Sunday 3 May 2020

Power of Three: Mythological Triads Becoming Fantasy Characters

Today's prompt is "The Power of Three". Most of my peers are posting pictures of their favourite trilogies to Twitter and for some reason, that never even occurred to me as what this prompt would be about. Let us please take a moment of silence for my brain cells.

...

Thank you. Instead my mind went straight to mythology and why not? The great wellspring of the water used to distil fantasy is full of threes, and authors and critics love to use them. From identifying Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo as Christ as Prophet, King and Priest, to the use of triple goddess in Min, Elayne, and Aviendha. I find it fascinating, both in the sense that I enjoy the easter eggs, and because I think linking characters to archetypes we all vaguely know gives them far great resonance. 

So I'm going to talk about three of my favourite mythological conceits - has to be three of them, doesn't it really - and some of my favourite sets of characters who embody them. WARNING - Spoilers abound. In no particular order...

The Maiden, the Mother, the Crone

The pedant in me must scream that technically, this is so-so mythology. It's an idea you can sort of see in mythology but where it looks an awful lot like Robert Graves maybe read a bit too much into it. There are nigh-countless examples of triple goddesses in mythology but pinpointing an example of a definitively linked triad that has this division is not so simple. Nevertheless, the idea has found fertile soil in our imagination. You can see it in the Dresden Files' take on the Sidhe, in Valdemar's Tayledras goddess, and the female part of SoIaF's Seven. If you care to, some of SoIaF's character dynamics fall neat-ish into it, and Min/Elayne/Aviendha can be viewed this way too.

However, the triad I'm going on with is the one most firmly built on it, and that is:

Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld.

Three is the right number for a witch coven in Discworld. For one thing, any more and you start to get some nasty arguments. For another though, it gives you the Maiden, the Mother and... the Other One. And there's power in that. Not occult three energies come into one style power - not unless you're daft enough to ask Magrat at least - but the power that comes from seeing the world in different ways. Poor Magrat and her dreamy, New Age naivete is relentlessly mocked, but her inexperience and ideals often makes her the driving force of the three, optimistically attempting the improbable and somehow succeeding. Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax are birds of a rather different feather to her, and in many ways, certainly in Wyrd Sisters, Magrat holds the group together simply because the older two can agree she's at the bottom of the pecking order and this allows them to sidestep who's at the top because they can both order around Magrat.

That said, Nanny Ogg does often seem to be the centre of the group, the one least interested in being right or holding forth and most interested in doing what needs done. This is a sharp contrast from her family life, where she rules a huge clan with the sort of absolute power most tyrants absolutely dream of. It's two sides of the mother really; authoritarian as leader of her brood, flexible and driven as protector of it. And yet at times, Granny seems the soul. She's certainly the leader (insofar as covens have leaders, which they don't) and the most driven to succeed, and maybe too the moral conscience beneath her hard-edged utilitarianism. Granny is always willing to choose and take on the burden. And most of all, Granny seems to exemplify all three at once, idealistic and protective and wise, and perhaps that's what makes her seem the most powerful.

And that is the beauty of Lancre's finest. Yes, they have strong personalities that show the archetypes they've come from and that define their character dynamics, but they are also human with the mutability and multi-facetedness that comes with it. They grow and change, particularly Magrat (who's replaced by Agnes Nitt, a more uncertainty and rebellion based version of the Maiden), and the all have elements of all. They're women, not goddesses, and better for it. They can be breathtakingly nasty to each other, appallingly rude to the rest of the world, but for all of it they're good people. And a fantastic example of the conceit in play.

Creator, Preserver, Destroyer

This concept of three gods, one who makes things, one who keeps them living, and one who destroys them when done, has a powerful resonance. I know it best through what I'm told the Hindu Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva is but you can see it elsewhere. The Norse Norns and Greek Moirai are both forms of this, and arguably the above form of the Triple Goddess is a modern form of this. It's maybe not that heavily used in literature but there is a very strong example...

Rand Al'Thor, Perrin Aybara and Mat Cauthon

Jordan packed mythic inspirations into every square inch of his series that he could and there's a pretty clear echo here. Perrin is the creator here, both in a literal sense as a smith and more figuratively as a man who builds a nation. You could build an interesting theory that his mastery of the realm of dreams, a place of boundless possibility where he is known as Young Bull (i.e. virile and full of possibility), comes from this part of Jordan's vision. That might be a reach though. What does feel solid thematically is how many people Perrin gives new lives to, be they prisoners or refugees - Gaul, Noam, the Two Rivers and assembled refugees, Aram, Morgase and so on. There's many ways you can see a creator but the most interesting way for most stories is in creating new chances, second chances, and that's what Perrin does. 

And if Perrin gives people new lives, Mat saves them. All the way from the girls in the Stone of Tear to Moiraine, via the Band of the Red Hand and Tuon, Mat preserves life. More than just lives, he also preserves memories thanks to all the old memories shoved into his head; he's a living museum if he ever let himself do that. Meanwhile, Rand kills people. Lots and lots of people. People die for him too, something that helps his spiral into insanity. Yes, he does save lives, just like Mat kills people and Perrin saves and kills too, and the Trimurti are more than just one function each too, but Rand's definite speciality is death and destruction. He'll kill people so dead their souls are removed from the Wheel. Again, it isn't just physical. He destroys the Aiel's sense of who they are most spectacularly but where ever he goes, people question who they are.

And it is from that cycle of destruction many of Perrin's new lives come. The strong theme of the Wheel of Time is how everything comes around and gives us a chance to make good what we have fouled up on, and between the three of them, the boys from the Two Rivers live that theme out to its fullest, both individually and as a unit.

Sacral-Military-Production

This one owes itself to Georges Dumezil's trifunctional hypothesis, a somewhat controversial take on how early Indo-European societies ordered themselves based on their religion. I've always been sceptical about it as a base for societies - although I think there's clearly something to it - but where it does make a lot of sense is the clear ordering of deities in early Indo-European religions. Up top there's a a pair of gods who between them embody the powers of sacred magic and oath sworn boundaries, with the magician being the clear superior to the oathkeeper. Then there's a warrior god, frequently associated with the storm and the slaying of the dragon that guards the waters of life (something that's not just Indo-European). And finally, we have the fertility gods that embody the prosperity the commoners needed to bring to society what it needs to survive. So for the Norse, that's Odin/Tyr - Thor - Freyr/Freya. Vedic India has Mitra/Varuna - Indra - the Nasatyas.

And for a fictional example?

Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley

I have no idea whether JK Rowling intended this. Tbh, I've no idea whether JK Rowling intended a lot of things, but Harry Potter is rich for imagery mining and this one marries up so solidly I have my suspicions. We'll start with the scion of everyone's favourite family, Ron Weasley. And indeed his family is important here, because it is from them a lot of his symbolism comes. He certainly comes from a fertile family and one that, while old, is not considered aristocratic or wealthy. Or even that respectable, given their clear interest in muggles, the lowest of the low in wizard society. Yet while there's no inherited gold for the Weasleys, they know a thing or two about productivity, what with Bill working for a bank and the twins' clear financial acumen. Charlie also represents an ability with animals. Through Ron's friendship, Harry is drawn into their world and the safety net they provide, emotional and physical. Without them, it's impossible to see Harry winning - and maybe not even wanting to.

If Ron and the Weasleys makes sense as the productive commoner, Hermione represents the sacral element of magic, leadership and boundaries well. She is a natural leader, reaching the very top. She is the most talented witch in her class and the one with the most respect for rules. It's Harry's story, so he often seems the driving force, but Hermione is frequently the one with the ideas when they're all together.

Finally, we have a bullseye hit for Harry as Dumezil's war god. It's not just that Harry has a warrior mentality or an anger problem that he has to conquer for society's good, it's everything. He has a lightning scar. His greatest wizarding ability other than fighting is flight. His interest in the rules goes as far as they work for him, which often causes trouble (a constant issue with mythical warrior figures). And his main enemy is obsessed with serpents, the very main enemy of the Indo-European storm warrior. If it is coincidence, it's a very big subconscious driven one.

And that's day three's contribution. Maybe tomorrow I'll do the prompt the same way as everyone else!

4 comments:

  1. I'm vastly behind on popping by to comment (it's taken me a week to actually read this in full rather than skimming and squeaking happily) but I'm delighted by the way you keep turning the prompts on their head. This one is a particular fave (ahem until I read them all with the care and attention they deserve? Maybe) not least for the total headspin you gave me with 'Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo as Christ as Prophet, King and Priest'

    ...woah. Really? Huh. I can see the first two; I'm still puzzling at Frodo :)

    As far as favourite mythological triads go though, I'm sticking with Orwen, Orddu and Orgoch. Mmm.

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    1. This one isn't one I know super well, coming as it does from the deeper end of Catholicism, but as I understand it, Frodo is Christ in his messianic office of priest in that he totally dedicates himself to his mission and in doing so, makes a great sacrifice; it feels like Frodo's whole life is dedicated to that journey to Mount Doom because he had little before it and never truly recovered, which is also the sacrifice. It's probably the least obvious of the three, but as explained, it makes sense to me. Might be better to search for it as there's a number of articles going over it from actual Catholics.

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    2. That's fascinating. I can sort of wrap my head around it now you've spelled it out, but I would never have got there on my own!

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    3. That's how I was too! But then the fine print of Catholic belief wasn't something I was ever really exposed to.

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