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The Shadow
Ogion is the wise Gontish mage who takes on the young but promising Ged (then known as Duny) as a prentice. After giving Duny his true name of Ged in a ritual ceremony on Ged’s 13th birthday, Ogion takes Ged across the island to the village of Re Albi, where he begins slowly instructing Ged in the building blocks of magery. Ogion is a largely silent, wise, and sage man who never sees a need for rush, pompousness, or glory. This frustrates the headstrong and hungry young Ged, who longs to quickly amass skills in powerful and increasingly dark magical arts. Perturbed by Ged’s reckless pursuit of immense power and strange, ancient magic, Ogion encourages the bot to travel to Roke and attend the School for wizards there (which Ogion himself attended), but he also warns Ged not to blindly pursue power, glory, and fame. Many years later, after several painful, traumatic, and dangerous adventures, Ged returns in falcon form to his old master’s doorstep to recuperate. Ged is ashamed of the foolhardy boy he once was, and he tells Ogion, his “true master,” that he should have better integrated the skills of patience, care, and a slow accumulation of knowledge that Ogion tried to teach him at a young age. Ogion is an endlessly forgiving, tender, and understanding man. As the wise mage he is, Ogion understands the passion and foolishness of youth. His initial sense of Ged’s powerful potential never fades, and he continues to support his onetime prentice even years after Ged leaves his side. Ogion teaches Ged many important lessons about patience, kindness, duty, and the ineffable cosmic balance which governs all things.
Ogion Quotes in A Wizard of Earthsea
The A Wizard of Earthsea quotes below are all either spoken by Ogion or refer to Ogion. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
He crossed to the far bank, shuddering with cold but walking slow and erect as he should through that icy, living water. As he came to the bank Ogion, waiting, reached out his hand and clasping the boy's arm whispered to him his true name: Ged.
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Chapter 2 Quotes
"You want to work spells," Ogion said presently, striding along. […] Wait. Manhood is patience. Mastery is nine times patience. What is that herb by the path?"
[…]
"I don't know."
"Fourfoil, they call it." Ogion had halted, the coppershod foot of his staff near the little weed, so Ged looked closely at the plant, and plucked a dry seedpod from it, and finally asked, since Ogion said nothing more, "What is its use, Master?"
"None I know of."
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“Ged, listen to me now. Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light? This sorcery is not a game we play for pleasure or for praise. Think of this: that every word, every act of our Art is said and is done either for good, or for evil. Before you speak or do you must know the price that is to pay!”
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Chapter 7 Quotes
"I have no strength against the thing," Ged answered.
Ogion shook his head… […] "Strange," he said: "You had strength enough to outspell a sorcerer in his own domain, there in Osskil. You had strength enough to withstand the lures and fend off the attack of the servants of an Old Power of Earth. And at Pendor you had strength enough to stand up to a dragon."
"It was luck I had in Osskil, not strength," Ged replied, and he shivered again as he thought of the dreamlike deathly cold of the Court of the Terrenon. “As for the dragon, I knew his name. The evil thing, the shadow that hunts me, has no name."
“All things have a name," said Ogion.
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"You must turn around."
"Turn around?"
"If you go ahead, if you keep running, wherever you run you will meet danger and evil, for it drives you, it chooses the way you go. You must choose. You must seek what seeks you. You must hunt the hunter."
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Ogion Character Timeline in A Wizard of Earthsea
The timeline below shows where the character Ogion appears in A Wizard of Earthsea. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
The wizard, who is called Ogion the Silent, announces that the tales of Duny’s deed with the fog have reached his...
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...him. On the far bank, as the boy emerges from the river, he finds that Ogion is there to receive him. Ogion gives the boy his true name: Ged. That evening,...
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Chapter 2
Ged thinks that as the prentice of a great mage like Ogion, he will quickly and easily amass power, knowledge, and mastery of his skills—he imagines transforming...
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Ogion encourages Ged to learn about everything around him. He doesn’t want Ged to simply learn...
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After many days of travel, Ogion and Ged arrive in the village of Re Albi, where Ogion lives. Ogion gives Ged...
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Spring arrives, and Ogion begins sending Ged out each day to gather herbs. Ged takes delight in exploring nature...
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...him in the meadow the next day and then heads home to peruse some of Ogion’s ancient Lore-Books.
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Ogion flings the door open and enters surrounded by a bright white light. He speaks a...
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Ged says he was forced to turn to the books since Ogion teaches him nothing. Ogion tenderly says that if Ged wants to leave and seek knowledge...
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Ogion seeks passage for Ged on a ship bound for Roke—a ship called the Shadow is...
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Chapter 3
...of Roke is known as the Archmage Nemmerle. A very old man who once trained Ogion when Ogion was a young mage, Nemmerle asks Ged to tell him about the seas...
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Chapter 4
...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...
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Chapter 6
...Port at Havnor. From there, he thinks, he might return to Gont and seek out Ogion.
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Chapter 7
...have taught him so far: the Masters of Roke, the Archmages Gensher and Nemmerle, and Ogion, too. He is embarrassed about running away from his shadow yet again. He keeps mostly...
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Ogion, who has been wandering the forests of Gont for a whole season, returns to his...
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Ogion knows that great dangers accompany the art of changing—the longer a person stays in their...
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In the morning, Ged wakes and apologizes to Ogion. He feels he has returned to him just as he left: as a fool. As...
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Ged tells Ogion that he needs the shadow’s true name to defeat it—but he believes it has none....
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Ged, Ogion points out, has already returned to Gont, the place where his journey began—now, he must...
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Chapter 8
Ged arrives at the Port of Gont with nothing but the staff Ogion has carved for him. He asks for passage on a ship bound north or west,...
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