The Rule of Names

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The Rule of Names (1964) is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the April 1964 issue of Fantastic, and reprinted in collections such as The Wind's Twelve Quarters. Set on the island Sattins, in the world of Earthsea, the story shows the importance of names to magic. The said importance is, in fact, central to the curriculum taught by Palani the schoolteacher. Little else is known, except the essentials of trade. Sattinsmen are very superstitious. They believe that to explicitly wish a neighbor "Good Morning" will change the weather for the worse; that dragons are fond of eating virgin girls; that two wizards in one town are trouble. Their only magician is a fat, incompetent man called "Mister Underhill"; so called because he lives in a cave outside of the village.

One day, a stranger from the Archipelago arrives on the island, whom the locals dub Blackbeard when he does not reveal his name. This Blackbeard, on hearing of Mister Underhill, hires a lad called Birt from the village to be his guide on a journey up the mountain. Once there, Blackbeard reveals that he is a mage, and a descendant of the pirate lords of Pendor. A dragon had taken the lords' lives and their treasure, the latter of which Blackbeard desires to reclaim. Rumor has it that the dragon has been defeated by another mage, whom Blackbeard believes to be the island's Mister Underhill. Before Birt's very eyes, the two enchanters engage one another in a dramatic contest of shape-changing, at the end of which Mister Underhill takes a dragon's form. He then reveals that he and the dragon who took the treasure are one and the same. This dragon, who Blackbeard correctly identifies as Yevaud, devours his attacker but spares the villager. Birt leaves the island, taking Palani the schoolteacher (his romantic interest) with him. Yevaud discards his false identity and takes to the sky.