Legendary Hero Research Articles

Medieval Poetry in Post-medieval Manuscripts : New Perspectives on the Transmission History of Griplur

This article examines the transmission history of Griplur, a medieval set of rimur of Hromundur Gripsson (Greipsson), a legendary hero from Norway and, according to Landnamabok, a forefather of the ...

Power over Men and Power over Words: The Poet-King Ragnarr Loðbrók

This article addresses an aspect of the image of Ragnarr loðbrók that often eludes scholarly attention - namely, his role as a poet. Ragnarr has a prominent position in Old Norse- Icelandic literature as a king, a hero, and an ancestor of powerful kings and chieftains. In Snorra Edda, especially in the redaction of Codex Uppsaliensis, Ragnarr is also remembered as a poet. Most prominently, in Skáldatal, found in Codex Uppsaliensis and Kringla, Ragnarr is named among the first skalds; moreover, according to this list, his wife Áslaug and their sons were also skalds. To understand this intriguing statement, I shall give an overview of poetry attributed to Ragnarr and his family in Old Norse sources, explain the contexts in which Ragnarr is seen as a poet, and follow Skáldatal in placing Ragnarr and his family alongside another legendary hero and poet, Starkaðr inn gamli. This line of argument makes it possible to shed light on the liminal position occupied by Ragnarr and his family in the skaldic tradition and on the ideas about the origins and development of skaldic poetry extant in the Old Norse-Icelandic literary sources.

The New Myth of Beethoven

Noli has been reluctant to, as a historical creator, to deal more with heroes and bring them down from their high and untouchable pedestal in midst of to common people, where they will live, rejoice and suffer, conquer and fail with them. In addition, his opinion is inspired by firm belief that the real man is more interesting than all legendary heroes brought together, for simple reason that latter are a product of hero’s imagination. However, Noli demystifies myths, for though he sees Beethoven from every possible human lacquer and strips him of elements that make him divine, he will create new myth, one of Beethoven human. Therefore, from anti-myth we come to myth, now to new myth. It seems to Noli that this reckless glorification of hero, which has nothing to do with truth, is prevented. With power of arguments, he causes hero to descend from legendary heights on earth. He cuts off wings of idolatry and gives it real dimensions. Therefore, overthrown myth of Beethoven's aristocrat is brought back into play as a humanized myth.

Wrong Warping, Sequence Breaking, and Running through Code

This article focuses on Nintendo’s influential and much-celebrated 1998 videogame The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (hereafter OoT). In particular, it explores the often unexpectedly creative and wholly transformative ways in the game is played by ‘speedrunners.’ Seeking to race through the game as quickly as possible, speedrunners play in a distinctive way that combines mastery of performance execution with a deep knowledge of the game’s operation and how its systems may be exploited. Speedrunning performances are creative because they involve astonishingly detailed investigations of the minutiae of game behaviors. They are transformative because they disrupt and even invert much-vaunted aspects of the game as sequences that slow down progress are circumvented. As such, what would otherwise class as crucial moments in the storyline, key character development and even locales, are not only raced through but are actively skipped. Compared with the game’s narrative, the connectivity of its spaces, and the complex but clearly mapped passage of time as set out in Nintendo’s officially-endorsed ‘Strategy Guides’ (see Buchanan et al 1998; Hollinger et al 1998; Loe and Guess 1998), the OoT speedrun constructs an altogether different game with vastly altered priorities. And so, the offer to, ‘Join legendary hero Link as he journeys across Hyrule, and even through time, to thwart the plans of Ganondorf.’ (Nintendo 2017), is recast as a breakneck dash to the closing credits sequence evading and avoiding all but the essential moments of gameplay.

La configuración del héroe épico griego arcaico a través de Homero y Hesíodo

La emergencia del culto heroico cuenta aspectos relevantes de la antigua organización social griega. Los griegos concibieron a sus héroes legendarios como grandes hombres de un pasado mítico y glorioso, pero también como entidades sobrehumanas capaces de ofrecer protección al que les rindiese honores por medio de sacrificios y ofrendas. Las grandes figuras de la poesía homérica, Agamenón, Aquiles, Odiseo, probablemente comenzaron su andadura épica como reyes, guerreros y nobles micénicos de la tradición oral de la Época Oscura. Posteriormente, fueron transfigurados en semidioses. Así, parece factible que Homero y Hesíodo hubieran concebido el pasado distante como una era en la que el mundo estaba habitado por una raza semi divina. La arqueología parece mostrar que la percepción de ese pasado emergió poco antes de la composición de los grandes poemas épicos, hacia mediado el siglo viii a.e.c., en una época de relevantes cambios sociales. El culto de los héroes míticos, por el que las familias renombradas legitimaban su prestigio al asociarse con ancestros heroicos, fue dejando paso al deseo de las comunidades de beneficiarse de la protección de héroes. En pleno clasicismo, seguirían siendo prototipos heroicos cuasi divinos, influyentes en la organización política doméstica.

Baśniowi, mityczni, niepewni… Bohaterowie legendarni w podręcznikach dziejów Polski przełomu XIX i XX wieku

The author of the article examines the descriptions of legendary heroes and related events, presented in Polish history coursebooks at the turn of the 20th century. She is interested in that which is shared by and that which is distinctive for authors from different partitions. The study reviews over twenty most popular books designed for children and youth, dating from 1877 to 1918. Their authors lived in the times of Romanticism, Positivism, Modernism and neo-Romanticism. She concludes that for the writers working in that period the greatest heroes were Piast and his successors, as well as Krakus and Wanda. The former were mainly recognized for their paramount role as founders of the state, and the latter were mostly glorified for their generosity and dedication. The coursebook narratives show that legendary history, on the one hand, played educational function aimed at shaping students’ attitudes and on the other, was an integrating factor in the nation’s resistance to Germanisation intensifying in the Prussian partition in the early 1900s. In line with the spirit of their times, Positivists emphasized thrifty and skilful governance of legendary heroes, while neo-Romantics focused more on the ideals of liberty and commitment to the national cause. Very few authors explicitly referred to the fact that conclusions based on ancient records are highly dubious.

The Cultural Landscape Past of the Eastern Mediterranean: The Border Lord’s Gardens and the Common Landscape Tradition of the Arabic and Byzantine Culture

An evaluation of landscape tradition, in Near and Middle East area, could emphasize a profound past of agricultural experience, as well as of landscape and garden art. In reference to this common past, Byzantine and Arabic landscape and garden art paradigms appear to be geographically and culturally correlated, as proved by a Byzantine 12th century folksong, presenting the construction of a villa, with its surrounding gardens and landscape formations, in the territory of Euphrates River. This song refers to Vasilios Digenes Akritas or ‘Border Lord’, a legendary hero of mixed Byzantine-Greek and Arab blood; ‘Digenes’ meaning a person of dual genes, both of Byzantine and Arabic origin, and ‘Akritas’ an inhabitant of the borderline. At the end of the narration of the song, contemporary reader feels skeptical. Was modern landscape and garden art born in the European continent or was it transferred to Western world through an eastern originated lineage of Byzantine and Arabic provenance?

Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature. Aisling Byrne. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xi+212.

<i>Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature</i>. Aisling Byrne. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xi+212.

An early story of Kho Ping Hoo

Kho Ping Hoo (1926-1994) is the most well-known of all Indonesian writers of popular silat stories, largely set in China, which describe the adventures and romances of legendary heroes famed for their skill in martial arts. It is less well-known that he began his career writing critical stories about socio-economic conditions in the late 50s and early 60s. This paper discusses one of these stories. It places the story in the context of political developments of the time, in particular as they affected the Chinese Indonesian community. The paper argues that this story and one or two others like it come at the end of a tradition of Sino-Indonesian literature which had flourished from the end of the nineteenth century until the mid-1950s. After 1960, Chinese-Indonesian writers cease writing realist fiction of any kind and write either silat stories or romantic stories set in middle class urban environments.

A Tale of Two Heroes: Kyrgyzstan in Search of National Role Models

National identity can be based on a wide variety of shared markers that encourage members of a given community to identify with their putative conationals. National heroes comprise one such potential shared marker. This paper focuses on national hero creation in Kyrgyzstan, a small Central Asian country currently in the active phase of nation creation. Specifically, it examines the ways in which Kyrgyz nation creators are deploying the figures of Manas, a legendary hero of the eponymous oral epic, and Kurmanzhan Datka, an actual historical personage from the nineteenth century. For the contemporary Kyrgyz, Manas provides a highly masculine, aggressive portrait of a national unifier, while Kurmanzhan, no slouch herself in the unifying and heroic categories, lends a touch of pragmatism and statesmanship to the national imaginary.

Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Action by Veena R. Howard (review)

Reviewed by: Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Action by Veena R. Howard Douglas Allen (bio) Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Action. By Veena R. Howard. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013. Pp. xx + 289. isbn 978-1-43-844557-1. Veena R. Howard’s Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Action is an impressive example of meticulous scholarship. Well written and well documented, it offers innovative interpretations that will both inform and challenge the views of most readers. It is an important contribution to our understanding of Gandhi’s theory and practice of truthfulness, nonviolence, and ascetic renunciation and of how Gandhi regarded religious asceticism as necessary for his worldly, political, and social [End Page 981] goals to achieve India’s freedom and independence and overcome such injustices as untouchability, the oppression of women, and communal violence. The titles of the six chapters, following a very substantial Introduction, offer a good overview of the contents: “Challenging the Philosophical Presupposition: Gandhi’s Unconventional Synthesis of Asceticism and Activism”; “Gandhi’s Alternative Paradigm: From Traditional Principles to New Political Purposes”; “Traditional Roots of Gandhi’s Brahmacarya”; “Gandhi’s Unorthodox Brahmacarya: Reinterpreting Private Religious Practice for Public Service”; “Gandhi’s Embodiment of Legendary Heroes and Ascetics: Toward a Coherent Narrative for Nonviolent Activism”; and “Conclusion: Gandhi’s Dynamic Synthesis of Renunciation and Social Action.” The documentation is remarkable for both its extensiveness and its focus. There is much citation of secondary sources on topics related to brahmacarya, but the major focus is on Gandhi himself. The four longest chapters average more than 150 notes each. Howard often includes the interpretations of both Gandhi sympathizers and critics from historical, psychological, biographical, and other sources, but she emphasizes that her main concern is with Gandhi’s own writings. She wants to document Gandhi in his own words, how Gandhi himself understood his ascetic activism and related principles and practices. She often uses the term “hermeneutical,” and her hermeneutical approach could be described as phenomenological, in the sense of suspending one’s own value judgments and explanations and allowing Gandhi to speak for himself and share his own understandings and justifications. Howard describes her book as a comprehensive study of Gandhi’s controversial practice of brahmacarya. Brahmacarya is integrally related to the wide range of Gandhi’s ascetic practices involving renunciation, self-control, self-sacrifice, and self-realization. Most think of brahmacarya in terms of sexuality, with a focus on celibacy, continence, chastity, and the need for renouncing and controlling sexual desires and acts. However, in most of his writings, Gandhi does not want to restrict brahmacarya to sexuality, but instead emphasizes complete physical and mental control of all aspects of sensual experience. For Gandhi, total control of the senses, including sexuality, was integral to his activist methods and was necessary for the ethical and spiritual transformation both of oneself and of the world. Gandhi’s extreme asceticism, and especially his writings and practices focusing on the vow of renunciation and his experiments with brahmacarya in relation to sexual matters, has been the source of widespread bewilderment, controversy, and attack. This was true during Gandhi’s lifetime and continues to the present day among a wide variety of Gandhi supporters and critics alike. Gandhi’s ascetic activism, with emphasis on brahmacarya as essential for social and political action, confused and was rejected by a wide range of India’s spiritual and political leadership. Aurobindo, Tilak, Nehru, and many others felt that Gandhi’s mixing the ascetic religious path with politics was both inappropriate and irrelevant. Throughout her book, Howard formulates the confusion and controversy surrounding brahmacarya and related issues in terms of the traditional framework of nivrtti and pravrtti. In traditional India, nivrtti refers to ascetic renunciation, withdrawal from the world of karma, through the practice of brahmacarya and other ascetic disciplines. The goal is to realize absolute [End Page 982] spiritual reality and thereby attain final spiritual freedom and liberation (moksa) from the cycles of birth and rebirth. Pravrtti, in traditional terms, refers to worldly engagement for those at the householder stage, those engaged in social, political, and economic concerns, and those not at the stage of ascetic...

The Making of the Medieval Malay Hero Hang Tuah: Stories Behind the Epic Scene

The essay attempts to look at the scene behind the making of a hero in Malay medieval society. Such attempt is vital in order to understand not only the rise of a legendary hero, Hang Tuah, from his ordinary status in Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annal) to his supra-human figure in the epic Hikayat Hang Tuah but also to gauge the social, political and psychological milieu behind the epic composition. The premise of the argument in this essay is that a hero is built and not born. Pushing it from there, the essay endeavours to prove the point by extensively reading on the milieu and time behind the emergence of Hikayat Hang Tuah . While exploring these, the essay also looks at the process of inventing the epic, which include identifying sources and materials borrowed, distorted, inverted and appropriated by the author to bring forth this traditional but unique literary creation. Keywords: epic, hero, heroism, heroic deeds, heroic age, ethnocentrism

The Changing Status of Historical Sites in Ilé-IfÀ Implications for the Contemporary Study of Yorùbá History and Culture

Historical sites – mainly shrines, groves, and other places of significance – are common features of the ancient city of Ilé-Ifè. Some of the various traditions supporting the existence of these sites are full of mysteries that generate tremendous awe among the local inhabitants. However, the traditions give deeper insights into the history of the people and their leaders, some of who became deified. In the same vein, the traditions provide a goldmine of information on the culture and belief-system of the people, the challenges that they faced at different times, and how these challenges were surmounted. In most cases, the sites serve as a reminder of the exploits of the deified individuals with a view to appreciating their contributions to the existence or survival and growth of their community. This perhaps explains the rationale behind the celebration of festivals to commemorate the achievements of these legendary heroes and heroines. However, despite the efforts being made to preserve these sites, it would seem that some of them are changing in status due to certain developments taking place in society. Examined here are some of these sites, their nature and the changes that have taken place or are taking place, bringing out, in the process, the causative factors as well as the consequences. The essay concludes with an examination of the implications of this development on the study of Yorùbá history, culture, and religion.

Popularizing Epic Narrative in George R.r. Martin's a Game of Thrones

This research is intended to show the sustainability of epic in latest years of human history through the most phenomenal fantasy in American literature, A Game of Thrones . Along with the capability of human beings in thinking dearly and sensibly, it is commonsensical that people tend to free themselves from irrationality. The reality shows, however, that the existence of epic fantasy still has power in appealing audiences or readers. This is the case with A Game of Thrones written by George RR Martin who was given the award of One of The Most Influential People in 2011 by Time magazine. This qualitative march, using genre approach, finds out that in order to be compatible with today's society , an epic seen in A Game of Thrones, which is commonly known as a story centering on the legendary hero and his heroic deed in oral folk tradition, keeps its power as an epic fantasy narrative through certain archetypes and formulas. Through genre analysis using semiotic approach, the research brings about conclusions that the elements of high fantasy, elements built through rational representation, and a smart combination of convention and invention brings about its popularity. It is also concluded that there is a close relationship between the myth and the mode of people living even in the most modern context.

POPULARIZING EPIC NARRATIVE IN GEORGE R.R. MARTIN'S A GAME OF THRONES

This research is intended to show the sustainability of epic in latest years of human history through the most phenomenal fantasy in American literature, A Game of Thrones . Along with the capability of human beings in thinking dearly and sensibly, it is commonsensical that people tend to free themselves from irrationality. The reality shows, however, that the existence of epic fantasy still has power in appealing audiences or readers. This is the case with A Game of Thrones written by George RR Martin who was given the award of One of The Most Influential People in 2011 by Time magazine. This qualitative march, using genre approach, finds out that in order to be compatible with today's society , an epic seen in A Game of Thrones, which is commonly known as a story centering on the legendary hero and his heroic deed in oral folk tradition, keeps its power as an epic fantasy narrative through certain archetypes and formulas. Through genre analysis using semiotic approach, the research brings about conclusions that the elements of high fantasy, elements built through rational representation, and a smart combination of convention and invention brings about its popularity. It is also concluded that there is a close relationship between the myth and the mode of people living even in the most modern context.

Bolívar: un héroe hispano

This paper examines the assessment of Simón Bolívar’s accomplishments by the Spanish writers of the end of the 19th century after Spain had lost its vast American empire. We propose to analyze the inclusion of Bolívar in the repertoire of heroes that Spain had produced throughout its history in the essays of Joaquín Costa and Miguel de Unamuno. They suggest that Bolívar had acted in accordance with the wishes of the Spanish people—though not of its government—when he declared war on Spain. By separating the people’s wishes from the government’s actions, the authors were able to make a convincing argument that the Wars of Independence and subsequent political struggles never intended to hurt the relations between the two peoples. Moreover, both peoples were aware of the Hispanic heritage that united them. We conclude that in the face of a low national morale, the writers sought out contemporary personalities whose actions resembled those of the legendary heroes of the Spanish past to awaken a patriotism that had diminished with the loss of the empire.

Cimarrones de Panamá: La forja de una identidad afroamericana en el siglo XVI

Jean-Pierre Tardieu builds on several generations of Panamanian scholarship, such as that of Armando Fortune, María del Carmen Borrego Plá, and Luis Diez Castillo, to offer readers the most thorough study to date of sixteenth-century maroon community formation anywhere in the Americas. He begins with the standard narrative of Spaniards caught between their desire for African laborers and the territory’s ability to conceal runaways. The Castilla de Oro’s unique economic geography, with the key ports of Nombre de Dios and Panamá situated on opposite sides of the isthmus’s unsettled and difficult-to-traverse interior, facilitated cimarrón disruption of valuable convoys of Peruvian silver, regional gold, and metropolitan goods. The fact that slaves were the majority population only exacerbated the situation. The novelty of Tardieu’s study is in analyzing the reality of negotiation in tandem with the common discussion of maroon resistance. He details the conditions that forced the contending parties to the bargaining table. The meaning of autonomy was as varied for runaways as were European positions on controlling them. The crown, the Consejo de Indias, the Real Hacienda, local cabildos, clerics, merchants, and individual slave owners brought different philosophies and strategies to bear in addressing the cimarrón challenge.Despite the persistent colonist requests for military intervention, metropolitan administrators initially were slow to act and proposed alternatives to the prohibitive costs, high European death rates, and frequent ineffectiveness of such intervention. In observing the colony from abroad, the early crown response contended that modification to owner behavior would be the most cost-effective strategy for ameliorating conditions for the enslaved and limiting their flight. However, peninsular officials from the Real Hacienda sought more aggressive approaches. And local cabildos organized and paid for their slave-catching expeditions. By contrast, more conciliatory clerical involvement was also key in the process of understanding cimarrón behaviors and in attempting to negotiate their eventual inclusion into the imperial system.Tardieu highlights several moments of either maroon capture or negotiated settlement. One such event was the 1555 destruction of the community led by the legendary hero Bayano. Tardieu explicitly addresses the surrounding mythology. It is noteworthy that the captors could not overtake the community by force but delayed for months to disingenuously build cimarrón trust before luring their victims into a trap. Here Tardieu also demonstrates the willingness with which this particular group of runaways sought to reposition themselves as free associates of Spanish forces. Tardieu then interprets their naivete and legitimate desire for integration into a grander military system to compare Bayano’s imprisoned fate with that of Saint Domingue’s Toussaint Louverture.Tardieu more provocatively considers the internal political and ideological structures of the maroon domain. He notes a complex governmental hierarchy that allowed for the diffused control of an extensive territory. Tardieu also describes the development of a “religion naciónal que adoptó por mimetismo los ritos y la liturgia cristiana” (p. 98). This view is inconsistent with generations of scholarship indicating the intentional selectiveness that usually accompanied the syncretism of African and Catholic practices. Tardieu’s heavy reliance on the late sixteenth-century regional history of Fray Pedro de Aguado for this interpretation requires some caution, as Aguado was not a direct observer of the community and wrote with the cultural limitations of his period.The famous Drake raids of 1572 and 1573 taught both peninsular and local authorities that cimarrón alliances with foreign privateers were not only financially costly but also threatened imperial integrity and required immediate redress. Tardieu outlines the changing course of Spanish imperial responses over this period, from local military confrontation, to royal offers of amnesty and community recognition, and to a massive regional military action. Tardieu attributes the final selection of peace to the astuteness of maroon leaders. These seasoned soldiers accepted the futility of endless wars and acquiesced to the Spanish resettlement plans. In providing demographic details about these settlements, Tardieu moves beyond flat images of cimarrones to provide a valuably nuanced picture of early free black community formation.

Bodies, kinship and power(s) in the Baruya culture

The themes developed in the present text, written in 1998, appeared in conclusion to an earlier piece of work on the relationship between the sexes and the different forms of power and hierarchy among the Baruya, a population living in the interior highlands of New Guinea (Godelier 1982; 1986). This was the theme of the ―sexed‖ body, which functions as a ventriloquist‘s dummy, constantly invited to speak about and to testify for (or against) the prevailing social order. The idea was that the way the body is represented stamps each person‘s innermost subjectivity with the order or orders that prevail in his or her society and which must be respected if the society is to be reproduced. A body is made of flesh, blood, bone, breath and one or more spirits, all of which are possessed by everyone, male or female; but there are also organs – a penis, a clitoris, a vagina, breasts – and substances – semen, menstrual blood, milk – which not all people have and which make individuals different or alike. All cultures have answers to the questions of where the bones, the flesh, the blood, the breath or a person‘s spirit come from: from the father, from the mother, from both, from neither and in that case, from where? But not all cultures bother to account for every component of the body: some say nothing about semen, others pass over blood, or bone, … and these silences speak volumes. Among the many representations of the body, those having to do with the making of children – conception, intra-uterine growth, development after birth – occupy a strategic position because it seems that they usually fulfill two important functions for a society. First of all they legitimize the appropriation of each child that is born by a group of adults that regards itself as the child‘s kin. And secondly, they assign this child a future destiny and position in society according to its sex, male or female, which it has from birth. It is specifically this category of representations that we will address in the following pages.

Captain Britain And The Narration Of Nation*

Captain Britain Weekly (1976–1977) was the first comic book specially created for the British market by New York‐based Marvel Comics. The title character was created as an analogue to Captain America, the legendary American nationalist hero of the so‐named comic book, but with key differences meant to resonate in the British context. I utilize visual and textual discourse analysis to study the narrative and imagery used to introduce this character to British comics fans, and I discuss readers' letters to the editor to evaluate audience response to the character and story lines. Attention is drawn to the hero's origin, which fuses science and magic to construct a paradoxically primordial, yet modern, British identity. Villains in these story lines provide hints about “un‐British” behavior and provide lessons for young readers, with direct moral connections to, and contrasts with, the narratives found in Captain America.

Remembering “The Georgia Peach”

Often hailed as the greatest player of the Dead-Ball Era, Ty Cobb was the focus of extensive media coverage throughout the twentieth century. This article explores the intersection of popular culture and collective memory by examining the press’ participation in the shifting legacy of one of baseball's legendary (anti-) heroes. One question guided the narrative: how did the Sporting News and the Atlanta Constitution represent him throughout the century? Overall, more than 325 articles were analyzed from Sporting News, a prominent national periodical, and the Atlanta Constitution, a prominent newspaper in Cobb's home state, in four twentieth-century eras. The study not only explored the transformation of his legacy in print but grappled with print as a site of public memory, the mechanisms through which public memory is invoked, and the interaction of national and local memory.