A Wizard of Earthsea: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

That spring, as Ged resumes his training at the school, he sees little of Vetch and Jasper—as new sorcerers, they now study with the Master Patterner in a secret grove off-limits to prentices. Ged resumes classes with the other Masters, deepening his knowledge of weatherworking, herbalism, and healing. At night, he studies runes on his own. Ged is such an adept pupil that rumors swirl about him throughout the school: some say he has special powers, evidenced by his friendship with the otak, while others say he has been ordained as the next Archmage. Ged ignores his classmates and spends much of his time alone.

Ged is now 15. He begins studying more advanced shaping spells with the Master Hand—the Master even gives Ged advanced books, though he warns Ged not to tell the Archmage of the private knowledge he’s passing down to him. Ged begins working with the Master Summoner, who teaches summoning rather than illusion. The Master Summoner makes sure to warn Ged, as the Master Hand once did, that to summon earthly forces is to change the earth itself: such a burden should not be taken lightly. Ged is interested in learning spells to summon the spirits of the dead, but such practices are firmly off-limits. Sometimes Ged’s summoning studies fill him with a dark portent or remind him of the shadows that filled the room back on Re Albi, but he pushes aside his fear.

As spring turns to summer, the school gathers for a large feast to celebrate the full moon. The students celebrate alongside their Masters, the townspeople of Thwil, and farmers and villagers from across the island. The first night of the festival is wild and fun, and on the morning of the second day, the whole town sleeps in. On the second night of the festival, Ged, Vetch, Jasper, and several of their fellow students have a picnic and practice illusions beneath the stars. As always, Ged and Jasper find themselves trading  insults disguised as friendly jests. Jasper says he’s sick of hanging around prentices—he wants to be in the company of equals. Ged asks Jasper what sorcerers have that prentices don’t. “Power,” Jasper says. Ged challenges Jasper to a duel, stating he’ll match Jasper’s power.

Vetch reminds the two that duels are forbidden. He urges them to come to their senses, yet Jasper and Ged remain resolved to prove themselves. Ged transforms himself into a falcon on the spot before reclaiming his human form. Jasper accuses him of casting an illusion, but Vetch insists Ged has mastered true change. Jasper, however, declares himself unimpressed. Vetch urges Ged not to rise to Jasper’s bait, but Jasper asks Ged to follow him to Roke Knoll and show him what Gontish wizards can really do. Ged agrees to go. Jasper says meanly that he’s looking forward to seeing Ged charm some goats. Ged vows that he will raise a spirit from the dead and leaves the courtyard.

Up on the grassy, empty knoll, Ged and Jasper stand several paces away from each other. Ged prepares to perform his summoning—but he no longer cares about impressing Jasper. He simply wants to prove to himself that he has the power to do the unthinkable. Ged announces his intent to call a beautiful maiden of lore. Ged stretches out his arm and begins the summoning spell—the one he read in Ogion’s book years ago. The others watch as Ged falls to the ground and then rises back up with something between his hands. Ged calls out the name of the legendary maiden. The shapeless mass in his hand splits apart to reveal the form of a woman for just a moment—then, a horrible, shapeless shadow leaps out of the mass and attacks Ged violently.

Jasper hides his eyes, and Vetch alone watches in horror as the faceless, child-sized shadow tears at Ged’s flesh. Vetch tries to pull the creature off of Ged, but something stops him from touching it. Suddenly, a bright light takes over the sky; when it dissipates, the shadow is gone. Ged is unbreathing and covered in bloody, gaping wounds—the Archmage Nemmerle is standing over him. Nemmerle touches Ged with his staff, and Ged gasps for air. Nemmerle kneels, weakened. Vetch looks around and realized that other wizards have arrived—the Masters have been drawn to the scene by the strength of Ged’s spell.

While others from the school arrive to help carry Ged back to school, to the chambers of the Master Herbal, the Master Summoner stays on the hill all night keeping watch for the return of the shadow. The creature, however, does not return—it is hiding somewhere out in the world. The Master Herbal tends Ged’s “evil wounds,” which seep flows of black blood. Ged runs a fever, but no spell can cool him down. In another room of the school, the Archmage Nemmerle, his power spent after casting out the shadow, lays dying. The other Masters stand over him, mourning his loss but understanding that all lives must come to an end. 

The next day, the nine Masters gather to choose the next Archmage—they settle on a wizard called Gensher of Way who lives far away and send a ship to collect him. Ged knows nothing of this, though—for four weeks, he swims in and out of consciousness, confined to the Master Herbal’s chambers as he slowly heals from his terrible wounds. Finally, one autumn day, Ged is well enough to sit up—but he cannot talk, only weep. It takes another season for Ged to recover, and it is not until early spring that Ged is well enough to leave the Master Herbal’s chambers, rejoin his classmates, and greet the new Archmage.

Ged’s classmates hardly recognize him—the left side of his face is covered in white scars, and he has grown terribly thin. Ged goes straight to Archmage Gensher to swear his loyalty toward him—but when he bends the knee, the Archmage, who knows what Ged did, rejects his offer. Ged asks if he must leave Roke, even if what he wants is to stay, learn, and undo the evil he’s unleashed unto the world. The Archmage insists that if Ged left now, he’d become a gebbeth—a puppet doing the will of the shadow. He insists Ged stay on Roke and learn until he gains the strength to fight the shadow, which is surely awaiting him somewhere in the world. Ged admits he has seen the shadow in dreams.

The Archmage Gensher chides Ged for using his power wrongly and spinning a spell without thinking of how it would affect the balance of all things. Worst of all, the Archmage says, Ged was moved to do so by pride and hatred. Now, the shadow wants to work its evil through Ged. Ged says he wishes he were dead. The Archmage again chides Ged, recalling how Nemmerle gave his life so that Ged could live. All Ged can do now, the new Archmage says, is study and work as hard as he can.

As Ged returns to daily life, he notices that Vetch and Jasper are seemingly gone from the School. He does not attempt to make any new friends and he struggles in his studies, afraid of casting too strong a spell again. In autumn he returns to the Isolate Tower, but this time, he is thrilled rather than full of dread at the prospect.

The night before Ged leaves for the tower, Vetch, who has been studying at the secretive Immanent Grove, arrives at Ged’s room to wish him good luck—and to return the otak, whom he’s kept watch over while Ged recovered. Vetch urges Ged to come to his homeland, the East Reach, once Ged completes his studies and becomes free, but Ged states he might never be free. Ged asks what is in store for Vetch, and Vetch speaks excitedly of a return to his hometown followed by the search for a job of magery in the “little isles.” If Ged ever needs him, Vetch says, Ged should summon him by his true name: Estarriol. Ged, too, tells Vetch his true name. Ged knows what a meaningful thing it is to have shared his true name and to have heard Vetch’s.

The next day—Ged’s 17th birthday—he sets out for the tower. The journey takes him longer than it once did. He studies at the tower until the end of winter, at which point he returns to the Great House to be made sorcerer. Archmage Gensher accepts Ged’s pledge of loyalty and allows him to study higher magic. Ged finds his old skills returning to him. Even while studying the dangerous arts of making and shaping, Ged feels himself learning with ease.

Ged searches lore books and asks his Masters about creatures such as the shadow—but there is little record of such creatures in all of history, only a few stories of spirits from the realm of the dead devouring those who summon them. In a conversation with the Master Summoner, the Summoner tells Ged that a mage is not one who can do anything—a mage must follow the increasingly narrow path he can follow, even as he amasses power, until he realizes what the one thing he must do is.

When Ged turns 18, the Archmage Gensher sends him to study with the Master Patterner in the hidden Immanent Grove. Little is known of this secretive place where people make and learn complicated magic. At the end of spring, Ged returns to the Great House. At the door, he finds the doormaster he met many years ago when he arrived. He realizes that this man is the ninth master: the Master Doorkeeper. The Master tells Ged he can win his freedom if he discovers and says the Master’s name. Though Ged has learned much during his time on Roke, a mage’s name is nearly impossible to divine. 

Ged sits down and thinks for a while about how to do what the Master Doorkeeper has demanded. He falls asleep, unable to think of an answer. At last, Ged returns to the Master and tells him that he cannot force or trick the man’s name from him. He is content, he says, to stay and learn from him unless the man will consent to answer a question. The Master urges Ged to ask it. Ged asks the man’s name, and the Master, smiling, says it. Ged repeats it, and the Master lets him in. Ged gathers his things—including his newly earned staff of yew—and leaves the Great House for the last time, heading down to the ship awaiting him in the harbor.