Serd
Serd is the nearest of the Ninety Isles to Roke, a small island that serves as a key transit point for travel between the Inmost Sea and the western reaches of Earthsea, and the place where Ged first encounters the Roke-wind that bars him from returning to the Isle of the Wise.
Location and Setting
Serd is the closest island to Roke among the Ninety Isles, a crowded cluster of islands lying west of Roke between the two great lands Hosk and Ensmer. The Ninety Isles stretch from Serd in the east to Seppish in the west, which lies almost in the Pelnish Sea. The number of islands is never settled, for if one counts only isles with freshwater springs there might be seventy, while counting every rock yields a hundred or more, and the tide changes the count. Narrow channels run between the islets, and the mild tides of the Inmost Sea, chafed and baffled, run high and fall low, so that where at high tide there might be three islands in one place, at low there might be one. Despite the danger of the tide, every child who can walk can paddle and has a little rowboat; housewives row across the channel to visit neighbors, and peddlers call their wares in rhythm with the stroke of their oars. All roads there are salt water, blocked only by nets strung from house to house across the straits to catch the small fish called turbies, the oil of which is the wealth of the Ninety Isles. There are few bridges and no great towns. Every islet is thick with farms and fishermen's houses, gathered into townships each of ten or twenty islets.
Events and Transit
Ged first comes to Serd after leaving Low Torning, the westernmost township of the Ninety Isles, where he had served as wizard and slain the dragons of Pendor. He seeks passage from Serd back to Roke Island, hoping to find protection and counsel among the wise. A ship's master bows to him, saying, "A privilege to me, Lord Wizard, and an honor to my ship!" But as the ship turns from Serd Inner Port and raises sail, a wind comes up hard from the east against her, strange for the clear wintry sky and settled mild weather. The ship sails on, tacking now north now south to work eastward, but clouds and rain come up on the wind, which veers and gusts so wildly that there is considerable danger of the ship jibing. Ged speaks to the wind, and it blows less hard for a while, but then sudden great gusts come whistling out of the south, driving them back westward again. The ship's master roars out, "This fool's gale blows all ways at once! Only a magewind will get us through this weather, Lord." Ged raises the magewind into the sail, and the ship begins to cleave straight to the east, but little by little the magewind slackens, growing feebler, until the ship hangs still on the waves, her sail drooping amid the tumult of rain and gale. With a thundercrack the boom comes swinging round and she jibes and jumps northward like a scared cat. Ged shouts out, "Turn back to Serd, master!" The master curses and refuses, but when the ship turns again almost as if a whirlpool had caught her keel, Ged tells him, "Leave me at Serd and sail where you like. It's not against your ship this wind blows, but against me." The master asks if he has never heard of the Roke-wind, and Ged answers, "That is between me and my shadow." They go swiftly back over the sea to Serd.
Significance
Serd is the place where Ged first experiences the Roke-wind, the protective enchantment that keeps evil powers from the Isle of the Wise. The wind rises against him because the shadow he loosed is very close upon him, and the high, enwoven, ancient spells that keep Roke safe forbid him entry. This event marks a turning point in Ged's journey: he can no longer run to Roke for safety and must instead choose his own path. From Serd he takes the first ship outward bound, a galley loading turbie-oil bound for Havnor Great Port, beginning the long flight and eventual hunt that leads him across the seas of Earthsea. Serd thus stands as the threshold where Ged's reliance on the protection of the School for Wizards ends and his solitary quest begins.
