Old Powers of Earth

The Old Powers of Earth are among the most ancient and dangerous forces in the world of Earthsea, entities that predate the creation of the islands themselves. They are not spirits of the dead, nor are they creatures of the natural world; they belong to a time before Segoy raised the lands from the Open Sea, and they will endure until the end of the world. Bound each to a specific place—a cave, a stone, a welling spring—they cannot cross the sea, being tied to the isle or location where they reside. Their nature is fundamentally alien to human life, and they are described as "Old Powers" that have no concern for the balance of light and dark, life and death, good and evil that true wizards serve.

Nature and Characteristics

The Old Powers are not merely powerful; they are a different order of being altogether. They are spoken of in the Lore-Books as forces that existed before the world of men came to be, and they are associated with the "Nameless Ones" who ruled before the world of men. The Master Summoner of Roke, a stern and aged man who taught the deep wizardry of summoning real energies, warned his pupils that the calling of real things and living people, and the raising up of spirits of the dead, were the height of the Summoner's art and the mage's power, but he scarcely spoke of them. When Ged tried to lead him to talk of such mysteries, the Master was silent, looking at him long and grimly. The Old Powers are not to be invoked lightly, for they are not subject to the laws that govern the sunlit world. They are described as having a voice, if one knows how to listen, and they will speak of things that were, are, and will be, but the price of such knowledge is the soul of the one who asks.

The Terrenon: A Case Study

The most vivid example of an Old Power in the novel is the Terrenon, a speaking stone imprisoned in the Court of the Terrenon in Osskil. This stone is described as being made before Segoy raised the islands of the world from the Open Sea, made when the world itself was made, and it will endure until the end of the world. Time is nothing to it. It is kept in a small room like a dungeon-cell, behind three locked doors—the first unlocked with a silver key, the second with a gold key, and the third with one of the Great Words of unbinding. The stone itself is a rough, unshapen paving-stone, but its power is so great that Ged, a trained wizard, feels it as if it speaks to him aloud, and a sickness comes over him. The room is bitter cold, and nothing can ever warm it. The stone is not precious; it is a prison for an old and terrible spirit, and it is locked by binding-spell and blinding-spell and charm of lock and ward and triple fortress-walls in a barren land because it can work great evil.

The Danger of Using Old Powers

The Old Powers are not tools for human use. The Lord of the Terrenon, Benderesk, cannot use the stone to make it wholly serve his will, and neither can his wife Serret. They seek Ged because they believe he has the power to master it, but Ged refuses, saying, "The Old Powers of earth are not for men to use. They were never given into our hands, and in our hands they work only ruin. Ill means, ill end." The stone's servants are described as botched beasts belonging to ages before bird or dragon or man, long since forgotten by the daylight but recalled by the ancient, malign, unforgetful power of the Stone. When Ged escapes the Court, these creatures harry him, and he must fight them off with a staff made of his anger and a blade of wild grass. The Old Powers will not cross over the sea, being bound each to an isle, a certain place, cave or stone or welling spring, so the creatures turn back when Ged flies over the sea.

The Old Powers and the Balance

The Old Powers are fundamentally opposed to the Equilibrium that true wizards serve. The witch of Ten Alders, who taught Ged his first spells, knew nothing of the Balance and the Pattern which the true wizard knows and serves, and which keep him from using his spells unless real need demands. The Old Powers, by contrast, are forces that seek to dominate and consume. The Master Summoner tells Ged that only a great power could have summoned up the shadow-beast, and perhaps only one power—only one voice—Ged's voice. The Old Powers are not merely dangerous; they are antithetical to life itself. The Archmage Gensher tells Ged that the shadow he loosed is one of the "Powers of unlife," a thing that came from a place where there are no names. The Old Powers are the source of such unlife, and they are the ultimate enemies of the wizards who serve the light.

Significance in the Narrative

The Old Powers serve as the ultimate test of Ged's character and wisdom. His refusal to use the Terrenon, despite the desperate temptation to learn the shadow's name, marks a crucial turning point in his journey. He chooses the hard path of facing his own shadow rather than seeking a shortcut through dark powers. The Old Powers also represent the dangers of unchecked ambition and the misuse of power. Ged's earlier pride and haste led him to summon a spirit from the dead, and with it came one of the Powers of unlife. The Old Powers are a reminder that true mastery lies not in the accumulation of power, but in the wisdom to know when not to use it. They are the dark axis around which the story's moral and spiritual conflicts revolve, and they embody the fundamental truth that "to light a candle is to cast a shadow."