Thanks for clarifying, Curious--so many people protested her change in writing
direction for Tehanu, I figured you might have been one of them!
Here is a snippet from an interview by The Guardian where she answers a
question about "naming".
Q: Where did the idea of discovering 'true names' as a means to powerful
magic come from? Do you know what fired you to include it in the Earthsea books
as such a central theme?
UKL: It's a very old idea in magic, all over the world. I read Lady Frazier's
Leaves from the Golden Bough as a kid, and probably met it there. Or almost
anywhere. A writer, an artist whose medium is words, is likely to find the idea
of magic as naming, words as power, a quite natural one.
and pssst...Curious. Have you seen her Catwings set of children's
books? They are very short, but very sweet books about magical winged
cats. My daughter loved them--I know you are always looking for
children's book
recommendations.
A fairytale is not an allegory. There may be allegory in it, but it is not an allegory. He must be an artist indeed who can, in any mode, produce a strict allegory that is not a weariness to the spirit. An allegory must be Mastery or Moorditch. A fairytale, a sonata, a gathering storm, a limitless night, seizes you and sweeps you away: do you begin at once to wrestle with it and ask whence its power over you, whither it is carrying you?
~"The Fantastic Imagination" George MacDonald 1893
