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"A blunder--apparently the merest chance--reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood."
-Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces |
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A Hero's Journey: The Call to Adventure
For Bilbo Baggins it was a pesky old wizard that knocked a mark onto his round, green door. For Harry Potter it was a letter delivered by a giant. A princess calling for help caught Luke Skywalker’s attention, and for a man named Moses it was a burning bush.
If you haven't seen it by now, all these heroes didn't become heroes by sitting around and waiting for adventure to happen. In Joseph Campbell's words, "a blunder--apparently the merest chance--reveals an unsuspected world" and our primordial hero is drawn willingly or unwillingly to the events that will change their lives forever.
Though I don't think it's a good idea to follow exactly the Hero's Journey as laid out by Campbell (it might lead to stiff writing if you feel like you have to follow a formula), I think that it can also stimulate ideas for authors and since Fantasy is a genre that relies heavily on the journey motif, it will be an instructive read for both of us.
So how does your hero/heroine begin their journey? Something has to propel them from the mundane of everyday life to path fraught with adventure and danger. That impetus is called the "herald".
"The herald's summons may be to live ...[or] to die... it may sound the call to some high historical undertaking... But whether small or great, and no matter what the stage or grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration--a rite, or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and a birth. The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a threshold is at hand." (pg. 51)
That doesn't necessarily mean that your hero will go willingly. Some heroes, like Bilbo Baggins, are very content with their life as it is and very much resent the interference that startled them out of their complacency. Other heroes will go out of a reluctant sense of duty.
The herald, if represented by a person, is usually "dark, loathly, or terrifying, judged evil by the world" (pg. 53). Obi-Wan Kenobi is the mad old hermit that Luke Skywalker's uncle disapproves of; Capt. Will Laurence's herald is a creature that no sane man would ever want (from [[ Product review #108621 does not exist. ]]);" an Aes Sedai "witch", distrusted by all the townsfolk, eventually leads Rand al'Thor to his destiny in the first "Wheel of Time" book by Robert Jordan.
Frightening, ugly, or just plain strange, these heralds usually have a mysterious aura about them; the lure of the unknown. They help the hero bridge the uncertain space between what was normal, and what is to come. They give the hero the call and it’s up to the hero to answer it.
Questions to help think about this step
 What stage of life is the hero in?
What do you see coming next for this person?
What would cause the person to leave this stage, to "leave home"
What is the person doing when the call comes? Is it an accident, a blunder, something planned, or hoped for? Is it anticipated or dreaded?
Works cited: The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell |
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Fantasy: September 20, 2006 Issue [#1268]
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