In the book The Left Hand of Darkness, the author incorporate many of the Gethenian tales that could potentially tell us more about their culture and the book.

The first myth that was discussed in the book was the place inside the blizzard.  The story talks about how two brothers undergo the process of kemmer together before one of them committed suicide, and the other one curse the land.  The things that were directly revealed Gethenian culture to us was that Gethenians are not allowed to keep kemmer with their sibling for life and that they hate people who committed suicide (p.22-23).  Now, the story was informative and entertaining, but the thing about fairy tales are that most of the characters’ action are not baseless, they are generally based on something from real life.  Due to this story, we can assume that while relationship after kemmering among the siblings are forbidden, people not always going to obey it.  Chances are, some Gethenians did have relationships with their sibling but they might keep it a secret, just like Estraven did.

The third myth that was discussed was the tale of Estraven the Traitor.  This story tells the story of two lovers from Estre and Stok, two rival nations, and their child.  The story directly told the readers the origin of the name “Therem” in Estre realm, a place where that name is unusual (p.129).  In my opinion, the main contribution of this chapter is the explanation of the Kingdom’s rivalry.  While it is true that Stok vs. Estre conflict is different one from Orgoreyn vs. Karhide, we can draw a parallel between the conflicts due to the nature of Gethen.  The place was described as  the land where “Richland is scarce, . . . a Domain’s pride is in the length of its borders” (p. 124).  This set up for the story possibly serve as an explanation for why Sinoth Valley is such a big deal to Orgoreyn and Karhide.  These people live in an Antartica-like earth, so it makes sense for empires to covets land to make up for the scarcity of resources.

The fourth tale discusses religions within Gethen.  This one explain one of the Gethenian’s major religion, Yomeshta, and its contrast with Handdarata, Gethenian’s another major religion.  The book described that Yomeshta follower believes that light is good and that people who accepted darkness [the Handdarata] should be looked down upon.  The subject was touched upon once again in chapter 16 when the poem that describes Handdarata believe and possibly leads to the inspiration for the title of the book.  It went like this:

“Light is the left hand of darkness
 and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying
 Together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together, like the end and the way”
(p. 233-4).

To me, what this poem is trying to say is that darkness and light are something equal, not something that you should try to see as superior or inferior relative to each other.  The belief of Yomeshta and Handdarata regarding light and darkness seem to be a perfect parallel for Genly’s belief toward gender, and what he experience in Gethen.  In Gethen, everybody is equal to each other, at least when it come to gender, because there is no gender on Gethen.  Genly, on the other hand, believe that female are inferior compared to male, just like how Yomeshta see darkness as inferior to light.