Erreth-Akbe
Erreth-Akbe is a fictional character in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea realm. He is introduced in A Wizard of Earthsea and is part of the historical back-story of the Earthsea novels.
Character Overview[edit]
Erreth-Akbe lived many centuries before the primary events that take place in the Earthsea novels. Erreth-Akbe was a famous hero and a great sorcerer, as well as counselor and good friend to King Maharion. Erreth-Akbe was a ‘dragonlord’, i.e. esteemed well enough by some dragons that they were willing to speak with him.[1]
Biography[edit]
Erreth-Akbe gained undying fame when he fought and defeated the Firelord, a being of immense power who sought to conquer the lands of the inner sea and stop the sun at midday so there would be light unending.
In 440, he carried the Ring of Morred (known also as Elfarran's ring, later to be called the Ring of Erreth-Akbe) to King Thoreg of the Kargs, as a sign of peace between the Archipelago and the Kargad Lands. However, he found himself in the midst of a coup, organised by a Kargish High Priest, who broke the ring in half. Half of the ring was passed along the descendants of the Kargish royalty and eventually lost generations later when the last descendants were exiled to a remote unnamed and uncharted isle, while the other half was kept in the Tombs of Atuan.
In 448, Erreth-Akbe fought the ancient dragon Orm on Selidor, the remotest island in the West Reach. The battle resulted in the death of both Orm and Erreth-Akbe.
Later, after Ged found half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, he met the dragon Orm Embar, descendant of Orm, on Selidor. Orm Embar told Ged the history of the ring half he carried. When Ged was an archmage, he met the ghost of Erreth-Akbe summoned by Cob, in the place where the hero died.
The dragons on Selidor and in the West Reach remember Erreth-Akbe and respect him. Ged later said of his meeting with Orm Embar:
- "He thought it very funny that I hadn't known. Dragons think we are amusing. But they remember Erreth-Akbe; him they speak of as if he were a dragon, not a man."
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, eds. Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 2000), pages 180.
References[edit]
- Le Guin, Ursula K. (1968). A Wizard of Earthsea (1st ed.). Berkeley: Parnassus. Search this book on
- Le Guin, Ursula K. (1971). The Tombs of Atuan (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. Search this book on
- Le Guin, Ursula K. (1972). The Farthest Shore (1st ed.). New York: Atheneum. Search this book on
- Manguel, Alberto (2000). The Dictionary of Imaginary Places. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. ISBN 0-15-100541-9. Search this book on
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