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Tehanu

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Tehanu
Cover of 2012 edition (hardcover) with corrected title.
AuthorUrsula K. Le Guin
LanguageEnglish
SeriesEarthsea
GenreFantasy
Published1990 (Atheneum), 2012 (Saga)
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback)
Pages226
AwardNebula Award for Best Novel (1990), Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1991)
ISBN0-689-31595-3
OCLC19975630
[Fic] 20
LC ClassPZ7.L5215 Te 1990
Preceded byThe Farthest Shore 
Followed byTales from Earthsea 

Tehanu /təˈhɑːnuː/,[1] initially subtitled The Last Book of Earthsea,[2] is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Atheneum in February 1990.[2] It is the fourth novel set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea, published almost twenty years after the first three Earthsea novels (1968–1972), and not the last, despite its original subtitle.[3][4][a]

The novel is viewed as an enlargement of the earlier Earthsea trilogy (marketed for young adults), as Tehanu presents an aging hero and heroine—Ged, a principal character in all three earlier Earthsea novels, and Tenar, the protagonist of the second in the series, The Tombs of Atuan.[5][3] It won the 1990 Nebula Award for Best Novel,[6] and the 1991 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.[7]

Background

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Setting

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As described by the author, Le Guin, in a recorded afterward to the 2016 audiobook version, as Tehanu opens, approximately 25 years have passed since the events at the end of The Tombs of Atuan, "time enough for the girl Tenar to become a widow with grown children"; and "a day or two" have passed since the close of The Farthest Shore and Tehanu's Chapter 4, "Kalessin", "time enough for [that] dragon... to carry Ged from Roke to Gont."[8]

Main characters and earlier novels

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At the opening of the novel the reader is introduced to a character whose relationships to earlier characters in other Earthsea novels is not immediately clear. Eventually an early suggested similarity between the main character, Goha—based on vague historical comments, and her appearance, activities, and relationships (Tehanu, Chapter 1)—and the earlier character Tenar from The Tombs of Atuan is borne out as true,[2] and the novel thus provides information on that persisting character after the end of the earlier novel.[citation needed] Specifically, the novel makes clear that she had rejected the life of an aristocrat in Havnor, and instead decided to reside on Gont.[citation needed] It discloses that she lived with the earlier character, the Archmage Ged's old master, the mage Ogion, and that though fond of him, rejected Ogion's offer to teach her magic.[citation needed] On Gont, she marries the farmer, Flint, who referred to her as Goha, a local word for a "little, white, web-spinning spider" there, as she was small, and fair-skinned, and a good spinner of wool (Tehanu, Chapter 1). Later we will learn that Goha's choice to become a goatherd's wife and mother "was a disappointment to [Archmage] Ged".[3]

Plot

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Goha lives alone because her farmer husband Flint has died, and her two children, Apple and Spark, are grown. A burned child is brought to her at Oak Farm, and she saves her life. The burns leave scarring on the face, and the fingers of one hand have been fused into a claw. Goha adopts her and gives the child the name Therru, which means flame.

Goha learns that Ogion requests her presence at his deathbed in Re Albi. She sets out to visit him with Therru. On the way, she encounters a group of ruffians, one of whom is Handy, who claims to be Therru's uncle. Ogion reveals Goha as Tenar, and he says she must teach Therru. After his death, Tenar stays on at his cottage, assisted by Moss, a local witch, and Heather, a simple village girl. Ged (also called Sparrowhawk) arrives on the back of the dragon Kalessin, unconscious and near death, having spent all his wizardly powers in sealing the gap between the worlds of the living and the dead created by the evil sorceror Cob. Tenar nurses Ged back to health, but when the new king Lebannen sends envoys to bring him back to Havnor for the coronation, Ged cannot face them. He accepts Tenar's offer to return to Oak Farm to manage things there in her absence and once more takes up life as a goatherd. While at Re Albi, Tenar is confronted by the local lord's wicked mage, Aspen, who attempts to put a curse on her, but is thwarted.

Tenar informs the king's men that she cannot reveal Ged's whereabouts, and they accept the situation and depart. Tenar is threatened by both Aspen and Handy, and she flees with Therru. Confused by Aspen's magic, Tenar is almost overtaken by Handy, but escapes to Gont Port, taking refuge in the king's ship. Lebannen takes Tenar and Therru to Valmouth, where Tenar eventually returns to Oak Farm to find that Ged is away tending goats in the mountains for the season. Tenar settles back into life on the farm, until one night when Handy and his men attempt to break into the house. They are driven off by Ged, who nearly kills one of them with a pitchfork. Tenar and Ged begin a relationship, acknowledging that they had always loved each other. Ged wants to settle down and live an ordinary life. Together, they teach and care for Therru and manage the farm. Tenar's son Spark returns home from the sea and demands the farm. Under Gontish law Oak Farm belongs to him.

Tenar receives word that Moss is dying and wants to see her. She, Ged and Therru leave for Re Albi. However, the message was a trap set by Aspen, who reveals himself to be a follower of Cob. Tenar and Ged are led to the lord's mansion controlled by Aspen's magic. Therru runs to the cliff behind Ogion's cottage, where she calls to the dragon Kalessin for help, and reveals her true nature: she is in fact "a double being, half human, half-dragon". Aspen and his followers bring both Tenar and Ged up to the clifftop. Under the influence of Aspen's spell, they are both moving to jump to their deaths when the dragon Kalessin arrives, burning Aspen and his men. Kalessin addresses Therru by her true name Tehanu, calling her its own daughter, and asks her if she would like to leave with it. Tehanu decides to stay with Tenar and Ged. All three settle down to a simple life at Ogion's old cottage.

Major characters

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See also: List of characters in Earthsea
Cover of 1990 edition (hardcover) showing the subtitle The Last Book of Earthsea, which was removed in later editions.

The primary characters of the novel are:[9]

  • Goha, as known by her husband and locals, who is revealed to be Tenar, former priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, and the White Lady of Gont.[2]
  • Ged, also called Sparrowhawk, the Archmage of Roke.
  • Aspen, revealed as Erisen, a twisted mage and follower of Cob.[citation needed]
  • Kalessin, a dragon, the eldest.
  • Therru, a burned child, revealed as Tehanu, and a woman-dragon.[citation needed]

Focus, pacing, style, and interpretation

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The initial trilogy focuses on the character and quests of Ged, with Tenar introduced as the central character of the second book.[citation needed] Writing for Reactor Magazine, Jo Walton writes that Tehanu is "a restless book with very strange pacing",[10] and the novel's mood is darker and more introspective.[citation needed] The style of Tehanu differs from the initial Earthsea trilogy;[according to whom?] whereas the trilogy was written around classic fantasy tropes of perilous quests, heroic actions, and larger-than-human forces, Tehanu focuses on social interaction and emotional resonance.[according to whom?]

Tehanu uses the lens of everyday events and a strong anti-patriarchal viewpoint to not only explore the future of the two recurring characters—and of Earthsea itself—but to reinterpret them.[according to whom?] In an analysis from a doctoral dissertation chapter—that Le Guin featured on her webpage—Sharada Bhanu argues that Tehanu, the fourth Earthsea volume, functions with Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind as a subsequent trilogy,

different in many ways from the first. Sexual experience... finds place in the second... [While] the first three featur[e] an adolescent coming of age... [Teanu features] middle-aged protagonists... [and the fact that they and the] one silent child [are] observed till almost the end of the novel from the outside, constitute a change of focus and provide a different emotional tone.[11]

Bhanu goes on to note that

[t]he second trilogy enlarges, interrogates and deconstructs the first [and that] ...the text has emerged from... a changed cultural ethos, in particular the feminist movement. 'Weak as women’s magic; wicked as women’s magic' goes a saying in Earthsea, [and] the school of Roke admits no women. ... Tehanu redresses the balance by presenting a woman’s world, interests, magic and problems, through the perspective of Tenar... now a middle aged widow. Women of various ages and professions are pictured, all portraits... sympathetic. The men on the other hand seem weak and limited in vision even when well meaning, [and] misogynistic, depraved and vicious when given up to... evil...[11]

Reception

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Michael Dirda, writing for The Washington Post, notes that Tehanu "reveal[s] what happened to [the series'] hero and heroine in old age", and with its emphasis on these aging, earlier novel protagonists is thus an enlargement of the earlier Earthsea trilogy (which was largely just marketed for young adults).[5] Kirkus Reviews comments that "Yes, there are dragons; but the human story and its meaning are primary here. Unlike Ged's, Le Guin's power is undiminished." The review notes that Ged and Tenar are "past middle age", reflecting the slower action, but "even young readers will be beguiled by the flawless, poetic prose, the philosophy expressed in thoughtful, potent metaphor, and the consummately imagined world".[2] The Science Fiction Review summarized the novel as "Great things happen to great people, whatever their station in life, and wherever they may be. An excellent story and a fine capstone to Earthsea."[12]

Tehanu won the 1990 Nebula Award; this made Le Guin the first person to win three Nebula Awards for Best Novel.[13][b] It also won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and was nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award.[15]

Publication history

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  • Le Guin, Ursula K. (1990). Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea. Earthsea cycle. Vol. 4. New York, NY: Atheneum (Simon & Schuster). ISBN 0689315953. Retrieved November 30, 2024.
  • Le Guin, Ursula K. (author, narrator) & Sterlin, Jenny (narrator) (2016). Tehanu: The Earthsea Cycle, Book Four (audiobook). unabridged ed. Landover, MD: Recorded Books—RBmedia. ASIN B01G9EP4ZQ. Retrieved 4 December 2024. Includes extensive interpretive and explanatory material composed and read by Le Guin, entitled "An Afterward From the Author".

Notes

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  1. ^ Two short stories set in Earthsea preceded the trilogy. A fifth novel and a collection of stories and essays were published about ten years after Tehanu. See Earthsea Cycle series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.[non-primary source needed]
  2. ^ Joe Haldeman would go on to equal this number in 2006, winning his third Nebula for Camouflage. Three years later, Le Guin received a fourth Nebula for Powers. As of 2021, she holds the record for the most Best Novel Nebulas.[13][14]

References

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  1. ^ Le Guin, Ursula K. (October 10, 2010). Ursula K. Le Guin reads from "The Wizard of Earthsea" (Reading). Washington Center for the Performing Arts: Timberland Regional Library. Event occurs at 1:05:45. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kirkus Staff (January 15, 1990). "Tehanu, The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin" (review). Retrieved November 30, 2024. Tenar (the young priestess of The Tombs of Atuan...), now the widow of Farmer Flint, adopts a young child (Therru) who has been viciously abused and maimed by her own parents.
  3. ^ a b c Guynes, Sean (February 24, 2021). "Tehanu: Le Guin's Return to Earthsea—and Her Best Novel". ReactorMag.com. London, England: Holtzbrinck-Macmillan. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
  4. ^ Tehanu title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB).
  5. ^ a b Dirda, Michael (December 6, 2017). "What We Can Learn From Two Literary Masters: Ursula K. Le Guin and James Salter". The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 November 2024. Note, Dirda does not explicitly mention characters Ged and Tenar.
  6. ^ "1990 Nebula Awards". The Nebula Awards. Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  7. ^ "Locus Awards 1991". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  8. ^ Le Guin, Ursula K. (author, narrator) & Sterlin, Jenny (narrator) (May 31, 2016). Tehanu: The Earthsea Cycle, Book Four (audiobook). unabridged ed. Landover, MD: Recorded Books—RBmedia. Event occurs at 0:00-0:26 (of afterward). ASIN B01G9EP4ZQ. Retrieved 4 December 2024. Between the last chapter of The Tombs of Atuan and the first chapter of Tehanu, twenty-five years or so pass, time enough for the girl Tenar to become a widow with grown children. Between the last chapter of The Farthest Shore and the fourth chapter of Tehanu, a day or two passes, time enough for the dragon Kalessin to carry Ged from Roke to Gont.
  9. ^ Petty, Anne C. Dragons of Fantasy: The Scaly Villains & Heroes of Tolkien, Rowling, McCaffrey, Pratchett & Other Fantasy Greats, (Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Press, 2004)
  10. ^ Walton, Jo (February 1, 2010). "A Woman on Gont: Ursula Le Guin's Tehanu". ReactorMag.com. London, England: Holtzbrinck-Macmillan. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
  11. ^ a b Bhanu, Sharada (2007). "Tehanu: A Return to the Source". Not Two: An Indian Perspective on Western Fantasy Fiction for Children (PhD thesis). Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India: Stella Maris College-Madras University. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11 – via ursulakleguin.com.
  12. ^ "Science Fiction Review: Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea". Science Fiction Review. 1 (2): 75. Summer 1990.
  13. ^ a b "Nebula Awards Winners By Category". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  14. ^ Troughton, R. K. (May 14, 2014). "Nebula Awards by the Numbers". Amazing Stories. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
  15. ^ "Ursula K. Le Guin Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database. Locus Science Fiction Foundation. Retrieved August 19, 2021.

Further reading

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Books

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Book Chapters, reviews, articles

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