Tales from Earthsea: "The Finder"

by Ursula K. Le Guin
In this fifth book of The Earthsea Cycle, five separate stories show more of the magical land, from when the school for wizards was first established to how the villagers deal with love, sickness, and natural disasters.

Here are links to our lists for the tales in the collection: The Finder, Darkrose and Diamond, The Bones of the Earth, On the High Marsh, Dragonfly
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. garbled
    lacking orderly continuity
    The Book of the Dark, written late in the time it tells of, is a compilation of self-contradictory histories, partial biographies, and garbled legends.
  2. malign
    evil or harmful in nature or influence
    And if a wizard let down his guard among the common folk, they too might destroy him if they could, seeing him as the source of the worst evils they suffered, a malign being.
  3. blight
    any plant disease resulting in withering without rotting
    They brought drought and storm, blights and fires and sicknesses across the land, and the village witch was punished for them.
  4. wheedle
    influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering
    Otter had to beg and wheedle him for any further teaching and finally to promise him, swearing on his own true and secret name, that if he learned the Changer's great spell he would never use it but to save a life, his own or another’s.
  5. amicable
    characterized by friendship and good will
    And to Otter he said, “Don’t move,” in a low, amicable voice.
  6. resilient
    rebounding readily
    But when he tried to get to his feet he felt bonds of sorcery holding his body and mind, resilient, clinging, tightening as he moved.
  7. sullen
    showing a brooding ill humor
    Leashed like a dog, he walked along, sullen and shivering with sickness and rage.
  8. gait
    a person's manner of walking
    He passed them, walking hurriedly with a queer shambling gait, staring straight ahead.
  9. reverence
    a feeling of profound respect for someone or something
    “There’s the King,” Licky said, in a tone that might have been reverence or hatred.
  10. formidable
    inspiring fear or dread
    Though not a sorcerer, Licky was a much more formidable man than Hound. Yet like Hound he was brutal not cruel. He demanded obedience, but nothing else.
  11. sentience
    a state of consciousness or awareness
    Otter felt as if he were being brought back to vivid life from interminable, dreary, dazed half sentience.
  12. fester
    generate pus
    Illness and impurities fester and run free from their sores.
  13. dross
    worthless or dangerous material that should be removed
    Give your dross to the fire and it will be transformed into the living silver, the light of the moon.
  14. slaver
    let saliva dribble from the mouth
    He won’t make me slaver and vomit or cause sores on my body; no, for I don't fear him, but invite him, and so he enters into my veins and arteries.
  15. impart
    transmit, as knowledge or a skill
    Yet he was certain, now, that Gelluk’s ideas, the teaching he so eagerly imparted, had nothing to do with his power or with any true power.
  16. apparition
    a ghostly appearing figure
    Her apparition stood again just outside the spiderweb cords of the spell, gazing at him, and seeing him, for a soft, bluish, sourceless light filled the room.
  17. foray
    a sudden short attack
    It was easy to keep up the protections he had laid on Losen’s person and expeditions and forays, the prisoning spells he had laid on the places slaves worked or treasures were kept.
  18. inept
    revealing lack of perceptiveness or judgment or finesse
    In the young dowser he recognised a power, untaught and inept, which he could use.
  19. discern
    perceive, recognize, or detect
    Rereading and pondering the words this night in his room in the barracks, he discerned another possible meaning in them.
  20. plaintive
    expressing sorrow
    Her voice was a whimper, plaintive.
  21. upstart
    an arrogant or presumptuous person
    The pirate king had other wizards in his pay, among them a man called Early, who would have liked to find the young upstart who defeated his master Gelluk.
  22. despoil
    plunder or steal goods
    Pendor was a rich island, then, before the dragon Yevaud despoiled it.
  23. peremptory
    not allowing contradiction or refusal
    “Get the sail down,” Medra said, peremptory.
  24. alight
    settle or come to rest
    Printed on narrow sands under granite cliffs, in the first light, were the tracks of a bird alighting.
  25. immanent
    inherent; existing or remaining within
    Most of the islanders who survived were wise women and their children, who had hidden themselves in the town or in the Immanent Grove.
  26. implacable
    incapable of being appeased or pacified
    Veil, with her gentle voice and smile, was implacable. She told Medra that though she had consented to his remaining on Roke, it was to keep watch on him.
  27. treatise
    a formal text that treats a particular topic systematically
    He had defied Losen’s power, years before, going to the Port of Havnor in disguise and coming away with four books from an ancient royal library. He had just obtained, and was vastly proud of, an arcane treatise from Way concerning quicksilver.
  28. boor
    a crude uncouth ill-bred person lacking refinement
    Ath wouldn’t have left the greatest of all the lore-books among boors who’d make thatch of it!
  29. unfathomable
    impossible to come to understand
    “It’s dangerous,” Crow said, “it’s pointless,” but he made no further objection. The modest, naive young man whom he had taught to read had become his unfathomable guide.
  30. listless
    lacking zest or vivacity
    Children played nearby, listless with the heat, scrawny, staring without much interest at the strangers.
  31. paraphernalia
    equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles
    Healers’ paraphernalia and drying herbs were everywhere, though ranged in some order.
  32. stolid
    having or revealing little emotion or sensibility
    She did not return his gaze, watching her mother with stolid, sullen grief.
  33. despondent
    without or almost without hope
    “Why do we quarrel?” he said rather despondently.
  34. exhume
    dig up for reburial or for medical investigation
    Hound had tracked him straight to a scar in a hillside, and said he was buried deep under there. Early had no wish to exhume him.
  35. paroxysm
    a sudden uncontrollable attack
    The boy they brought was in such a paroxysm of terror that even Early was disgusted by him.
  36. rancor
    a feeling of deep and bitter anger and ill-will
    “Didn’t know you were after him. I’ve been after him a long time. He fooled me.” Hound spoke without rancor.
  37. skulk
    lie in wait or behave in a sneaky and secretive manner
    He could not bring himself to sneak and skulk.
  38. unavailing
    producing no result or effect
    Medra had been thinking, once again, and still unavailingly, how he could leave Havnor at once and unnoticed, when the wizard came.
  39. provision
    supply with a stock of food or supplies
    Setting a host of many hundreds of men on its way so quickly had left little time for provisioning the ships.
  40. gossamer
    so thin as to transmit light
    If there were any spells woven about that hill or the bay he now saw opening before it, they were gossamer to him, transparent.
Created on Tue Oct 11 16:25:33 EDT 2022 (updated Tue Aug 22 13:03:32 EDT 2023)

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