The Word of Unbinding - Literary Significance and Criticism

Literary Significance and Criticism

Susan Wood points out that it was during the early 1960s when Ursula K. LeGuin was selling stories such as "The Word of Unbinding" and "The Rule of Names" that she "was an accomplished writer, expressing valuable insights with grace and humour."

"The Word of Unbinding" underscores the importance of language to the entire Earthsea mythos. In particular, the use of "word" in the title, along with the use of "names" in "The Rule of Names" solidifies this message in the first two Earthsea stories.

The story foreshadows The Farthest Shore in which Ged similarly goes into the world of the dead to fight a "dead" enemy threatening the world of the living, and defeats him at the cost of enormous sacrifice (though in that case, of his power rather than his life).

Also within this story is the theme that a wizard taking the form of an animal risks becoming trapped in his own spell and not being able to change back. In A Wizard of Earthsea Ged is trapped in the form of hawk, and would have remained a bird but for Ogion's changing him back. This theme is reinforced by another tale of a wizard who takes the form of a bear and is unable to return to his original form. As a bear, the wizard kills his own child. Likewise, there is mention of "wise men who became dolphins and forgot their wisdom among the waves of the sea". These are examples of the limitations and risks inherent in the use of magic and the need to keep a balance, which are central to Le Guin's concept of magic.