Reading Order
Tehanu Reading Order
Tehanu (1990) by Ursula K. Le Guin is the fourth volume of the Earthsea Cycle and Le Guin's feminist return to Earthsea after 18 years — a deliberate reconsideration of the assumptions she had built into the first three Earthsea books, and a portrait of ordinary life (rather than heroic quest) in a secondary world. Tenar, now a middle-aged farmer and widow living on Gont, takes in Tehanu, a girl who has been horrifically abused and burnt by a group of men. Then Ged returns to Gont, powerless — his magic used up in the events of The Farthest Shore — and Tenar must care for both the damaged child and the damaged wizard. Tehanu is formally unusual for the Earthsea series: it is quiet, domestic, and centered on a woman's daily life rather than a young man's quest. Le Guin wrote it explicitly to correct what she saw as the gender imbalance of the first three books — the Earthsea of A Wizard of Earthsea was largely male, the wizards were men, and the heroic quest narrative was masculine. Tehanu asks: what is the Earthsea of the people left out of those stories? What is life like for the women, the farmers, the old, the abused? Le Guin's answer is a novel that is both an extraordinary piece of literary fantasy and a sustained feminist argument about whose stories get told as heroic.
Where to start
Tehanu — best read after The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore; it continues Tenar's story and Ged's story after the events of both. The quiet domestic register is very different from the first three books — this is intentional.
Complete Tehanu Book List
- 1Buy
Tehanu
Ursula K. Le Guin·1990·The novel — Tenar as middle-aged farmer, Tehanu the abused girl, Ged returned powerless; Le Guin's feminist return to Earthsea, reconsidering the trilogy's masculine assumptions; Nebula Award winner. - 2Buy
The Tombs of Atuan
Ursula K. Le Guin·1971·The Earthsea Cycle's second volume and the essential predecessor to Tehanu — Tenar's first story, her formation in the Tombs, and her escape; understanding Tenar's history deepens everything in Tehanu. - 3Buy
The Farthest Shore
Ursula K. Le Guin·1972·The Earthsea Cycle's third volume — Ged's last quest; his loss of power in The Farthest Shore is what brings him to Gont powerless in Tehanu; the predecessor essential to understanding Ged's condition in the fourth book. - 4Buy
Tales from Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin·2001·Le Guin's Earthsea story collection — five stories set throughout Earthsea's history; the companion for readers who want to understand the Earthsea world more fully before or after Tehanu. - 5Buy
The Other Wind
Ursula K. Le Guin·2001·The Earthsea Cycle's fifth and final novel — the companion to Tehanu and the resolution of the land of the dead question that runs through the later Earthsea books; published simultaneously with Tales from Earthsea. - 6Buy
A Wizard of Earthsea
Ursula K. Le Guin·1968·The Earthsea Cycle's first volume — the origin of Ged's story and the masculine heroic quest model that Tehanu is deliberately contrasting with; understanding what Le Guin is critiquing makes Tehanu's choices more visible. - 7Buy
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin·1969·Le Guin's Hugo-winning Hainish SF — the companion in Le Guin's feminist speculative fiction; The Left Hand of Darkness examines gender from the outside (Genly Ai confronting Gethen), where Tehanu examines gender from the inside (Tenar living within Earthsea's patriarchy). - 8Buy
His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman·1995·Pullman's trilogy opener — the companion in fantasy that revisits the heroic quest model from a perspective that centers women and children; Lyra's story is the most important successor to the kind of fantasy re-centering that Tehanu performs.
Tehanu — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Tehanu about?
Tehanu takes place after the events of The Farthest Shore — Tenar (now an older woman who has spent most of her adult life as a farmer on Gont, widow of a man named Flint, mother of children who have grown up) takes in a small girl named Tehanu, who has been horribly burnt and abused by a group of men (including her own father). Tenar raises Tehanu on her farm. Then Ged returns to Gont — having lost all his magical power in the events of The Farthest Shore — and Tenar must care for both the damaged child and the former Archmage of Earthsea who is now just a man. The novel is centered on this domestic situation: Tenar caring for the powerless, on the margins of the Earthsea world, while larger political events (a new Archmage must be chosen) happen elsewhere.
Why is Tehanu so different from the first three Earthsea books?
Le Guin wrote Tehanu explicitly to correct what she described as the gender imbalance and the masculine assumptions of the first three Earthsea books. She had noticed, 18 years after The Farthest Shore, that the Earthsea she had built was largely male — the wizards were men, the heroic quests were undertaken by young men, the central narrative was masculine coming-of-age and achievement. Tehanu is deliberately quiet, domestic, and centered on a middle-aged woman's daily life. It asks: what is Earthsea like for Tenar, for Tehanu, for the women who are not at the center of the heroic stories? Le Guin has said that writing Tehanu changed her understanding of what she had built in Earthsea, and that the later Earthsea books (Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind) are written from the new perspective Tehanu made possible.
Who is Tehanu the character and why is she important?
Tehanu is a girl of about 8 or 9 when she appears in the novel, who has been brutally abused and burnt by a group of men (including her father) and left for dead. She is rescued and brought to Tenar, who takes her in and raises her. Tehanu is badly disfigured and fearful, but she has a capacity that eventually becomes central to the later Earthsea books: she is a dragon-child, able to communicate with dragons and eventually to transform. The revelation of Tehanu's nature is held back for most of the novel, during which she is simply a damaged child being cared for by a woman who has been through her own formation by violence. Le Guin uses Tehanu to examine what it means to survive great harm, and what kind of strength can emerge from damage.
Is Tehanu a sequel to The Tombs of Atuan?
Tehanu is more precisely a sequel to both The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore — it continues both Tenar's story (from Tombs) and Ged's story (from Farthest Shore). Tenar has lived a life between the two books: she has been a farmer, a wife, a mother; her children are grown; her husband has died. Ged has given up his power in the events of The Farthest Shore and returned to Gont powerless. The novel is about what these two people are to each other now — no longer the young girl and the young wizard of the Tombs, but two older people each negotiating a loss (Tenar's loss of her original identity in the Tombs; Ged's loss of his power). It can be read without the first three books, but the emotional weight of both protagonists' histories significantly deepens the novel.
What should I read after Tehanu?
After Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind (both 2001) are the natural next steps — the story collection and the fifth novel complete Le Guin's return to Earthsea. For Le Guin's SF, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed are the most important companions. For fantasy that continues the kind of work Tehanu does — centering women's experience, examining the costs of heroic narratives, taking seriously domestic life in secondary worlds — Robin McKinley's Beauty (1978) and Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy (1976) are important contemporary comparisons. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is the most important later fantasy that centers on a girl's story.
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