The climax builds quickly and has a nice mix of drama, horror, tension, and magic, resolving the story arcs neatly. Who dares ask questions of the dark? Who’ll ask the dark its name?” No one knows, no one knows, no one can say what I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman’s power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the Making, older than the moon. “I go back into the dark! Before the moon I was. I go back into the dark.” Moss’s eyes shone with a weird brightness in their red rims and her voice sang like an instrument. Deeper than the sea, older than the raising of the lands. Who knows where a woman begins and ends? Listen, mistress, I have roots, I have roots deeper than this island. “Oh, well, dearie, a woman’s a different thing entirely. Strong and influential women have central roles and carry the feminist themes, rather than male mages wielding magic staffs. Tehanu is not like the other books in the series. The entire novel takes place on the isle of Gont unlike the earlier books of the series which featured extensive travel around the Earthsea archipelago. Maybe she herself feared the child, as she feared cruelty, and rape, and fire.

Ogion had asked nothing about the child, but he had said, “They will fear her.” And Tenar had replied, “They do,” and truly. There are many scenes that are touching, heartwarming and ordinary life is portrayed with a glowing tinge of magic and potential. The character Therru who is introduced in this book is particularly sympathetic, a child who was crippled by severe burns and abandoned by her parents is adopted by Tenar and raised with loving kindness. She says much with few words and gives us a fully-formed world, fascinating characters, and poetic storytelling. Le Guin's prose is spare but precise and puissant.

“They were beautiful, and strong, and wise, and free.' They were all one people, one race, winged, and speaking the True Language. Despite his very weak condition, Ged slowly recovers.īut her song told also that then, in the beginning, dragon and human were all one. Tenar, Therru, the witch Moss, and girl Heather bring Ged to Ogion's house to heal.

Shortly after Ogion is buried, the dragon Kalessin arrives on a nearby cliff, the Overfell, carrying an unconscious Ged. Goha, aka Tenar, finds Ogion dying and cares for him until the end. When she heard that he might be ill, she left for his home right away, taking the burned child, Therru, along with her. “I’ve generally lived near tombstones,” she said to her daughter.ĭuring the festival of the Long Dance, the mage Ogion of Re Albi summoned the widow Goha Flint to come. Tehanu is the fourth book of the Earthsea Cycle and was published in 1990, eighteen years after the previous Earthsea novel.

Tehanu le guin