Tales from Earthsea

Tales from Earthsea is a collection of fantasy stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published by Harcourt in 2001. It sits between Tehanu and The Other Wind in the Earthsea Cycle, and each piece can be read on its own.

The book opens with "The Finder", a novella of more than a hundred pages that follows the man called Otter and shows how the school of mages on Roke came to be founded. "Darkrose and Diamond" is a love story between a witch's daughter and a merchant's son from Havnor.

In "The Bones of the Earth", the young Ogion the Silent helps his master, the mage Dulse, face an earthquake that threatens the island of Gont. "On the High Marsh" brings a mysterious healer to a remote village on Semel, where a livestock sickness is spreading and Ged, the archmage, comes to call.

"Dragonfly" is a postscript to Tehanu, set on the island of Way and centred on a young woman who is more than she seems.

The volume closes with "A Description of Earthsea", a reference essay on the archipelago's peoples, languages, history and magic, and includes two maps. The collection won the 2002 Locus Award for Best Collection, and "The Finder" and "The Bones of the Earth" each took a Locus Award as well.