Tenar was born in the same day the High Priestess in the service of the “Nameless Ones” died. She showed all the signs to be considered the High Priestess reborn, so when she was 5 years old she was taken to be trained to be High Priestess (that is, to be remembered about her previous reincarnation).
Tenar became Arha, “the eaten one”, a child-priestess of dark cruel rituals and the guardian of the places where the malevolent and powerful “Nameless Ones” dwelt – an unlit underground chamber leading to a labyrinth where a legendary treasure was hidden. Just higher priestesses were allowed there, and any trespassers would meet a slow painful death, chosen by Arha.
As Arha became aware of the political machinations of the older priestess, who had no real faith, she began to retreat herself to her underground dark realm.
One day a trespasser got in, and Arha became aware of what she already had begun to realize.
The Tombs of Atuan is the second book of the Earthsea series. It is connected to the previous book, A Wizard of Earthsea, by the character of Ged (the trespasser), but the story stands by itself.
A Wizard of Earthsea is about the growth of Ged to maturity, which is reached in the final confrontation. The Tombs of Atuan is about the growth of Arha to a free being. While Ged had an active, epic growth, Arha’s development is more introspective.
Arha’s growth is a self-development of the self, in the dark isolation from the world, where she discovers herself as an independent being – neither the child her parents had to abandon, nor the blind empty servant of the “Nameless Ones”.
Ged’s presence works as a beacon for Arha. It is interesting to notice that he is not an authoritarian or paternal figure, he does not impose himself as a masculine presence, and sexual attraction does not play a role between him and Arha. He just sheds some light for Arha to grow by herself.
The story of The Tombs of Atuan is a darker, more passive and introspective version of A Wizard of Earthsea, but I would not consider it a feminine/feminist version. Actually, I would not consider any of the stories as related to a specific gender, as they are about the growth of a being to find itself in the World, either by conquering obstacles created by itself or by freeing itself from the prison created by traditions.
The Tombs of Atuan was a Newbery Honor Book in 1972.
[...] of the highest mages of the school, the Archmage (Sparrohawk/Ged from A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan) decided to go himself in search for the reason of the disturbances in magic. He only accepted the [...]