The Tombs

The Tombs of Atuan, also called the nine standing stones, are the most ancient and sacred site in the Kargad Empire. They are older than the Godkings, older than the Twin Gods, older than light itself, having been planted in the darkness when the lands were raised up from the ocean's depths. They are the tombs of those who ruled before the world of men came to be, the ones not named, and she who served them had no name. The Tombs are the central, defining location of the cult of the Nameless Ones, and the entire Place of the Tombs of Atuan is built around them.

Location and Description

The Tombs stand on the crest of the Hill of the Place, inside a massive loop of rock wall laid without mortar, which is itself behind the huge, low Hall of the Throne. The wall is half fallen down in many places. Within this enclosure, nine black stones, each eighteen to twenty feet high, stick up out of the earth like huge fingers. One stands straight; the others lean more or less, and two have fallen. They are crusted with grey and orange lichen, as if splotched with paint, all but one, which is naked and black with a dull gloss. On the others, under the crust of lichen, vague carvings and signs can be seen or felt with the fingers. The Tombs are a dreary place, cold even in the heat of noon in the desert summer, and sometimes the wind whistles a little between the two stones that stand closest together, leaning together as if telling secrets, but no secret is told.

Sacred Role and Rituals

The Tombs are the dwelling place of the Nameless Ones, the powers that ruled before the world of men. The One Priestess, who is nameless and called the Eaten One, is their sole servant. Twice a year, at the full moon nearest the equinox of spring and of autumn, a sacrifice is performed before the Throne. The Priestess comes out from the low back door of the Hall carrying a great brass basin full of smoking goat's blood, which she must pour out, half at the foot of the standing black stone, half over one of the fallen stones, which are stained by the blood-offering of centuries. No one else ever sets foot on that ground where the Tombs stand. The Godking himself, even he, could not enter among the Tombstones.

Narrative Significance

The Tombs are the ultimate destination of the quest for the Ring of Erreth-Akbe, which Ged undertakes years after his first great deed. The broken ring given to Ged by the old woman on the nameless isle, a half-circle of a broken ring, is a fragment of that ring, and its discovery sets the stage for the later journey to the Kargad Lands and the Tombs of Atuan. The Tombs represent the oldest, most alien, and most powerful of the Old Powers of Earth, a place where the rules of the Archipelago do not apply, and where the shadow that Ged loosed might have found a different kind of power. The Tombs are a place of absolute darkness and silence, a counterpoint to the light and balance of the Archipelago, and a reminder that the world is older and stranger than the wizards of Roke know.