A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin is adapted into a beautiful graphic novel that retains much of Le Guin’s tone and words! Fordham has also adapted the classics: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (2022), The Great Gatsby (2020) from author F. Scott Fitzergerald, and To Kill a Mockingbird (2018) by Harper Lee. A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) is a fantasy classic part of what Le Guin called the first trilogy of Earthsea novels; The Tombs of Atuan (1971) and The Farthest Shore (1972). Then, later books, Tehanu (1990), Tales from Earthsea (2001), and The Other Wind (2001). She had developed Earthsea in the short stories, “The Rules of Names” and “The Word of Unbinding” (1964). The last Earthsea story is “Firelight” published posthumously in 2018.
All of these stories was collected in The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition (2018) with art by Charles Vess. Her science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) won the Nebula and Hugo awards, part of her Hainish universe. A Sci-Fi Channel mini-series, Earthsea (2004), adapted the first two books. There was an anime film, Tales from Earthsea (2006). Both adaptations were disappointing for LeGuin and fans, I include myself, something is missing. I still have hope for a faithful adaptation, a film or television series, but it all starts with this graphic novel by Fordham. The cover of the hardback graphic novel by Fordham has a mysterious, almost organic tower rising up from the crests of waves that renders it in shadow.
A great embossed title in gold and fine pages including a beautiful map which makes a premium graphic novel by Clarion Books. It begins with a snippet of the poem, The Creation of Éa, there just a bit about the first island, Éa, raised from the sea. There are hints of the story that reflects parts of the story. LeGuin is very clever in story construction and world building. I would have liked a little style in words of the poem, a recreation of a page, or image, but this is similar to the novel. We get an introduction to Gont, an island of wizards, a hawk flies above the seas with the misty shrouded island, a very solemn image. Fordham uses the words of LeGuin, many adaptations leave out the author’s words, and in some cases summarize or cut pieces of the novel.
This moves under the sun to a figure in silhouette, Sparrowhawk, who will become archmage. I absolutely love this image that we see Sparrowhawk, but will have to go through the story to truly see him. Against the sky, we are told he is known in The Deed of Ged, and we see Sparrowhawk watch the hawk’s flight. Then, we get the title page, a splash page showing a village ringed around a forest below mountains and the clouds above, an image like something out of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films. Then, it goes to the village of Ten Alders, where Duny is born, but his mother dies in childbirth. In the preface, LeGuin’s son, Thoeo Downes-LeGuin notes that Fordham properly depitcs Sparrowhawk as a “copper-skinned man” which makes sense with the location of the Earthsea, an archipelgo of islands.
His father was a bronze-smith and his six other brothers left them. Duny is left alone and herded goats with other children and helped out with his father’s work who was tough on him. We find that his aunt had helped him as a baby, but had left him as a boy. One day, Duny found his aunt call a goat down from a roof of a house and we see a closeup of Duny’s fascinated face. Out in the hills, he sees a herd of longhaired goats and starts repeating the words. They turn, but Duny finds that they are racing towards him into the village, until his aunt breaks the spell. She walks up to him on the ground and then takes him into her house, dark with only the firelight. His aunt says she will teach him the rhymes, but will bind him him to his promise to tell them to no one else. A splash page shows Duny’s face, his aunt’s gestures, the hawk as Duny calls out the words and then it landing on his arm. I love the progression of the teaching of the words of True Speech.
One part of the book I love, but wasn’t in this adaptation is that Duny’s aunt tests out her spell silencing him and asks him to speak, he can’t, but laughs showing his power. We find Duny learning all of the spells from his aunt, the witch, who didn’t know about the “Balance and Pattern which the true wizards knows and serves.” We see animals, a bear, a cat, and fish floating above them, lining the shore with Duny sitting. The children feared him and called him Sparrowhawk, his use-name known to casual acquaintances. He was twelve years old when Duny faced his first challenge. It is orange of an afternoon sun, when Duny and his father see the smoke from an invasion by the Kargad Empire! Duny’s father refuses to leave and we see a collage of the two working at the forge to prepare weapons. Ten Alders doesn’t have warriors, but on a small panel, they had “wizards”, perfect.
Five+ Spells out of Five!
#AWizardOfEarthsea, #UrsulaKLeGuin, #FredFordham, #Earthsea, #TalesFromEarthsea, #Firelight, #Sparrowhawk, #Duny
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