ni637

Hero

Frode is the hero of the story, although Nanna can also be said to go through many of the stages. As can many of the characters although most of them die before they can fulfill the potential.

Frode is, as mentioned above, dying from cancer, but is taken to another world where his life, and the fates of many others, will depend on whether or not he and his friends are able to defeat the forces of evil.

Plot Summary

The story is about Frode who is suffering from cancer. He is pulled into another plane one night, but in this world he is not sick. He is strong, but he also has to be, for in this world he is only a piece in a giant chess game, where good and evil fight for dominion. And the result of the game will determine the future.

Frode is of course not alone here, he is with 16 other people, for his best friend Nanna snuck in with him when he was taken from his bedroom. But her presence means that White broke a rule and had too many pieces. So Black may take one; and takes the Queen. The strongest piece on the board.

Departure

~Call to Adventure

Frode’s call to adventure happens very clearly in the book. One night he wakes during the night and sees his room is full of smoke. He gets up quickly although he’s weak from his illness and stumbles forward towards his window. But he soon realises this is not smoke, but mist, and that he is not going towards his window; for he walks on for hours without reaching his wall. He grows stronger as he walks and ends up in what he later realises is the country Caïssa.

~Refusal of the Call

While he is walking, Frode more than once considers turning back, but tells himself he wouldn’t be able to find the way anyway, and so he goes on.

~Supernatural Aid

Hours later Frode meets the Man in the Mist, who is the neutral presence in this world, guiding the forces of Evil and the forces of Good alike.

He gives Frode a sword, telling him that he will need it and that he must always clean it whenever it has tasted blood. He also tells him that he must walk towards the east: where the two suns both set and rise. 

~Crossing of the First Threshold

I hold that his acceptance of this is the true crossing of the threshold, for now he no longer walks through the mist, but has chosen to continue onward, fighting his way through the terrain which is very wild and he has to cut his way with the sword.

~Belly of the Whale

When he reaches the group he is meant to fight alongside with he is truly in the belly of the whale, unable to return save one way; through victory.

Initiation

~Road of Trials

After meeting the group of people, Frode is repeatedly put into situations where he must fight the forces of Evil. He doesn’t start out at all successful, but as time progresses he becomes better at seeing through the pretense of those who wish to harm him and those he travels with.

~Meeting with the Goddess

Although he’s known her for many years there is a particular point when Frode suddenly sees Nanna in a different light; she is vulnerable after having killed for the first time, and this new side of her which is so completely different from how she’d usually behave (Nanna’s Apotheosis), makes Frode realise there is more to her and that he really loves her. More than the Queen whom he met at the very beginning and whom he thought he loved more than anything else in the world.

~Woman as Temptress

Frode doesn’t meet the Dark Queen personally, but witnesses another of his group meet her and succumb to her, and Frode himself feels her pull. What saves him is Nanna pulling him away in the last instance before he reveals himself to her, ready to obey her every command – which would be to kill himself, as his comrade did under her influence.

~Atonement with the Father

Towards the end of the book Frode arrives at the house where the Kings of the game are sitting together, with a chessboard between them, both inside the game and outside it at once. As Frode comes there, the White King explains to him why all this has happened, what the real point of the entire game is; how much is at stake.

~Apotheosis

Frode looks at the board and notices that the pawn piece that represents himself is at the very end of the opposite side of the board from where it started. Which means it may turn into any other piece of choice. Usually this would be the Queen, as she is the most versatile and strongest piece in a chess game. But Frode sees that in this case, the game cannot be won that way. But by him exchanging his piece of that of a Knight Piece.

He does this without knowing whether that means he himself will die and the dead Knight piece revive, but he knows it will win the battle, and so he sacrifices himself and feels himself die.

In a flash to the real world, we are told that Frode is in the hospital and that he’s just flat-lined after an operation to try and cure his cancer.

~Ultimate Boon

Frode wakes up, however. Reborn as a centaur, and he wins the chess game, putting the Black King checkmate. His action wins the dominon of Good over this world. And as he will later realise, also means that his cancer is defeated.

Return

~Refusal of the Return

After defeating the Black King, Frode knows it is time to return, but doesn’t want to. Even when Nanna tells him it is time, he refuses, telling her off quite severely for saying so. He hurts her feelings quite badly and they part.

~Magic Flight

Doesn’t really happen.

~Rescue from Without

While Frode is alone, he meets the Man in the Mist again, who also tells him it is time to return and convinces Frode to go back and find Nanna. In a way, the Man in the Mist rescued Frode from himself.

~Crossing of the Return Threshold

Realising his mistake, Frode finally listens to Nanna and together they walk through the mist once more and end up, not in Frode’s bedchamber, but in his hospital room, where it turns out Nanna is too, although in a different room. For she too slipped into a coma that night they both arrived in Caïssa. But now they both wake up in their real world.

When they meet again, they know they share something that they can never explain to anyone else.

~Master of Two Worlds

Frode has, in my opinion, become the master of both worlds. He has gained strength of spirit in Caïssa, which is reflected in a strength of body and a cure from the cancer he suffered from.

~Freedom to Live

At the very beginning of the book, Frode asked Nanna if she believed in heaven. She told him yes, because he was dying and she wanted to comfort him. Frode now reflects on that, and comes to the conclusion, that he doesn’t need to know. He has gained peace and with it the freedom to live.

Final Thoughts

Doing this project was probably my favourite part of this class. It brought it all together and made it useful for me. I’m certain I will think of it next time I read a book or see a movie.

Although I had a feeling the book would be well suited for application of this theory, I wasn’t aware just how well until I started seeing it in that light. The same happened with Harry Potter. Both the overarching story, and the story in each book follows the pattern. I find that immensely fascinating.

It also gave me an excuse to revisit one of my favourite books, which is never a bad thing. I very much enjoyed it.

Another story I almost chose to be my project is the Völsunga Saga. The story about Sigmund, Sinfjötli, and the most well known of them: Sigurd Fafnirsbane who is also portrayed in Wagner’s Niebelung’s Ring. There are certainly elements of the monomyth in that story as well and it would have been interesting to delve into it, but I was more in the mood for the other, so that’s what made the choice in the end.