Vetch
Vetch, whose true name is Estarriol, is introduced as a heavyset, plain-spoken youth from the East Reach, with skin of a deep black-brown unlike the red-brown of most Archipelagans. He first meets Ged at the Long Table of the Great House on Roke, where his unpolished manners and grumbling about the food do not hide a straightforward nature. When Jasper mocks Ged on Roke Knoll, Vetch intervenes with a simple, "Let him be a while," and later that night, he comes to Ged's cold, unlit cell with a ball of werelight, asking to talk. He speaks fondly of his home isles—Korp, Kopp, Holp, Venway, Vemish, Iffish, Koppish, and Sneg—and sketches their shapes on the floor with a finger that leaves a dim, silvery line. This act of kindness, which Ged cannot help but return, establishes a friendship that endures through all trials.
Role in the Loosing of the Shadow
On the night of the Long Dance, when Ged challenges Jasper to a duel of sorcery, Vetch is the first to step between them, grim-faced, reminding them that such duels are forbidden on Roke and that he is moved by love while they are moved by hate. When Ged transforms himself into a falcon to prove his power, Vetch is the one who recognizes it as true change, not mere illusion. As Ged prepares to summon a spirit from the dead, Vetch tries to hold him back by main force, and when Ged strides off to Roke Knoll, Vetch follows, carrying Ged's otak, Hoeg, which has never let anyone else touch it but comes to him willingly. During the summoning, when the shadow-beast tears at Ged, Vetch alone runs forward to help, sobbing with horror, and tries to pull the thing away before being frozen by the spell's power. After Nemmerle drives off the shadow, Vetch helps carry Ged to the Master Herbal's chambers.
The Gift of True Names
A year later, after Ged has recovered from his long illness and is about to return to the Isolate Tower, Vetch visits him on the eve of his seventeenth birthday. Now a wizard carrying an oaken staff shod with iron, Vetch returns Hoeg to Ged and tells him he is going home to Iffish. Before leaving, he gives Ged the greatest gift a friend can offer: his true name, Estarriol. In a world where knowing a man's true name gives power over him, this act of unshakable trust restores something vital in Ged, who has lost faith in himself. Ged responds by giving Vetch his own true name, Ged. After Vetch leaves, Ged sits alone, petting the otak, and for the first time since the disaster, his past and present come together in his mind, making a whole again.
Reunion and the Final Voyage
Two years later, when Ged arrives in Ismay on Iffish, he is a hunted man, scarred and grim. Vetch, now the chief wizard of the island, initially mistakes him for the shadow, which has been seen wearing Ged's likeness. Once he recognizes his friend, he embraces him and insists on joining the quest, despite Ged's protests. "Pride was ever your mind's master," Vetch tells him, arguing that if the quest fails, someone must bear warning to the Archipelago, and if it succeeds, someone must tell the tale. He leaves his home and his duties, telling the elders of Ismay, "I am your wizard. But it is time you recalled that, though I am a servant, I am not your servant." On the voyage eastward, Vetch's steady presence and practical wisdom—he brings ale from his sister Yarrow and sings the Deed of Enlad—anchor Ged. When Ged's power wanes on the Open Sea, Vetch maintains the magewind and keeps watch, though his own wizardry feels weakened and astray so far from land.
Witness to the Confrontation
On the dry land beyond the world's sea, Vetch watches from the boat as Ged walks away across the dark sand, his staff burning with white light. When the light fades and Ged seems overcome, Vetch leaps out to help, only to find himself floundering in the sudden, living sea as the vision collapses. He rows desperately to Ged, who is dazed but unharmed, still clutching his staff. For hours afterward, Vetch is not certain that the man in the boat is truly Ged and not the shadow wearing his form; he keeps his hand ready to stave in the boat's planking and sink her rather than carry evil back to Earthsea. Only when Ged stands up, looks at the new moon, and speaks—"Estarriol, look, it is done. It is over. The wound is healed, I am whole, I am free"—does Vetch's doubt vanish. He then sings aloud the oldest song, The Creation of Éa, as they sail westward before the cold wind of the winter night.
Thematic Significance
Vetch embodies the art of kindness, a quality Ged learns to value as much as power. He is the friend who offers trust without condition, who shares danger without hesitation, and whose presence makes Ged's return from the edge of death possible. His gift of his true name and his willingness to follow Ged to the ends of the earth demonstrate that mastery is not only about power but about love and loyalty. In the end, Vetch is the one who will carry the tale of Ged's first great deed, though the song itself may be lost, leaving only scraps of legend carried like driftwood from isle to isle.
