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 8: Names
Length: 6 pages, 54 paragraphs
Setting: The Place of the Tombs
Characters introduced: None
The long-simmering conflict between Kossil and Arha finally comes to a head when Tenar gets her name back, embraces the daylight world, and gains the confidence to confront Kossil directly. I think I’ve already said all that needs saying about Kossil, but I love the exchange, the anger and futility of the argument on both sides.
I do wonder just how much we’re meant to believe Tenar really believes in the power of the Nameless Ones and how much of her defense of them and willingness to call on them is a defense of herself and of the people and things she’s learning to care about. I think, in this way, we’re meant to see Kossil and Tenar as mirrors.
Neither are really faithful to their gods, I think. Kossil values the power and prestige of being priestess to the Godking, but she values little else, seemingly has no friends and no joys beyond wielding that power. Tenar values the power and sense of freedom she has as the One Priestess. She has a domain of her own, a place to be free in a way that none of the other women trapped at the Place of the Tombs can be. The girl who cried when her friend was beaten for breaking rules with her, who was racked with guilt over the horrible deaths of the prisoners, is now willing to use all her power at great peril to protect a stranger who has broken just about every rule she’s meant to enforce.
Then there’s poor Manan, another product of the cruelty of the institution they serve. Manan is a eunuch, he is not so much loyal to Tenar as pathologically obedient, and he is one of the only people to show Tenar any tenderness. Yet almost every word said to or about Manan is an insult, and he is himself quite casually cruel.
Manan tells the story of Tenar’s mother trying to keep her as a funny anecdote. He is more than willing to kill Sparrowhawk, desperate to do so, in fact, because those are the rules. It’s what’s supposed to be done.
Manan is pathetic, pitiable, a creature made by the Place of the Tombs so utterly that it’s impossible to say what he would be without it.
Tomorrow we’re really on the downhill side of things. Until next time!
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