The Tombs of Atuan
core novel 1971 Earthsea Cycle
Record
| First published | 1971 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.14 (141,582 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 180 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780689206801 |
Synopsis
The Tombs of Atuan follows Tenar, a young girl of the Kargish empire taken from her family as a child to serve as high priestess of the Tombs of Atuan, a place of profound isolation devoted to dark spiritual entities called the Nameless Ones. Raised within the temple's rigid rites and cut off from ordinary life, she knows almost nothing of the world beyond its walls. Her sheltered existence is disrupted when the wizard Ged arrives seeking to steal half of a sacred talisman, the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, buried somewhere within the temple's dark labyrinth of tunnels, which Tenar alone can navigate. As she is forced into close, unwilling contact with the intruder she is supposed to destroy, Tenar must decide whether to uphold the role and beliefs she has been raised in or to question everything she has been taught about her purpose and her gods.
Where it sits
- Universe: Earthsea Cycle
- Series: Earthsea Cycle core; position 2 of 6 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Awards (verified)
- National Book Award (Children's Books), 1972: finalist
- Newbery Medal (Honor Book), 1972: honor
Notes
- First appeared in Worlds of Fantasy magazine, Winter 1970; first book edition Atheneum 1971.
- From the series record (Earthsea Cycle): Six-book cycle (5 novels + 1 collection), 1968-2001.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Earthsea Cycle: position 2 of 6: previous A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) · next The Farthest Shore (1972)
Sources
← Earthsea Cycle dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.