on Havnor, with the Sword of Erreth-Akbe set in its pinnacle; built by Heru and Maharion. The tower houses sand clocks and the Pendulum of Ath; from an encircling balcony near its summit, trumpeters play, telling the hours

Sources: Palaces, OW; The Dragon Council, OW

Tower of the Queen

Also known as: Queen Heru's Tower, Queen's Tower

Tower of the New Palace in Havnor City, near the Tower of the Kings; built by Heru and Maharion

Sources: The Dragon Council, OW

Tower of the Sword

See Tower of the Kings

Treasury of the Tombs

Also known as: Great Treasury of the Tombs, Great Treasury of the Tombs of Atuan, Treasury of the Tombs of Atuan, Great Treasure of the Tombs (of Atuan)

At the centre of the Labyrinth of Atuan, guarded by a pit, the treasury is a low-roofed, dusty room with rough-hewn stone walls containing six great stone chests of treasure, including half the Ring of Erreth-Akbe; Ged calls it 'a deathly place'^a. Opened by a silver key with a dragon-shaped haft (one of the ring of keys)

Sources: The Great Treasure, ToA; The Ring of Erreth-Akbe, ToA (a)

'In the Great Treasury of the Tombs of Atuan, time did not pass. No light; no life; no least stir of spider in the dust or worm in the cold earth. Rock, and dark, and time not passing.'

[The Ring of Erreth-Akbe, ToA]

Trimmer's Dell

Also known as: Yaved

Small valley in the hills just inland of Gont Port on the island of Gont, on the fault line

'It was the place where the ridges parted, just inland from Gont Port, deep in the knot of hills above the city. It was the place of the fault. An earthquake centred there could shake the city down, bring avalanche and tidal wave, close the cliffs of the bay together like hands clapping.'

[The Bones of the Earth, TfE]

Tutok Bay

Coastal village or town in the northwest of Gont, east of Kemay and north of Kedun; presumably also the bay on which it lies

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Udrath

Medium-sized, deserted island in the North Reach, near Bereswek, Rogmy and Lef. Has the bones of an unnamed dragon

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q

Ully

Small inhabited island in the West Reach, west of Paln and east of the Dragons' Run. Has farms and villages

Sources: Palaces, OW

Undertomb

A large natural underground cavern beneath the Tombs of Atuan, adjoining the Labyrinth. Highly sacred to the Nameless Ones, it can be accessed only via the red rock door near the Tomb Wall or by a trapdoor in one of the rooms behind the Hall of the Throne. Light is forbidden there, and only the One Priestess, the two High Priestesses and their eunuch wardens (Manan, Uahto, Duby) may enter. Gives access not only to the Labyrinth itself, but also to a minor labyrinth beneath the Hall of the Throne and the Hill of the Tombs, including the Room of Chains, which houses prisoners. The Undertomb is destroyed by an earthquake when Ged and Tenar escape from the Labyrinth with the Ring of Erreth-Akbe

Sources: The Prisoners, ToA; Light under the Hill, ToA; The Anger of the Dark, ToA

'--Saw what she had never seen, not though she had lived a hundred lives: the great vaulted cavern beneath the Tombstones, not hollowed by man's hand but by the powers of the Earth. It was jewelled with crystals and ornamented with pinnacles and filagrees of white limestone where the waters under earth had worked, eons since: immense, with glittering roof and walls, sparkling, delicate, intricate, a palace of diamonds, a house of amethyst and crystal, from which the ancient darkness had been driven out by glory.'

[Light under the Hill, ToA]

Uny

Small island in the southeast of the Archipelago, near Namien; it lies southeast of O and south of the Bars of Uny in the Closed Sea

Up Norvale

Town or village by an unnamed river in the north of Gont; upriver from Norvale

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Up Selt

Inland village or town lying on an unnamed river in the northwest of Gont, upriver from Selt

Sources: Frontispiece map, T

Usidero

Small inhabited island in the West Reach, west of Paln and east of the Dragons' Run. Has farms and villages

Sources: Palaces, OW

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

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

Vissti

Tiny island in the Inmost Sea, between Ilien and Kamery

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Wasny

Small island south of Dunnel, at the northeastern edge of the South Reach

Wathort

Island south of Roke, in the south of the Archipelago; main city is Hort Town. The southern part of the island is hilly

Sources: The Rowan Tree, FS; Hort Town, FS

Way

Large, wealthy island east of Havnor, with sheep and dairy farming, vineyards, orchards, oak forests and mountains. Towns/regions include Shelieth of the Fountains, the capital in the south, the port city of Kembermouth in the north west, Westpool, Wayfirth and the domain of Iria. Its inhabitants are dark-skinned. One of the principalities of the kingship, tracing the line of descent from Akambar and the House of Shelieth

Sources: The Masters of Roke, FS; Dragonfly, TfE

Wayfirth

Domain or place on the island of Way, ruled by the Lord of Wayfirth

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE

Waymarsh

Islet off the southeast coast of Way, in the east of the Archipelago; one of the nearest islands to the East Reach. Site of a decisive defeat of the Kargs by Maharion & Erreth-Akbe in around 440

Sources: A Description of Earthsea, TfE

Wellology

Also known as: Welwai

Island on the west of the South Reach adjacent to the Long Dune. Called Welwai by the Children of the Open Sea (raft people)

Sources: The Madman, FS; The Children of the Open Sea, FS

Welwai

See Wellology

West beyond the west

See Other wind

West Hand

See Hands

West Reach

Also known as: Western Reach

Large, scattered group of islands to the west of the Archipelago, including Selidor, the Gate of Selidor & the Dragons' Run in the far west; Hille, Derhemen, Narveduen & Onon to the north; Ingat, Risk, Ully, Usidero, Ettil, Ontuego & the Toringates to the west of Paln; Simly, Kaltuel, Near Kaltuel, Arrins & Faltuel to the west of Ensmer; and Obb & Jessage to the south, near the South Reach. The middle of the West Reach lies around seven hundred miles west of Roke; the remote westernmost isles are the home of dragons

Sources: Orm Embar, FS; The Dragons' Run, FS; Selidor, FS; The Stone of Pain, FS; Palaces, OW

West Shore

Region of Sattins island, presumably in the west

Sources: The Rule of Names, W12Q

Western domain

Domain in the west of Havnor island, with hills covered with oak and chestnut forests. Contains the towns and villages of Glade, Reche & Easthill, and the river Amia. Ruled by the Lord of the Western Land

Sources: Darkrose and Diamond, TfE

Western Isles

See Archipelago

Western Mountains

Range of tawny mountains and wide valleys in the west of Atuan, between the Place of the Tombs and the western coastal plain. A fairly arid region, the predominant vegetation is sagebrush; the summits are snow-clad in winter

Sources: The Western Mountains, ToA

'Before them the western mountains stood, their feet purple, their upper slopes gold.'

[The Anger of the Dark, ToA]

Westpool

Town on the island of Way in the domain of Iria, two days' journey from the city of Kembermouth

Sources: Dragonfly, TfE

Whale Isles

A group of three small islands in the far north of the North Reach, north of North Enwas

Wiss

Town in the east of Gont island, possibly in the East Forest region. Near Ovark, from which it is separated by a high pass, Beech Springs, Down Wiss and East Port. Westward lies uninhabited forest

Sources: Warriors in the Mist, WoE; The Shadow, WoE; Frontispiece map, T

Woodedge

Also known as: Otterhide

Impoverished mountain village on Mount Onn, in the west of Havnor Island; renamed Otterhide after hiding Medra (then known as Otter) from Losen's men

'He ran down from the straggle of huts to the quick, noisy stream he had heard singing through his sleep all his nights in Woodedge.'

[The Finder, TfE]

Yaved

See Trimmer's Dell

Yennava

Stream northwest of Mount Onn on Havnor island; it runs by Endlane and Samory

Sources: The Finder, TfE

Yor

Small island in the northern East Reach, near Sattins

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