The Tombs of Atuan

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender-based discrimination, religious discrimination/trauma, and death.

Tenar is the protagonist and heroine of the novel. Though her true name is Tenar, part of her role as the One Priestess of the Tombs requires that her name be “eaten,” and thus she becomes Arha, the Eaten One. Even after Ged reveals her true name when she is 15, at the end of Chapter 7, the narrator still refers to her as Arha. She does not truly become Tenar again until she and Ged escape the Tombs and head into the desert in Chapter 11.

Tenar was taken from her family at the age of five, when the priestesses determined that she was the One Priestess reborn. After she is taken, Tenar lives in the Place of the Tombs, among other young girls until she officially takes her place as the One Priestess and lives in the Small House by herself. She does not recall her family, except for vague memories of gold hair in firelight. Tenar has fair skin and black hair, and dresses in the black robes befitting her status. The loss of her name and family in favor of a life of blind faith and isolation under an imposed name suggests that