• Who were the Celts?
• Are the tales from the Celts more myth (based-in religious worship), folklore (tales of heroes, historical or fantastical), or both?
• What different “cycles” are found in Celtic mythology?
• Who are some of the more important figures from Celtic Mythology?

The resource material for this episode came from:

• Celtic Myth Podshow (http://celticmythpodshow.com/)
• Tee Morris: Podcasting for Dummies (http://www.teemorris.com/)
• Sacred Texts (http://www.sacred-texts.com/)
• Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/)
• Corpus of Electronic Texts (http://www.ucc.ie/celt/)
• Mary Jones (http://www.maryjones.us/)

Other Podcasts and websites mentioned during this essay/interview include:

• Chasing the Bard (http://www.chasingthebard.com/)
• Jakers!: The Adventures of Piggley Winks (http://pbskids.org/jakers/index.html)
• Jennifer Lockett (http://indianajen.com/)

Music prodived by Jon Schmidt

No Transcripts for Interviews

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• Official Enchanted Website
• Enchanted on Wikipedia
• Enchanted on IMDB

Podcasts Mentioned:

• Dancing with Elephants
• The Podsafe Christmas Podcast

Music prodived by Jon Schmidt

Live Discussion, No transcripts available

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This is NOT, I repeat NOT, a podfading announcement. I will continue to work on releasing episodes for both the Myth Show and Myth Minute. I have been creating lists of topics to cover, interviews to conduct, and researching the suggested topics from your emails and comments. The challenge is to find time to write the essays and turn the mike on when the chores are done and the kids are asleep.

I ask that you enjoy the past episodes available on the different web sites. To keep tabs on me while I try to squeak out shows, please visit the “MythPodcast.com” blog, follow my occasional tweets on twitter.com/gregorylemon or join me on Facebook. Links are over at the blog. I have been adding web links to interesting articles on the MythPodcast.com blog that would be great topics for shows, time willing. I hope that you’ll find them as interesting as I have.
Well, that’s it for tonight. Please stay subscribed as new shows will be coming as time permits. In the mean time, I’ll include some promos for some podcasts that I’ve been enjoying on my commutes to and from work.
Thanks everybody, Now go share a story.

This music for the Myth Show and Myth Minute podcasts is graciously provided by Jon Schmidt and is available at jonschmidt.com.

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• Unedited Show hosted at Podango
• Orange County Podcasters

Podcast Bumpers (In order of recording at the expo, not appearance in the show):

• Bob Wright
• Charles Stricklin
• Mignon Fogarty
• Jason Van Orden
• Ron Ploof
• Stephen Eley
• Sheila Unwin
• Chris Christensen
• Paul Colligan
• Mur Lafferty
• Jason Adams
• Matthew Wayne Selznick
• Allison Sheridan
• Don Dehm
• Chuck Tomasi
• Steve Riekeberg
• Kreg Steppe
• Tee Morris
• Michael R. Mennenga
• Cian Mac Mahon
• Dr. Floyd, Dr. Grant, Dr. Steve, and Fidgert
• Jason Watts
• Dennis Gray
• Rob Walch

Music provided by Jon Schmidt

No transcript provided for this live recording.

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John Lenahan:

• http://www.johnlenahan.com/
• http://www.magicguy.co.uk/
• http://youtube.com/user/Magicguyuk

Shadowmagic:

• http://www.shadowmagic.co.uk/
• PodioBooks.com http://podiobooks.com/title/shadowmagic/

Essay References:

• Wikipedia Article on The Táin
• Old-Irish Alphabet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham

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• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
  • Troll
  • Ogre
• Wiktionary
  • Troll
• Wikipedia
  • Trolls
  • Trolls (Middle-earth)
  • Discworld
  • Trolls (Discworld)
  • Billy Goats Gruff
  • Ogre (Warcraft)
  • Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears
• Links to full tale texts
  • Dapplegrim
  • Little Thumb
  • The Ogre’s Wife
• Other References
  • Orcus
  • WilliamSteig.com

Podcasts Mentioned:

• Orange County Podcasters
• Podcast Brothers
• Spoken Lore - EDIT: New link (3/13/2008)

Music prodived by Jon Schmidt

Click “Read More” to see the transcript

Transcript

Welcome to the Myth Show, where timeless stories are discussed and brought to life. I am your host, Gregory Lemon and this is episode nine. This show is for those who would like to know more about the wide and fascinating field of mythology, folk lore, and fairy tales.

During this episode I’ll discuss Trolls and Ogres, defined in traditional and modern settings. After the essay I’ll share some updates about the MythShow and what is coming in the future.

The music for this podcast is provided by Jon Schmidt at jonschmidt.com

Main Topic: Fairy Tale Bad Guys – Trolls, Ogres, and Giants

The essay for this episode started began as a comment left on the MythShow.com web site. A portion of the post written by “L-M” says:

Thanks for this wonderful podcast. I’m an aspiring librarian and it’s wonderful to be able to combine education relevant to my future job and podcasts. [...] I have been wondering about the difference between a troll and an ogre. Here (in Norway) they’re always referred to as trolls (though it’s of course pronounced differently in Norwegian than in English). I’ve heard troll used in English as well, but until the movie Shrek I’d never heard the expression ogre.

What a great topic. Through this essay, I’ll define the characteristics of and differences between trolls and ogres. I’ll use traditional and modern examples throughout the essay.

Most of the traditional examples that I will use in this essay comes from Andrew Lang’s “Coloured Fairy Books”. These books were originally compiled between 1889 and 1910 and are now in the United States public domain. Andrew Lang did not write these tales but selected the tales that others translated from other languages. These books represent the first time many of these tales were translated into English. Another book I found tales in was “The Oak-Tree Fairy Book” by Clifton Johnson. (Links to these books will be in the show notes.) Modern examples will come from a variety of sources, but primarily modern fantasy.

Trolls Defined

I began researching trolls by looking at the etymology of the word. Something interesting was that the English word “troll” has two different sources. Using the Merriam-Webster English dictionary, the first couple of definitions used the worlds that descended form the Middle English and Anglo-French languages. This “troll” described a style of fishing where the bait is usually pulled through the water, often behind a boat.

It was when I looked for the Norwegian etymology, I found the kind of troll that I was looking for. A troll was defined as “A supernatural being, [...] especially a grotesque humanoid creature living in caves or hills or under bridges.”

Traditional Definitions for Trolls

The usage of trolls through earlier literature describes trolls on the sliding scale from very monster to very human. The following comes from the Wikipedia entry on Trolls:

“[The] of two main traditions regarding the use of troll can be discerned. In the first tradition, the troll is large, brutish and a direct descendant from the Norse jötnar. They are often described as ugly or having beastly features like tusks or cyclopic eyes. This is the tradition which has come to dominate fairy tales and legends, but it is also the prominent concept of troll in Norway. As a rule of thumb, what would be called a ‘troll’ in Norway would in Denmark and Sweden be a ‘giant’ [...].

“The second tradition is most prominent in southern Scandinavia. Conversely, what would be called trolls in southern Sweden and Denmark would be called huldrefolk in Norway and vitterfolk in northern Sweden. The south-Scandinavian term probably originate in a generalization of the terms haugtrold (mound-troll) or bergtroll (mountain-troll), as trolls in this tradition are residents of the underground.

“These trolls are very human-like in appearance. Sometimes they had a tail hidden in their clothing, but even that is not a definite. Many of these trolls had a single lock of hair that no human could comb, whereas the rest was generally messy. A frequent way of telling a human-looking troll in folklore is to look at what it is wearing: Troll women in particular were often too elegantly dressed to be human women moving around in the forest. They could attract human males to do their bidding, or simply as mates or pets. Later these would be found wandering, decades later, with no memory of what had happened to them in a troll woman’s care.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolls)

When trying to find an example of Trolls in a Fairy Tale, I found the story of “Dapplegrim.” In this Norwegian fairy tale, the youngest of twelve sons and his horse named “Dapplegrim” rescue the king’s daughter who has been taken off by a troll up into the high mountains. The troll was not described at all but was the obstacle for the young man and his horse.

Another fairy tale example of a troll come from the Norwegian story of the Billy Goats Gruff. Here the three billy goats want to cross a bridge but is blocked by the troll under the bridge.

Modern Examples of Trolls

I seemed to be able to find recent examples of trolls easier than those used in traditional tales. In modern fantasy, trolls are often described as large humanoid monsters that have little intelligence. It seems the Norse “jötnar” definition of trolls is most used today. In the fantastical world of Middle Earth that served as the setting for Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”, trolls were threatening creatures that were often found working for the evil influences or at least against the protagonist and his fellow heroes. Tolkien created many sub-types of trolls just as different kind of trolls could be found in traditional fairy tales. His trolls included stone, hill, cave, mountain, snow and the unpronounceable Olg-hai.

Trolls also appear in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. It was a dim-witted mountain troll in the girls bathroom that solidified the friendship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione during their first year at Hogwarts.

In Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld novels, he provides an excellent contrast to the traditional roles that trolls often play in literature. His trolls have become a more civilized race, working in different professions and integrating with other races. While they are still humanoid in shape, they are made of a “metamorphorical rock”. The differences of mannerisms an intelligence between the trolls in his books depends of the stones of minerals that the trolls are made of.

Ogres Defined

Going back to the original question, L-M had not heard the term “ogre” until seeing the movie Shrek, which features the ogre portrayed by Mike Meyers using a Scottish accent. Merriam-Websters describes an ogre as “a hideous giant of fairy tales and folklore that feeds on human beings.” This may explain why during the opening scene of Shrek we see his with clear jars of eyeballs.

Merriam-Webster suggests that it is possible that “ogre” comes from the Latin name “Orcus”, god of the underworld and equivalent to the Greek God, Hades.

Traditional Definitions for Ogres

In the traditional definitions that I found of ogres, there was no mention of any physical characteristics that made them look any different that normals humans. In the tale of “Little Thumb” we meet a particularly cruel ogre. As you may remember from the previous fairy tale essay, I discussed the Aarne-Thompson method of classifying similar fairy tales. Little Thumb and the story of Hansel and Gretal are very similar. Both are about children of a poor patents that abandoned them in the woods. Where Hansel and Gretal found the witch living in the Gingerbread and candy house, Little Thumb, a boy the size of a man’s thumb, and his brothers try to find shelter in the house of an ogre and his wife. Here is a portion of that tale.

“They came at last to the house where this candle was, not without an abundance of fear: for very often they lost sight of it[...]. They knocked at the door, and a good woman came and opened it; she asked them what they would have.

“Little Thumb told her they were poor children who had been lost in the forest, and desired to lodge there for God’s sake.

“The woman, seeing them so very pretty, began to weep, and said to them:

“’Alas! poor babies; whither are ye come? Do ye know that this house belongs to a cruel ogre who eats up little children?’

“’Ah! dear madam,’ answered Little Thumb (who trembled every joint of him, as well as his brothers), ‘what shall we do? To be sure the wolves of the forest will devour us to-night if you refuse us to lie here; and so we would rather the gentleman should eat us; and perhaps he may take pity upon us, especially if you please to beg it of him.’

“The Ogre’s wife, who believed she could conceal them from her husband till morning, let them come in, and brought them to warm themselves at a very good fire; for there was a whole sheep upon the spit, roasting for the Ogre’s supper.”

“As they began to be a little warm they heard three or four great raps at the door; this was the Ogre, who had come home. Upon this she hid them under the bed and went to open the door. The Ogre presently asked if supper was ready and the wine drawn, and then sat himself down to table. The sheep was as yet all raw and bloody; but he liked it the better for that.”

Some things to note from this story are about the ogre’s wife. She was described as a “good woman” who had compassion on the children. She was never called an “ogress”, meaning a female ogre, so I don’t know if she was considered human or not. Also, she had to warn the children that an ogre lived there. I take that to mean that it was not obvious that an ogre lived there. Now, if Princess Fiona, the ogress wife of Shrek came to the door, you would know that she was an ogress but looking at her. But that was not the case here.

Now about the ogre, himself, after the children were informed that the good woman’s husband was an ogre, Little Thumb still referred to him as a gentleman. The definition of “gentleman” has changed since this tale was written. Traditionally, a “gentleman” was a man from a good family but not quite royalty who did not need to work for support. Today, a gentleman describes anyone with the positive characteristics a man should have. Any Jane Austin fans may be able to think of some quote-unquote “gentleman” who are not very gentlemanly. I would believe that Little Thumb is using the term gentleman in it original context

To be fair, some of the other ogre stories that I found also had no description of what the ogre’s looked like but the illustrations did show monstrous features. One story, entitled “The Ogre’s Wife” tells the story of a pretty girl who refused all of the potential suitors for some reason. Finally, her father said that whoever retrieves a pumpkin from the tall pole would win her hand in marriage. This passage describes the potential suitors:

“The daughter said she did not object; but her reason for not objecting was that she did not think any young man could climb so slender and lofty a pole. They sent notices far and wide and appointed a day for the climbers to show their agility. When the day came a crowd of young men presented themselves, and the last to arrive was handsomer and more beautifully dressed than any of the others. He was an ogre in disguise, but nobody knew him, and the young girl admired his appearance so much that she said to her mother, ‘I hope he will get the pumpkin’”

Well, this ogre did get the pumpkin and took her home. On the way back, the ogre was approached by many men asking for the clothing he borrowed back. By the end, the ogre had none of the fine clothing. Nothing was mentioned about his physical appearance changing, just that he no longer had the fine clothing. Regardless how he was dressed, he was a terrible husband and the young girl was eventually able to escape.

With these examples, it seems that the traditional definition of ogre is more related to the actions of the ogre, than being a different “species” than us homo sapiens. These ogres are horrible people, often cannibals. It is possible that the first time that an ogre was seen in a positive light, was Shrek.

Modern Examples of Ogres

The first modern example I’ll talk about is, of course, Shrek. The movie was loosely-based on the book “Shrek!” by William Steig. From the author’s web site, he describes the book by saying: (quote) “Shrek, a horrid little ogre, goes out into the world to find adventure and along the way encounters a witch, a knight in armor, a dragon, and, finally, a hideous princess, who’s even uglier than he is!” (end-quote). Steig’s web site had some sample pages from the book and Shrek is pretty ugly. I want to emphasize that the movie was very loosely based on the book. In fact, one of the pictures shows Shrek’s parents kicking him out of the swamp.

The other examples of modern ogres can be found in many different fantasy stories. Unlike the ogres from traditional tales, these ogres more closely resemble the “jötnar” trolls. Blizzard, the software creators behind the Warcraft series and World of Warcraft uses ogres as one of the species that populates these worlds. They are a strong species between six and fifteen feet in height. Some of these ogres even have two heads.

My favorite ogres come from “Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears”, a cartoon show from the mid-to-late 1980’s. They are the henchmen for the main protagonist that served as the comical relief for the animated cartoon. More often than not, they foiled their master’s evil plans.

Conclusion

This concludes this essay describing trolls and ogres from traditional tales and modern fantasy. I hope that this answers your question L-M. I enjoyed researching these subjects because of the many things that I found out about other than trolls and ogres. I found a bit about giants and other “fairy tale bad guys”, and I found a lot of great resources that will be very useful for future essays.

The resources for this essay came from many different web sites including: the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary for the words troll and ogre. Wikipedia provided information on trolls and ogres, trolls from Middle-Earth, Discworld, Blizzard’s Warcraft, Disney’s Gummi Bear Adventures, and the Billy Goat’s Gruff. The tales of “Dapplegrim” and “Little Thumb” came from Andrew Lang’s Coloured Fairy Books found at MythFolkLore.net/andrewlang. The tale of “The Ogre’s Wife” came from mainlesson.com; Orcus, came from pantheon.org; and finally, information about the book “Shrek” that inspired the movie could be found at williamsteig.com.

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• “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” (ISBN 0-691-01784-0)
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar_Cars
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Cars_characters
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317219/ (Cars)

Podcasts Mentioned:

• The Joe Murphy Memorial Fund

Music prodived by Jon Schmidt

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Transcript

Welcome to the Myth Show, where timeless stories are discussed and brought to life. I am your host, Gregory Lemon and this is episode eight. This show is for those who would like to know more about the wide and fascinating field of mythology, folk lore, and fairy tales.
During this episode I’ll take one fictional character through all seventeen steps of the monomyth as described in the book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, written by Joseph Campbell in 1948. These steps were discussed in detail in Episodes 4, 5, and 6.
The music for this podcast is provided by Jon Schmidt at jonschmidt.com

Main Topic: An example through the Hero’s Journey

While I was preparing the three previous essays that discussed the seventeen steps of the monomyth, I enjoyed the wide variety of heroes and mythologies that Joseph Campbell used as examples. At the end of the monomyth section, I was disappointed that I didn’t see a summary of the monomyth that took one character through all seventeen steps. So, I decided to write my own.
The challenge was to find a hero that had enough experiences to cover all of the steps. The obvious solution could have been from my collection of books written by J. K. Rowling, C. S. Lewis, or J. R. R. Tolkien. These were excellent choices and I did use a lot of examples from Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings in the original three essays, but I wanted to write something unexpected. I may write an essay on these heroes in the future but there is more to mythology than the monomyth. (Not that you could tell that from this podcast).
A possible solution came to me on a Saturday afternoon while I was watching movies with my kids. Santa Claus brought my daughters a new movie which they were enjoying over, and over, and over again. I was writing one of the original monomyth essays while I was watching this movie and started to notice some of the same events that I was reading in Campbell’s book. The movie was “Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Now before you turn this off, or skip to your next podcast, relax. I’m not going to use Barbie as an example of the monomyth. My son and I are severely outnumbered, but come on. Anyways, I will say that I was surprised on the good job that they did in the story treatment and quality of animation. It must have been on my eighth or ninth viewing of the movie when I began to appreciate how they took the fairy tale of the Soldier, who discovered the secret of the twelve princess, was transformed into a heroic journey for Barbie to save her father’s kingdom and marrying the handsome royal shoemaker.
For the sanity of my only son, and honestly my own, I sometimes override the choice of the movie and pick a movie with a little more testosterone. Or as much testosterone a rated “G” movie for kids could have. My son also received a movie from Santa Claus, but honestly that is the excuse because he was only 20 months old at the time. The movie was for me. The move was Disney/Pixar’s Cars.
Needless to say, this essay will discuss plot points for the movie and this show will contain spoilers. But, come on. It’s “G” rated Disney movie. You could probably have guessed the ending already. Anyways, I just wanted to warn you just in case you haven’t seen it yet.
On a side note to any lawyers who may be listening, please don’t sue me. I understand that all characters discussed in this essay are protected by copyrights and trademarked by their respective owners. I hope those who own these copyrights will see this as free publicity for their creations and not an infringement. Also, I will not be using any audio clips from the movie. (End of Disclaimer)

Summary of the Story

Now for everyone who hasn’t seen Cars, here is a spoiler-filled outline of what happens in the movie. Cars is a computer animated movie from 2006 that follows the journey of the self-absorbed, egotistical, yet talented anthropomorphic car “Lightning McQueen” as he tries to be the first rookie to win the “Piston Cup”. In the last race of the season, Lightning ties at the finish line with two other cars, Strip “The King” Weathers and Chick Hicks. While there are no ties in Nascar, the Piston Cup, the officials announce a tie-breaking race will be held in California in one week’s time.
As Lightning and his semi truck driver, Mack, drive through the night to California, Lightning becomes separated and ends up in the forgotten town of Radiator Springs. In a car chase with the Sheriff, Lightning destroys the portion of Historic Route 66 that goes through town. He was sentenced by the local Judge, Doc Hudson to fix the road with a giant asphalt paving machine.
Over the week, Lightning warms up to the local cars and they begin to embrace him as one of their own. Near the end of the week, Lightning is found by the outside world and Mack drives him to California. Before he left, Lightning helped most of the town citizens by buying products or services from each of their stores.
In the final race, Lightning sacrifices his place in history as the first rookie to win the Piston Cup to help the King cross the finish line after the accident caused by Chick Hicks. Lightning may have lost the race, but won the hearts of the crowd and others.
While I was able to find the steps of the hero’s journey in the movie they were not in the same order as Campbell presented them in his book. I’ll follow Campbell’s order rather than the order of the events in the movie.
As I said in the introduction, I wanted to find a hero and track his journey. As I go through these steps, I had to look for some of the steps more diligently that others. It could easily be said that you find what you look for. I don’t know if Pixar had the monomyth in mind when writing the Cars screen play but we’ll just pretend the did.
And now for the journey!

Stage 1. The Separation:

Just for a review, here is the first part of Campbell’s description of his monomyth steps:
“The first great stage, that of the separation or departure, will be shown…in five subsections: (1) “The Call to Adventure,” or the signs of the vocation of the hero; (2) “Refusal of the Call,” or the folly of the flight from the god; (3) “Supernatural Aid,” the unsuspected assistance that comes to one who has undertaken his proper adventure; (4) “The Crossing of the First Threshold”; and (5) “The Belly of the Whale,” or the passage into the realm of night. (p. 36-37)

Step 1. The Call to Adventure

In most situations, this call becomes the subject of the story or the plot of the movie. For Lightning, he thinks his call to adventure comes over the Public Announcement System when the tie breaking race in California is announced.
While this may be the obvious choice, but I don’t think that it is. We need to look at Lightning as the potential hero and observes how he grows over the course of the journey. He doesn’t grow in skill as a driver. He ran his first race at the beginning of the movie a lot better than the race at the end.
The call to adventure is not always the destination, but the road leading to the destination. The adventure is in the hero’s growth. The growth that Lightning experiences is in his ability to have and appreciate friends. As cheesy as it sounds, the call to adventure for this movie is the call to find friendship.

Step 2. Refusal of the Call

The refusal of the call happened during the first race when Lightning refused the help and friendship around him. Let’s admit it, Lightning was a jerk. He alienated the people who tried to help him. Three different crew chiefs quit on him during the one season he’s been racing. His arrogance at the end of the first race was so bad his entire crew quit on him.
Another example of Lightnings Refusal was his initial refusal to pave the road he destroyed in Radiator Springs. It was through his paving the road that he learned the lessons of the journey.

Step 3. Supernatural Aid

The next step of “Supernatural Aid” contains the protective figure who provides help to our hero in some way. There were two candidates for this role. King, the current Piston Cup champion and Doc, the old-time champion. Both racers provided Lightning with advice that he initially rejected. King tried to help him out after the first race and Doc tried to help him on the dirt race track. Lightning eventually did use their advice which put him in the winning position in the final race.
But if I had to pick one character for this step, I’d pick King because Doc is more involved in later steps as another character. Another reason is that Lightning is able to help King at the end of the last race. I think it is a “student becomes the master” moment where Lighting shares the advice Doc gave him. That winning the cup isn’t the most important goal, in fact, “It’s just an empty cup.”

Step 4. The Crossing of the First Threshold

The symbolism of the thresholds in the movie are found in the highways that Mack and Lightning are traveling. The “Mother Road” on Route 66 is significantly more important as it is on the Mother Road that we meet the Threshold Guardian, embodied by the Sheriff.
As Lightning is frantically trying to find the interstate and Mack, he speeds pas a sleepy Sheriff’s speed trap. The local sheriff begins to follow him with sirens going. Instead of stopping, Lightening goes through a chain of events through the forgotten town of Radiator Spring destroying the main road and other property and landing himself in jail, or the impound.

Step 5. The Belly of the Whale

The Belly of the Whale step is very closely tied to the crossing of the thresholds. The whale symbolism in this movie is found twice. The first and best example is Mack’s trailer that Lightning is “swallowed” by as they leave for the first race for California. The second, and more symbolic example, is the night. These two examples are show at the same time and on two occasions. When Lightning enters the trailer to go to California but ends up in Radiator Springs and when he gets in the trailer to actually go to California, it is evening and approaching night time.
I initially thought that Mack’s trailer would be the threshold itself but I abandoned that idea when I identified Sheriff as the threshold guardian. The Sheriff didn’t guard Mack’s trailer, but the Mother Road. Also, Mack’s trailer carries Lightning across the threshold as it is part of the real world.

Stage 2. The Initiation:

Here is the second part of Campbell’s quote:
“The stage of the trials and victories of initiation will appear…in six subsections: (6) “The Road of Trials,” or the dangerous aspect of the gods; (7) “The Meeting with the Goddess”…or the bliss of infancy regained; (8) “Woman as the Temptress,” the realization and agony of Oedipus; (9) “Atonement with the Father”; (10) “Apotheosis”; and (11) “The Ultimate Boon.”

Step 6. The Road of Trails

The neat part of the Road of Trials step in Cars is that they are somewhat associated with an actual road, in this case, Route 66 or the Mother Road.
As Lightning began to face his trails during the movie, he began by failing them. Lighting’s failure in his encounter with the threshold guardian, the Sheriff, resulted in the destruction of the road. When Doc challenged Lightning to a race, Lightning again failed due to his arrogance and lack of experience racing on dirt.
The turning point on his road of trials came in the pasture where he and Mater, the local tow truck, were tipping tractors. Lightning successfully tipped all of the tractors by revving his engine. He was also successful in escaping from Frank the Combine. There, Lightning’s luck changed and he was able to fix the road, learn to race on dirt and redeem himself from his earlier failures.

Step 7. The Meeting with the Goddess

I had a couple of options in picking the goddess who Lightning would meet. Since Lightning is a male, I began looking at the female characters. Had the hero been a woman, I would have included the male characters in my search. One important part of identifying the Gods and Goddesses is to not get hung up on their gender but on how the character fills the role.
I first went to Sally Carrera, a 2002 Porsche Carrera, as a possibility for the goddess, but I needed to remember not to confuse the romantic interest with the goddess. The goddess that Lightning has to meet needs to be associated with a trial or test that he had to pass in order to continue on his journey.
The character that I identified as the goddess, was not a main character, she didn’t even have any speaking lines. The goddess was Bessie. Who’s Bessie, you ask? Bessie is the name given to the road paving machine that Lightning had to drag at a snails pace to fix the road.
I chose Bessie because she was the symbolic and literal obstacle that was keeping Lightning in town. To leave town, Bessie would have to be on the other end of the road with smooth pavement behind her. Lightning challenged Bessie’s role as his captor when he tried to speed up the process of fixing the road by quickly laying down the asphalt that he later had to scrape up.
When Lightning was put in his place, humbled, and respectful of Bessie’s role as the goddess, he could begin to accomplish the task before him.

Step 8. Woman as the Temptress

When I tried to find the woman as the temptress, I went back to Sally, as she was the romantic interest, to see if she filled the role. She did. Twice.
The temptress tries to keep the hero from completing his journey and becoming the best hero that he could be. Lightning is a race can and a part of his journey is to be the best race car that he can be. While his call to adventure is to friendship, Lightning needs to eventually leave Radiator Springs to complete his journey. He can come back, and does, but he must leave first.
The two times that Sally acted as the temptress was when she invited Lightning to go for a drive. He had the opportunity to escape with his newly filled tank of gas. But he chose to drive with her to the Wheel Well Hotel. Not only did he not leave town, but a day that could have been spent fixing the road was spent being very distracted. It is the memories of this drive with Sally that causes Lightning some difficulties during his final race.
The second time came when Lightning was about to leave Radiator Springs with Mack. Lightning almost stayed, she had successfully tempted him away from the real world. He probably would have stayed if Sally not told him to go.

Step 9. Atonement with the Father

I believe the Father figure in this movie was quite obvious, and that was Doc. The process of atonement or reconciliation with Doc required Lightning to act against Doc’s view that race cars are self-centered and egotistical good-for-nothings. The process began when Doc quietly admitted that Lightning did a good job fixing the first segment of the road. It suffered a set back when Lightning rejected Doc’s help on how to race on dirt. The process of atonement was restarted as the town was being fixed-up and Lightning helped all of the residents. The atonement was complete when Lightning helped King to the finish line, proving Lightning’s true change of heart, and admitting that the Piston Cup was “just an empty cup.”

Step 10. Apotheosis

The step of apotheosis or becoming the father or god began when Lightning discovered that Doc was a retired race car. Discovering Doc’s Piston Cups and watching Doc race helped Lightning to realize that he could learn something from Doc and he quickly regretted not listening to the advice Doc previously offered.
The true point of apotheosis comes during the final race when Lighting takes things learned from his time in Radiator Springs and used it to position himself for the win. This includes driving backwards using rear view mirrors and driving on the dirt infield during a spin-out that helped him take the lead. Even though he did not win the race, or the cup, as Doc had, it was Lightning’s to give up. He became the race car that Doc would be proud to know.

Step 11. The Ultimate Boon

Determining what was the ultimate boon for this story was tricky because, from the hero’s point of view, it changed during course of the movie. In the beginning, the perceived ultimate boon was to win the Piston Cup and become the new official race car for Dinoco after the King retires.
As Lightning was heading to California in the beginning of the movie, his agent asked for the names of his friends to put on the list to get tickets to for the big race. Lightning realized at that point, he couldn’t name any friends. Later on, Doc asked Lightning if he had done anything nice for anyone. Lightning realized at that point, he couldn’t name anything.
Lightning took these events to heart and later he helped nearly every resident in town by purchasing from their different stores. He helped Sally by showing her what the town might have looked like back in its hay-day.
Finally, he helped Doc regain his faith in racing and restored his stature in the community that he lost in the race track crash that ended his racing career.

Stage 3. The Return:

Here is the last third of Campbell’s quote:
“The return and reintegration with society, which is indispensable to the continuous circulation of spiritual energy into the world, and which, from the standpoint of the community, is the justification of the long retreat,…[will be shown in] six subheadings: (12) “Refusal of the Return,” or the world denied; (13) “The Magic Flight,” or the escape of Prometheus; (14) “Rescue from Without”; (15) “The Crossing of the Return Threshold,” or the return to the world of common day; (16) “Master of the Two worlds”; and (17) “Freedom to Live,” the nature and function of the ultimate boon.” (end quote - p. 36-37)

Steps 12, 13 & 14. the Refusal of the Return, The Magic Flight, and the Rescue from Without

The next three step follow each other in very rapid succession. The refusal came when Mack and the rest of the media came to bring Lightning back to the “real” world. Lightning didn’t want to go. He had fallen for the temptress, Sally, and was ready to abandon his journey. Luckily for him, Sally told him it was okay to go and he left, returning to the world he left behind.
The magic flight out of the fantastical world in this story had been combined with the crossing of the return threshold. Mack the truck carries Lightning out of Radiator Springs and onto California. The events surrounding this is discussed a little more when we talk about crossing the return threshold.
During Lightning’s stay in Radiator Springs, he became more attached to the people there. It is easy to imagine that he would give up the California race if that meant he could stay with Sally and the residents of the town. The sweet ambrosia of friendship he tasted there was more powerful that the desire to have the Piston Cup.
As demonstrated in the movie, there were three aspects to this rescue from without. First is how the media was notified by Doc of Lightning’s location. Second, is Mack with the media entourage barreling into town to take Lightning away. And third, Harv the agent reminds Lighting about the Race, Dinoco, and his rival Chick Hicks. Doc, Mack, Harv, and the media each helped to rescue Lightning. Reluctantly, he allows himself to be rescued and backs into Mack’s trailer for the magic flight to California.

15. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

In the step of crossing the return threshold, we see the return of the Sheriff in his role as the threshold guardian. He and Sally stopped Lightning from leaving by siphoning his gas tank on his first night in the impound. Later, the Sheriff almost had to go after him before Sally and Lightning went on their ride to the Wheel Well.
After Lightning finishes paving the road, and thus completing his road of trials, the Sheriff changes his demeanor and is ready to give Lightning a police escort to help Lightning get to the race on time. In the Sheriff’s role as the threshold guardian, he has released Lightning from “captivity” and it is now Lightning’s “refusal to return” that is keeping him there.
Lightning crosses the return threshold as he takes his magical flight in Mack’s trailer. One part of crossing the return threshold is that the fantastical world, or the world forgotten, becomes forgotten again. Lightning had become a catalyst of life and energy culminating with everyone in Radiator Springs cruising under the neon lights. When Lightning had left town, Doc finally got what he originally wanted. After a tongue lashing from Sally, Doc quietly sat there as everyone left him alone. He sat there thinking about what he had done as the neon lights turned off, one by one. The world forgotten returned to its anonymity as Doc sat on the darkened road, under the traffic light’s flashing yellow signal. Perhaps the saddest moment in the movie.

16. Master of the Two Worlds

The second to last step in the journey is when the hero becomes the master of the two worlds. This is done by finding the ultimate boon and sharing it with those around him. Since the Ultimate boon in the gift of friendship, it is shared in two situations. First, Lightning shares his friendship to the residents of Radiator Springs when he becomes the customer of all of their stores. They share their friendship back when they show up to be his pit crew. Most notably is Doc acting as the crew chief. Lightning did not show his friendship to Doc in the same manner as he did to the others until he helped King across the finish line. Another large sharing of friendship is where he arranges for Mater to take a helicopter ride over Radiator Springs.

17. Freedom to Live

The Freedom to live is shown primarily in the epilogue after the race. Lightning has merged his two worlds together and can now freely live in the racing world but still be with his friends, especially Sally. Lightning literally puts Radiator Springs back on the map when he moves his racing headquarters to the the small town. Also, Lightning becomes a new man, or car, as shown by his new paint job, inspired by the classic 1957 Chevy.

Essay Conclusion

Well, those are the seventeen steps. I hope that you enjoyed this full example of the monomyth using the movie, Cars. I had a lot of fun delving deeper into a movie that I enjoy and analyzing its different elements. Hopefully, this essay will change the way that you read, listen, or watch other stories. Even if you won’t find the elements of the monomyth in everything, the searching and detailed analysis can help you appreciate the story more.
A friend of mine was telling me about a college course in children’s literature that she is taking for Continuing Education credits. She enjoyed reading the text book and how it helped her to understand the different aspects that go into writing good literature. She said that while she will never write books for children, learning about the process and what goes into it helped her to appreciate those who do write even more.
After these four essays on the monomyth, I hope that you are able to appreciate the stories all around us even more.

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Main Topic: Interview with Mur Lafferty
- Heaven promo from PodioBooks.com (http://www.podiobooks.com/)
- Heaven – Season One (http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/book.php?ID=97)
- Heaven – Season Two: Hell (http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/book.php?ID=112)

Essay References:
- Pastiche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastiche)

Podcasts Mentioned:
- Mur’s Podcasts
. http://www.geekfuactiongrip.com/
. http://shouldwrite.blogspot.com/
. http://pseudopod.org/
- Steve Eley’s Podcast (http://escapepod.org/)
- George Hrab’s Music (http://www.geologicrecords.net/)
- George Hrab’s Podcast (http://geologicpodcast.com/)
- The Joe Murphy Memorial Fund (http://joemurphymemorialfund.org/)

Music prodived by Jon Schmidt
- http://www.jonschmidt.com

A transcript will be provided for this interview

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Music provided by Jon Schmidt
- http://www.jonschmidt.com

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Main Topic: Monomyth-Separation Defined
- This show covers the thrid of the three sections of the monomyth as described by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” (ISBN 0-691-01784-0)
- This show was featured in a P.A.P Smear on the Podholes Podcast. Click here to read the post about this show.

Sections of the Monomyth:
- Separation
- Initiation
- Return

Essay References:
- “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” (ISBN 0-691-01784-0)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek
- http://scriptures.lds.org
- http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/perseus.html
- http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/jason.html
- http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gorgons.html

Podcasts Mentioned:
- http://www.dancingwithelephants.com

Music Provided by Jon Schmidt:
- http://www.jonschmidt.com

Next Episode:
- A full Monomyth Example

Click “Read the Article” to see the transcript

Transcript

Welcome to the Myth Show, where timeless stories are discussed and brought to life. I am your host, Gregory Lemon and this is episode six. This show is for those who would like to know more about the wide and fascinating field of mythology, folk lore, and fairy tales.

During this episode we’ll discuss the final third of the Monomyth, the Return, as described in the book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, written by Joseph Campbell in 1948. Episode Four discussed the the Separation and Episode Five covered the Initiation.

The music for this podcast is provided by Jon Schmidt at jonschmidt.com

Main Topic: “Monomyth – the Return”

Often the hero who has left will returns home to complete his journey. Think of Odysseus who had finally returned home after the wars of Troy in the journey of the Odyssey. Some examples of the hero journey are more cyclical in nature. J. K. Rowling’s hero, Harry Potter begins a hero’s journey every year he goes to school only to return back to Privet Drive at the end. (On a side note, Harry begins his last journey in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows on July 21, 2007 for those in the US and UK. I will be in line at the local bookstore July 20^th for the Midnight release parties! Now back to the essay.)

The process of the hero returning and concluding his journey takes six steps. From pg 36 of his book, Campbell states: (quote) “The return and reintegration with society, which is indispensable to the continuous circulation of spiritual energy into the world, and which, from the standpoint of the community, is the justification of the long retreat,…[will be shown in] six subheadings: (12) “Refusal of the Return,” or the world denied; (13) “The Magic Flight,” or the escape of Prometheus; (14) “Rescue from Without”; (15) “The Crossing of the Return Threshold,” or the return to the world of common day; (16) “Master of the Two worlds”; and (17) “Freedom to Live,” the nature and function of the ultimate boon.” (p. 36) The original numbering in the quote was changed to match the section numbering for this essay series.

12. Refusal of the Return

During our last essay, we left our hero as he had achieved the Ultimate Boon. Now that the hero has the boon in whatever form it takes, he now has the responsibility to share the boon with those he left behind when he started the journey.

About the responsibility to share the boon, Campbell states that:

“the responsibility has [been] frequently refused. Even the Buddha, after his triumph, doubted whether the message of realization could be communicated, and saints are reported to have passed away in the supernal ecstasy. Numerous indeed are the heroes fabled to have taken up residence forever in the blessed isle of the unaging Goddess of Immortal Being.” (p. 193)

But what fun would the story be if the hero doesn’t go home? What if Frodo never returned to the Shire? Even though it is tempting for the hero to stay in the bliss he found, he will return. Whether they come back on their own or are forced to come back will vary from story-to-story.

13. The Magic Flight

The hero is now ready to return to where his journey began with the Ultimate Boon or Elixir of Life. How the hero achieved the boon is very important to how we see the Magic Flight. Campbell describes the differences by saying (quote) “If the hero in his triumph wins the blessings of the goddess or the god and is then explicitly commissioned to return to the world with some elixir for the restoration of society, the final stage of his adventure is supported by all the powers of his supernatural patron. On the other hand, if the trophy has been attained against the opposition of its guardian, or if the hero’s wish to return to the world has been resented by the gods or demons, then the last stage of the mythological round [becomes] a lively, often comical, pursuit. This flight may be complicated by marvels of magic obstruction and evasion.” (end quote – p. 196-197) So if the gods likes the hero and gave him the boon or elixir, his magic flight will be supported and protected by the gods. If he stole the boon, he better be a runnin’.

Here are two examples of the Magical Flight from Greek Mythology where the hero had to run for his life. The first is the story of Perseus, who killed Medusa and flew away with her head while wearing winged shoes. As he fled, he was chased by the Gorgan Sisters, Euryale and Sthenno. The second is the story of Jason, who went to find the Golden Fleece. Jason obtained the golden fleece with the help of the king’s daughter, Medea. As they both escaped on Jason’s ship, the Argo, they were pursued by Medea’s father, King Aeëtes.

There are some modern examples of the Magical Flight without the pursuit. First comes from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” where Sam and Frodo are carried off Mount Doom with the help of the Eagles. Second, Harry Potter and his friends flew out the Chamber of Secretes holding on the tail of the Phoenix named Fawkes.

All of these heroes participated in the magic flight but they needed help.

14. Rescue from Without

Even though the wants to return home, or is forced to, our hero may need help. He has been in the realm of the immortals or the fantastical. To return to the world of mortals and humanity, our hero needs help from humanity to get back to the real world.

The events demonstrating the rescue may be in the same event as the Magic Flight. If we look at the examples from the Magic Flight step, we will also see the Rescue from Without. Perseus had the help of Hermes, Athena, and the three Graeae who provided the winged shoes. Jason received help from King Aeëtes’ daughter Medea. Tolkien’s Eagles flew into Mordor to rescue Frodo and Sam. Rowling’s phoenix flew into the Chamber of Secretes to rescue Harry, Ginney, Ron, and Gilderoy Lockhart.

There is one difference in the modern examples and those provided by Campbell. The “world” the heroes of Frodo and Harry are rescued from are places of evil and not from the realm of immortals. That is unless you consider Sauron and Lord Voldemort as representatives of gods from whom the heroes need to escape. I don’t know if this nullifies the examples but I still think they effectively demonstrate the Rescue from Without.

15. The Crossing of the Return Threshold

The hero’s journey is circular in nature. The hero leaves and then returns, and sometimes the journey starts again. In the essay on the Separation, we discussed crossing the first threshold. Going through this first threshold, the hero enters the fantastical world that may take the form of a paradise or hell. After the hero has found, earned, or stolen the Ultimate Boon, the hero will need to cross the Return Threshold. This threshold may or may not be the same as the first threshold crossed earlier, meaning the entry point into the fantastical world is not always the exit.

Our hero does not return as the “every man” he was when he crossed the threshold the first time. Our hero returns to the human world as new man armed with the knowledge and experience he gained during the Road of Trails and in his meeting with the God and the Goddess. With the Ultimate Boon he will be able to improve the quality of life of those he left behind to take the journey.

But will the hero be welcomed on his return? Campbell used the story of Rip Van Winkle as an example of a returning hero that was not welcomed back into society. Rip Van Winkle crossed the Return Threshold just by waking up. I thought that this was an odd example because the hero slept the entire time from when he crossed the first threshold by falling asleep and crossed the Return Threshold by waking up. What kind of a heroes journey is it when you spend the entire separation phase asleep?

However, this example does help illustrate the symbolism of the two thresholds. This shows the symbolism of separation can be shown as sleep or death. I recently watched Disney’s Alice in Wonderland with my kids. Even though Alice didn’t know it at the time, she fell asleep before she saw the White Rabbit and followed him into Wonderland. To escape the Queen of Hearts and came back into the human world Alice crossed the return threshold by waking up. A more extreme example of this symbolism for the thresholds is that of death and eventual resurrection. Regardless of the depth the symbolism of the thresholds take, the hero is back in the real world.

16. Master of the Two Worlds

Our hero has successfully returned back to the real world after his times of difficulty and learning on his road of trials. He may or may not have met a threshold guardian on his way back to the real world.

To introduce this topic in his book, Campbell uses the story from the New Testament where Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the place that would be eventually be called the Mount of Transfiguration. This scriptural account covers different steps monomyth, including Crossing the first threshold, Atonement with the Father, The Ultimate Boon, Crossing the Return Threshold, and becoming the Master of the Two Worlds.

From the King James Version of the Gospel of St. Matthew, we receive the following account from the seventeenth chapter verses one through nine.

1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.

4 Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.

5 While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.

7 And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.

8 And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.

9 And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

http://scriptures.lds.org/en/matt/17

Of this experience, Campbell said:

“Here is the whole myth in a moment: Jesus the guide, the way, the vision, and the companion of the return. The disciples are his initiates, not themselves masters of the mystery, yet introduced to the full experience of the paradox of the two worlds in one. [...] Flesh had dissolved before their eyes to reveal the Word. They fell upon their faces, and when they arose the door again was closed. (p. 230)

Looking at the verses carefully, we can see the different steps that I listed before. Verse 1 describes call to adventure by explaining that they went up the mountain. And not only up, but also using the key word “apart” to emphasize the separation between themselves and the world. Verse 2 though 4 describing the apostles receiving the Ultimate Boon of knowledge by seeing Moses and Elias visiting the transfigured Christ. The critical part of this story comes in verse five where Peter, James, and John were overcome by the cloud, crossed the threshold with Jesus as the guardian. This allowed them to hear the Father through atonement and returned back through the threshold and then met Jesus after the vision.

Jesus, as the major hero, and Peter as another hero had the experiences of both worlds to help benefit the world by establishing God’s Kingdom on the earth. Jesus truly became the master of the two worlds closer to the end of his story when he arose from the dead and as a resurrected being. No longer mortal, but as God, he became the master of two worlds.

17. Freedom to Live

In the last step of the hero’s journey, our hero finally has the freedom to live. He has faced all the tests and won, or at least survived. He has crossed the threshold and returned with the Ultimate Boon regardless of it being an object or knowledge. Now he can share the boon with those he originally left behind.

Jesus, from the previous step, now has the freedom to live in full glory as he triumphantly ascends to heaven to be back in His Father’s presence.

The Wikipedia article on the Monomyth provides these examples from the world created by Tolkien: (quote) “In the Lord of the Rings, the hobbits became prominent citizens of the Shire with the wisdom they had gained. Aragon reigns as King for many decades and ushers in a new age of peace and then rebuilds Middle Earth.” (end quote)

And with that, the journey is over. The cowboy can ride into the sunset, Frodo can sail away with the elves, and Luke Skywalker can celebrate in the Ewok village.

Critiques and Concluding Remarks

The book I have used extensively through this series of essays is called “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” Even though there are many myths and legends that follow the pattern Joseph Campbell proposed in his book, there have been more that a thousand heroes.

What I mean by this is that they monomyth is not as universal as its name would imply. Some critics of the hero’s journey said that it focuses too much on classical mythologies and ignored those from Africa and “non-classical” sources.

To Wikipedia’s credit, there is a section criticizing the monomyth in the article I referenced through the essay series.

“American novelist, Kurt Vonnegut satirized Campbell’s view on the monomyth as being excessively complicated by offering his interpretation, called the ‘In the Hole’ theory; loosely defined as ‘The hero gets into trouble. The hero gets our of trouble.’”

With so many different patterns available, how legitimate is the monomyth today? This has become a very famous literary pattern and is used a lot in novels and in Hollywood since Campbell’s book was published. Many of the examples from these essays come from modern sources, like Star Wars. Star Wars consciously patterned its hero after the monomyth. This doesn’t invalidate the examples but does show that the proverbial cart is in front of the horse.

Some of the other patterns for stories include the Aarne-Thompson system that we discussed in the “Fairy Tales Defined” which categorized 2500 basic plot lines. Christian Ankerstjerne from the forums suggested that “detective stories” follow a unique but frequently used pattern to solve the crime-de-jour. One of my favorite patterns comes from classic Star Trek episodes. This pattern is summarized by Captain Kirk and crew find a new planet where they quickly beam down to the surface. The guy in the red shirt usually has a line like “Captain, look what I found…Aaaarrrgh” before Dr. Bones says, “He’s dead, Jim”. The aliens manifest themselves, there is conflict, conflict is resolved, Kirk makes out with the cute alien woman, and Spock says something logical. End of episode. Repeat 80 times for live action, Repeat 22 time for animation.

Personally, I have enjoyed the time that I have spent studying the monomyth and the hero’s journey. It has helped me more effectively appreciate the stories that I consume in different formats. It also helps me appreciate the stories that I found that do not pattern themselves after Campbell’s theories and wince when I see blatant use of the hero’s journey. I hope that you have enjoyed this discussion of the monomyth and learned something along the way.

I originally intended that this would be the last that I would discuss the Monomyth as a main subject of an essay, with the possibility of being stuck in a rut, there will be one more. One of my biggest criticisms of Joseph Campbell’s book was that he never took one character throughout each of the seventeen steps. So to conclude this essay series, the next Myth Show essay will take a one fictional character through all seventeen steps of the monomyth. Who it is may surprise you!

Resources

Resource material for this essay came from:

The book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. Originally written in 1948 with a second edition in 1973.

The Wikipedia Entry on the Monomyth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth – Retrieved October 12, 2006)

The Wikipedia Entry on Star Trek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek – Retrieved March 6, 2006)

The Scripture: Internet Addition found at scriptures.lds.org. (http://scriptures.lds.org/en/matt/17 – Retrieved February 2, 2007)

The Encyclopedia Mythica Entries on Persus, Jason, and the Gorgon Sisters:

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/perseus.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/jason.html

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/gorgons.html

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Main Topic: Monomyth-Initiation Defined
- This show covers the second of the three sections of the monomyth as described by Joseph Campbell in his book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” (ISBN 0-691-01784-0)

Sections of the Monomyth:
- Separation
- Initiation
- Return

Essay References:
- “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” (ISBN 0-691-01784-0)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
- http://www.monomyth.org/
- http://www.dictionary.com/

Music Provided by Jon Schmidt: http://www.jonschmidt.com/

Next Episode: Monomyth-Return Defined

Listener Links: http://www.andrevanharen.com/

Click “Read the Article” to see the transcript

Transcript

Welcome to the Myth Show, where timeless stories are discussed and brought to life. I am your host, Gregory Lemon and this is episode five. This show is for those who would like to know more about the wide and fascinating field of mythology, folk lore, and fairy tales.

During this episode we’ll discuss the second third of the Monomyth, the Initiation, as described in the book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, written by Joseph Campbell in 1948. Episode Four discussed the the Separation phase of the Monomyth and Episode six will cover the final third of the Monomyth: “the Return”.

The music for this podcast is provided by Jon Schmidt at jonschmidt.com

Main Topic: Initiation

Introduction and Recap of Separation

In Episode four, I introduced the Monomyth as presented by Joseph Campbell in his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces.” Often, the term “Hero’s Journey” is also used. I provided a brief summary of the seventeen steps he found common between the many myths from different cultures. These seventeen steps are grouped into three sections. To repeat a quote from episode four, Campbell describes these three phases:

(quote) “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” (end quote – pg. 30)

During the first phase of “Separation”, our hero goes through five steps. In summary, he has (#1) heard the “Call to Adventure” and then (#2) refused the call, but just temporarily. During the first steps of the actual journey, he (#3) receives supernatural aid, (#4) crosses the first threshold, and (#5) finds himself in the belly of the whale. Through these five steps of the monomyth, the hero is now fully separated from his home or the status quo.

The phase of the monomyth we’ll discuss during this essay is that of the Initiation. I’ll describe the list of steps using the same quote by Campbell from episode four. (Now, I have changed the numbering of the steps that Campbell provides in the quote to match an overall numbering scheme):

(quote) “The stage of the trials and victories of initiation will appear…in six subsections: (#6) “The Road of Trials,” or the dangerous aspect of the gods; (#7) “The Meeting with the Goddess”…or the bliss of infancy regained; (#8) “Woman as the Temptress,” the realization and agony of Oedipus; (#9) “Atonement with the Father”; (#10) “Apotheosis”; and (#11) “The Ultimate Boon.” (end quote – pg. 36)

The word “initiation” is often used to describe the process or ritual that a person goes through to join a group or organization. Going through an initiation is more than just applying for membership. It is more like the ordeals a fraternity pledge suffers through to be accepted into the brotherhood of a fraternity. The hero of the monomyth, like the fraternity pledge, must go through this initiation to prove that he is the hero that is worthy of the reward at the end of the initiation.

6. The Road of Trails

For the reader, this is the fun part of the hero’s journey. This is where the hero takes what he has learned during the separation process and applies this learning to get through the trials. For the hero, this is a long road of events, tests, or challenges that help him to prepare for the later steps of meeting with the symbolic or literal gods and goddesses. These trials provide much of the adventure that is found within mythology. These trials may be told as separate stories outside the over-arching monomyth storyline. And while the trails are exciting, outside of the context of the whole monomyth, the events of the Road of Trials may not be fully understood. Because, we don’t know where the hero came from, why he is experiencing the trials, or where he is going once the trial is completed. Watching Luke Skywalker and others rescue Princess Lea is exciting but doesn’t make sense unless you watch the whole movie.

It seems to me that the road of trials could be compared to some adventure video games. Think of Super Mario Brothers or the Legends of Zelda. (I know, I’m old) The video game player controls the hero (Mario or Link) and the road of trials is all of the mini-bosses that need to be defeated at the end of the level before finding and defeating the ultimate boss. For fans of Disney movies, the song sequence “Zero to Hero” in the cartoon “Hercules” shows many of the different trials that Hades placed in Hercules’ path to becoming the hero. If you watch closely, many of these trails come from the twelve labors of Hercules given to him, not be Hades, by the Delphic Oracle. (And just as a side note, the differences between Disney movies and the actual myth, folklore, or fairy tale could fill a year of essays. And as a father of four kids ages 5 and under, I have watched most of these cartoons, many, many times.)

In this section of the book, Campbell provides the story of Psyche and Cupid as an example where the female hero goes through many trials to find her lover Cupid. I agree with Campbell that this is a good example of the Road of Trials, but I felt a little lost because Campbell didn’t include how the mortal Psyche got involved with the immortal Cupid, why she had to do all of these tasks and if she even found him in the end. I do recogni