History Literature / AWizardOfEarthsea

-->''Duny's six brothers were older than he by many years and went one by one from home to farm the land or sail the sea or work as smith in other towns of the Northward Vale.''

-->''Duny's six brothers were older than he by many years and went one by one from home to farm the land or sail the sea or work as smith in other towns of the Northward Vale''

* TurningBackHuman: Ged spends too much time in the form of a hawk (and focused on nothing but survival), so he has to be turned back into human by his teacher and even then it takes a couple of days before his mind is back to normal.
* WhenYouSnatchThePebble: To graduate from the School on Roke as a fully-fledged wizard, a student must find out what the Master Doorkeeper's name is. Since a wizard will always protect the secret of his name, Ged thinks long and hard about what form of magic he could use to wrest the information from the vastly more powerful Master Doorkeeper. Eventually he goes before the master and admits he must give up, but only after asking one question: [[spoiler:"What is your name?" The Master Doorkeeper cheerfully gives him the answer: politely requesting his name was in fact the solution to the test.]]

* WanderingWizard: Ged is forced into life as a traveling wizard because the shadow beast he summoned keeps hunting him if he stays in any one place for too long.

* YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb: The young students are showing off their spellcraft when Ged foolishly casts a dangerous and powerful spell to show off. He nearly dies himself, the Archmage does die, and a creature is unleashed.

* MugglesDoItBetter: Magic that creates real objects, as opposed to creating illusions or calling upon environmental powers, is extremely labor-intensive and difficult. So if you need an ordinary object, like a boat or a pie, it's easiest to just make it the ordinary way. When Ged wills a boat together out of some scraps of wood and magic, it serves fine in the short-term, but he has to constantly monitor the spell to keep the boat from dissolving--he can't even take a nap or the magic will start failing, so he ends up having to stay awake for several days straight--and he's relieved to get a regular craft.

* PrivilegedRival: When Ged arrives at Roke Island, he gains a rival in Jasper, the son of the Lord of the Domain of Eolg on the Isle of Havnor. Ged is a FarmBoy and the son of a smith, and is rubbed the wrong way by Jasper, who he thinks is a SpoiledBrat. This is a CultureClash. Jasper is extremely polite, which is culturally alien to Ged, so he interprets it as condescending. He responds with brusqueness that Jasper thinks is rude. The first day, Jasper expects Ged to know more than he actually does, which Ged reads as Jasper trying to embarrass him. This appears to all just be a misunderstanding. Vetch (a good judge of character) is friends with Jasper.

* PrivilegedRival: When Ged arrives at Roke Island, he gains a rival in Jasper, the son of the Lord of the Domain of Eolg on the Isle of Havnor. Ged is a FarmBoy and the son of a smith, and is rubbed the wrong way by Jasper's extremely polite but condescending manners. Ged thinks Jasper is a SpoiledBrat, but that's basically just his own biased viewpoint. Jasper never really does anything that bad, and Vetch (a good judge of character) is friends with him.

* TheBlacksmith: Ged's father is a bronzesmith.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Ged's father, a blacksmith, is always telling him his fantasies will do him no good, and that learning to make a living as a blacksmith is the only realistic way for Ged to get by in the world. He's proven wrong when Ged becomes a wizard.
* FarmBoy: Ged starts out as a goatherd, son of a blacksmith, on a very rural island out on the edge of civilization.

* MagicalSeventhSon: It's easy to miss because they're only mentioned in a single line, but, "Duny's six brothers were older than he by many years and went one by one from home to farm the land or sail the sea or work as smith in other towns of the Northward Vale" -- he's a seventh son.

* TheApprentice: Ogion takes Ged as his apprentice, but it's {{Deconstructed|Trope}} when the arrangement lasts less than a year. Ged is a hotheaded young man who thirsts for power and glory, and isn't content to hang out with a quirky old man.

* {{Familiar}}: Ged's otak--a small, rodentlike creature similar in size and disposition to a {{weasel|Mascot}}. He tames it in the wild using the Old Speech, and it follows him around everywhere after that, usually riding on his shoulder or resting in his hood.

* HeadPet: Ged has an otak, a small, very shy wild creature that rides around in his hood and will tolerate almost no one else. When he's attacked at one point, it tries to protect him, screaming (this is notable because otaks have no voices). [[spoiler:Ged is heartbroken when it dies.]]

* PrivilegedRival: When Ged arrives at Roke Island, he gains a rival named Jasper, who's the son of the Lord of the Domain of Eolg on the Isle of Havnor. Ged is a FarmBoy and the son of a smith, and is rubbed the wrong way by Jasper's extremely polite but condescending manners. Ged thinks Jasper is a SpoiledBrat, but that's basically just his own biased viewpoint. Jasper never really does anything that bad, and Vetch (a good judge of character) is friends with him.
* RiteOfPassage: The mage Ogion the Silent gives Duny his TrueName of "Ged" in a coming of age ceremony.

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