Sadler's Lectures

Ursula K Leguin, Tehanu - Aunty Moss The Witch - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses the science fiction and fantasy author, Ursula K. Leguin's novel, Tehanu, the fourth of six Earthsea books

It focuses specifically on the character, "Aunty" Moss, the local witch, who Tenar becomes friends with after Ogion's death.

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Duration:: 20m
Broadcast on:: 12 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

(upbeat music) Welcome to the Sadler Lectures Podcast. Responding to popular demand, I'm converting my philosophy videos into sound files you can listen to anywhere you can take an MP3. If you like what you hear and want to support my work, go to patreon.com/sadler. I hope you enjoy this lecture. One of the important, and for many readers, very memorable characters of Ursula K. Le Guine's fourth Earthsea novel to Hano is Auntie Moss. And Moss is a village witch, a woman of some power, and somebody who is going to become closely connected with Tenar and her adopted daughter, Thero, and with Ged, also connected with Ojian since they live in the same place. And Moss views him as, by contrast, to so many other mages and wizards, a very kind and gentle man, somebody who's good and treats her well. So what is a village witch? We should start there, and there's a description that's provided in this. Village witches, though they may know many spells and charms in some of the great songs, were never trained in the high arts or principles of majory. No woman was so trained. Wizardry was a man's work, a man's skill magic was made by men. And in this book, we find out, there had never been a woman mage, though some few would call themselves wizard or sorceress. Their power had been untrained, strength without outer knowledge, half frivolous, half dangerous. Now, we know from the later stories and novels that that's not quite true, and there was also an enchantress, it ray all be just up the road, but witches are a pretty common phenomenon across, not just the Isle of God, but Earthsea. And Le Guine continues and says, "The ordinary village witch, like Moss, "lived on a few words of the true speech, "handed down his great treasures, "from older witches or bought at high cost from sorcerers, "and a supply of common spells of finding and mending, "much meaningless ritual and mystery making in gibberish, "a solid experiential training in mid-wifery, "bone setting, curing animal and human ailments, "a good knowledge of herbs, "mixed with a mess of superstitions, "all this built up on whatever native gift "she might have of healing, chanting, changing, "or spellcasting. "Such a mixture might be a good one or a bad one, "some witches were fierce bitter women, "ready to do harm, knowing no reason not to do harm, "most were midwives and healers with a few love potions, "fertility charms and potency spells on the side, "and a good deal of quiet cynicism about them, "a few having wisdom, though no learning used their gift, "purely for good, though they could not tell "as any apprentice wizard could, the reason for what they did "and pray to the balance and the way of power "to justify their abstention or action." And so this is an interesting starting point for thinking about what these village witches are. We know of them already from a Wizard of Earthsea, where Ged's aunt was a witch and taught him a number of names, and then he winds up being a apprentice to Ojian, and there's also a backstory, an important backstory, at least for Mois, about how she wound up in the village, because she wasn't actually from there. And this comes up while she and Tana are discussing wizardry and sexuality and things that we're gonna get to in a bit. And here's the description. Mois says, "I was crazy for a man here for a long time ago, "a good looking man, but a cold hard heart, "but I was so heart-set out of him, "I did use my art, I spent many a charm on him, "but it was all wasted. "I came up here to Ray Albee in the first place "when I was a girl because I was in trouble "with a man in Gauntport, but I can't talk of that. "For they were rich, great folks. "Twas they that had the power not I, "they didn't want their son tangled "with a common girl like me, foul slut they called me, "and they'd have had me put out of the way "like killing a cat if I hadn't run off up here. "But oh, I did like that lad with his round smooth arms "and legs and his big dark eyes. "I can see him playing his plane after all these years." So she was, you know, a local girl in Gauntport, already probably a witch, she had some power, got involved with a man from a rich family, they didn't like that, they threatened to kill her, probably a baby as well, and she goes on up to Ray Albee, doesn't go to the manor house, of course, but just to the village and that's where she stays. We also find out that Tenar had encountered Moss quite a long time ago, when Tenar had first lived in Ray Albee. 25 years ago, Moss had not been an old witch, but a young one. She had ducked and bowed and grinned at the young lady, the white lady, Ogion's ward and student, never speaking to her but with the utmost respect. Tenar had felt that respect to be false, a mask for an envy and dislike and distrust that were all too familiar to her, from women over whom she'd been placed in a position of superiority, women who saw themselves as common in her is uncommon, as privileged, priestess of the tombs of Atuan or foreign ward of the mage of Gaunt, she was set apart, set above, men had given her power, men had shared their power with her, women looked at her from outside, sometimes rival risk often with a trace of ridicule. She'd felt herself to be the one left outside, shut out, and Moss was part of that as well, Moss fit in better as much as a witch can fit in, and so that's a good backstory and thumbnail sketch of what witches are like. Now, Moss is going to be a very helpful person in her own ways, of course. She's going to help Tenar with Ogion with Theru and with Ged in important ways. And she'll also communicate what she has of her own wisdom to Tenar. So first, Ogion dies, and Moss is the one, as village witches are accustomed to do, who handles his, what's called, homing, and there's a description of it here, brave one. Anti-Moss, unmarried like most witches, unwashed with graying hair tied in curious charm knots, eyes red him from herb smoke. She had come across the meadow with the lantern and with Tenar and the others she'd watch the night by Ogion's body, this is the homing. She'd set a wax candle and a glass shade there in the forest and burn sweet oils in a dish of clay. She said the words that should be said and done what should be done. When it came to touching the body to prepare it for burial, she looked at once to Tenar as if for permission and then gone on with her offices. Village witches usually saw to the homing, as they called it, of the dead and off into the burial. Then the two wizards come, one from the manor house and one from the port of Gaunt, and then they're both basically trying to take over the ceremony and Tenar says, I was the one who was his ward. I know that he wants to be buried here. I'm the one who actually knows his name and they're not paying attention to her because she's a woman. And then Moss, who's scurried away when the wizards show up, actually interrupts them, saying loudly. Yes, she was. She was, nobody else but her. He sent for her, he sent young towns and the sheep dealer to tell her to come clear around the mountain and he waited his dying until she did come and was with him. Then he died and he died where he would be buried here. So Moss is sticking up for Ojian and for Tenar. And with Thero, there's something else that's going on. And I'm going to actually read another line. This is quite important. Since she and Moss kept the vigil for Ojian together, the witch had made it plain. She would be Tenar's friend, follower, servant. Whatever Tenar wanted her to be. Tenar was not at all sure what she wanted Auntie Moss to be, finding her unpredictable, unreliable, incomprehensible, passionate, ignorant, sly and dirty. But Moss got on with the burned child. Perhaps it was Moss who is working this change. This slight easing in Thero. With her, Thero behaved as with everyone. Blank, unanswering docile in the way an inanimate thing, a stone as docile. But the old woman had kept at her, offering her little sweets and treasures, bribing, coaxing, weedling. Come with Auntie Moss now, dearie. Come along and Auntie Moss will show you the prettiest sight. You ever saw, and Tenar reflects that, you know, and the story is about which is, this might lead to being in an oven or something like that. But in the case of Thero, Moss is actually showing her all sorts of things. She's educating her in her environment and in what she can do with her body. A prime example of this is where, it says nothing Thero did or said, showed she was learning anything from Auntie Moss, except with the lark nested and the blueberries grew and how to make cats' cradles one-handed. Thero's right hand had been so eaten by fire it had healed into a kind of club, the thumb usable only as a pincer like a crab's claw. But Auntie Moss had an amazing set of cats' cradles for four fingers and a thumb and rhymes to go with the figures. Churn, churn, cherry all, burn, burn, bury all, come, drag and come. And the string would form four triangles that flicked into a square. So, cats' cradle, of course, is the child's game where you have a string and you make different figures with it. Moss is helping Thero to develop, to grow in a way that maybe Tenar can't completely do herself. Another line, she was kind of Thero but it was a weedling kindness. And when they were together it seemed she talked to the child a great deal. Tenar did not know what Moss was telling her, teaching her whether she should let the witch fill the child's head with stuff. And they bring up this very important line, weak as woman's magic, wicked as woman's magic, she'd heard a hundred times. So, maybe there's something bad going on, maybe there's something good going on. When it comes to Ged, after Tenar has him delivered to her by Khaleesi in the oldest of all dragons and she brings Ged down, she needs some help. And Auntie Moss and Heather help her get Ged, who seems to be perhaps dying, into Ogion's bed and they nurse and tend him there. And Moss is on the alert. She says this isn't the same guy. He doesn't have any wizardly powers. He's not a mage at all. So, be on guard. Maybe he's a gebith. Maybe he's a trickster. We don't know what's going on. And Moss actually kind of hopes that he's going to die but he doesn't die. Later Moss will actually offer Ged sanctuary in her place when Ged is trying to hide from the king's men who are wanting to bring him as the Archmage, which he no longer feels himself to be, to the king. And Moss will also send him on his way when he goes south to become a goat herder. Once again, with some bread and some cheese, some provisions for the road. Tenar sees the effects of all of this and she and Moss have a important friendship that develops. And they have some very interesting conversations in which Tenar is going to learn something and Moss is very convinced of her point of view. She's putting forth something. Le Guine is having Moss as a character say some things that are very attractive to some people when it comes to all these key topics of witches and wizards, magic, power and sexuality. But it's not actually representative of Le Guine's position as much as Tenar's point of view is. And so we get some important teachings. Here's one. Tenar says, "Aunty, how do you tell if a man's a wizard or not?" Moss's reply was circuitous beginning with the usual nomics and obscurities. "Deep nose deep," she said deeply. "And what's born will speak." And she told a story about an ant that picked up a tiny end of hair from the floor of a palace in ran-offs to the ants nest with it. And in the night, the nest glowed underground like a star for the hair was from the head of the great mage broast. "But only the wise could see the glowing ant hill to common eyes. It was dark." "One needs training then," said Tenar. "Maybe, maybe not," was the gist of Moss's dark reply. Some are born with that gift. Even when they don't know it, it will be there like the hair of the mage and the hole in the ground. It will shine. And then she says, "Well, how do you know if a man's not a wizard?" And she says, "It's not there. It's not there, dearie, the power. I've got eyes in my head. I can see that you have eyes, right? If you're blind, I'll see that. If you've only got one eye or like the little one or if you've got three, I'll see them all the time. But if I don't have an eye to see with, I won't know till you do tell me, but I do. I see, I know. The third eye, she touched her forehead and gave a loud, dry chuckle. She was pleased with having found the words to say what she wanted to say. A good deal of her obscurity and cant tenured began to realize was mere ineptness with words and ideas. Nobody had ever taught her to think consecutively. Nobody had ever listened to what was said. All that was expected. All that was wanted of her was muddled mystery mumbling. She was a witch woman. She had nothing to do with clear meaning. And so she goes on and they talk about power and wizardry. And then Moss says something very interesting. She says, "The best I can say is like this, about men. "A man's in his skin, see like a nut in its shell. "It's hard and strong that shell and it's all full of him. "Full of grand man, mate, man, self." And that's all. That's all there is. It's all him and nothing else inside. Ten are pondered a while inside. But if he's a wizard, then it's all his power inside, his powers himself. See, that's how it is with him. And that's all. When his power is gone, he's gone. Empty, nothing. And a woman then, and here's where Moss says one of the lines that has been repeated so many times about this book. Oh, well, dearie, a woman's a different thing entirely. Who knows where a woman begins and ends? Listen, mistress, I have roots. I have roots deeper than this island, deeper than the sea. Older than the raising of the lands. I go back into the dark. Moss as I've shown her the weird brightness and the red rims and her voice saying like an instrument. I go back into the dark. Before the moon, I was, no one knows, no one knows. No one can say what I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman's power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the making, older than the moon. Who dares ask questions of the dark, who'll ask the dark its name? The old woman was rocking, chanting lost in her incantation. But Tenner said, upright, I will. I've lived long enough in the dark. And so what we have here is Moss putting forth this very, in some respects, grandiose view of what it is to be a woman, and roots that go down forever into the dark and can't be brought into the light as a result. A little bit later when she's talking about wizards and witches again, and she's talking about power, she will tell us that a wizard is like a great pine tree. It's something very visible, but it can get blown down. Whereas a witch, women in general, are like blackberry thickets. Their roots are not gonna be pulled up by any wind whatsoever. They don't go as high. And they may have thorns, rather than needles. But they're much more durable. There's also some interesting discussions, as we've already mentioned, about sexuality. And Moss is very interested in Tenner's account of the eunuchs, right? She asked, do they take him and do him like rams and egos, like that with a gelding knife? Horror of the macabre and a gleam of vengeance had won out over both anger and reason. Moss didn't want to pursue any topic but that of eunuchs. Tenner could not tell her much. She realized she'd never thought about the matter when she was a girl in Atto and there'd been gelded men and one of them had loved her tenderly. And she him and she'd killed him to escape from him. Then she'd come to the archipelical where there were no eunuchs and forgotten them, sunk them in darkness with Monon's body. And a little bit later, they also took about, comes back to the sexuality part as well. And here we go. Moss talking about Ged says, it's a queer thing for an old man to be a boy of 15, no doubt. Tenner also almost said, what are you talking about Moss? Something prevented her. She realized she'd been listening for Ged to come back. Ah, she said a great many thoughts suddenly coming to her mind all at once. That's why she said, that's why I never. After a long silence, she said, do they, do wizards as a spell? Surely, surely dear, he said Moss, they witch themselves. Some will tell you they make a trade off like marriage turned backward with vows and all, and so get their power then. But to me, that's got a wrong sound to it, like a dealing with the old powers more than what a true witch deals with. And the old mage he told me they did know such thing, though I have known some women witches do it and come to no great harm by it. The ones who brought me up, Tenner says, did that promising virginity? Oh, I, no men you told me and them eunuchs, terrible. But why, but why did I never think? None the witch says, because that's the power of him, dearie. You don't think, you can't. And nor do they once they've set their spell. How could they, given their power, it wouldn't do. It wouldn't do. You don't get without, you give as much. That's true for all. So they know the witch men, the men of power, they know that better than any. But you know it's an uneasy thing for a man not to be a man, no matter if he can call the sun down from the sky. And so they put it right out of mind with their spells of binding, and truly so. I've never heard of a wizard breaking these spells, seeking to use his power for his body's lust. Even the worst would fear to. And Tenner says, they set themselves apart. Ah, a wizard has to do that. But you don't. Me, I'm only a witch woman, dearie. And she says, but you haven't been celibate. What's that, dearie? Like the wizards. Oh, no, no, no. Never was anything to look at, but there was a way I could look at them, not witching, you know, dearie, but you know what I mean. There's a way to look and eat, come around, sure as a crow will claw. I knew what it was, they needed. If I liked him well enough, maybe they got it. As for love, for love, I'm not one of them. Though you know some witches are, but they dishonor the art. I do my art for pay, but I take my pleasure for love. So women of power don't have to be celibate. Men of power have to give up their sexuality. And that's what get, in fact, it. And that's why Tenner realizes they never became, as we would say, an item. The last thing that we have to talk about is that Moss is used by the wicked wizard, Aspen of Ray Albie, as bait to try to lure Tenner and Thero, he actually ends up getting get in. And what we find is Thero runs to anti-Moss. And she says, who's there, who's there, oh dearie? My little burned one, my pretty, what are you doing here? Where's your mother? Did she come? Don't come in, don't come in, dearie. There's a curse on me. He cursed the old woman, don't come near me. Thero puts out her hand and touches her. And she says, don't look at me. He made my flesh rot and shrivel and rot again, but he won't let me die. He said, I'd bring you here. I tried to die, I tried, but he held me. He held me, leaving against my will. He won't let me die. Thero says, you shouldn't die. And she says, child, the old woman whisper, dearie, call me by my name. Hatha, the child said, I knew, set me free, dearie. And Thero says, I have to wait till they come. Till who come, dearie, my people. The witch's big, cold hand lay like a bundle of sticks and hers, she held it firmly. It was dark now. Outside the hot as in it. Hatha, who was called Moss, slept. And presently the child sitting on the floor beside her cot with a hen perched nearby, slept also. So Thero now is able to return the care and the nursing that Moss has given to her. And in the end, Moss will be saved fortunately. There's more to be told to the story. But this is enough about, I think, this important character, Auntie Moss, who represents a certain way of understanding all of these important topics, the relation between men and women, magic and power and sexuality, and good and evil. Special thanks to all of my Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. You can find me on Twitter @philosopher70 on YouTube at the Gregory B. Sadler channel and on Facebook on the Gregory B. Sadler page. Once again, to support my work, go to patreon.com/sadler. Above all, keep studying these great philosophical works. (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music)