Literature / The Tombs of Atuan

The Tombs of Atuan (1971) is the second book of Earthsea.

The book focuses on Tenar, a girl born in the Kargish empire, who is taken while still a child to be Arha, the high priestess to the "Nameless Ones" at the Tombs of Atuan.

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Tropes

• Affectionate Nickname: Manan calls Arha "little one" and "little honeycomb." When Ged calls Arha "little one" too, it strikes a chord with her.
• Authority in Name Only: While Arha is technically the top priestess, in truth Atuan as a government has left her little more than a powerless figurehead to concentrate power in that of the Godking; she's little more than a glorified security guard for the Tombs. The Godking has so neutered Arha's power that Kossil is the effective leader, as the voice of the state itself.
• Ban on Magic: Kargs are magically uninclined and take a skeptical view of the western world's magical abilities.
  Ged: [Y]ou have no wizards or Mages here in the Kargish lands. That's a queer thing. You banished all your wizards long ago, and forbade the practice of the Art Magic; and now you scarcely believe in it.
  Arha: I was taught to disbelieve in it. It is contrary to the teachings of the Priest Kings.
• Big Bad: Kossil, High Priestess of the Godking, is the main representative of the Godking, ruler of The Empire of Atuan, in the book.
• Big Eater: Penthe is plump when she is introduced and continues to gain weight because of her enormous appetite.
• Circle of Standing Stones: The eponymous Tombs of Atuan are standing stones.
  Inside the loop of the wall several black stones eighteen or twenty feet high stuck up like huge fingers out of the earth. Once the eye saw them it kept returning to them. They stood there full of meaning, and yet there was no saying what they meant. There were nine of them. One stood straight, the others leaned more or less, two had fallen. They were crusted with grey and orange lichen as if splotched with paint, all but one, which was naked and black, with a dull gloss to it. It was smooth to the touch, but on the others, under the crust of lichen, vague carvings could be seen, or felt with the fingers—shapes, signs. These nine stones were the Tombs of Atuan. They had stood there, it was said, since the time of the first men, since Earthsea was created. They had been planted in the darkness when the lands were raised up from the ocean’s depths.
• Curse:
  Arha: May the Dark Ones eat your soul, Kossil!
• Dark Is Evil: A candle is allowed in the Labyrinth, but not in the Undertomb — the most sacred part.
  "Light is forbidden here." Kossil's whisper was sharp. Even as she said it, Arha knew it must be so. This was the very home of darkness, the inmost center of the night.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Arha/Tenar fits this trope very much, although there is a subversion in that the protagonist, Ged, who plays the role of dashing adventurer in the novel, does not "defrost" her through sex as often happens, but rather helps her develop a sense of morality and reconnect with her buried humanity.
• Deuteragonist: Ged's character development is secondary to Tenar's in The Tombs of Atuan, after being the main character in the first book.
• Eldritch Abomination: The "Nameless Ones" are entities that the wizards refer to as the dark powers of the Earth, which are the focus of the oldest religion of the Kargad lands.
  They were older by far than the Godkings of Kargad, older than the Twin Gods, older than light. They were the tombs of those who ruled before the world of men came to be, the ones not named, and she who served them had no name.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Inverted Trope. Manan, Arha's eunuch servent and Parental Substitute, is the kindest, most loyal character at the Tombs.
• Faint in Shock: Upon emerging from the labyrinth for the first time, Arha faints, not quite in shock but from the intensity of the experience.
• Fat and Skinny: Of the other two major priestesses, Thar is "thin and rigid" and Kossil is "heavy, swaying."
• Forced Sleep: In the labyrinth, Ged uses his magic to hold the Nameless Ones asleep, for a time.
  Ged: [E]very instant since I set foot in the cavern under the Tombstones, I have striven to keep them still, to keep them unaware. All my skills have gone to that, I have spent my strength on it. I have filled these tunnels with an endless net of spells, spells of sleep, of stillness, of concealment, and yet still they are aware of me, half aware; half sleeping, half awake. And even so I am all but worn out, striving against them.
• God-Emperor: In the Kargad lands, the (apparently mortal) Godking is worshipped as a deity. By the time of the story, this has severely pissed off the Nameless Ones.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Played With. Without prayer, the Nameless Ones won't vanish, but it does make them stronger.
• Guilt-Induced Nightmare: After sentencing condemned prisons to a slow death by lack of food and water in the name of Human Sacrifice, Arha is sick for several days, has nightmares, and wakes up screaming "They aren’t dead yet! They are still dying!"
  She dreamed a great deal. She dreamed that she had to cook food, great cauldrons full of savory porridge, and pour it all out into a hole in the ground. She dreamed that she had to carry a full bowl of water, a deep brass bowl, through the dark, to someone who was thirsty. She could never get to this person.
• Hero Antagonist: Ged to Tenar in The Tombs of Atuan.
• High Priestess: There are three High Priestesses at the Place of the Tombs of Atuan, one for each temple. Kossil is the High Priestess of the Godking; Thar is the High Priestess of the Twin Gods; Arha is the High Priestess of the Nameless Ones. Arha is the highest, "the One Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, highest of all high priestesses of the Kargad Lands, one whom not even the Godking himself might command."
  Manan: Long ago, you know, little one, before our four lands joined together into an empire, before there was a Godking over us all, there were a lot of lesser kings, princes, chiefs. They were always quarreling with each other. And they’d come here to settle their quarrels. That was how it was, they’d come from our land Atuan, and from Karego-At, and Atnini, and even from Hur-at-Hur, all the chiefs and princes with their servants and their armies. And they’d ask you what to do. And you’d go before the Empty Throne, and give them the counsel of the Nameless Ones.
• Holy Ground: The Labyrinth is regarded as holy ground for the Nameless Ones. When Arha enters it, she feels very close to them. Given their Eldritch Abomination nature, over the course of the story we find out this is rather more literal that initially thought.
  Ged: They cannot leave this place; they are this place; and it should be left to them.
• Human Sacrifice: The Kargad kings neglect the Nameless Onces in most regards, except for sending prisoners to be sacrificed. Letting Arha do their execution for them is convenient.
• Implied Love Interest: Ged and Tenar are the two main characters. They save each other. They clearly care about each other. Ged's declaration, "I have trusted you from the first time I saw your face, for one moment in the cave beneath the Tombs, beautiful in darkness," is reminiscent of Love at First Sight. And that's as far as it goes. It's set during Ged's Celibate Hero days. Decades later, during Tehanu, they actually get together.
  Tenar: Will you stay with me there [on Havnor]?
  Ged: Tenar, I go where I am sent. I follow my calling. It has not yet let me stay in any land for long. Do you see that? I do what I must do. Where I go, I must go alone. So long as you need me, I'll be with you in Havnor. And if you ever need me again, call me. I will come. I would come from my grave if you called me, Tenar! But I cannot stay with you.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Penthe receives punishment for skipping class and hopping over a wall with Arha. Arha, being a High Priestess, is not punished at all.
• Legacy of the Chosen: The selection processes for the One Priestess is styled after that of the Dalai Lama.
  Arha: At the death of the One Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, the ceremonies of burial and purification are completed within one month by the moon's calendar. After this certain of the Priestesses and Wardens of the Place of the Tombs go forth across the desert, among the towns and villages of Atuan, seeking and asking. They seek the girl-child who was born on the night of the Priestess's death. When they find such a child, they wait and they watch. The child must be sound of body and of mind, and as it grows it must not suffer from rickets nor the smallpox nor any deformity, nor become blind. If it reaches the age of five years unblemished, then it is known that the body of the child is indeed the new body of the Priestess who died. And the child is made known to the Godking in Awabath, and brought here to her Temple and instructed for a year. And at the year's end she is taken to the Hall of the Throne and her name is given back to those who are her Masters, the Nameless Ones: for she is the nameless one, the Priestess Ever Reborn.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Arha and Ged first meet when he comes to rob her temple, and she imprisons him in the labyrinth and starves him for days. But last time she killed someone she had trauma-dreams about it afterwards, so she doesn't want to do that again. And once they start talking, Arha is so lonely that it really strikes a chord with her. Before too long, she's willing to fast in order to smuggle her own food to him. The she sides with him and is ready to help him escape, and leave with him.
• The Maze: The labyrinth in the tombs of Atuan.
• Meaningful Rename:
  • The rite turning Tenar into the priestess involves taking away her name when she's six and she's "eaten".
    Arha: I am not Tenar anymore.
    Manan: No. I know. I know. Now you're the little Eaten One. But I...
  • Near the end, with some influence from Ged, she takes back her name Tenar.
    [She awakens from a dream of her mother calling her Tenar.]
    Tenar: I am Tenar. I have my name back. I am Tenar!
• Mr. Exposition: Early in The Tombs of Atuan, Manan and Arha play this role.
  Arha: Tell me how I was chosen, Manan.
  Manan: Oh, you know all that, little one.
  Arha: Yes, I know. At the death of the One Priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, the ceremonies of burial and purification are completed within one month by the moon's calendar. After this certain of the Priestesses and Wardens of the Place of the Tombs go forth across the desert, among the towns and villages of Atuan, seeking and asking. They seek the girl-child who was born on the night of the Priestess's death. When they find such a child, they wait and they watch. The child must be sound of body and of mind, and as it grows it must not suffer from rickets nor the smallpox nor any deformity, nor become blind. If it reaches the age of five years unblemished, then it is known that the body of the child is indeed the new body of the Priestess who died. And the child is made known to the Godking in Awabath, and brought here to her Temple and instructed for a year. And at the year's end she is taken to the Hall of the Throne and her name is given back to those who are her Masters, the Nameless Ones: for she is the nameless one, the Priestess Ever Reborn. [beat] Now tell me how I was chosen!
  Manan: [Tells the story of going with the priestesses and finding her as a baby.]
• The Place: The Tombs of Atuan.
• Playing Sick: Played for Drama when Manan tells the story about how Tenar's mother pretended that baby Tenar had smallpox to try to stop them from taking her daughter away, because disease could make her ineligible. The mother painted pox onto Tenar's skin with berry juice. It would have worked if the fear of contagion had kept everyone from looking too closely, but Kossil was brave enough to look closely and see through it.
• Power of Friendship: The Ring of Erreth-Akbe is rejoined by way of the friends we made along the way.
  Ged: You have knowledge, and I have skill, and between us we have… [pauses]
  Tenar: We have the Ring of Erreth-Akbe.
  Ged: Yes, that. But I thought also of another thing between us. Call it trust... That is one of its names. It is a very great thing. Though each of us alone is weak, having that we are strong, stronger than the Powers of the Dark.
• Power of Trust: The final thing that makes Tener side with Ged is him entrusting her with his name, and his half of the Ring of Erreth-Akbe.
  Ged: Listen, Tenar! I came here a thief, an enemy, armed against you; and you showed me mercy, and trusted me. And I have trusted you from the first time I saw your face, for one moment in the cave beneath the Tombs, beautiful in darkness. You have proved your trust in me. I have made no return. I will give you what I have to give. My true name is Ged. And this [half of the ring] is yours to keep.
• Powers That Be: The Nameless Ones. Their actual existence is up for debate until the point where Ged pisses them off and they retaliate by trying to collapse the great labyrinth around him and Tenar.
  Arha: But you're an infidel, an unbeliever.
  Ged: Oh no, Priestess. I believe in the powers of darkness! I have met with the Unnamed Ones, in other places.
  Arha: What other places?
  Ged: In the Archipelago—the Inner Lands—there are places which belong to the Old Powers of the Earth, like this one. But none so great as this one. Nowhere else have they a temple, and a priestess, and such worship as they receive here.
• Primal Fear: Arha interprets the primal fear of the dark as some sort of inborn reverence of the Nameless Ones.
  "I am afraid of the dark," Penthe said in a low voice.
  Arha made a little sound of scorn, but she was pleased. She had made her point. Penthe might disbelieve in the gods, but she feared the unnameable powers of the dark—as did every mortal soul.
• Religion of Evil: Arha's Nameless Ones are some terrible, ancient, Eldritch Abominations. Even most people who live in the compound avoid them as much a possible because they creep people out.
  Ged: They are dark and undying, and they hate the light: the brief, bright light of our mortality. They are immortal, but they are not gods. They never were. They are not worth the worship of any human soul. [...] They have nothing to give. They have no power of making. All their power is to darken and destroy. They cannot leave this place; they are this place; and it should be left to them. They should not be denied nor forgotten, but neither should they be worshiped. [...] where men worship these things and abase themselves before them, there evil breeds; there places are made in the world where darkness gathers, places given over wholly to the Ones whom we call Nameless, the ancient and holy Powers of the Earth before the Light, the powers of the dark, of ruin, of madness...
• Reincarnation: The Kargads believe in everyone is reincarnated, but that only Arha is reincarnated again and again as herself.
• Somebody Named "Nobody": The Nameless Ones are too ancient and too Eldritch to be named. Accordingly, their priestess likewise has no name and is called "Arha," meaning "the Eaten One."
  Thar: You are Arha. There is nothing left. It was all eaten.
• Stern Teacher: Thar is stern and taciturn, but Arha respects her.
  If Thar had been stern, she had never been cruel. It was pride she had taught to Arha, not fear.
• Vertical Power Play: Arha is going to speak to her prisoner, who she increasingly cares for, but with whom she is trying to maintain a mask of danger and indifference. She makes a point to bring a stool so that she can be above him while they speak.
  She had brought down a little cross-leg folding stool of ivory, so that she would not have to stand while she questioned him, yet would not have to sit down on the floor, on his level.
• Villain Protagonist: Arha is the protagonist of the story, and she's initially bent on destroying invaders to her tomb in the harshest manner possible.