71 pages • 2 hours read
Tamsyn MuirHarrow the Ninth
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Two-Hander
Much of the plot revolves around the mysterious two-handed sword that Harrow always carries with her. The sword contains her connection to Gideon while also literally containing the soul of Gideon’s mother, Wake. The sword acts as a placeholder for Gideon until she takes control of Harrow’s body in Act 5.
Harrow’s relationship with the sword mirrors her relationship with Gideon: Harrow hates the sword and treats it poorly yet cannot bear being away from it. In Gideon, Harrow often neglected Gideon and kept her in the dark about the intricate political chess happening in Canaan House. At the same time, Harrow could not handle the thought of being without Gideon. Harrow, incapable of comprehending the depths of her own loneliness, has only ever expressed her desire for Gideon’s company in unhealthy ways, forcing Gideon into becoming her cavalier and thus inextricably bound to her. This is reflected in the way she clings to the sword, even though she is essentially incapable of doing anything with it and does not understand why it is so important to her in the first place.
As with Gideon, Harrow slowly comes to love the sword as the narrative progresses. At first, Harrow is convinced that the sword “hate[s] [her] to touch it” (24). The sword is anthropomorphized, given the ability to feel an emotion like hate. When the Heralds arrive, Harrow begins to feel “almost fond of it” (339), though the feeling is fleeting. Harrow cannot separate herself from the sword, despite the way it manifests old wounds between her and Gideon. Harrow constantly tormented Gideon in the Ninth House as children; this convinced Harrow in Gideon that her cavalier despised her, much as the sword seems to despise her now. The messy, semi-romantic relationship explored between Gideon and Harrow in Gideon is contained within the sword as a symbol of Harrow’s grief.
Eyes
Eyes are a deeply important symbol throughout the Locked Tomb series due to the connections between eye color and Lyctorhood. Lyctors’ eyes manifest the colors of both their necromancer and their cavalier: When one is in control, their eye color is dominant and often contains hints of the other person’s eye color. Conflicts in eye color, or the presence of one color and lack of another, often symbolize a character’s internal struggle or state of being.
Harrow’s lack of mixed eye color indicates her “failed” Lyctoral state. Ortus, who Harrow falsely remembers as the cavalier that she consumed to become a Lyctor, had a similar eye color to her own. The extreme similarity in eye color causes Harrow to doubt her own Lyctorhood. When she asks the Body to tell her what color her eyes are, the Body will not tell her. Harrow panics despite her eyes looking as they should if Ortus were her cavalier.
Harrow’s inability to see Ortus within her eyes foreshadows the truth about her actions in Canaan House. It also symbolizes the gulf she has opened between herself and Gideon to avoid her grief. Harrow can see no other color in her eyes because she could not handle the grief that the other Lyctors carry within themselves, and thus refused to commit to the full Lyctoral process of devouring Gideon’s soul. Harrow’s eye color only changes once Gideon takes control of her body, which represents the shattering of the barrier between the two of them.
Poetry
The motif of poetry guides Harrow and Ortus through the nightmarish experience of being hunted by the Sleeper. The Noniad is the one piece of literature present within the Ninth House and a tale that binds the House together through the heroic exploits of Matthias Nonius, the legendary cavalier. Harrow constantly criticizes Ortus for reciting the work aloud and critiques his writing methods and word choices. Despite this, Harrow has a great deal of the Noniad memorized and recites it despite herself.
The motif of poetry reveals the power of lyric structure and devotional repetition. The repetition of the Noniad in dark times, such as when the Sleeper attacks Harrow and the spirits of Canaan House in the River, mimics the repetition of biblical passages in order to muster one’s spiritual strength. This repetition not only bolsters Ortus’s courage, but marks him, Harrow, and Gideon as part of the same community due to their deep knowledge of this incredibly long poem.
The Locked Tomb series is filled with Christian theology and retellings of Christian mythos from the Bible. Poetry and verse are heavily present around John and his Lyctors, though the references vary wildly between biblical recitations and references to modern rap. This adds complexity to the motif of religion that is heavily present within the series, weaving secular elements into religious verse. This represents John’s oscillation between a man and the God of the star system.
