Tehanu , initially subtitled The Last Book of Earthsea, is a fantasy novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in February 1990 by Atheneum.<!--

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.<!--

Book

Plot

Goha lives alone on Gont because her farmer husband Flint has died, and her two children, Apple and Spark, have grown up. A burned child is brought to her at Oak Farm, and she saves her life. The burns leave scarring on the child's 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 the mage 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 sorcerer 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 a few other men attempt to break into the house. They are driven off by Tenar and Ged, and the latter 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, demanding and getting the farm, as under Gontish law, it 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 the evil 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 "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 Kalessin arrives, burning Aspen and his men to ash. Kalessin addresses Therru by her true name Tehanu, calling her daughter, and asks if she would like to leave. Tehanu decides to stay with Tenar and Ged; they settle down to a simple life at Ogion's old cottage.

Major characters

thumb|upright|Cover of 2012 edition (hardcover) with corrected title.

The primary characters of the novel are:

  • Goha, as known by her husband and locals, revealed to be Tenar, former priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, and the White Lady of Gont<!--
  • and simultaneously Gollancz in London. Bantam Books reprinted the book in paperback.
  • Includes extensive interpretative and explanatory material composed and read by Le Guin, entitled "An Afterward From the Author".

The book has been reprinted many times, including in collections of the Earthsea series or "Earthsea Cycle" by publishers and imprints including Atheneum, Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, Simon Pulse, and Penguin Books.

Reception

Michael Dirda, writing for The Washington Post, writes that after the "honored and loved" Earthsea trilogy of "deeply imagined" and "finely wrought" books marketed as young-adult novels, Tehanu is "less sheerly exciting" but perhaps "the most moving" as it examines how Ged and Tenar address their own old age.

Dirda 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 marketed for young adults).

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." It 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". The Science Fiction Review summarizes 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."

Analysis

thumb|left|upright=0.8|Richard D. Erlich describes the book as being [[Liminality|liminal, like the Roman god Janus the doorkeeper, looking both backward (to male-oriented fantasy) and forward (to feminist analysis).]]

The initial trilogy focuses on the character and quests of Ged, with Tenar as the central character of the second book. Sean Guynes, in Reactor Magazine, calls Tehanu Le Guin's best novel. Also in Reactor Magazine, Jo Walton finds Tehanu "problematic", writing that it is "a restless book with very strange pacing",

In an analysis from her doctoral dissertation – that Le Guin featured on her webpage – Sharada Bhanu argues that Tehanu functions with Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind as a second trilogy, unlike the first.

thumb|upright|Ursula Le Guin's [[feminism as seen in Tehanu has been contrasted with that of Simone De Beauvoir (pictured). ]]

The literary scholar Richard D. Erlich devotes an entire chapter, "Earthsea Revisited", of his book Coyote's Song (on Le Guin's teaching stories) to Tehanu: it is the only Earthsea book to receive this treatment. Most of this is an annotated summary of the plot, the notes drawing out literary and philosophical connections with her other works, and with those of other authors including Rilke's Duino Elegies, Shakespeare's Macbeth and King Lear, and the Tao te Ching. Erlich writes that Le Guin and critics agree that Tehanu is "Le Guin's revising and revisioning of Earthsea". A major strand of this consists of putting her "Is Gender Necessary? Redux" into a fiction presentation.<!--https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-is-gender-necessary-redux--> Ehrlich argues that the book has a Janus-like aspect, facing both back to her earlier, more male-oriented books, and forwards to feminist writings. He finds this "decorous" for a story which combines emphasis on faces that have one side scarred – both Therru/Tehanu and Sparrowhawk/Ged – and "so much stress on doorways and liminality", attention to in-between space. Erlich concludes the chapter by stating that it is "unquestionably feminist and highly interesting" that Tehanu completes the logical arc from The Tombs of Atuan and other stories towards having "definitely a female protagonist"; and by saying that Tehanu is "an open-ended work" which he (successfully this made Le Guin the first person to win three Nebula Awards for Best Novel. The book won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and was nominated for both the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and the Homer Award.

See also

  • Tales from Earthsea, including "Dragonfly", a postscript to Tehanu

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Wikiquote
  • Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea at Worlds Without End