The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama

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Courier Corporation, 2003 M01 1 - 307 páginas
His mother is a virgin and he's reputed to be the son of a god; he loses favor and is driven from his kingdom to a sorrowful death — sound familiar? In The Hero, Lord Raglan contends that the heroic figures from myth and legend are invested with a common pattern that satisfies the human desire for idealization. Raglan outlines 22 characteristic themes or motifs from the heroic tales and illustrates his theory with events from the lives of characters from Oedipus (21 out a possible 22 points) to Robin Hood (a modest 13). A fascinating study that relates details from world literature with a lively wit and style, it was acclaimed by literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman as "a bold, speculative, and brilliantly convincing demonstration that myths are never historical but are fictional narratives derived from ritual dramas." This new edition of The Hero (which originally appeared some 13 years before Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces) is assured of a lasting popularity. This book will appeal to scholars of folklore and mythology, history, literature, and general readers as well.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

The Basis of History
3
The Traditional Pedigree
17
Local Tradition
30
Robin Hood
45
The Norse Sagas
54
King Arthur
70
Hengist and Horsa
79
Cuchulainn
89
The Hero
173
The Hero continued
186
The Hero continued
196
Myth and the Historic Hero
205
The Basis of Drama
221
The Language of the Drama
229
Age and Time
243
Dress and Setting
251

The Tale of Troy
98
Traditions of Other Lands
109
The Genesis of Myth
117
The Folktale
129
Myth and Ritual
141
Myth and Ritual continued
149
Myth and RitualThe Tale of Troy
159
Shapeshifting and Talking Animals
258
The Royal Hero
265
The Spielman
274
The Ritual Drama
278
Bibliography
293
Index
297
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