'…the two fair islands Ark and Ilien, towered and terraced with cities…'

“Which of the heroes is yours?” the mage asked, and Arren answered with a little hesitancy, “Erreth-Akbe.”
“Because he was the greatest?”
“Because he might have ruled all Earthsea, but chose not to, and went on alone and died alone, fighting the dragon Orm on the shore of Selidor.”

“I think it must be the star Gobardon. It can be seen only in the South Reach. Gobardon means Crown. Kurremkarmerruk taught us that, sailing still farther south would bring, one by one, eight more stars clear of the horizon under Gobardon, making a great constellation, some say of a running man, others say of the Rune Agnen. The Rune of Ending.”

“But how would a goatherd become Archmage?”“But how would a goatherd become Archmage?”
“The same way a prince would! By coming to Roke and outdoing all the Masters, by stealing the Ring in Atuan, by sailing the Dragons' Run, by being the greatest wizard since Erreth-Akbe – how else?”

'There is no place for it on maps, and there is no way to it except for those who know their way to it. But even novices and townsfolk and farmers can see it, always at a certain distance, a wood of high trees whose leaves have a hint of gold in their greenness even in the spring. And they consider -- the novices, the townsfolk, the farmers -- that the Grove moves about in a mystifying manner. But in this they are mistaken for the Grove does not move. Its roots are the roots of being. It is all the rest that moves.'

'"If the Grove were cut, all wizardry would fail. The roots of those trees are the roots of knowledge. The patterns the shadows of their leaves make in the sunlight write the words Segoy spoke in the Making."'

'…to the furthest northmost cape, where stands the Isolate Tower. There by himself lived the Master Namer… No farm or dwelling lay within miles of the Tower. Grim it stood above the northern cliffs…'

The Isolate Tower