Cycle of a Hero

                After reading The Forgotten Beast of Eld, we developed the main ideas that are involved in a fantasy book.  We discovered that this book fits well into the fantasy genre and basically shows every idea somewhere in the book. After comparing the The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and the claims of the author of the The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy, we discussed the similar concepts of the fantasy novels.

           

            From reading The Forgotten Beast of Eld, we continue asking ourselves who the hero is throughout the story. We begin to think it is Sybel; however, her actions make us rethink our conclusions to whether or not she is the true hero. We then turn to Tam and begin to think he could be the hero. In the end, we believe Sybel is the true hero even through all the struggles and challenges she goes through during her journey to find herself.

            We discover Sybel is the hero from the claim Sharon Black makes in her article, The Magic of Harry Potter: Symbols and Heroes of Fantasy. We learn the cycle of the child-hero; this book displays a perfect cycle of how a hero develops through a book. In the beginning of a book, the child deal is obscurity and a situation of danger. Through this struggle, the hero may reach out to an unknown world. Because of the outreach to a different world, the character deals with evil presences; however, a guide comes to redirect them in the correct direction. Usually, the child is taken to a place where they will learn special talents such as a school or other environments. In the end, the child because the hero and returns to their place where they belong.

 Sybel is the perfect example of the child-hero cycle. She begins her cycle when her father raises her on Eld Mountain to help train the animals. She is then left alone on the mountain in obscurity and unknown. She then has to deal with begin brought a child, Tam, to raise. She has no idea how to raise a child or what it involves. Sybel then reaches out to Maelga. Maelga helps Sybel out by giving her advice and knowledge of how to raise a child throughout the years. She becomes like the old lady in fantasy novels who help guide the child-hero. Coren is also a guide through the years who is always there for her when she calls. At one point in the story, Coren comes because Sybel calls; however, Sybel does not even realize she calls him.

            Sybel talents come from within herself and her powers she possesses. She does not attend a school to help her learn her powers. She learns with her animals and her callings. The kings are afraid of her powers which presents the evil and revenge that develops in Sybel’s character. She overuses her powers to plot revenge on the wizard and Drede. She does not even tell Coren, her guide and husband, about the plans to destroy Drede and his army. In the end, Sybel realizes the Blammor, the animal the men fear and help Sybel destroy them, is actually the Liralen she has been trying to summon. In finding the Liralen, she realizes how she needs in her life and where she belongs. She asks Liralen to bring her, Tam, and Coren back home to finish her child-hero cycle.

            In comparison to Black’s article and The Forgotten Beast of Eld, in fantasy we learn that symbolism and myth which helps truly identify the hero and creates imagination in our minds. In the both the article and the book, we learn that there is a price to pay for the hero’s growth and development. The Black’s article she states, “to others she gives only the wisdom she has found in them” (246). She see this in Sybel because she gives her animals wisdom to be free from what she has learned from them over the years and from the knowledge Maelga and Coren have given her.