Finished reading: The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

I read through all of these… maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Re-reading again a little slower. So far in this go around I’ve read A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. I had forgotten, or never noticed, or never articulated to myself, the spiritual dimensions present in these works. Sparrowhawk must confront his own spiritual darkness, mostly in the form of pride, in the first one. Not until he can face his own evil can he be set free. In The Tombs, he is then free to help someone else battle and be free from their form of spiritual darkness. It calls to mind Matthew 7:5 — “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series with an eye out for these themes, but I’ll probably give some time in between. For now I’m reading some other works of Le Guin for the first time — Worlds of Exile & Illusion.