Transformation is the key to a good hero story. The hero, whether male or female, must be utterly and irrevocably changed by the events narrated in the story. A hero story is the narrative equivalent of a rite of passage. Just as the new adult cannot return to childhood after puberty, the new hero cannot return to his or her former state.
A return to the innocence of childhood or of a small town may be attractive, but the hero is never an innocent at the end of the journey. The hero, whether male or female, has seen the world and knows its complexities, its joys and fears, loves and losses. A true hero is not jaded by exposure to the world; he or she is clarified by the refining fire of the trials and tribulations of life.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the work for which he is best know.
I’ve worked with his structure for years. It is a very powerful tool for engaging students in the mythic process. Since the structure of the hero’s journey is the structure of life, they see their own lives, trials, and triumphs within it. If you’d like to see the steps in the journey, with brief explanations from me, quotes by Campbell, and examples go here.
Hero tales are just as often present in folktales as they are in myths. It’s a good example of what the mythologist Mircea Eliade says about the power of folk narrative. I can't find the book with the quote I'm remembering, but here's the gist of it. Eliade says that a culture's foundational myths were often the domain of the privileged, religious stratas of society and not available to everyday people. Nonetheless, he says the folk always find a way to talk about what is really important through long significant stories like hero tales. And so we have wonderful hero-folktales like The Water of Life which teaches us to listen to the least amongst us and to take the long view.
I don't tell The Water of Life, but I wish I did. Do any of you tell it? This month I'm going to be writing about both hero tales and about love stories. As I've thought about it, It occurs to me that many love stories are also hero tales. A good example is one of my all time favorites, The Underground Forest, collected by Howard Schwartz in Gabriel's Palace. Another is Diarmud's Longing, Laura Simms retelling of a great Irish hero/love tale in her book The Robe of Love. This one is especially excruciating since if Diarmud is successful in his quest to save his love, he loses his love for her. I'll write more about love stories in a few days
So . . . for now. Do you have a favorite hero story? Tell us about it!
Leave a Reply