“
It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for.”
Samwise Gamdschie
The Journey of the Hero is a common story pattern about a hero going for a journey, facing perils and danger and then returning back home, transformed, grown.
The word hero comes from the greek hērōs, "hero" literally "protector" or "defender".
The role of the hero had changed by the time. The original hero of the classical time is one individual who strives for honour, fame, wealth and power, such like Gilgamesh, Achilles or Cuchullain. He or she is also a champion of the people but more in admiration than because fighting for a higher cause.
A post classical hero is by definiton an individual which goes through sufferings, loss and dangers, but not for oneself or because it is ordered but in service for other, his or hers community, the tribe, his or her kindred. One cannot be a hero without the altruism and the self-neglect for a higher cause.
I am not sure which change in the narrative structure had happend nor when, but somewhere in between the bronce age and the earl middle ages the picture of the hero changes from the classical to the post classical type.
The path a hero walks is a storry pattern in most stories similar, hence the works about the Monomyth and the journey of the hero. A common person, often of low status, recieved a call to action. A dragon is endangering the people, a plague kills, thieves and murderers are in the woods, the king has turned bad and surpress the people. The initial reation is neglect. Why me? How could I? I can´t. I won´t. The neglect will be overcome, a mentor, fairie, helper aides the first steps on the way, the hero departs.
A threshold will be crossed, from the everyday life of the normal world in the hidden world of adventure. Trials and tasks must been solved. Companions will be found, tools and spells must be collected. Then comes the crisis. The hero must go through death and renewal and face his or hers most dangerous enemy and defeat it.
The hero recieve the treasure, the price, the gift, the talent, he or she passes again a threshold from the hidden world back, reborn into the normal world and to his or her people. Grown, wiser, with new talents.
This is a very brief version of the heros journey. As the topic is immense interesting, I invite you to study it further and observe by yourself the structure of the journey of the hero in modern stories like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars but also in older tales and myths like Robin Hood.
The topic is interesting in so far as the story-pattern reflects a typical pattern in life reflecting for example the initation into adulthood:
Historical it is a boys journey. The boy is called for manhood and has to leave the arms of family, has to face an initation rite. A threshold has to be crossed, advice is given. The crisis must be faced and the boy dies. What is left is the newborn man, emerging out of the crisis of initation and is returning to the tribe as a grown up, with new rights, new experiences and new duties.
Another pattern which fits into the journey of the hero is the transition from the everyday person into the special person. From peasant to warrior for example, from child to healer, from every day Joe to explorer. The call goes out and the first reaction is neglect. The point is, if the neglect is not overcome, there is no story. The story emerges only if the hero to be picks up the call. Stories are only told about the people who don´t stay home, who don´t turned back but walks the path on and on and survives the struggles, perils and trials.
You will find this pattern also in mythology and religion, history and tales.
But what is the point about bothering with a narrative genre? The point is that we, all of us can decide to pick up a call, to be greater than we are now. To do more than the necessary but achieve the possible. And to do it for a higher cause. The heros journey is not a selfish project, not a hobby, a hero protects the community, enriches his peoples, provide a role model. When we decide to pick up the call and walk the path, one must find his or hers higher cause, face the perily and trials, growing stronger, better, more intelligent and more empathic in progress. It is a way to work on the human potential in all of us.
I would like to hear your stories about a heros journey. So if you like, feel free to email me and send me your your story.
Readings:
Joseph Campbell "The hero with the thousand faces"
George Lucas "Star Wars IV: A new hope"
J.K.Rowling "Harry Potter and the Philosophers stone"