Władysław Sikorski

Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski (; 20 May 1881 – 4 July 1943) was a Polish military and political leader.

Prior to the First World War, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause for Polish independence. He fought with distinction in the Polish Legions during the First World War, and later in the newly created Polish Army during the Polish–Soviet War of 1919 to 1921. In that war, he played a prominent role in the decisive Battle of Warsaw (1920). In the early years of the Second Polish Republic, Sikorski held government posts, including serving as prime minister (1922 to 1923) and as minister of military affairs (1923 to 1924). Following Józef Piłsudski's May Coup of 1926 and the installation of the Sanation government, he fell out of favor with the new régime.

During the Second World War, Sikorski became prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile, Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Armed Forces, and a vigorous advocate of the Polish cause in the diplomatic sphere. He supported the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been severed after the Soviet pact with Germany and the 1939 invasion of Poland—however, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin broke off Soviet-Polish diplomatic relations in April 1943 following Sikorski's request that the International Red Cross investigate the Katyń Forest massacre.

In July 1943, a plane carrying Sikorski plunged into the sea immediately after takeoff from Gibraltar, killing all on board except the pilot. The exact circumstances of Sikorski's death have been disputed and have given rise to a number of different theories surrounding the crash and his death. Sikorski had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles, and his death was a severe setback for the Polish cause.

## Early life and First World War

Sikorski was born in Tuszów Narodowy, Galicia, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the third child in his family; his father was Tomasz Sikorski, a school teacher; his mother was Emilia Habrowska. His grandfather, Tomasz Kopaszyna Sikorski, had fought and been wounded at the Battle of Olszynka Grochowska in the November Uprising, during which he received the Virtuti Militari medal.

Sikorski attended the gimnazjum in Rzeszów (now Konarski's High School in Rzeszów) from 1893 to 1897, then transferred for a year to a Rzeszów teachers' college. In 1899 he attended the Lwów Franciszek Józef Gymnasium, and in 1902 he passed his final high school exam there. Starting that year, young Sikorski studied engineering at the Lwów Polytechnic, specializing in road and bridge construction, and graduated in 1908 with a diploma in hydraulic engineering. In 1906 Sikorski volunteered for a year's service in the Austro-Hungarian army and attended the Austrian Military School, obtaining an officer's diploma and becoming an army reserve second lieutenant (podporucznik rezerwy). In 1909 he married , whom he met while at the high school in Lwów. In 1912 they had a daughter, Zofia. After graduation he lived in Leżajsk and worked for the Galician administration's hydraulic engineering department, working on the regulation of the San river, and later was involved in private enterprises related to construction, real estate and the petroleum trade.

During his studies at the Polytechnic, Sikorski became involved in the People's School Association (Towarzystwo Szkoły Ludowej), an organization dedicated to spreading literacy among the rural populace. Around 1904–1905 he was briefly involved with the endecja Association of the Polish Youth "Zet", and then drifted towards paramilitary socialist organizations related to the Polish Socialist Party, which was intent on securing Polish independence. He made contact with the socialist movement around 1905–1906 through the Union for the Resurrection of the Polish Nation (Związek Odrodzenia Narodu Polskiego). In 1908, in Lwów, Sikorski—together with Józef Piłsudski, Marian Kukiel, Walery Sławek, Kazimierz Sosnkowski, Witold Jodko-Narkiewicz [pl] and Henryk Minkiewicz—organized the secret Union for Active Struggle (Związek Walki Czynnej), with the aim of bringing about an uprising against the Russian Empire, one of Poland's three partitioners. In 1910, likewise in Lwów, Sikorski helped to organize a Riflemen's Association (the Związek Strzelecki), became the president of its Lwów chapter, and became responsible for the military arm within the Commission of Confederated Independence Parties (Komisja Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych, KSSN). Having a military education, he lectured other activists on military tactics.

Upon the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914, Sikorski was mobilized, but through KSSN influence he was allowed to participate in the organizing of the Polish military units, rather than being delegated to other duties by the Austro-Hungarian military command. In the first few weeks of the war he became the chief of the Military Department in the Supreme National Committee (Naczelny Komitet Narodowy, NKN) and remained in this post until 1916. He was a commissioner in charge of the recruitment to the Polish Legions in Kraków, choosing this role over the opportunity to serve in the Legions as a frontline commander. On 30 September 1914 he was promoted to podpułkownik (lieutenant colonel), and soon after that he became the commander of a Legions officer school (Szkoła Podchorążych). The Legions—the army created by Józef Piłsudski to liberate Poland from Russian and, ultimately, Austro-Hungarian and German rule—initially fought in alliance with Austria-Hungary against Russia. From August 1915 there was growing tension between Sikorski, who advocated cooperation with Austria-Hungary, and Piłsudski, who felt that Austria-Hungary and Germany had betrayed the trust of the Polish people. In 1916 Piłsudski actively campaigned to have the Military Department of NKN disbanded. In July that year, Sikorski was promoted to pułkownik (colonel). Following the Act of 5th November (1916), Sikorski became involved with the Legions' alternatives, the Polish Auxiliary Corps and Polnische Wehrmacht. In June 1917 Piłsudski refused Austro-Hungarian orders to swear loyalty to the Habsburg Emperor (the "oath crisis") and was interned at the fortress of Magdeburg, while Sikorski abandoned Polnische Wehrmacht and returned to the Austro-Hungarian Army. In 1918, however, following the February Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the battle of Rarańcza, Sikorski chose belatedly to side with Piłsudski, announcing solidarity with his actions, protesting against the planned separation of Chełm Land from the planned Polish state, and thus soon joined Piłsudski in internment (he would be held in Dulfalva (Dulovo)). Nonetheless, this was not enough to smooth the differences between him and Piłsudski, and these two major Polish leaders would drift farther apart in the continuing years.

## War with the Bolsheviks

### Polish–Ukrainian war

In 1918 the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German empires collapsed, and Poland once again became independent, but the borders of the Second Polish Republic were not fully determined and were unstable. In the east they would be formed in the escalating conflicts among Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Soviet forces in what culminated in the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). Winston Churchill commented: "The war of giants has ended, the wars of the pygmies began." Bolshevik leaders saw Poland as a bridge that the communist revolution would have to force to bring communism to the West, and Poland's very existence would soon be at stake.

### Polish–Soviet war

After his release from internment, from 1 May 1918 Sikorski worked for the Regency Council, organizing the new Polish Army. He was soon at the frontlines again, this time in the Polish–Ukrainian War, where troops under his command secured and defended Przemyśl in October–November 1918.

Polish independence came in November 1918 with the formation of the Second Republic of Poland. In the course of the Polish–Ukrainian War, and in the opening phase of the Polish–Soviet War, Sikorski, now a high-ranking officer of the Polish Army was involved in further operations in the Galicia region. In January 1919 he commanded troops defending Gródek Jagielloński; in March that year he commanded an infantry division, advancing to Stawczany and Zbrucz. From 1 August 1918 Sikorski commanded the Polesie Group, and the Polish 9th Infantry Division. In order to curtail excesses of the forces under his command, he oversaw trials of 36 officers. His forces took Mozyr and Kalenkowicze in March 1920, and he would command the Polesie Group during Poland's Kiev offensive in April 1920, advancing to the Dnieper River and the Chernobyl region. On 1 April that year he was promoted to brigade general.

As the Polish–Soviet War grew in intensity, in late April 1920 the Red Army of Russia's new Soviet regime pushed back Polish forces and invaded Poland. Subsequently, Sikorski successfully defended Mozyr and Kalenkowicze until 29 June, but later failed to hold the Brest fortress, although he defended it long enough to allow the Polish forces in the region to retreat in an orderly manner. On 6 August he was named the commander of the newly formed Polish 5th Army, which was tasked with holding the front to the north of Modlin, between Narew and Wkra rivers. He distinguished himself commanding the 5th Army on the Lower Vistula front during the Battle of Warsaw. At that time Soviet forces, expecting an easy final victory, were surprised and crippled by the Polish counter-attack. During that battle (sometimes referred to as "the Miracle at the Vistula") Sikorski stopped the Bolshevik advance north of Warsaw and gave Piłsudski, the Polish commander-in-chief, the time he needed for his counter-offensive; beginning with the 15 August his forces successfully engaged the Soviet 5th and 15th Armies. After the Battle of Warsaw, from 30 August, Sikorski commanded the 3rd Army. His forces took Pińsk, and fought during the latter stages of the Battle of Lwów and the Battle of Zamość, and then after Battle of Niemen advanced with his forces toward Latvia and deep into Belarus. The Poles defeated the Soviets, and the Polish–Soviet Treaty of Riga (March 1921) gave Poland substantial areas of Belarus and Ukraine's (Kresy). Sikorski's fame was enhanced as he became known to the Polish public as one of the heroes of the Polish–Soviet War. He also kept publishing military science articles during the war itself. For his valorous achievements Sikorski was promoted to divisional general on 28 February 1921, and was awarded Poland's highest military decoration, the order of Virtuti Militari, on 15 March that year.

## In government and in opposition

Despite their differences, Piłsudski praised Sikorski in his reports, recommending him for Chief of the General Staff and minister of war positions; only generals Kazimierz Sosnkowski and Edward Rydz-Śmigły received better evaluations from him. Sikorski was popular among many soldiers, and in politics, particularly appealing to Polish conservatives and liberals. On 1 April 1921 Sikorski replaced general Tadeusz Jordan-Rozwadowski as the chief of the Polish General Staff. Between 1922 and 1925 he held a number of high government offices. Based on his analysis, the Polish Council of Ministers adopted new foreign policy that would remain roughly unchanged until the late 1930s (preserving the status quo in Europe, and treating Germany and Russia as equal sources of potential threat). On 12 December 1922 he issued a general order, stressing the need for the military to stay out of politics. After the assassination of President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz on 16 December 1922, the Marshal of the Sejm (Sejm being the Polish parliament), Maciej Rataj, appointed Sikorski prime minister. From 18 December 1922, to 26 May 1923, Sikorski served as prime minister and also as minister of internal sffairs, and was even considered as possible president. During his brief tenure as prime minister, he became popular with the Polish public and carried out essential reforms in addition to guiding the country's foreign policy in a direction that gained the approval and cooperation of the League of Nations and tightened Polish-French cooperation. He obtained recognition of Poland's eastern frontiers from the UK, France and the United States during the Conference of Ambassadors on 15 March 1923 He aided Treasury Minister Władysław Grabski's reforms aiming at curtailing inflation and reforming the currency and supported ethnic minorities. His government nonetheless lost support in the Sejm and resigned on 26 May 1923.

From 30 September 1923 to 1924 he held the post of chief inspector of infantry (Generalny Inspektor Piechoty). From 17 February 1924 to 1925, under Prime Minister Grabski, he was minister of military affairs and guided the modernization of the Polish military; he also created the Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza. He worked actively to promote the cause of the Polish-French military alliance. His proposal to increase the powers of the minister of military affairs while reducing those of the Chief Inspector of the Armed Forces met with sharp disapproval from Piłsudski, who at that time was gathering many opponents of the current government. From 1925 to 1928 Sikorski commanded Military Corps District (Okręg Korpusu) VI in Lwów.

A democrat and supporter of the Sejm, Sikorski declared his opposition to Józef Piłsudski's May coup d'état in 1926; however he remained in Lwów, refused to dispatch his forces, and played no significant role in the short struggle surrounding the coup. In 1928 he was relieved by Piłsudski of his command, and while he remained on active service, he received no other posting. That year also saw the publication of his book on the Polish–Soviet War, Nad Wisłą i Wkrą. Studium do polsko–radzieckiej wojny 1920 roku (At the Vistula and the Wkra Rivers: a Contribution to the Study of the Polish–Soviet War of 1920). He would spend the following years studying military theory, publishing works on military theory, history and foreign policy. His most famous work was his 1934 book Przyszła wojna – jej możliwości i charakter oraz związane z nimi zagadnienia obrony kraju (lit. War in the Future: Its Capacities and Character and Associated Questions of National Defense, published in English in as Modern warfare. Its character, its problems in 1943), in which he predicted the return of the maneuver warfare. He wrote several other books and many articles, foreseeing, among other things, the rapid militarization of Germany.

In due course, soon after he was relieved of his command, and as a semi-dictatorial Sanacja regime was established, Sikorski joined the anti-Piłsudski opposition. Sikorski largely withdrew from politics, spending much of his time in Paris, France, and working with the French Ecole Superieure de Guerre (war college). Even after the death of Piłsudski in 1935, he was still marginalized, politically and militarily, by Piłsudski's successors. In February next year, together with several prominent Polish politicians (Wincenty Witos, Ignacy Paderewski, and General Józef Haller) he joined the Front Morges, an anti-Sanacja political grouping.

## Prime Minister in exile

In the days before Poland was invaded by Germany in September 1939, and during the invasion itself, Sikorski's request for a military command continued to be denied by the Polish commander in chief, Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły. Sikorski escaped through Romania to Paris, where on 28 September he joined Władysław Raczkiewicz and Stanisław Mikołajczyk in a Polish government-in-exile, taking command of the newly formed Polish Armed Forces in France. Two days later, on 30 September, president Raczkiewicz called him to serve as the first Polish prime minister in exile. On 7 November he became commander in chief and General Inspector of the Armed Forces (Naczelny Wódz i Generalny Inspektor Sił Zbrojnych), following Rydz-Śmigły's resignation. Sikorski would also hold the position of the Polish Minister of Military Affairs, thus uniting in his person all control over the Polish military in wartime.

During his years as prime minister in exile, Sikorski personified the hopes and dreams of millions of Poles, as reflected in the saying, "When the sun is higher, Sikorski is nearer" (Polish: "Gdy słoneczko wyżej, to Sikorski bliżej"). At the same time, from early on he had to work to reconcile the pro- and anti-Piłsudski's factions.

His government was recognized by the western Allies. Nonetheless, Sikorski's government struggled to get its point of view heard by France and the United Kingdom. The western Allies refused to recognize the Soviet Union as an aggressor, despite the Soviet invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939. Furthermore, he struggled to secure resources needed to recreate the Polish Army in exile.

Poland, even with its territories occupied, still commanded substantial armed forces: the Polish Navy had sailed to Britain, and many thousands of Polish troops had escaped via Romania and Hungary or across the Baltic Sea. Those routes would be used until the end of the war by both interned soldiers and volunteers from Poland, who jocularly called themselves "Sikorski's tourists" and embarked on their dangerous journeys, braving death or imprisonment in concentration camps if caught by the Germans or their allies. With the steady flow of recruits, the new Polish Army was soon reassembled in France and in French-mandated Syria. In addition to that, Poland had a large resistance movement, and Sikorski's policies included founding of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Union of Armed Struggle), later transformed into Armia Krajowa (Home Army), and creation of the Government Delegation for Poland position, to supervise the Polish Underground State in occupied Poland.

In 1940 the Polish Highland Brigade took part in the Battle of Narvik (Norway), and two Polish divisions participated in the defense of France, while a Polish motorized brigade and two infantry divisions were in process of forming. A Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade was created in French-mandated Syria. The Polish Air Force in France had 86 aircraft with one and a half of the squadrons fully operational, and the remaining two and a half in various stages of training. Although many Polish personnel had died in the fighting or had been interned in Switzerland following the fall of France, General Sikorski refused French Marshal Philippe Pétain's proposal of a Polish capitulation to Germany. On 19 June 1940, Sikorski met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and promised that Polish forces would fight alongside the British until final victory. Sikorski and his government moved to London and were able to evacuate many Polish troops to Britain. After the signing of a Polish-British Military Agreement on 5 August 1940, they proceeded to build up and train the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Experienced Polish pilots took part in the Battle of Britain, where the Polish 303 Fighter Squadron achieved the highest number of kills of any Allied squadron. Sikorski's Polish forces would form one of the most significant Allied contingents.

The Fall of France weakened Sikorski's position, and his proposal to consider building a new Polish army in the Soviet-occupied territories led to much criticism from within the Polish community in exile. On 19 July Raczkiewicz dismissed him from his position as the prime minister, replacing him with August Zaleski; however, within days pressure from Sikorski's sympathizers, including the British government, made Raczkiewicz reconsider his decision, and Sikorski was reinstated as the prime minister on 25 July.

One of Sikorski's political goals was the creation of a Central and Eastern European federation, starting with the Polish-Czechoslovakian confederation. He saw such an organization as necessary if smaller states were to stand up to traditional German and Russian imperialism. That concept, although ultimately futile, gained some traction around that time, as Sikorski and Edvard Beneš from the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, signed an agreement declaring the intent to pursue closer cooperation on 10 November that year. On 24 December 1940 Sikorski was promoted to generał broni. In March 1941 he visited the United States; he would visit the US again in March and December 1942.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union ("Operation Barbarossa") in June 1941, Sikorski opened negotiations with the Soviet ambassador to London, Ivan Maisky, to re-establish diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, which had been broken off after the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939. In December that year, Sikorski went to Moscow with a diplomatic mission. The Polish Government reached an agreement with the Soviet Union (the Sikorski-Maisky Pact of 17 August 1941), confirmed by Joseph Stalin in December of that year. Stalin agreed to invalidate the September 1939 Soviet-German partition of Poland, declare the Russo-German Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939 null and void, and release tens of thousands of Polish prisoners-of-war held in Soviet camps. Pursuant to an agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and Stalin, the Soviets granted "amnesty" to many Polish citizens, from whom a new army (the Polish II Corps) was formed under General Władysław Anders and later evacuated to the Middle East, where Britain faced a dire shortage of military forces. The whereabouts of thousands more Polish officers, however, would remain unknown for two more years, and this would weigh heavily on both Polish–Soviet relations and on Sikorski's fate.

Initially, Sikorski supported the Polish–Soviet rapprochement, which reignited criticism of his person from some Polish factions. Nonetheless, Sikorski soon realized that the Soviet Union had plans for Polish territories, which would be unacceptable to Polish public. The Soviets began their diplomatic offensive after their first major military victory in the Battle of Moscow, and intensified this policy after the battle of Stalingrad, showing less and less regard for their deals with Poland. In January 1942 British diplomat Stafford Cripps informed General Sikorski that while Stalin planned to extend Polish borders to the west, by giving Poland Germany's East Prussia, he also wanted to considerably push Poland's eastern frontier westwards, along the lines of the Versailles concept of the Curzon Line, and acquire Lwów and Wilno, if not both. Sikorksi's stance on eastern borders was not inflexible; he noted in some documents that some concessions might be acceptable, however, giving up both Lwów and Wilno was not. Initially he also referred to plans of annexing German land to the Oder as megalomania.

## Katyn revelation and death

In 1943 the fragile relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish government-in-exile finally reached their breaking point when, on 13 April, the Germans announced via the Katyn Commission the discovery of the bodies of 20,000 Polish officers who had been murdered by the Soviets and buried in Katyn Forest, near Smolensk, Russia. Stalin claimed that the atrocity had been carried out by the Germans, while Nazi propaganda orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels successfully exploited the Katyn massacre to drive a wedge between Poland, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Moscow did not acknowledge responsibility for this and similar massacres of Polish officers until 1989.

When Sikorski refused to accept the Soviet explanation and requested an investigation by the International Red Cross on 16 April, the Soviets accused the government-in-exile of cooperating with Nazi Germany and broke off diplomatic relations on 25 April.

Beginning in late May 1943, Sikorski began visiting Polish forces stationed in the Middle East. In addition to inspecting the forces and raising morale, Sikorski was also occupied with political matters; around that time, a conflict was growing between him and General Władysław Anders, as Sikorski was still open to some normalization of Polish–Soviet relations, to which Anders was vehemently opposed. On 4 July 1943, while Sikorski was returning from an inspection of Polish forces deployed in the Middle East, he was killed, together with his daughter, his chief of staff, Tadeusz Klimecki, and seven others, when his plane, a Liberator II, serial AL523, crashed into the sea 16 seconds after takeoff from Gibraltar Airport at 23:07 hours. The crash was attributed to cargo on the plane shifting to the back upon takeoff. Only the pilot, Eduard Prchal (1911–1984), survived the crash. Sikorski was subsequently buried in a brick-lined grave at the Polish War Cemetery in Newark-on-Trent, England on 16 July that year. Winston Churchill delivered a eulogy at his funeral. On 14 September 1993, his remains were exhumed and transferred via Polish Air Force TU-154M, and escorted by RAF 56 Sqn Tornado F3 jets, to the royal crypts at Wawel Castle in Kraków, Poland.

## Aftermath and remembrance

Immediately after the crash, a Polish officer who had witnessed the event from the airstrip began sobbing quietly and repeating: "Now Poland is lost! Now Poland is lost!" ("To Polska stracona!") General Sikorski's death marked a turning point for Polish influence amongst the Anglo-American allies. No Pole after him would have much sway with the Allied politicians. Sikorski had been the most prestigious leader of the Polish exiles and his death was a severe setback for the Polish cause. After the Soviets had broken off diplomatic relations with Sikorski's government in April 1943, in May and June Stalin had recalled several Soviet ambassadors for "consultations": Maxim Litvinov from Washington, Fyodor Gusev from Montreal, and Ivan Maisky from London. While Churchill had been publicly supportive of Sikorski's government, reminding Stalin of his pact with Nazi Germany in 1939 and their joint attack on Poland, in secret consultations with Roosevelt he admitted that some concessions would have to be made by Poland to appease the powerful Soviets. The Polish–Soviet crisis was beginning to threaten cooperation between the western Allies and the Soviet Union at a time when the Poles' importance to the western Allies, essential in the first years of the war, was beginning to fade with the entry into the conflict of the military and industrial giants, the Soviet Union and the United States.

The Allies had no intention of allowing Sikorski's successor, Stanisław Mikołajczyk, to threaten the alliance with the Soviets. No representative of the Polish government was invited to the Tehran Conference ( ) or the Yalta Conference (4–11 February 1945), the two crucial events in which the Western Allies and the Soviet Union discussed the shape of the post-war world and decided on the fate of Poland. Only four months after Sikorski's death, in November 1943, at Tehran, Churchill and Roosevelt agreed with Stalin that the whole of Poland east of the Curzon Line would be ceded to the Soviets. In Teheran, neither Churchill nor Roosevelt objected to Stalin's suggestion that the Polish government in exile in London was not representing Polish interests; as historian Anita Prażmowska noted, "this spelled the end of that government's tenuous influence and raison d'être." After the Teheran Conference, Stalin decided to create his own puppet government for Poland, and a Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) was proclaimed in the summer of 1944. The committee was recognized by the Soviet Government as the only legitimate authority in Poland, while Mikołajczyk's Government in London, was termed by the Soviets an "illegal and self-styled authority." Mikołajczyk would serve in the prime minister's role until 24 November 1944, when, realizing the increasing powerlessness of the government in exile, he resigned and was succeeded by Tomasz Arciszewski, "whose obscurity", in the words of historian Mieczysław B. Biskupski, "signaled the arrival of the government in exile at total inconsequentiality." Stalin soon began a campaign for recognition by the Western Allies of a Soviet-backed Polish government led by Wanda Wasilewska, a dedicated communist with a seat in the Supreme Soviet, with General Zygmunt Berling, commander of the 1st Polish Army in Russia, as commander-in-chief of all Polish Armed Forces. By the time of the Potsdam conference in 1945, Poland has been relegated to the Soviet sphere of influence; an abandonment of the Polish government in exile that has led to the rise of the Western betrayal concept.

A number of poems dedicated to Sikorski were written by Polish authors during the war. In its aftermath, in the People's Republic of Poland, Sikorski's historic role, like that of all the adherents of the London government, would be minimized and distorted by propaganda, and those loyal to the government-in-exile would be liable to imprisonment and even execution. In time, restrictions on discussing Sikorski began to ease; on a centennial anniversary of his birth in 1981, commemorative events were held on the Rzeszów Voivodeship, including an academic conference, and revealing of plaques in Nisko and Leżajsk. Ryszard Zieliński [pl] published a novel on him, Wejście w mrok (1971), and in 1983 a movie, Katastrofa w Gibraltarze by Bohdan Poręba, was made. The Polish government-in-exile, of which Sikorski was the first prime minister, would continue in existence until the end of communist rule in Poland in 1990, when Lech Wałęsa became the first post-communist president of Poland. On 17 September 1993 a statue of Sikorski, sculpted by Wiesław Bielak [pl], was revealed in Rzeszów. In 1995, Sikorski became the patron of the newly formed Polish 9th Mechanized Brigade. In 2003, the Polish parliament (Sejm) declared the year (60th anniversary of Sikorski's death) to be the "Year of General Sikorski". A number of streets and schools in Poland bear Sikorski's name.

Memory of General Sikorski was also preserved both in Poland and abroad, by organizations like the Sikorski Institute in London. In the UK, Sikorski received honoris causa degrees from the University of Liverpool and University of St Andrews. In 1981, a commemorative plaque was revealed at Hotel Rubens in London, where during the war Polish Military Headquarters, including Sikorski's office, were located. He is commemorated in London's Portland Place, near the Embassy of Poland, with a larger than life statue, unveiled in 2000. A propeller from the plane in which he died is the centrepiece of a new memorial to Sikorski at Europa Point, Gibraltar.

## Controversy surrounding his death

A British Court of Inquiry convened on 7 July 1943, investigated the crash of Sikorski's Liberator II serial AL 523, but was unable to determine the cause, finding only that it was an accident and "due to jamming of elevator controls", noting that "it has not been possible to determine how the jamming occurred but it has been established that there was no sabotage.". The Polish government refused to endorse this report, due to the contradiction about the cause not being determined but sabotage being ruled out.

The political context of the event, coupled with a variety of curious circumstances (for instance, the Soviet agent Kim Philby was head of counter-intelligence for MI6 in Gibraltar at the time), immediately gave rise to numerous speculation that Sikorski's death had been no accident, and may have been the direct result of a Soviet, British, or even Polish conspiracy. Some modern sources note that the accident is not fully explained. However, as Roman Wapiński noted in his biographical entry on Sikorski in the Polish Biographical Dictionary in 1997, no conclusive evidence of any wrongdoing has been found, and Sikorski's official cause of death is listed as an accident.

In 2008 Sikorski was exhumed and his remains were examined by Polish scientists, who in 2009 concluded that he died due to injuries consistent with an air crash and that there was no evidence that Sikorski was murdered, ruling out theories that he was shot or strangled before the incident; however they did not rule out the possibility of sabotage, which was investigated by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. In 2013, the investigation ended, with the Institute of National Remembrance concluding that deliberate tampering to the aircraft could be neither confirmed nor ruled out.

## Honours and awards

- Poland:
  - Order of the White Eagle (posthumously in 1943)
  - Commander of the Virtuti Militari (1923)
  - Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari (1921)
  - Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1923)
  - Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1921)
  - Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class (posthumously in 1946 by the State National Council)
  - Cross of Valour, four times
  - Gold Cross of Merit
  - Cross of Independence
  - Cross of Merit of the Central Lithuanian Army
  - Commemorative Medal for the War of 1918–1921
  - Medal of the Decade of Regained Independence
- Other countries:
  - Military Merit Cross (Austria-Hungary)
  - Commemorative Cross of Mobilization 1912–1913 (Austria-Hungary)
  - Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold (Belgium)
  - Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia)
  - Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945 (Czechoslovakia)
  - Czechoslovak War Cross 1918 (Czechoslovakia)
  - Cross of Liberty for Military Leadership (Estonia)
  - Cross of Liberty for Personal Courage (Estonia)
  - Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland (Finland)
  - Commander of the White Rose of Finland (Finland)
  - Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour (France)
  - Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)
  - Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy (Italy)
  - Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd Class, Gold and Silver Star (Japan)
  - Grand Officer of the Order of the Three Stars (Latvia)
  - Grand Cross of the Order of the Aztec Eagle (Mexico)
  - War Cross with Sword (Norway)
  - Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania (Romania)
  - Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (Romania)
  - Commander of the Order of St. Sava (Yugoslavia)
  - Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle (Yugoslavia)

## Works

General Sikorski was also an active writer on the subjects of military tactics and describing his personal war experiences. His works include:

- Regulamin musztry Związku Strzeleckiego i elementarna taktyka piechoty (Drill Regulations of the Riflemen's Association and Basic Infantry Tactics), 1911.
- Nad Wisłą i Wkrą. Studium do polsko–radzieckiej wojny 1920 roku (At the Vistula and the Wkra Rivers: a Contribution to the Study of the Polish–Soviet War of 1920), 1923; latest edition, Warsaw, 1991.
- O polską politykę państwową. Umowy i deklaracje z okresu pełnienia urzędu prezesa Rady Ministrów 18 XII 1922–26 V 1923 (Polish National Policies: Agreements and Declarations from My Tenure as Prime Minister, 18 December 1922 to 26 May 1923), 1923.
- Podstawy organizacji naczelnych władz wojskowych w Polsce (Basic Organization of the Supreme Military Authorities in Poland), 1923.
- Polesie jako węzeł strategiczny wschodniego frontu (Polesie as a Strategic Node of the Eastern Front), 1924.
- La campagne polono-russe de 1920 (French: The Polish-Russian Campaign of 1920), 1928.
- Polska i Francja w przeszłości i w dobie współczesnej (Poland and France in the Past and in the Present Day), 1931.
- Przyszła wojna – jej możliwości i charakter oraz związane z nimi zagadnienia obrony kraju (War in the Future: Its Capacities and Character and Associated Questions of National Defense), 1934; translated into French in 1934, and into in 1943; latest edition Warsaw, MON, 1972.

Some of his works have been collected in:

- Generał Władysław Sikorski: Publicystyka generała Władysława Sikorskiego na łamach Kuriera Warszawskiego w latach 1928–1939 (General Władysław Sikorski: Articles by General Władysław Sikorski in the Warsaw Courier, 1928–1939), Oficyna Wydawnicza Aspra, 1999, .

## See also

- Międzymorze – World War II and since
- Prometheism – Second period (1921–23)

Polish military and political leader (1881–1941)

Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta

Grand Crosses of the Order of Polonia Restituta

Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Romania)

Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion

People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria

People of the Polish May Coup (pro-government side)

Polish military personnel killed in World War II

Polish people of the Polish–Ukrainian War

Recipients of the Cross of Valour (Poland)

Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross

Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland)

Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Grunwald, 1st class

Recipients of the Order of the Crown (Romania)

Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class

Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)

Recipients of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari

Recipients of the War Cross with Sword (Norway)

State leaders killed in aviation accidents or incidents

Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1943

Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Gibraltar


The Tombs of Atuan

The Tombs of Atuan /ˈætuːɑːn/ is a fantasy novel by the American author Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in the Winter 1970 issue of Worlds of Fantasy, and published as a book by Atheneum Books in 1971. It is the second book in the Earthsea series after A Wizard of Earthsea (1969). The Tombs of Atuan was a Newbery Honor Book in 1972.

Set in the fictional world of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan follows the story of Tenar, a young girl born in the Kargish empire, who is taken while still a child to be the high priestess to the "Nameless Ones" at the Tombs of Atuan. Her existence at the Tombs is a lonely one, deepened by the isolation of being the highest ranking priestess. Her world is disrupted by the arrival of Ged, the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea, who seeks to steal the half of a talisman buried in the treasury of the Tombs. Tenar traps him in the labyrinth under the Tombs, but then rebels against her teaching and keeps him alive. Through him she learns more of the outside world, and begins to question her faith in the Nameless Ones and her place at the Tombs.

Like A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan is a bildungsroman that explores Tenar's growth and identity. Tenar's coming-of-age is closely tied to her exploration of faith and her belief in the Nameless Ones. The Tombs of Atuan explores themes of gender and power in the setting of a cult of female priests in service to a patriarchal society, while providing an anthropological view of Kargish culture. Tenar, who became the subject of Le Guin's fourth Earthsea novel, Tehanu, has been described as a more revolutionary protagonist than Ged, or Arren, the protagonist of The Farthest Shore (1972), the third Earthsea volume. Whereas the two men grow into socially approved roles, Tenar rebels and struggles against the confines of her social role. The Tombs of Atuan shares elements of the story of a heroic quest with other Earthsea novels, but subverts some of the tropes common to the genre of fantasy at the time, such as by choosing a female protagonist, and a dark-skinned leading character.

The Tombs of Atuan was well received when it was published, with critics commenting favorably on the character of Tenar, Le Guin's writing, and her "sensitive" portrayal of cultural differences between the Kargish people and the people of the rest of Earthsea. The story received praise for its exploration of religious themes and ethical questions. Le Guin's treatment of gender was criticized by several scholars, who stated that she had created a female protagonist, but within a male-dominated framework. Nonetheless, the novel has been described by scholars and commentators as "beautifully written", and a "significant exploration of womanhood".

## Background

Ursula K. Le Guin's universe of Earthsea first appeared in two short stories, "The Rule of Names" (1964) and "The Word of Unbinding" (1964), both published in Fantastic. These stories developed early concepts for the fictional world. They were both later anthologized in Le Guin's collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters, published in 1975. Earthsea was the setting for a story Le Guin wrote in 1965 or 1966, which was never published. In 1967, Herman Schein (the publisher of Parnassus Press and the husband of Ruth Robbins, the illustrator of A Wizard of Earthsea) asked Le Guin to try writing a book "for older kids", giving her complete freedom over the subject and the approach. Drawing from her short stories, Le Guin began work on A Wizard of Earthsea. Le Guin has said that the book was in part a response to the image of wizards as ancient and wise, and to her wondering where they come from. Le Guin later said that her choice of fantasy as a medium, and of the theme of coming of age, was a product of her writing for adolescents.

The short stories published in 1964 introduced the world of Earthsea and important concepts in it, such as Le Guin's treatment of magic. Le Guin's depiction of Earthsea was influenced by her familiarity with Native American legends as well as Norse mythology. The influence of Norse lore can be seen in the characters of the Kargs, who are blonde and blue-eyed, and worship two gods who are brothers. Influential in The Tombs of Atuan is Le Guin's familiarity with anthropology, visible in her description of Kargish culture and cultural differences with the rest of Earthsea. Le Guin's belief in Taoism is visible in the idea of a cosmic "balance" in the universe of Earthsea. Le Guin originally intended for A Wizard of Earthsea to be a standalone novel, but she wrote The Tombs of Atuan as a sequel after considering the loose ends in the first book, and wrote a third book, The Farthest Shore, a year later after further consideration. Scholars have stated that the civil rights movement, and opposition to the Vietnam War that was gaining prominence during the period The Tombs of Atuan was written, subtly affected the structure of the book. Although not a "primarily feminist" novel, Le Guin's decision to choose a female protagonist has been described as a nod to the women's rights movement, while Tenar's growing disquiet with her beliefs has been compared to the unease of individuals who began to protest discrimination and the Vietnam War.

## Setting

Earthsea is an archipelago, or group of islands. In the fictional history of this world, the islands were raised from the ocean by Segoy, an ancient deity or hero. The world is inhabited by both humans and dragons, and several among the humans are sorcerers or wizards. Influenced strongly by Le Guin's interest in Taoism, the world is shown as being based on a delicate balance, which most of its inhabitants are aware of, but which is disrupted by somebody in each of the original trilogy of novels. Magic in the societies of Earthsea is depicted as a force for both good and evil. The setting of Earthsea is preindustrial, and has many cultures within the widespread archipelago. Most of the characters of the story are of the Hardic peoples, who are dark-skinned, and who populate most of the islands. The internal universe of Earthsea has not remained constant across Le Guin's various works set in it, but has been continually adjusted and revised.

Some of the North-eastern islands are populated by the white-skinned Kargish people, who see the Hardic folk as evil sorcerers: the Kargish, in turn, are viewed by the Hardic as barbarians. The Kargish peoples have a distinct culture and geography: for example, they do not use written language, as they consider it an evil practice. The Kargish people have been described by scholars as being the analog of people in the United States; similarities include an organized religion, and a class system. This society does not believe in the equilibrium that the rest of the archipelago believes in, and does not believe in magic either. The Kargad empire is a theocracy; its monarch, the God-king, claims to represent the power of the Nameless Ones, described as the "powers of the dark, of ruin, of madness". The society is depicted as militant, and patriarchal. Le Guin suggests that though the God-king relies upon the Nameless Ones and their high priestess to maintain his authority, he no longer believes in them.

## Plot summary

The story follows a girl named Tenar, born on the Kargish island of Atuan. Born on the day that the high priestess of the Tombs of Atuan died, she is believed to be her reincarnation. Tenar is taken from her family when five years old and goes to the Tombs. Her name is taken from her in a ceremony, and she is referred to as "Arha", or the "eaten one", after being consecrated to the service of the "Nameless Ones" at the age of six with a ceremony involving a symbolic sacrifice. She moves into her own tiny house, and is given a eunuch servant, Manan, with whom she develops a bond of affection.

Arha's childhood and youth are lonely; her only friends are Manan and Penthe, a priestess her own age. She is trained in her duties by Thar and Kossil, the priestesses of the two other major deities. Thar tells her of the undertomb and the labyrinth beneath the Tombs, teaching her how to find her way around them. She tells of the treasure hidden within the labyrinth, which wizards from the archipelago have tried to steal. When Arha asks about the wizards, Thar tells her that they are unbelievers who can work magic. When she turns fourteen, Arha assumes all the responsibilities of her position, becoming the highest ranked priestess in the Tombs. She is required to order the death of prisoners sent to the Tombs by the God-King of the Kargad lands; she has them killed by starvation, an act which haunts her for a long time. After Thar dies of old age, Arha becomes increasingly isolated: although stern, Thar had been fair to her. Kossil despises Arha and sees the Nameless Ones as a threat to her power.

Arha's routine is disrupted by her discovery of the wizard Ged (the protagonist of A Wizard of Earthsea) in the undertomb. She traps him in the labyrinth by slamming the door on him, and through a peephole sees him unsuccessfully attempt to open the door with a spell. Trapped in the labyrinth, Ged eventually collapses out of exhaustion, and Arha has him chained up while debating what to do with him. After questioning him, she learns that he has come to the Tombs for the long-lost half of the ring of Erreth-Akbe, a magical talisman broken centuries before, necessary for peace in Earthsea. The other half had come into his possession by pure chance, and a dragon later told him what it was. Arha is drawn to him as he tells her of the outside world, and keeps him prisoner in the tombs, bringing him food and water. However, Kossil learns of Ged's existence, forcing Arha to promise that Ged will be sacrificed to the Nameless Ones; however, she realizes that she cannot go through with it. She instructs Manan to dig a false grave underground, while she herself takes Ged to hide in the treasury of the Tombs.

Arha and Kossil have a public falling out, in which Kossil says that nobody believes in the Nameless Ones anymore. In response, Arha curses her in the name of the Nameless Ones. Realizing that Kossil will now be determined to kill her, she heads to the labyrinth and sees Kossil uncovering the false grave. Evading her, Arha goes to the treasury and confesses everything to Ged, who has found the other half of Erreth-Akbe's ring in the treasury. He tells Arha that she must either kill him or escape with him, and says that the Nameless Ones demand her service, but give nothing and create nothing in return. He tells her his true name, Ged, in return for the trust she has shown him. They escape together, though Manan, who has come looking for Arha, falls into a pit in the labyrinth and is killed when he attempts to attack Ged. The tombs begin to collapse in on themselves; Ged holds them off until they leave. Arha reverts to calling herself Tenar as she and Ged travel to the coast where his boat is hidden. While waiting for the tide, she feels an urge to kill Ged for destroying her life, but realizes while gazing at him that she has no anger left. Ged and Tenar sail to Havnor, where they are received in triumph.

## Major characters

### Tenar

Tenar, from whose perspective The Tombs of Atuan is told, is born on the Kargish island of Atuan before being taken away to serve the Nameless Ones as their high priestess. She is told that she is the reincarnation of the high priestess, and has lived at the tombs since time immemorial; though she believes this early in her life, she begins to question the idea later in the novel. For much of the book she is known only as Arha, or the "Eaten one"; her identity as an individual is gradually erased. Though she is depicted as a person of strength and imagination, her development is stunted by the priestesses; her feelings are repressed, and her mind has no place to wander except the labyrinth. After trapping Ged, she talks to him about the rest of Earthsea, and begins to desire a life outside the barrenness of the Tombs. It is only after her escape that she seems to regain her name, crying "I have my name back. I am Tenar!" Tehanu, the fourth Earthsea novel, is narrated from Tenar's point of view; it depicts her life on Gont and her reunion and relationship with Ged. She reappears in The Other Wind, the sixth Earthsea book. Tenar is paired with Ged in The Tombs of Atuan, the two sharing power to create a more powerful combination. Tenar is part of multiple pairs of characters that develop together; both Ged, in The Tombs of Atuan, and later Tehanu in her eponymous novel, are shown as being dependent on her.

### Ged

Ged, who in the story goes by his common name of Sparrowhawk, only enters the novel midway through when he comes to the tombs to steal the ring of Erreth-Akbe. Where he was an adolescent in A Wizard of Earthsea, he is depicted as a mature individual in the second Earthsea volume, one who gradually transforms Tenar's view of the world. In The Tombs of Atuan he plays the role of the wise helper to the protagonist, a type of companionship common to Le Guin's novels. After Tenar chooses to talk to him rather than have him killed, he tells her about the rest of Earthsea that she is ignorant of, and so helps her see a path out of her difficulties that she could not. The scars that Ged bears from his encounter with the shadow in A Wizard of Earthsea make Tenar realize that he has confronted death in a way that she has never done. Literature scholar Elizabeth Cummins argues that while Ged does not actually save Tenar, he "functions as the midwife in her rebirth". Ged is the figure of the "other" in this novel; in contrast to the other inhabitants of the Tombs, he is male, dark-skinned, and a wizard. Ged's difference in the story is symbolized by light on many occasions, such as when his staff allows Tenar to see the undertomb for the first time: she is shocked then to find it to be beautiful, rather than just dark. Ged is responsible for giving Tenar a wider perspective and showing her a more compassionate and joyful world than her previous experience allowed her to imagine.

## Themes

### Coming of age

As with A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan is a bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, this time from the perspective of a female character, Tenar. Though she nominally has a position of high authority, Tenar feels trapped by her duties as priestess, and desires to escape to a place where she can make her own choices. In contrast to Ged, whose journey was chiefly a private quest, Tenar's choices have direct social consequences. While Ged's growth is traced through the various adventures he experiences in the first volume of the series, Tenar's development is shown through her exploration of her own domain. The labyrinth, in particular, with its twists and turns, is a metaphor for Tenar's exploration of her own thoughts. In this reading of the novel, the labyrinth symbolizes the imprisonment of the women, and the darkness and unacknowledged thoughts within Tenar, which she begins to struggle through after feeling guilt over killing the prisoners sent to her for execution.

After this incident, she falls ill and experiences nightmares, suggesting that when she underwent the rituals that made her the "eaten one", some of her personality and her regard for life remained. She questions her faith (another theme that runs through the novel), and begins to develop a sense of self apart from it, helped in this process by Ged. She wrestles with her contradictory thoughts for a long time; keeping Ged alive would be contrary to all her teachings and the powers she serves, but sacrificing him would be contrary to her developing respect for life. An important moment in this process is when Ged calls her by her true name, and clarifies for her the choice between remaining in the Tombs as Arha and embracing Tenar and stepping into the larger world of Earthsea. Afterwards she has a nightmare about suffocating, a motif Cummins describes as being common to female coming-of-age stories.

The hold that the darkness has over her does not disappear when she escapes and the Tombs are brought down in an earthquake by the nameless ones. She contemplates killing Ged, blaming him for her pain, but eventually learns to accept her guilt over her actions, realizing that though she had no choice in her actions as a priestess, she now has a choice to move away from them; but this "freedom is a heavy load". Le Guin ends the novel with the reassuring sentence "Gravely she walked beside [Ged] up the white streets of Havnor, holding his hand, like a child coming home", suggesting that she has been successful in finding new connections in her life. The conclusion of the novel represents the successful end of a quest that Ged undertook as a mature wizard, part of the story arc that traces his character development across the first three Earthsea books; thus The Tombs of Atuan has been described as part of Ged's coming-of-age as well.

### Faith and belief

The notion of faith and deep belief is a large part of the novel, and is related to the book's other theme of identity. Throughout the story there is a tension between faith in the Nameless Ones and their power, and human curiosity and the tendency to question. The importance of tradition and belief in Kargish culture is emphasized when Tenar is taken from her family, and chosen to be the high priestess of the Tombs. However, Tenar's mother unsuccessfully tries to dupe the priestesses into believing the child has a skin disease. Commentators state that this episode suggests certain universal impulses can lead to resistance against "cultural imperatives"; Tenar's mother is willing to bend the rules to keep her child. Unlike the rest of Earthsea, which relies on the "Old Speech" for its magic and rituals, the Kargish lands use their own tongue, and rituals are conducted with meaningless babble; thus from the moment the chanting of the priestesses is described, Le Guin suggests that the Kargish faith is one of meaningless words and ritual. The Kargish deities are revered as the "Nameless Ones"; thus Ged's statement to Arha that all things have names also works to undermine her faith.

Tenar begins to question her beliefs when she hears Kossil defying the Nameless Ones, and sees that they do not punish her. She has a conversation with Penthe, her only friend, who expresses an "unfaith" in the divinity of the God-king. Though Tenar reacts to this with shock, the incident opens a new perspective to her. In her own thoughts, "she felt as if she had looked up and suddenly seen a whole new planet hanging huge and populous right outside the window, an entirely strange world, one in which the gods did not matter." Ged acts as a catalyst for this stream of thought, because he is completely alien to her; he is male, brown-skinned, and has a picture of the world is so different from Tenar's own. After speaking to him, she begins to wonder whether the Nameless Ones, despite their power, deserve her worship, and begins to lose faith in them and in all the things she has been taught. She expects to find only evil in Ged, according to what she has been taught; but instead she finds light and love, further challenging her belief.

### Gender and power

Gender and power feature as themes through The Tombs of Atuan. The labyrinth has been described as a tomb for the lives that Kargish women could have led. Le Guin herself stated that the theme of The Tombs of Atuan was sex, a statement which reviewers have suggested meant not physical intimacy, but yearning and the recognition of potential for intimacy. The role of the women priestesses at the Tombs is analogous to that of Kargish women in their society; though the priestesses have eunuch servants and male guards ostensibly to protect them, the Tombs are a prison, and act to isolate the women from the rest of society. The priestesses have internalized this situation, and act to enforce it: Kossil's cruelty is described as epitomizing this. Brought into this environment, Tenar's development as a person is not the result of choices she made, as is the case with Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea; instead, her coming of age is forced upon her.

Despite the fact that Tenar does not become a wizard (like Ged) or a king (like Arren, the primary character of The Farthest Shore), Cummins argues that her growth is more revolutionary than either of theirs. In contrast to the male bildungsroman in which characters grow into the characteristics society believes they should have, Tenar's coming of age is a female bildungsroman, in which she must struggle against the patriarchal Kargish empire. She learns to value herself for herself and not simply for her role as a priestess. She is helped through this process by Ged, who sees her as a powerful person, and helps her find choices that she did not see. Over the course of the story she realized that her true power is not her authority as the reincarnated high priestess, but the ability to make the choice to leave the labyrinth and the Tombs. Le Guin suggests that true power is not only about authority and mastery, but trust and collaboration.

## Style and structure

The novels of the Earthsea cycle differ notably from Le Guin's early Hainish cycle works, written during the same period. Fantasy scholar George Slusser described them as providing a counterweight to the "excessive pessimism" of the Hainish novels. He saw the former as depicting individual action in a favorable light, in contrast to works such as "Vaster than Empires and More Slow". The trilogy shares a thematic similarity in that each volume a bildungsroman for a different character; the first for Ged, the second for Tenar, and the third for Arren.

Though the structure of the Earthsea novels is in many ways typical of fantasy, it has been described as subverting the tropes of this genre. The protagonists of her stories, with the exception of Tenar, were all dark-skinned, in comparison to the white-skinned heroes more traditionally used. The Tombs of Atuan examines the development of a young girl in great detail, a choice unusual for a fantasy writer of the period in which the book was written.

The early part of the story provides an anthropological view of the culture of the Tombs, and through them, of the Kargish lands as a whole. The reader is shown that the true names of people have no particular significance in the Kargish lands, whereas in the Archipelago they grant power over the thing being named; nonetheless, the critical moment in which Tenar recalls her true name has been described as influencing other works such as Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 film Spirited Away. Scholars have described Le Guin's depiction of Kargish culture as a subtle critique, particularly of the powers of the Tombs, which give nothing in return for their worship. Much of the early part of the novel describes the life that Tenar leads in the stable world of the Tombs. Ged's arrival acts as a turning point, and the rest of the book explores the possibility of change, and introduces different perspectives on the internal world of the novel.

The form of narrative employed by Le Guin in the Earthsea trilogy has been described by literature scholar Mike Cadden as "free indirect discourse"; a technique in which the feelings of the protagonist are not directly separated from the narration, making the narrator seem sympathetic to the characters, and removing the skepticism towards a character's thoughts and emotions that are a feature of more direct narration. Cadden suggests that this method leads to younger readers sympathizing directly with the characters, thereby making it an effective technique for young-adult literature, whereas adults are likely to read the situations differently. In The Tombs of Atuan, much of the story is told from Tenar's perspective; for instance, the reader sees Tenar's fear of the undertomb through her own eyes, creating an empathy for her.

Scholars have compared The Tombs of Atuan to The Beginning Place, another of Le Guin's fantasy works; both stories have a female protagonist guiding a blundering male through a labyrinth of sorts. Comparisons have been made to a number of Le Guin's works which have a notion of a dream world in which the protagonists undergo a transformation; in The Tombs of Atuan, this is the labyrinth. Ged's journey through the series has been compared to the traditional heroic quest, including a "descent into the underworld" represented by the labyrinth in The Tombs of Atuan. It has drawn comparisons to the character of Alvin in Arthur C. Clarke's novella The City and the Stars.

## Publication and reception

A shorter version of The Tombs of Atuan was published in the magazine Worlds of Fantasy in the Winter 1970 issue. The complete version was published by Atheneum Books in 1971. It was the second book of the original Earthsea "trilogy", being preceded by A Wizard of Earthsea, and followed by The Farthest Shore in 1972. The Tombs of Atuan has since been translated into more than 20 languages, and has been reprinted many times. The first three Earthsea novels received critical acclaim as works for children when they were published. The classification of the original trilogy as children's literature was decried by many critics, such as Barbara Bucknall, who stated that the stories were "ageless because they deal with problems that confront us at any age", and could be read by both children and adults. It took several decades and the publication of a fourth novel, Tehanu for the series to be recognized as adult literature. Two more books were published in subsequent years; Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind, both in 2001. These books, along with Tehanu, have sometimes been referred to as a second trilogy. Tehanu has been described as a rewriting or reimagining of The Tombs of Atuan, because Tenar's power and status are the inverse of what they were in the earlier book. In 2005 an original mini-series titled Legend of Earthsea, based loosely on the first two Earthsea books was broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel. Le Guin expressed strong displeasure with the result, which she said had "whitewashed Earthsea".

The Tombs of Atuan was a Newbery Honor Book in 1972, but did not win any other major awards before being a runner-up for the International Children's Literature Association's Phoenix Award twenty years after its first publication. Upon its publication British critic Naomi Lewis called it an "extraordinary book", while scholar Andrew Wolk called the series a masterpiece of fantasy. The prose in the novel received praise; a 1996 reference book on science fiction described them as among the best regarded fantasies, and went on to call the series a "fast-paced narrative" that explored serious questions of morality, power, and identity, Science fiction writer Jo Walton said that it was a "beautifully written" book. She went on to write that a "lesser writer" would have ended the novel after the earthquake and the collapse of the Tombs, but that the last section of the story, about Ged and Tenar's travel, "do a lot to ground it", making it "solid and well rooted as ever". Speculative fiction scholar Mike Cadden praised the characterization in the novel, calling Tenar the "finest and most complicated multiple character in the Earthsea series, and maybe in all of her fiction". However, scholar Sandra Lindow referred to the conclusion of the novel, and particularly the conclusion of Ged and Tenar's relationship, as unsatisfying. A 2016 review in The Huffington Post praised the religious theme in the novel, saying Le Guin "skillfully illustrates the way religious conviction can permeate and give meaning to a life", while Entertainment Weekly referred to it as "a classic of stealth-missile literature, a fantasy adventure that's actually a feminist horror thriller".

Le Guin's portrayal of the cultural differences between the Kargish lands and the rest of Earthsea has been praised as "sensitive", while her use of the theme of gender has been referred to as a "significant exploration of womanhood". Nonetheless, Le Guin's treatment of gender in The Tombs of Atuan, and in the first three Earthsea volumes in general, has been questioned by critics, who suggest that it perpetuates a male-dominated model of the world of Earthsea. The unhealthy cult depicted at the Tombs serves only to reinforce the moral superiority of the school of Roke depicted in A Wizard of Earthsea; the school is run entirely by men. Some feminist scholars have criticized The Tombs of Atuan for depicting the "suppression" of a female cult. Other scholars dispute this description, arguing that the "cult" in question is in fact shown as evil, and is moreover not acting of its free will; it is already subordinate to the will of a male king. Speaking decades after the publication of The Tombs of Atuan, Le Guin stated that she considered The Eye of the Heron (published in 1978, seven years after The Tombs of Atuan) to be her first novel not centered on a man; critics have interpreted this to mean that Le Guin considered The Tombs of Atuan to be a male-centered book.

1970 fantasy novel by Ursula K. Le Guin


Wario

Wario (Japanese: ワリオ, Hepburn: Wario, ; English: /ˈwɑːrioʊ, ˈwær-, ˈwɒr-/) is a character in Nintendo's Mario video game series that was designed as an arch-rival to Mario. Wario first appeared as the main antagonist and final boss in the 1992 Game Boy game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. His name is a portmanteau of the name Mario and the Japanese word warui (悪い), meaning "bad". Hiroji Kiyotake designed Wario and Charles Martinet voiced the character from 1993 to 2023, as well as other characters in the series, including Mario, Luigi, and Waluigi.

Wario is also the protagonist and antihero of the Wario Land and WarioWare series in handheld and console markets. In the handheld market, he is usually portrayed as a greedy treasure hunter while console games follow his exploits as a video game developer. Wario has also appeared in spin-off games in the Mario series, in other Nintendo properties such as in the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games, and in other media such as the Super Mario Adventures graphic novel. The character has received a largely positive critical reception.

## Concept and creation

The character Foreman Spike, a possible inspiration for Wario, first appeared in the 1985 game Wrecking Crew; Spike is a construction foreman who bears a slight resemblance to Wario. Game artist Hiroji Kiyotake designed Foreman Spike, who Kiyotake imagined as "the Bluto to Mario's Popeye". Wario's first named appearance occurred in the 1992 game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Wario's design arose from Super Mario Land's design team's distaste of making a game based around someone else's character. The creation of Wario allowed them their own character to "symbolize their situation". Nintendo originally considered making Wario a German character before he developed into an Italian like Mario.

Wario is portrayed as a caricature of Mario; he has a large head and chin; huge muscular arms; a wide, short, slightly obese body; short legs; a large, pointier, zig-zagging mustache; and a bellicose cackle. He wears a plumber outfit with a yellow-and-purple color scheme, which is a short-sleeved yellow shirt, purple overalls, and a blue W on his hat. He also wears green shoes and white gloves with blue W symbols. In his early appearances, Wario wears a yellow, long-sleeved shirt and fuchsia overalls. The name "Wario" is a portmanteau of "Mario" and the Japanese adjective warui (悪い) meaning "bad"; hence, a "bad Mario", which is also symbolized by the "W" on his hat, an upside down "M". Official Nintendo lore states Wario was a childhood rival to Mario and Luigi who became jealous of their success.

Wario was originally intended to be German; accordingly, German voice actor Thomas Spindler, who played the character in japan from 1996 to 2001, gave him several German lines. This ended when Wario's voice actor for markets outside Japan Charles Martinet, who has also voiced Mario since 1995, started voicing Wario on all markets. During his audition for the part, Martinet was told to speak in a mean-and gruff-sounding tone; he said voicing Wario is a looser task than voicing Mario, whose speaking manner and personality are freer-flowing, rising from the ground and floating into the air, while jealousy is one of Wario's characteristics.

Wario is often portrayed as a villain in video games in which he makes a cameo appearance. The development team for Wario Land: Shake It! stated he was not really a villain and they did not consider him one during development. They focused on his behavior, which alternates between good and evil. Etsunobu Ebisu and Takahiro Harada, producers of Shake It!, considered Wario to be a reckless character who uses his strength to overwhelm others. Tadanori Tsukawaki, Shake It!'s design director, described Wario as manly and said he was "so uncool that he ends up being extremely cool". Because of this, Tsukawaki wanted Wario to act macho rather than silly and asked the art designers to emphasize his masculinity. During an interview with Kikizo, video-game designer Yoshio Sakamoto, who was a member of R&D1 since its early days, has stated the project centered around Wario because the team "couldn't think of anyone else best for the role", and he was then described as "unintelligent" and "always idiotic", which is the reason he was chosen as the star of the WarioWare series. According to an early 1990s Nintendo guide, Wario was Mario's childhood friend, which Kotaku later contested in a parody article. Afterward, it was stated they were not related to each other and were considered childhood rivals.

In his earliest appearances in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Wario's Woods, Wario displays considerable magical power, using spells on the population of islands to turn them into his minions, create duplicates, and grow very large. These traits were discontinued starting with Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, in which he is rejuvenated by garlic in a similar manner to Mario being powered by mushrooms. In the WarioWare and Super Smash Bros. games, consuming garlic transforms Wario into "Wario-Man", a superhero with powers relating to garlic-induced flatulence and bad breath. In other games, he uses farts as his special attack. Wario often uses bombs as tools and weapons, for example in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario Blast, and Mario Kart: Double Dash. The WarioWare series prominently uses bombs as a visual motif to represent the time limit of a microgame.

## Appearances

### Wario Land series

Wario first appeared as a villain in the 1992 Game Boy video game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, in which he captures Mario's castle. Tatanga, the villain of the first Super Mario Land game, is a henchman of Wario in the second, implying Wario is responsible for the events of both games. Wario also serves as a villain in the 1993 Japan-only puzzle game Mario & Wario, in which Wario drops a bucket on the heads of Mario, Princess Peach, or Yoshi. This was followed by the first game in the Wario Land series Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 (1994), a platform game that marks Wario's first appearance as a protagonist and introduced his first villains, Captain Syrup and her Brown Sugar Pirates. His next appearance in Virtual Boy Wario Land, Wario plays similarly and has the ability to move in and out of the background. A sequel for the Game Boy game Wario Land II (1998) features Captain Syrup's return as the antagonist. This game introduces Wario's invulnerability, allowing him to be burned or flattened without sustaining damage.

In 2000, Wario Land 3 was released for the Game Boy Color; it is another sequel that uses the same mechanics and concepts of its predecessor. The following year, the sequel Wario Land 4 debuted on the Game Boy Advance and incorporates Wario's ability to become burned or flattened, and reintroduces the ability to become damaged from standard attacks. In 2003, Wario World, the first console Wario platform game, was released for the GameCube; it has three-dimensional graphics and gameplay, and does not incorporate major elements from previous platform games. Wario: Master of Disguise (2007) for the Nintendo DS introduces touch-screen control of Wario and incorporates puzzles into the gameplay. The series' most-recent release Wario Land: Shake It! (2008) for the Wii reintroduces Captain Syrup. The game uses a hand-drawn animation style; Wario's design required more than 2,000 frames of animation.

### WarioWare series

In 2003, the Wario franchise introduced a new series of games, the first of which was WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! for the Game Boy Advance. The game's premise involved Wario's decision to open a game development company to make money, creating short "microgames" instead of full-fledged games. The game's gameplay focused on playing a collection of microgames in quick succession. Mega Microgames! was later remade as WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Party Games! for the GameCube; it featured the same microgames but lacked a story mode and focused more on multi-player. In 2004, two sequels were released for the game. The first was the Game Boy Advance game WarioWare: Twisted!, which used the cartridge's tilt sensor to allows microgames to be controlled by tilting the handheld left and right. The second was the Nintendo DS release WarioWare: Touched!, which incorporates the DS's touch screen and microphone in its gameplay. One of the Wii's launch games in 2006 was WarioWare: Smooth Moves, which used the Wii Remote's motion sensing technologies in a variety of ways. The Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi have offered two new releases, 2008's WarioWare: Snapped!, which can be downloaded with the DSiWare service and uses the DSi's built-in front camera in its gameplay, and the 2009 Nintendo DS game WarioWare D.I.Y., which allows players to create microgames. Game & Wario for the Nintendo Wii U was released on June 23, 2013.

`Although it does not use the WarioWare name, it incorporates gameplay and characters from the WarioWare series. The game also pays tribute to the original Game & Watch games. In 2018, the Nintendo 3DS game WarioWare Gold was released, featuring 316 microgames and combining elements from Twisted and Touched. He also appeared in the 2021 Nintendo Switch game WarioWare: Get It Together! with 222 microgames.`

### Other appearances

In Wario's Woods (1994), Wario is the main antagonist who wants to take over the forest and is defeated by Toad. The same year, Wario appeared in the video game Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!, a remake of a Bomberman game for the Game Boy that includes Wario as a playable character. Wario is a playable character in the Mario Kart series starting with Mario Kart 64. Wario has also appeared in 30 Mario sports games, including Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario Baseball, Super Mario Strikers, and the Mario & Sonic series. Wario has also appeared in all installments of the Mario Party series except Mario Party Advance.

Wario is a playable character in two platform games for the Nintendo DS; the remake Super Mario 64 DS (2004) and Yoshi's Island DS (2006) as an infant version of himself, and the 2001 puzzle game Dr. Mario 64. The character wears his traditional attire from the Wario Land series and Mario series, and the biker outfit from the WarioWare series. Wario also appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and its follow-ups Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Wario's cameos include aiding protagonist Starfy in the video game Densetsu no Stafy 3 and his presence in the scenery of Pilotwings 64. Wario also appears as Baby Wario in Dr. Mario World. The graphic novel Super Mario Adventures, which is a collection of comics originally serialized in the video-gaming magazine Nintendo Power, features Wario in two of the stories, one of which focuses on Wario's past and explains his rivalry with Mario. In the comic, it is revealed Wario was Mario's childhood friend and Mario was his idol. Interested in many things Mario did, Wario endured abuse to find out how to become like Mario until he became disheartened with the process and swore revenge.

### In other media

Jack Black has stated his interest in a potential sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie in which Pedro Pascal, who played Mario in a Saturday Night Live sketch, would voice Wario, the film's main villain.

## Reception

Since his appearance in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, Wario has received a largely positive reception and has become a well-established mascot for Nintendo. James Troughton of TheGamer said Wario is the best Mario character who is an icon of fashion and villainy. Computer and Video Games found the levity of Wario games "liberating" compared to big Nintendo franchises such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda. The writer could "empathise more with the hopelessly materialistic Wario than goody brown-shoes Mario. Deep down, we'd all rather chase pounds over princesses." IGN editor Travis Fahs said while Wario is not the most-likeable character, his strong confidence overshadows his flaws and makes him entertaining. Audrey Drake of IGN said of Wario; "all this weird dude seems to care about is amassing as many material possessions and shiny things as possible", Wario was also described as one of the best video-game villains. while KhalidEternalNigh of Destructoid praised the character, describing him as a "fat, lazy, greedy and a cheater", and said: despite all of this I can't help but love him. Wario is, in my humble opinion, the most perfect 'evil twin' in the history of video games. During Wario's career he has worn many hats – a game designer, a biker, a treasure hunter, and a hat that spits fire for some reason. Yet no matter what he does, no matter how mean he is, somehow Wario manages to charm his way into our hearts while picking our pockets. Ryan Gilliam of Polygon described Wario as the "ultimate Italian American" and said the character "captures so much more of the Italian personality that resonates with me". He also said; "Wario trumps Mario as my family mascot, born with a crucial, relatable need to be louder and larger than life." According to Mike Scholars of Kotaku, "Wario Isn't Evil, He's Honest". Sholars concluded; "Wario was conceived out of a desire to put a twist on the familiar, but his creators tapped into a powerful, universal constant: The Unrepentant Asshole". Edwin Evans of Eurogamer praised Wario for being "repulsive" and "brilliant", anmd said; "in general, Wario isn't the star he used to be, but he remains a crucial component of the Nintendo pantheon, the counterbalancing touch of malevolence and cunning without which Mario's star wouldn't shine quite so brightly". William Hughes of The A.V. Club described him as "Nintendo's stinky, cheating genius", and said the character: captures the split at the heart of Nintendo. All we know if that Wario would have loved the possibilities the smash hit console presents, and that the absence of a new WarioWare game on the handheld remains a real shame to the legacy of all the things—good, bad, flatulent, weird, and more—that he means to the company," while Cass Marshall of Polygon said he "was institutionalized as a teen, and Wario was my only friend", and that he "find[s] Wario kind of soothing. He's just got a friendly face." In the book A Parent's Guide to Nintendo Games: A Comprehensive Look at the Systems and the Games, Craig Wessel described Wario as a "sinister twist" on Mario. In Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: An Encyclopedia of Our Worst Nightmares, Volume 1, S. T. Joshi cites Waluigi and Wario as archetypal examples of alter egos.

Magazines have also praised Wario's outfit, particularly in Mario Golf: Super Rush. In September 2021, Peter Nguyen, a professional stylist of "The Essential Man", commented on a Hiking Wario outfit in Mario Kart Tour, calling it "stylish" and saying; "I think this is the most wearable and strongest appearance for Wario". He was also described as a "fashion icon". A screenshot of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 showing Wario in swimwear appeared to depict him without nipples, leading fans and video-game website Polygon to speculate about his lack of anatomical features.

In the Super Smash Bros. series, Wario has received mixed reviews. Den of Geek noted: "It would have been so easy to make Wario just another Mario knockoff in Smash. "But Nintendo didn't do that. Instead, he's much wilder in the fighting series, a gross psychopath who runs over people with motorcycles and chomps down on people". Jeremy Parish of Polygon lauded the character and stated; "Wario is great because his maniacal lust for gold has led him to become Nintendo's greatest and most creative entrepreneur". Ian Walker of Kotaku also said Wario is one of the "decent" character to play in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

### In popular culture

Wario appears in South Park: "Imaginationland Episode III" as one of the characters from the "dark side" of Imaginationland. The television series MAD makes multiple references to Wario, most notably in Season 3, Episode 16, in which Wario chases three orphaned lemmings. In May 2021 in an episode of Saturday Night Live, host Elon Musk starred as Wario in a sketch in which he was put on trial for murdering Mario in a kart race. In 2010, Charles Martinet's Wario voice was used in an advertisement promoting WarioWare D.I.Y. for British supermarket chain Tesco.

### Merchandise

Outside video games, Wario has been featured in a large variety of merchandise, including plush toys, clothing, and action figures. Wario has also received several of his own Amiibo, which can be used in a wide array of games, including his own.

Video game character

Video game characters introduced in 1992

Video game characters with superhuman strength