A review by quoththegirl
The Rule of Names by Ursula K. Le Guin

5.0

Four or five years ago, I read this short story in Le Guin's collection of short stories, The Wind's Twelve Quarters, but somehow managed to forget entirely that I had done so. Rereading it again with a friend was a delightful experience as I gradually remembered what was coming at the end. The story is set solidly in Le Guin's own Earthsea universe (although it was written before the Earthsea books), but the story is full of nods to Tolkien's Middle-Earth. The Lord of the Rings was published roughly ten years before the publication of "The Rule of Names," so it must have been fairly fresh in Le Guin's mind. Her later Earthsea works have more of her own flavor and less of Tolkien's.