> A player armed only
> with Campbell's Monomyth would be able to fumble around many of my Orlanthi
> myths, but some don't fit into Campbell's structure (or Jung, for that
> matter).
Joseph Campbell's monomyth is true in your game, but about as useful as
saying that our bodies are made up of cells. On the most recent
myth-enactment (sketchily described at
<http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/todp/korol10.html>), there was
indeed the call to adventure (probably Maniski!), a threshold crossing
(complete with guardian), tests, helpers (the elementals), an elixir theft,
flight, and return, and we did indeed end up with the elixir, in a fashion
(the chest of loot, if not Orlev's death). All classic monomyth, but
obviously the monomyth wasn't terribly helpful here.
It's worth noting that Stafford and Campbell (and James Joyce, who combined the word) don't necessarily use it the same way. The God Learners tried to come up with a single set of stories that represented all myth. Campbell tried to come up with a single story structure that represented any myth. Both are an attempt to simplify a body of myth, but they operate on quite different levels of detail. (I've never read Finnegan's Wake, so I have no idea what Joyce meant.)
If anything, Frazer's _Golden Bough_ may be a better model for the God Learners.
V. S. Greene wrote
> When
> I read about how Arkat saw commonalities in the various cults he joined I
> assumed that this was an indication (as was pretty much stated) that the
> cults had common origins.
I assumed it was an indication that they were all different expressions of a common truth. The God Learners saw common elements throughout Glorantha (their Empire of the Middle Sea gave them contact with more people than anyone had had before, so they were the first to be able to catalog so many similar features).
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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