Earthsea Codexery

The Dry Land

The Dry Land: shadow, dust and stars that never move.

The Dry Land is where most people of Earthsea go after they die, the Kargs being the exception. It is a realm of shadow and dust and eternal night, where the stars are fixed in the sky, nothing changes, and even "lovers pass each other in silence".

Lore & Background

Le Guin said the idea came from the Greco-Roman Hades, images in Dante and one of Rilke's Duino Elegies. In The Farthest Shore Ged follows Cob into it, and in The Other Wind it is revealed to be part of the dragons' domain; the Wall of Stones between the living and the dead is unmade and the dead go free.

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