Naming by Ogion

The Naming by Ogion is the ritual passage ceremony in which the boy Duny, at age thirteen, receives his true name Ged from the mage Ogion, marking his formal entry into manhood and the beginning of his wizardly apprenticeship. This event, set at the cold springs of the River Ar on Gont Mountain, transforms a wild, unnamed child into a named individual bound to a destiny of power and peril. It is the hinge between Duny's childhood of goat-herding and village witchery and his life as a wizard, and it establishes the deep bond between him and his master Ogion, a bond that will later prove crucial when Ged faces the shadow he looses.

Identity and Background

Before the naming, the boy was called Duny, a name given by his mother, who died before he was a year old. His father, the bronze-smith of Ten Alders, was a grim, unspeaking man, and Duny grew up wild, a "thriving weed," loud, proud, and full of temper. He herded goats on the steep meadows and worked as smith's boy, but was often off roaming the forest, swimming in the cold River Ar, or climbing to see the sea. At age seven, he accidentally discovered his power when he repeated a rhyme his aunt, the village witch, had used to call a goat, and the goats came to him in a silent, frightening crowd. His aunt then taught him the true name of the falcon, and he began to learn her craft, earning the nickname "Sparrowhawk" from the other children because he was often seen with a bird of prey. By age twelve, he had learned a great part of her lore, including herbals, healing, finding, binding, mending, unsealing, revealing, and spells of Illusion from wandering jugglers. It was with one of these light spells that he first proved the great power in him.

The Fog-Weaving and the Mage's Arrival

When the Kargad Empire invaded Gont, a band of about a hundred Kargish warriors came up the mountain toward Ten Alders, where only eighteen men and boys could defend it. Duny, seeing the fog blow and thin before the Kargs, wove a spell that gathered the mists together, concealing the village and creating phantom shapes that led the invaders to fall from the High Fall cliff. The Kargs fled, and the village was saved. But the effort drained Duny's strength, and he lay "dark and dumb," unable to speak, eat, or sleep. His aunt said he had "overspent his power," but had no art to help him. On the fifth day, a stranger came to the village: Ogion the Silent, the Mage of Re Albi, who had tamed the earthquake. He laid his hand on the boy's forehead and touched his lips, and Duny sat up, strength and hunger returning. Ogion declared, "Nor will this boy be a common man," and offered to give him his name and take him as prentice.

The Ceremony of Passage

On the day the boy turned thirteen, a day in the early splendor of autumn while the bright leaves were still on the trees, Ogion returned to the village. The witch took from the boy his name Duny, the name his mother had given him as a baby. Nameless and naked, he walked into the cold springs of the River Ar where it rises among rocks under the high cliffs. As he entered the water, clouds crossed the sun's face and great shadows slid and mingled over the water of the pool about 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.

Departure and Apprenticeship

After the feasting, Ogion spoke quietly to Ged: "Come, lad. Bid your people farewell and leave them feasting." Ged fetched what he had to carry: a good bronze knife his father had forged him, a leather coat the tanner's widow had cut down to his size, and an alder-stick his aunt had becharmed for him. That was all he owned besides his shirt and breeches. He said farewell to all the people he knew in all the world, and looked about once at the village that straggled and huddled there under the cliffs, over the riversprings. Then he set off with his new master through the steep slanting forests of the mountain isle, through the leaves and shadows of bright autumn.

Significance and Later Echoes

The naming ceremony is the first step on Ged's way of magery, the way that led him at last to hunt a shadow over land and sea to the lightless coasts of death's kingdom. It is a moment of profound transformation: the wild, unnamed boy becomes a named individual, bound to a destiny of power and peril. The name Ged itself becomes a key to his identity and his fate. Later, when the shadow calls him by his true name on the moors of Osskil, it is a violation of the deepest trust, and when Ged finally names the shadow with his own name in the final confrontation on the Open Sea, it is the completion of the circle begun here. The ceremony also establishes the deep bond between Ged and Ogion, a bond that will later prove crucial when Ged faces the shadow he looses. Ged remembers the coldness of the mountain spring on the eve of his seventeenth birthday, and the memory helps him to know once more who he is and where he is. And after the final confrontation, when Ged weeps and declares himself whole, it is the fulfillment of the promise made at his naming.