The Hero's Journey: The Power Of The Myth, By Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell was an American mythologist and philosopher. He wrote works such as “The Hero With a Thousand Faces”, “The Hero’s Journey”, and “The Power of the Myth”. Also, because this is interesting, he was one of the fastest half mile runners in the world at one point (The Hero's Journey Summary.). Campbell focused on comparative mythology which is when you compare mythology from different cultures and find common themes and ideas (Joseph Campbell Foundation). Joseph created a monomyth that summarized a hero’s journey, it contained seventeen stages (INTRODUCTIONS). These seventeen stages can be simplified to nine stages, which are birth, departure, crossing the threshold, special weapon, mentor/help, proving themselves, facing death/lowest

Now on the note of Beowulf’s special weapon, it would probably have to be the one he found in Grendel’s mother’s cave. In his fight with Grendel’s mother, Beowulf “...saw, hanging on the wall, a heavy Sword, hammered by giants, strong And blessed with their magic, the best of all weapons But so massive that no ordinary man could lift Its carved and decorated length.” (Raffel) Beowulf used many swords, but this sword that could only be wielded by Beowulf is the most iconic of those swords (Beowulf). The next stage of the journey is the mentor. Not all heroes fit perfectly into every step, like Beowulf doesn’t fit because he did not have a mentor. Even though he doesn’t fit here he still fits very close to the monomyth. He fits into the next stage of proving himself. In his fight with Grendel “Beowulf fights him unarmed, proving himself stronger than the demon, who is terrified. As Grendel struggles to escape, Beowulf tears the monster’s arm off.” (Beowulf) No warrior had been able to hurt Grendel before Beowulf, proving his abilities to the Danes. Years, later after fighting Grendel and his mother, Beowulf is brought to his lowest point. This is when he fights a dragon that had terrorised the Geats. During the battle “None of his comrades Came

His birth was significant because his dad is none other than Darth Vader, though Luke doesn’t find out till later (Davis). Luke departs from Tatooine, his home planet, with Han Solo after Luke find a distress signal from Princess Leia in her R2-D2 (Davis)(Star). Luke crosses the threshold when his aunt and uncle are killed by stormtroopers and he leaves to become a Jedi (Davis). His special weapon is the lightsaber that his father used till he was turned to the dark side (Davis). Obi-Wan was Luke’s first mentor teaching him the basics of the force. Then after he is killed by Darth Vader, Yoda becomes his new master guiding Luke on the more spiritual side of the force (Star). Even though Obi-Wan was killed, he still guides Luke from the spirit world (Davis). Luke proves himself on and off the battlefield. He has near death fights with Darth Vader and helps the Rebellion in more large scale fights. Also the original Death Star is destroyed by Luke. He proved himself as a person as he matured due to his Jedi training (Star). The lowest point for Luke is when he faces Darth Vader in Cloud City and he gets his right hand cut off. This is his lowest point as a Jedi and for his quest to save his father from the dark side (Davis). Finally on his final ordeal he faces Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. When Luke is being hit with Palpatine’s force