The Tombs of Atuan

The first prominent motif of the novel is the contrast between dark and light that recurs throughout. Images of dark and light abound, beginning in the prologue and becoming more pronounced when Tenar enters the Undertomb, which she describes as the “home of darkness the inmost center of the night” (30). Tenar’s experiences highlight the powers of the dark. The gods she worships, the Nameless Ones, are gods of shadow, darkness, and death. As their high priestess, Tenar is the mistress of the silence and the dark, as Manan calls her, and having been raised in this environment, Tenar believes that the dark and silence of death is the only “true thing” (87). And yet, from the first page, the narrative makes it apparent that Tenar is caught between dark and light, which symbolizes her internal conflict between freedom and oppression. From the first moment she enters the Undertomb, though she is supposedly the mistress of the dark, she yearns for light in the oppressive space. When Ged appears in the cavern with the light from his staff, Tenar is torn between horror at such defilement and wonder at seeing the beauty of the cavern for the first time.