The Tombs of Atuan: Volume 2 (Earthsea Cycle)

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Cadden, Mike (2005). Ursula K. Le Guin Beyond Genre: Fiction for Children and Adults (1sted.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-99527-2. Le Guin, Ursula K.; Wood, Susan (1980). The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction. Ultramarine publishing. ISBN 9780399504822. The hold that the darkness has over her does not disappear when she escapes and the Tombs are brought down in an earthquake by the nameless ones. She contemplates killing Ged, blaming him for her pain, but eventually learns to accept her guilt over her actions, realizing that though she had no choice in her actions as a priestess, she now has a choice to move away from them; but this "freedom is a heavy load". [51] [29] Le Guin ends the novel with the reassuring sentence "Gravely she walked beside [Ged] up the white streets of Havnor, holding his hand, like a child coming home", suggesting that she has been successful in finding new connections in her life. [52] The conclusion of the novel represents the successful end of a quest that Ged undertook as a mature wizard, part of the story arc that traces his character development across the first three Earthsea books; thus The Tombs of Atuan has been described as part of Ged's coming-of-age as well. [53] Faith and belief [ edit ]

He asks why she's crying. For days, Arha was physically and mentally exhausted from the fear of Kossil trying to kill her. Trying to escape to the Undertomb, she even found Kossil digging to verify the thief's corpse. She half heard Kossil following her through the greater Labyrinth. Yet, the Nameless Ones did not save their High Priestess Arha or punish Kossil's sacrilege. Sparrowhawk reassures her that the Nameless Ones exist. Despite many spells to hide himself, they still crush his spirit. They are immortal, but not gods, and hate the light of mortal life. So, they were "not worth the worship of any human soul." Above the tombs is the island of Atuan, located in the Kargad Lands. It is said that people are taken to the tombs, usually prisoners, are sent to be sacrificed to the Nameless Ones for a slow death. It is said that each priestess is a reincarnation of the first, and are therefore taken into the tombs for a lifetime of servitude at a young age. Tenar, or Arha, is the only priestess who is allowed to roam the labyrinth above. Because the tombs are below Kargad Lands, there are no wizards present because of the Kargad belief that wizardry is impermissible. The form of narrative employed by Le Guin in the Earthsea trilogy has been described by literature scholar Mike Cadden as "free indirect discourse"; a technique in which the feelings of the protagonist are not directly separated from the narration, making the narrator seem sympathetic to the characters, and removing the skepticism towards a character's thoughts and emotions that are a feature of more direct narration. [64] Cadden suggests that this method leads to younger readers sympathizing directly with the characters, thereby making it an effective technique for young-adult literature, whereas adults are likely to read the situations differently. [65] In The Tombs of Atuan, much of the story is told from Tenar's perspective; for instance, the reader sees Tenar's fear of the undertomb through her own eyes, creating an empathy for her. [32] The main protagonist of The Tombs of Atuan is a young Kargish girl named Tenar. Because she was born as the previous high priestess of the Tombs of Atuan passed away, the Kargish believe that Tenar is the reincarnation of the priestess. (There are many high priestesses, and the priestess of the Tombs of Atuan is just one of them). Renamed Arha, which translates as “the eaten one,” Tenar is forcibly removed from her family at the age of five and conscripted into the society’s patriarchal upper caste known as the Nameless Ones. Though the house she is given to live in is tiny, Tenar’s status as the future priestess is very high in Kargish society. Meanwhile, a young eunuch named Manan becomes her eternal servant.Scholars have compared The Tombs of Atuan to The Beginning Place, another of Le Guin's fantasy works; both stories have a female protagonist guiding a blundering male through a labyrinth of sorts. [40] Comparisons have been made to a number of Le Guin's works which have a notion of a dream world in which the protagonists undergo a transformation; in The Tombs of Atuan, this is the labyrinth. [40] Ged's journey through the series has been compared to the traditional heroic quest, including a "descent into the underworld" represented by the labyrinth in The Tombs of Atuan. It has drawn comparisons to the character of Alvin in Arthur C. Clarke's novella The City and the Stars. [66] [67] Publication and reception [ edit ]

The Tombs of Atuan / ˈ æ t uː ɑː n/ [4] is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the Winter 1970 issue of Worlds of Fantasy, and published as a book by Atheneum Books in 1971. It is the second book in the Earthsea series after A Wizard of Earthsea (1969). The Tombs of Atuan was a Newbery Honor Book in 1972. The early part of the story provides an anthropological view of the culture of the Tombs, and through them, of the Kargish lands as a whole. [17] The reader is shown that the true names of people have no particular significance in the Kargish lands, whereas in the Archipelago they grant power over the thing being named; [62] nonetheless, the critical moment in which Tenar recalls her true name has been described as influencing other works such as Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film Spirited Away. [63] Scholars have described Le Guin's depiction of Kargish culture as a subtle critique, particularly of the powers of the Tombs, which give nothing in return for their worship. [62] Much of the early part of the novel describes the life that Tenar leads in the stable world of the Tombs. Ged's arrival acts as a turning point, and the rest of the book explores the possibility of change, and introduces different perspectives on the internal world of the novel. [38] Hollindale, Peter (September 2003). "The Last Dragon of Earthsea". Children's Literature in Education. 34 (3): 183–193. doi: 10.1023/A:1025390102089. S2CID 160303057.

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Butler, Catherine (2012). "Modern Children's Fantasy" (PDF). In James, Edward; Mendlesohn, Farah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp.224–235. doi: 10.1017/CCOL9780521429597.021. ISBN 9781139014625. A dark hand had let go its lifelong hold upon her heart. But she did not feel joy, as she had in the mountains...

Wolk, Anthony (March 1990). "Challenge the Boundaries: An Overview of Science Fiction and Fantasy". The English Journal. 79 (3): 26–31. doi: 10.2307/819230. JSTOR 819230. Soon after Tenar reaches the height of her power and influence, she encounters a Hardic wizard named Ged in the tombs. She catches him trying to steal a piece of a talisman, the ring of Erreth-Akbe, which can be used to create peace in Earthsea, but which has been hidden away by the Nameless Ones to prevent peace from ever occurring. Intrigued by Ged, his story, and his rebelliousness against the Nameless Ones, Tenar—rather than sentencing Ged to death—keeps him prisoner in private, secretly bringing him food and water and having discussions about the problematic nature of the society Tenar serves. A priestess named Kossil learns of the presence of Ged within the tombs of Atuan, and so informs Arha that she must sacrifice his life to the Nameless Ones. Unable to do so, she asks her only friend eunuch Manan to dig a fake grave, and hide Ged in the treasury of the tombs, where only she can go. She and Kossil have a relationship that is beyond an enemy, beyond just a nemesis. Kossil informs Arha during an argument that the Nameless Ones do not exist, and that the real power lies with her. Arha refuses to believe it, and curses her in the name of the Nameless Ones. She realises that Kossil will now wish to kill her for her actions. In finding a place to think, she sees Kossil unearthing the fake grave, and so she runs to the treasury to confess everything to he prisoner, Ged.a b c d e Cadden, Mike (2006). "Taking Different Roads to the City: The Development of Ursula K. Le Guin's Young Adult Novels". Extrapolation. 47 (3): 427–444. doi: 10.3828/extr.2006.47.3.7. Although lonely, Tenar’s childhood is marked by friendship to some degree. She develops a very close bond with Manan, and another close bond with a fellow similarly aged priestess-in-training known as Penthe. The two priestesses charged with training Tenar are named Thar and Kossil. Thar is intensely stern but also fair. Kossil, on the other hand, is hateful and suspicious of Tenar’s growing power, and jealous of the esteem in which Tenar is held by the Nameless Ones. Through her training, Tenar learns to navigate the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the tombs, where it is said there is a highly valuable treasure that “evil” sorcerers of Hardic descent have sought for years. Part of Tenar’s duty as high priestess is to protect this treasure. Kuznets, Lois R. (1985). " "High Fantasy" in America: A Study of Lloyd Alexander, Ursula Le Guin, and Susan Cooper". The Lion and the Unicorn. 9: 19–35. doi: 10.1353/uni.0.0075. S2CID 143248850. Set in the fictional world of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan follows the story of Tenar, a young girl born in the Kargish empire, who is taken while still a child to be the high priestess to the "Nameless Ones" at the Tombs of Atuan. Her existence at the Tombs is a lonely one, deepened by the isolation of being the highest ranking priestess. Her world is disrupted by the arrival of Ged, the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea, who seeks to steal the half of a talisman buried in the treasury of the Tombs. Tenar traps him in the labyrinth under the Tombs, but then rebels against her teaching and keeps him alive. Through him she learns more of the outside world, and begins to question her faith in the Nameless Ones and her place at the Tombs. Arha spends the day lost in thought at the lowest step of the Empty Throne. She cannot enter the Labyrinth or go among the other priestesses now. She asks herself "Who am I?" and gets no answer. Manan enters and warns about Kossil's revenge. He suggests killing Sparrowhawk to take the lies and turn them into truth. Arha replies that Kossil can't hurt her and at worst Arha would be reborn. Manan counters that Kossil could imprison Arha in the Labyrinth for years and the Nameless Ones would not forgive her sacrilege. Arha dismisses his concerns and tells him to go to sleep affectionately. One he leaves, she enters the Labyrinth one last time.