In this series, I’ll be working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea works and analyzing her prose chapter by chapter. Spoilers follow.
Chapter 6: The Man Trap
Length: 18 pages, 148 paragraphs
Setting: The Place of the Tombs
Characters introduced: None
This is the most paragraphs we’ve encountered in an Earthsea work so far, and I’m fairly certain that’s because it’s the most dialogue we’ve encountered so far. I don’t have my copy of A Wizard of Earthsea at hand, but Arha seems downright chatty here compared to everyone else we’ve met.
Arha talks with Kossil and regrets it. She talks with poor, dutiful Manan because she must. And at last, she talks to Sparrowhawk, our old friend Ged.
Ged contextualizes the Nameless Ones, the Dark Powers. His gebbeth, as it turns out, was kindred to them, and I suppose the Terrenon entity also counts as kindred. So what can we gather from that?
The Nameless Ones seem certainly to be dangerous, but my interpretation of the data thus far is that their danger lies more in their ability to influence humans than in any innate power. The gebbeth was a threat to Ged until he understood it and in understanding it no longer feared it.
If the Nameless Ones of the Tombs of Atuan were as mighty as their priestesses are taught and as jealous and cruel and cold, they could have struck down Ged the minute he showed his magelight.
It’s been several years since my last visit to the Place of the Tombs and to Earthsea generally, so I am prepared to have my interpretation bashed on the rocks. For now, though, I think the Nameless Ones have one chief power, and that is their ability to turn frightened, lonely children into cold, cruel, frightened, and lonely adults.
And that power hasn’t fully worked on Arha. When she sees Ged in the dark, she cannot bring herself to allow him to suffer and die as she allowed the first prisoners presented to her. She rouses herself into anger a few times, convinced that yes, indeed, the sorcerer needs killing, but in the end, she feeds him and gives him water because the guilt of those first three deaths is far greater than her fear or reverence for the Nameless Ones.
Indeed, when she really gets thinking about the predicament it seems the Nameless Ones barely factor into it. She’s much more concerned about what Kossil will think and how Kossil could make trouble for her. She comes to the defense of the Nameless Ones when it puts her power and position in question, defers to traditions out of a sense of duty.
I love the image of Sparrowhawk, unafraid an unassailable in that dark place. Relaxed, laughing, but placid, not defiant. He is very much what Vetch saw him become at the end of the first book.
It’s true that some of his magic doesn’t work in the Labyrinth. Ged’s lack of concern in those moments leads me to believe that he understands why and that it is a frustration but not a mortal fear.
That’s all for tonight. Believe it or not, we’re over halfway through the Tombs of Atuan. Until next time!
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