Master Doorkeeper

The Master Doorkeeper is the first and last gatekeeper of the School for Wizards on Roke, a figure whose role is far more than custodial: he embodies the principle that true entry and true freedom are won only through self-knowledge and humility. He is one of the Nine Masters of Roke, though his name and his art are so deeply hidden that even the other Masters are sometimes forgotten to be nine until a new Archmage must be chosen. His domain is the threshold itself, and his tests are the bookends of Ged's education.

Identity and Role

The Master Doorkeeper is an old man who appears mild and unassuming, yet he commands a power that no simple spell can breach. When Ged first arrives at the Great House of Roke, he finds a mean little door of wood and knocks loudly. The old man who opens it says mildly, "This is the School. I am the doorkeeper. Enter if you can." Ged steps forward but finds himself still standing outside; he tries again with the same result. Angry and baffled, he works the Opening spell his aunt taught him, a witch's charm, but the power that holds the doorway is not moved at all. Only when Ged stands still a long while and finally says, "I cannot enter unless you help me," does the Doorkeeper reply, "Say your name." After a long hesitation—for a man never speaks his own name aloud until more than his life's safety is at stake—Ged says, "I am Ged," and steps through. The doorway is not plain wood but ivory without joint or seam, cut from a tooth of the Great Dragon, and the door the old man closes behind him is of polished horn, carved on its inner face with the Thousand-Leaved Tree.

The Final Trial

Five years later, when Ged has completed his studies and is ready to leave Roke as a full wizard, the Master Doorkeeper meets him at the door that gives onto the path across the fields to Roke Knoll. Smiling, he asks, "Do you know who I am?" Ged, who has long wondered why people speak of the Nine Masters of Roke though he knows only eight, realizes that the Doorkeeper is the ninth. The old man then sets the final challenge: "You won entrance to Roke by saying your name. Now you may win your freedom of it by saying mine." Ged stands dumb, knowing that a mage's name is better hidden than a herring in the sea, better guarded than a dragon's den. A prying charm will be met with a stronger charm, subtle devices will fail, and force will be turned ruinously back upon itself. Ged replies, "You keep a narrow door, Master. I must sit out in the fields here, I think, and fast till I grow thin enough to slip through." The Doorkeeper smiles and says, "As long as you like."

Ged's Approach and Resolution

Ged goes off a little way and sits under an alder on the banks of the Thwilburn, letting his otak run down to play. He spends the night pondering how he might, by force, ruse, or sorcery, learn the Doorkeeper's name, but the more he ponders the less he sees any art that would serve to wrest such a secret from such a mage. He sleeps in the field under the stars. After sunrise he goes, still fasting, to the door and knocks. When the Doorkeeper opens, Ged says, "Master, I cannot take your name from you, not being strong enough, and I cannot trick your name from you, not being wise enough. So I am content to stay here, and learn or serve, whatever you will: unless by chance you will answer a question I have." The Doorkeeper bids him ask, and Ged asks directly, "What is your name?" The Doorkeeper smiles and says his name; Ged, repeating it, enters for the last time into that House.

Departure and Significance

When Ged leaves the Great House, he wears a heavy dark-blue cloak, the gift of the Township of Low Torning, and carries a staff of his own height, carved of yew-wood, bronze-shod. The Master Doorkeeper bids him farewell, opening the back door of the Great House for him, the door of horn and ivory, and Ged goes down the streets of Thwil to a ship waiting on the bright water in the morning. The Doorkeeper's test is the culmination of Ged's education: it teaches that true mastery is not about overpowering or outwitting, but about knowing one's limits and having the humility to ask. The Doorkeeper, as the ninth Master, represents the threshold between the school and the world, and his name—freely given when Ged proved he would not try to take it by force—is the final key that unlocks Ged's freedom.