The Hero: Analyzing Beowulf and His Journey
Mythology is a set of symbols humans use to describe their purpose and what each person is capable of achieving. In addition, mythology is composed of tales of heroes and their respective journeys. Each journey roughly follows the same cycle, called the monomyth. Created by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the monomyth, or hero's journey, is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero going on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed. There are a total of 17 stages of the monomyth, divided into three “acts,” so to speak (“Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' Monomyth”). Together, all these stages of the monomyth describes the entire journey of a hero-from start to finish. In addition, the earliest known epic poem in modern European language, Beowulf, follows the monomyth. Beowulf, the main character of Beowulf, goes through most of the stages of the monomyth cycle. From getting a call to adventure to the ultimate boon, Beowulf goes through them all (or at least most of them). However, even though Beowulf goes through the cycles of the monomyth, is he really a good representation of it? There is much more to the …show more content…
All in all, the monomyth was created by Joseph Campbell, to describe a hero’s journey, Beowulf in Beowulf goes through the monomyth cycle, but that may not necessarily be
Mythology is a set of symbols humans use to describe their purpose and what each person is capable of achieving. In addition, mythology is composed of tales of heroes and their respective journeys. Each journey roughly follows the same cycle, called the monomyth. Created by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the monomyth, or hero's journey, is the common template of a broad category of tales that involve a hero going on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed. There are a total of 17 stages of the monomyth, divided into three “acts,” so to speak (“Campbell's 'Hero's Journey' Monomyth”). Together, all these stages of the monomyth describes the entire journey of a hero-from start to finish. In addition, the earliest known epic poem in modern European language, Beowulf, follows the monomyth. Beowulf, the main character of Beowulf, goes through most of the stages of the monomyth cycle. From getting a call to adventure to the ultimate boon, Beowulf goes through them all (or at least most of them). However, even though Beowulf goes through the cycles of the monomyth, is he really a good representation of it? There is much more to the …show more content…
All in all, the monomyth was created by Joseph Campbell, to describe a hero’s journey, Beowulf in Beowulf goes through the monomyth cycle, but that may not necessarily be