Storms, Sea Crossings, the Challenges of Nature, and the Transformation of the Protagonist in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Abstract

In medieval and early modern literature the motif of crossing borders of water or crossing wild, wintry forests assumes a major function, as it provides an influential framework for the protagonist to experience a metaphorical transformation. Heroic literature hardly ever uses this motif, as neither Beowulf nor Siegfried nor Roland ever change in character and do not face any significant challenge when traveling from one location to another. Both the courtly protagonist and the narrators in many of the Renaissance novella collections, however, such as in Boccaccio’s Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron, are faced with major hurdles in nature and realize at the end that their struggle to win the other shore or to find their way through the threatening forest or mountain leaves a profound impact on them.