Hands

The Hands are a pair of lonely, mountainous islands in the East Reach of Earthsea, reaching northward toward the Kargad Lands. They are the site of Ged's third and decisive confrontation with the shadow he loosed, a confrontation that transforms the hunt and forges an unbreakable bond between them.

Geography and Location

The Hands consist of two islands, the West Hand and the East Hand, whose mountain-fingers stretch northward toward the Kargad Lands. The islands are characterized by dark, forest-crowned cliffs that tower high over the sea, with narrow sounds and channels running between them. The sea-lane that Ged navigates is no wider than the length of two galleys, and the cliffs drop straight down into the water, leaving no beaches. The opening between the headlands appears as a remote, bright gateway when seen from within the dark cleft. The inlet ends in a high, blank, wrinkled mass of rock against which the last sea-waves lap feebly, with fallen boulders, rotten trunks, and the roots of gnarled trees leaving only a tight way to steer. It is a dark trap under the roots of the silent mountain.

Ged's Confrontation with the Shadow

Ged sails into the Hands, driven by the certainty that the shadow is near. He follows his fear as a hunter follows the tracks of a bear. The shadow has fled southward, and Ged knows it as certainly as if a fine, unreeling cord bound them together. He steers straight for the island, despite the sinking dread that urges him to turn away. As he enters the narrow sound, the sea is confined, restless, and fretted at the steep shores. It is windless and very silent. He proceeds cautiously, watching before him and behind him, and up and down the cliffs. The opening between the headlands seems a remote, bright gateway when he glances back. He peers ahead into the dark cleft, but nothing moves. He reaches the end of the inlet, a dead end, and realizes he is in a trap. As he turns the boat around, the shadow stands behind him in the boat. He lunges to seize it, but his hands close on nothing—darkness, air. The shadow shudders away, shrinks together, then stretches hugely up over him and the sail, and then flees like black smoke down the water toward the bright gate between the cliffs.

Consequences and Aftermath

After the confrontation, Ged sinks to his knees, numb and struggling to draw breath. The boat pitches and rocks itself to stillness. He is chilled and weary, his hands and arms ache sorely, and there is no power in him. He wishes he could sleep on the restless rocking water. He cannot tell if the weariness is a sorcery laid on him by the shadow, or from the bitter coldness of its touch, or from mere hunger and want of sleep. He struggles against it, forcing himself to raise a light magewind and follow down the dark seaway where the shadow fled. All terror and all joy are gone. It is a chase no longer. He is neither hunted nor hunter. For the third time they have met and touched: he has of his own will turned to the shadow, seeking to hold it with living hands. He has not held it, but he has forged between them a bond, a link that has no breaking-point. There is no need to hunt the thing down, nor will its flight avail it. Neither can escape. When they have come to the time and place for their last meeting, they will meet. Until that time, there will never be any rest or peace for Ged, day or night, on earth or sea. He knows now that his task has never been to undo what he has done, but to finish what he has begun.

Narrative Significance

The Hands mark a turning point in Ged's quest. The confrontation here is the third meeting between Ged and the shadow, and it fundamentally changes the nature of their relationship. The shadow, which had previously been the hunter, now flees from Ged. Ged, who had been the hunted, now becomes the hunter. The bond forged between them means that neither can escape the other, and the quest is no longer about running or chasing, but about the inevitable final meeting. The encounter also leaves Ged physically and magically drained, but it clarifies his purpose: he must finish what he began, not undo it. The Hands are thus a place of transformation, where the hunt becomes a destiny.