Tales from Earthsea

Tales from Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in 2001, is a collection of short stories from Le Guin's Earthsea world. The collection contains the following stories: Also included is an article titled "A Description of Earthsea". A common thread to all the stories is the effort to reinterpret the world of Earthsea. The books of the original trilogy presented Earthsea in general and the practice of magic in particular as strongly male-dominated. Women can only be witches, which is the lowest and most despised rank of the magical world, expressed in the proverb "Weak as women's magic, wicked as women's magic". The stories collected here make a big effort to redress the balance. It is disclosed that Ogion, Ged's beloved tutor and mentor, had learned his magic from a master who himself learned from an "unauthorised" woman mage, and that the Roke school itself had been originally founded by women who were later excluded from it. Other stories feature strong and assertive... full article at wikipedia