The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Campbell quotes the fairy tale of a beautiful princess playing with a golden ball, found in Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The princess drops the ball into the depths of a spring. A frog offers to fetch it for her in exchange for being her constant companion at meals, during play, and in sleep. The princess agrees, and the frog emerges from the water with the golden ball in his mouth. The princess grabs the ball and runs away, leaving the frog behind.

This tale illustrates how a myth may begin with a “blunder” that becomes “the opening of a destiny” (51). The frog is a herald who announces the princess’s call to adventure, which in this case symbolizes her passage into adult life. The symbology of the World Navel can also be found in the golden ball and therein a picture of rebirth. Further, the frog also symbolizes “that unconscious deep [...] wherein are hoarded all of the rejected, unadmitted, unrecognized, unknown, or undeveloped factors, laws, and elements of existence” (52). He is the often ugly creature who, although repulsive or frightening, reveals the light in the darkness to a willing hero.

Campbell then quotes from King Arthur’s quest for a hart, which leads him to an incredible beast and begins his search for the Holy Grail.