Hosk

Hosk is one of the great lands of the Archipelago, lying west of Roke Island and east of the Ninety Isles. It is a substantial landmass, large enough that its interior is ruled by lawless lords, and its coastal towns are heavily fortified against them. The port of Orrimy, on the east shore of Hosk, is an old town built heavily of stone and brick, with warehouses like forts and merchants' houses that are towered and fortified. It is there that Ged, fleeing the shadow after being turned back from Roke by the Roke-wind, comes ashore from a galley bound for Havnor Great Port.

Orrimy and the Encounter with the Grey Man

Ged roams the steep streets of Orrimy, aimless and brooding, and the world around him seems dim and silent. As the sun sets, he comes down to the wharves, where a man dressed in grey, carrying a staff of heavy wood that is not a wizard's staff, hails him. The stranger's face is hidden by his hood, but Ged feels the unseen eyes meet his and starts back, raising his own yew-staff between them. The man asks mildly what he fears, and Ged replies, "What follows behind me." The stranger assures him he is not his shadow, and puts back his hood to reveal a strange, seamed, bald head and a lined face; though age had not sounded in his voice, he looks to be an old man. He tells Ged a tale of a young, scarred man who won through darkness to great dominion, even to kingship, and advises him to go to the Court of the Terrenon in Osskil if he needs a sword to fight shadows with, saying a staff of yew-wood will not serve his need. Ged, a wizardly man who knows few meetings are chance ones, struggles with hope and mistrust. The man has a manner that hints of the sorcerer, even of the wizard, yet there is a queer beaten look about him, the look almost of a sick man, or a prisoner, or a slave. When Ged asks what man he is, the stranger replies only that he is a traveler, a trader's agent from Osskil, here on business, and then quietly bids him good night and goes off up the narrow stepped street above the quays.

Ged's Decision and Departure

Ged turns, irresolute whether to heed this sign or not, and looks to the north as the red light dies out from the hills and the windy sea. Grey dusk comes, and on its heels the night. In sudden decision and haste, Ged goes along the quays to a fisherman and asks if he knows any ship bound north—to Semel, or the Enlades. The fisherman points out a longship from Osskil, a gaunt ship of sixty oars with a high bent prow carven and inlaid with disks of loto-shell, her oarport-covers painted red with the rune Sifl sketched on each in black. Ged seeks out the ship's master and asks passage to Osskil. The master asks if he can pay, and when Ged offers skill with winds, the master says he is a weatherworker himself. Ged then offers the ten ivory pieces he had from Low Torning, but the Osskilian shakes his head, saying they do not use those counters. When Ged asks if they need arms, saying he has rowed in a galley, the master replies they are short two men and tells him to find his bench, paying him no more heed. So, laying his staff and his bag of books under the rowers' bench, Ged becomes for ten bitter days of winter an oarsman of that Northern ship, leaving Orrimy at daybreak.

Significance of Hosk in Ged's Journey

Hosk serves as a crucial turning point in Ged's flight from the shadow. It is here, in the port of Orrimy, that he receives the ambiguous counsel that sends him to Osskil, a land with a dark name, and into the trap of the Court of the Terrenon. The encounter with the grey man, who may be a servant of the Old Power of the Terrenon, demonstrates how the shadow's pursuit makes Ged vulnerable to manipulation by other dark forces. The island itself, with its lawless interior and fortified towns, reflects the broader dangers of the Archipelago beyond the safety of Roke, and Ged's decision to take passage on the Osskilian ship sets him on a course that leads to his confrontation with the gebbeth on the Keksemt Moors and his eventual escape to Gont.