Ged's Naming Ceremony

Ged's Naming Ceremony is the pivotal rite of passage that transforms the wild, unnamed boy Duny into the named young man Ged, conferring upon him his true identity and setting him on the path of wizardry. Performed by the mage Ogion the Silent at the cold springs of the River Ar on Ged's thirteenth birthday, the ceremony is both a personal and a magical milestone, linking Ged to his homeland, his lineage, and the deep powers of naming that underpin all true magic in Earthsea. It is the moment from which all his subsequent trials, triumphs, and self-discovery flow, and it is recalled at key junctures of his life as a touchstone of his beginning and his becoming.

Identity and Background

Before the ceremony, the boy was known only as Duny, a name given by his mother who died before he was a year old. He grew up wild and unruly in the village of Ten Alders on the island of Gont, the son of a grim, unspeaking bronze-smith. His early life was marked by a lack of tenderness and a burgeoning, untutored power, first revealed when he accidentally used a witch's rhyme to summon the village goats. This incident drew the attention of his aunt, the village witch, who began to teach him the rudiments of sorcery. His growing skill and his habit of summoning wild birds earned him the use-name "Sparrowhawk." Yet, despite his growing power, he remained unnamed in the deepest sense, lacking the true name that would anchor his being and his potential.

The Ceremony

The ceremony itself is a stark and elemental affair. On the day Ged turned thirteen, in the early splendor of autumn, Ogion returned to Ten Alders from his wanderings over Gont Mountain. The witch of the village first took from the boy his childhood name, Duny, leaving him nameless and naked. He then walked into the cold springs of the River Ar, which rises among rocks under high cliffs. As he entered the water, clouds crossed the sun's face, and great shadows slid and mingled over the pool around him. He crossed to the far bank, shuddering with cold but walking slow and erect as he should through that icy, living water. As he came to the bank, Ogion, waiting, reached out his hand and, clasping the boy's arm, whispered to him his true name: Ged. Thus was he given his name by one very wise in the uses of power.

Consequences and Aftermath

The naming immediately set Ged on a new path. After the feasting that followed the ceremony, Ogion spoke quietly to Ged: "Come, lad. Bid your people farewell and leave them feasting." Ged fetched his few possessions—a good bronze knife his father had forged, a leather coat, and an alder-stick his aunt had becharmed—and said farewell to all the people he knew in all the world. He then set off with his new master through the steep slanting forests of the mountain isle, through the leaves and shadows of bright autumn. This departure marked the end of his childhood and the beginning of his formal apprenticeship in wizardry.

Narrative Role and Significance

The naming ceremony recurs as a touchstone throughout Ged's story. Years later, on the night he was seventeen, after the disastrous loosing of the shadow and his long recovery, he remembered the coldness of the mountain spring and the naming, and it helped him to know once more who he was and where he was. The ceremony also foreshadows the ultimate resolution of his quest. In the final confrontation with the shadow on the Open Sea, Ged speaks the shadow's name, and the shadow speaks the same word: "Ged." The two voices become one voice, and Ged reaches out and takes hold of his shadow, of the black self that reached out to him. Light and darkness met, and joined, and were one. This act of naming and integration, which heals the wound and makes him whole, is the culmination of the identity that was first forged in the naming ceremony at the spring of the River Ar.