The Hero Revealed

Heroes and their stories make up a large body of literature. From our early childhood we have been enthralled by the adventures of brave souls who have done great deeds. Most times, these folk have been much like us. They lived lives of mundane existence and we can identify with that. But one day, something special happened, one day the adventure began.

So it was with Tolkiens The hobbit, which is a great introduction to the amazing trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit transports you into the mindset of the rest of Tolkiens works, much as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man enables you to understand Ulysses, the magnum opus of James Joyce.

As the heroic story begins, there is nothing about the hobbit that would forecast the drama to come. But come it does, with almost too much intensity for the hapless hobbit, or the enchanted reader. There are many adventures on the path, with much testing and challenge. Lady luck intervenes at times, until at last; our hero-in-the-making is confronted with the ultimate encounter, the Dragon. This, the last battle, is neither quick or of certain outcome. The Dragon has fearsome physical and magical powers. Our hero now, for that is what he has become, must bring all his courage, his cunning, his physical and psychic strength to the confrontation.

The struggle is long and arduous. just when it seems that all is lost and the dragon will triumph, the hobbit reaches deep within for one last bit of courage that even he did not know was there. Clutching his sword with a confidence gained from all his previous trials, one last lunge finds a fatal spot, the dragon crashes to earth.

The story would be unsatisfactory if it ended there. The author lets us follow our victorious hero home, to spend his days reflecting on his adventures, with his pipe and contentment. He realizes that the path took him through the dark night of his own inner being. He remembers that guidance was always with him, encircling him like a soft wind.

The heros saga is presented to us often, in ancient as well as modern guise. Whether using sword, Kalishnikoff or light saber, the struggle is the same. The courage to overcome can only be found within. Frank Lloyd Wright remarked that there was nothing about the caterpillar that would indicate it would become a butterfly. So it was with our hobbit friend. By overcoming his fears he found a hero, waiting to be wakened. And may it be so, with each of us.

All Yoga Positions