Arthurian Myth, The True Hero

The world needs heroes. Without the Knight in shining armor coming to save the day, coming to destroy the proverbial dragon and restoring order to the land, the world would always be in a state of disarray. People need a figure to look up to, one that they can place their hopes in to save them from themselves, as well as a person to blame for when things go wrong and there is no way out. So how do we find them? What are the standards that enable one to wear the ultimate title of "the savior of the people?" Celtic myth obviously points to King Arthur as the true hero of its tales, for he united a kingdom divided through unity, strength, wisdom, and Excalibur. But is Arthur the one that should be recognized as the hero? I propose that Arthur is not the one that the people should be thanking, nor should it be any of the other Knights of the Roundtable. The true hero should be Arthur's guide, his prophet, his creator, the sorcerer Merlin, for many of Arthur's feats could not have been performed without Merlin's guidance for he was the man behind the curtain pulling all the strings. I intend to prove this by showing that all throughout the tale of Arthur, Merlin was constantly there, guiding Arthur through his next perilous task, making him the true hero and Arthur, merely his physical tool.

There are several different ways to define a hero. We can see this by the numerous amounts of theories and repetitive cycles thought up by countless different mythologists such as Heinrich Zimmer and Joseph Campbell. Each one has a different theory with some recurring themes. This helps show that a hero cannot be readily defined, therefore it should be no surprise that assumptions frequently made are subject to debate. Merlin is a perfect example of such debate, for his actions in the Arthurian myths suggest that he could be the true hero.