Bruce N H
Active Member
Hey all,
Spoiler warning for canto 34, if you haven't gotten to that yet. Also spoiler for Ursula LeGuin's The Farthest Shore, third book in the Earthsea series (final book of the original trilogy).
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This time I went through the end of the Inferno, I was struck by a similarity to the end of The Farthest Shore. In the Inferno Dante leaves Hell not by returning the way he came. Instead he goes all the way to the farthest reach of Hell and exits through a small hole, carried by Virgil. He ends up on the shores of Mount Purgatory, on a lone island on the far side of the world.
In the Farthest Shore, Ged and his companion Arren follow Cob (the antagonist in the book) into the land of the dead. They go down so far they cannot return. Instead, after the final confrontation with Cob, they go even further, through the mountains of Pain, with Arren helping and eventually carrying Ged. Finally going though a narrow pass in the mountains, they find themselves on the beach of Selidor, a lone island on the far outskirts of the Western Reaches.
Anyway, I don't have any grand conclusion other than to say, like Corey, "this would be a great paper topic".
BTW, I just reread the last couple of chapters of the Farthest Shore - we really should finish up the original Earthsea trilogy in Mythgard Academy some day. Maybe even add Tehanu, though I found that book to be very uneven.
Bruce / Bricktales / @rereadtolkien
Spoiler warning for canto 34, if you haven't gotten to that yet. Also spoiler for Ursula LeGuin's The Farthest Shore, third book in the Earthsea series (final book of the original trilogy).
-
This time I went through the end of the Inferno, I was struck by a similarity to the end of The Farthest Shore. In the Inferno Dante leaves Hell not by returning the way he came. Instead he goes all the way to the farthest reach of Hell and exits through a small hole, carried by Virgil. He ends up on the shores of Mount Purgatory, on a lone island on the far side of the world.
In the Farthest Shore, Ged and his companion Arren follow Cob (the antagonist in the book) into the land of the dead. They go down so far they cannot return. Instead, after the final confrontation with Cob, they go even further, through the mountains of Pain, with Arren helping and eventually carrying Ged. Finally going though a narrow pass in the mountains, they find themselves on the beach of Selidor, a lone island on the far outskirts of the Western Reaches.
Anyway, I don't have any grand conclusion other than to say, like Corey, "this would be a great paper topic".
BTW, I just reread the last couple of chapters of the Farthest Shore - we really should finish up the original Earthsea trilogy in Mythgard Academy some day. Maybe even add Tehanu, though I found that book to be very uneven.
Bruce / Bricktales / @rereadtolkien