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Caitlin Michielsen
999223610
SMC346
Prof. K. Mills
November 26, 2014
Word Count: 2,936
The Heroine’s Journey: From Folklore to Popular Culture
Females figure prominently in many Celtic myths and folktales. They are often magic
women: witches or fairies or goddesses. Goddesses are especially important in Celtic mythology,
as they tend to provide the king with the means to rule his kingdom. However, the majority of
these tales feature male protagonists, in both mythology and folklore. The female character
appears as inferior to the male, even if she is a goddess – her purpose is to serve men or make
men kings. The female protagonist barely exists, and if she does her role is often clouded by the
male perspective. The Hero’s Journey is a familiar plot to many, but the only way it has survived
in modern popular culture is by evolving into the Heroine’s Journey. Popular culture has
emphasized the importance and relevance of the female protagonist in television shows such as
Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and books such as The Mortal Instruments by
Cassandra Clare, while maintaining older folkloric beliefs.
The Hero’s Journey is a familiar and timeless story. One can see it throughout the ages
and cultures of the world, from the Odyssey to Percy Jackson, from King Arthur to Merlin
(BBC), from the Arabian Nights to Disney’s Aladdin. Other such Hero’s Journeys include Lord of
the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars, and Harry Potter. These well-known tales are
classic, their lessons universal, and yet at their basis they are the same story. In the introduction
to his book The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, Phil Cousineau

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describes the Hero’s Journey: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a
region of supernatural wonder; fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is
won; the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his
fellow man.”1 Valerie Estelle Frankel provides an expanded version of this in her book Buffy and
the Heroine’s Journey: Vampire Slayer as Feminine Chosen One. She lists eighteen elements of
the Hero’s Journey, most or all of which one can find in the classic tales. These elements are as
follows: the world of common day; the call to adventure; the refusal of the call; supernatural aid
often in the form of a wise old man; the crossing of the first threshold or first obstacle; the belly
of the whale; the road of trials; the meeting with the goddess figure often in the form of a magical
lady; the woman or women as temptresses or obstacles to the man; the apotheosis of the male to
god-like figure; the ultimate boon; the refusal to return; the magic flight; the rescue from within;
and the return that results in 1) the male becoming a master of two worlds and 2) the freedom to
live.2 Odysseus, Percy, Arthur, Merlin, Aladdin, Frodo Baggins, Peter Pevensie, Anakin and
Luke Skywalker, and Harry Potter all represent the hero in their respective stories. While not all
elements are present in every tale, one can ascertain from their basic structure that these tales fall
under the category of the Hero’s Journey. Each hero goes on a quest of good versus evil, and
while some fall to evil (Frodo Baggins and Anakin Skywalker), others overcome evil often with
the help of friends (it is Edmund who destroys the White Witch’s staff and Aslan who defeats
her, and it is Neville who bravely destroys Voldemort’s last horcrux).
While the male Hero’s Journey is a timeless story, the same is true for the female
Heroine’s Journey especially in modern popular culture. Many Heroine’s Journey stories appear
1 Phil Cousineau, The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on his Life and Work (New York: HarperCollins, 1990),
xvi.
2 Valerie Estelle Frankel, Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey: Vampire Slayer of Feminine Chosen One (Jefferson:
McFarland, 2012), 7.

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in young adult novels, where the target audience is impressionable young girls who seek answers
through characters to whom they can relate. One can see the familiar structure of the Hero’s
Journey in fantasy series with female protagonists such as Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, Virals
by famous forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Divergent by
Veronica Roth, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. With the exception of Twilight,
these series have a strong female character at the centre of their stories. Frankel draws a
comparison between the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey, noting the significant
differences between the two. “The girl has always had a notably different journey than the boy,”3
Frankel says. She adds one more element to the Heroine’s Journey for a total of nineteen, but
almost every element is vastly different from its counterpart in the Hero’s Journey. Frankel
notably uses Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the main topic of her book, to create this list: the world of
common day; the call to adventure in which the female desires to connect with her femininity; the
refusal of the call; the ruthless mentor and talisman that aids her often in the form of something
other than a masculine weapon; the crossing of the first threshold in which her senses are opened;
the road of trials which includes sidekicks and adversaries; the wedding of the animus which
Frankel describes as the woman’s inner male; facing Bluebeard (the tyrant); the sensitive man as
completion; confronting the powerless father; the descent into darkness; the atonement with the
mother; the apotheosis in which the female accepts her feminine side; the reward of winning back
the family; being torn between desires; the magic flight; reinstating the family; power over life
and death; and the ascension of the new mother.4 Again not every element appears in each story,
but one can see how the strong female protagonist is important to its audience as the role model
for young girls. While the lessons in these tales are universal, it is important to notice the
3 Frankel, Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey, 6.
4 Ibid, 7.

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differences between the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey, as females inherently struggle
with their femininity and sexuality in an invariably male-dominated world.
There is a severe lack of female protagonists in Celtic folktales despite the fact that there
is an abundance of strong female characters in many myths. Folklore, though, appears to ignore
the female protagonist; rather many folktales include the female antagonist, often in the form of
the sídhe, the fairies of Celtic lore. These female characters often act as antagonists in the male
Hero’s Journey, as temptresses to distract the male from their quest. However, there are a few
tales that feature a female protagonist. One can find these in Patrick Kennedy’s Legendary
Fictions of the Irish Celts. The first is “The Fairy Nurse” in which a farmer’s wife is, as the
phrase goes, away with the fairies and the family is unable to find her. This tale is particularly
interesting as it features two female protagonists – the wife whose disappearance drives the story
and the female neighbour who acts as a nurse to the fairies. This neighbour tells the farmer of her
encounter with the farmer’s wife in Faery (the legendary Otherworld of the fairies). This tale
features a few elements of the Heroine’s Journey – the neighbour is called away from ordinary
life to assist the man and appears in a strange place wherein she learns of the farmer’s wife’s fate.
She overcomes the first threshold and her eyes are opened up to Faery: “The fingers went the
other way across my eyes, and there we were before a castle door.”5 However, as with many
folktales involving fairies, a magical ointment provides the woman with the true vision of the
castle – “the beautiful room was a big rough cave, with water oozing over the edges of the stones,
and through the clay; and the lady, and the lord, and the child, weazened, poverty-bitten
crathurs.”6 The tale concludes with both women returning to the mortal realm, and the nurse loses
her Sight (the common word for being able to see fairies). The return of the farmer’s wife
5 Patrick Kennedy, Legendary Fictionsof the Irish Celts (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969), 108.
6 Kennedy, Legendary Fictions,108.

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restores their family. However, despite having a female protagonist, this tale lacks the full
journey of the heroine that Frankel outlines. One can see, though, that the nurse acts as a heroine
by revealing to the farmer how to rescue his wife.
The second tale in Kennedy’s book that features a female protagonist is “The Fairy Cure”
in which the fairies once again take away a human woman. In this tale, Nora must overcome the
temptations of the fairy realm by refusing any money, food, and drink. She refuses multiple
requests of the fairy lady that would invariably prolong her stay in Faery and her reward for her
perseverance is the cure for her daughter’s foot. The magic flight element of these two tales
comes in the form of a dark man on a horse at the beginning. At the end, however, the tales hint
at the magic flight with the sense of strange happenings. Nora “was in a sleepy state all the time
she was returning, but at last she woke up, and found herself standing by her own door.”7 In the
previous tale, the narrative presents the struggle of the wife’s return from the farmer’s point of
view: “He spread out his arms, and there was his wife’s waist within them, and he could see her
plain, but such a hullabulloo rose as if there was an earthquake; and he found himself surrounded
by horrible-looking things, roaring at him, and striving to pull his wife away.”8 “The Fairy Cure”
concludes with the healing of Nora’s daughter and with the mother’s assurance of the reality of
the fairies. Through her actions in Faery, her unwillingness to eat or drink any of the fairies’
food, and her perseverance that allows her to gain the cure for her daughter, the author shows
Nora to be a verifiable heroine.
The final tale, “Cauth Morrisy Looking for Service,” lacks an ending; therefore it is
unclear how well this tale falls into the category of the Heroine’s Journey. However, it features a
female protagonist, a quest, and a certain amount of adventure that make it relevant. The tale
7 Kennedy, Legendary Fictions,120.
8 Ibid, 110.

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begins with Cauth leaving to find service. Her call to adventure is her realization that she wants
“to be doing something for [her]self.”9 Her first threshold is overcoming the fear of the man in
whose house the wife had given her shelter. The rest of the story, however, seems perpetually
stuck on the element of trials and adversaries. Even though she finds shelter elsewhere, she faces
trials there – in the form of a dead man. She is unable to face her fears – she claims: “Well, the
life had like to leave me, for I heard him tearing after me in his coffin, every bounce it gave
striking terror into my heart.”10 The story never concludes with a return to home or a magic
flight, except for the vague final sentence in which she says: “I was getting drowsy, and I didn’t
remember anything more till I woke next morning in the dry grip of the ditch with a [dried cow-
dung] under my head.”11 The pattern of this tale seems to be leading to similar events, thus
allowing the familiar pattern of the Heroine’s Journey to evolve and change.
One can see the pattern of the Heroine’s Journey in older Celtic folktales attempting to
change in more modern tales. James Joyce uses many themes of Celtic myths and folktales in his
works, and one can see how the element of Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey are
changing and evolving over time. One can especially see this in the character of Molly in Joyce’s
Ulysses. While Molly lacks a journey and is not the protagonist, she “serves as a catalyst for
some of the undertakings of her husband, a quality that provides linkage to her counterparts in
Irish folklore and mythology.”12 However, Molly maintains elements of both the Hero’s Journey
and the Heroine’s Journey. She exemplifies the temptress of the Hero’s Journey, a “misogynistic
disdain for the intellectual nature of the female [combining] with an appreciation for her physical
9 Kennedy, Legendary Fictions,158.
10 Ibid, 162.
11 Ibid, 162-163.
12 Marguerite Quintelli-Neary, Folklore and the Fantastic in Twelve Modern Irish Novels (Westport:Greenwood
Press, 1997), 31.

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attributes.”13 Molly is viewed through the male’s eye, yet she “embodies many of the qualities of
several female heroines, as well as universal qualities found in heroines of other cultures.”14 One
must also not forget the intertextuality of the Táin Bó Cúailgne in Ulysses. Molly, much like
Medb, has the final word.15 The female mind is the last that the reader glimpses in Ulysses,
proving Molly’s modest strength as a female character. Joyce is reworking the elements of the
Hero’s Journey to fit his complex female characters.
The Heroine’s Journey finalizes its structure in more modern books and television shows.
Buffy Summers, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is probably one of the most well-known examples
of a strong female character who must face the elements of the Hero’s Journey; being a girl,
however, she must do so in what is properly called the Heroine’s Journey. She must face different
trials and different evils. She must often do this while worrying about the ones she loves most
and she must do this while also exploring and understanding her sexuality and femininity in a
male-dominated world. Many female characters who fall under the warrior woman type (Mu Lan,
Athena, Artemis, Eowyn, etc.) often lose a sense of their femininity – she “fights with masculine
weapons and has a male mentor and a male nemesis. Often she disguises herself as a boy. Her
task is still to rescue young women in danger, and she often battles the Patriarchy and absorbs its
strength.”16 Buffy never loses her femininity, even on stake-out. The most terrible thing she has
to face regarding her sexuality is not misogynistic men (whom she puts in their places on many
occasions) but Angel losing his soul after a moment of true happiness. Buffy is, through thick and
thin, through life and death (not once but twice), a strong female character. Joss Whedon created
13 Quintelli-Neary, Folklore and the Fantastic,32.
14 Ibid, 53.
15 Ibid.
16 Frankel, Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey, 9.

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what he calls a “female hero.”17 Every aspect of the Heroine’s Journey applies to Buffy, and not
once does she fail to meet the expectations of her family, her friends, and her viewers.
Another example of a series in which the author portrays a strong female character
battling the elements of the Heroine’s Journey is The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare.
This series features Clary Fray, an everyday girl who naturally is reluctant to join the world of the
unknown. While Buffy’s calling is indeed to destroy the evil in the world, Clary’s is first and
foremost to rescue her mother. Her emotions drive her and propel the plot forward. Almost every
element of the Heroine’s Journey applies to Clary, except for one crucial note-worthy point.
Whereas in Frankel’s list the heroine must confront her powerless father, Clary’s father is
decidedly not powerless. One can liken Valentine Morgenstern to Anakin Skywalker – a hero in
his own time, of his own story, whose skewed morals corrupt his mind and lead to his downfall
from which he inevitably rises with a grudge and an army. Valentine is a powerful man in Clare’s
world, but Clary is more powerful. This series is particularly interesting as it incorporates
elements of folklore from around the world – one can see similarities between the Downworlders
themselves and the fairies of Celtic folklore, even though Clare also presents the Faery Courts in
her world. The Downworlders, like Celtic fairies, are neither good nor bad entities, and generally
get along with the Clave (the governing council of the Shadow world) as long as they obey the
rules of the Clave. They are invisible to the “mundane” world (a term similar to “muggle”; Clary
is a mundane before she gains the Sight and becomes a Shadowhunter). The light Faery Court in
Clare’s world, the Seelie, is mischievous and cunning. It is unwise to eat food or drink in Faery,
which is a direct correlation to Celtic folktales involving fairies. This series, which features
17 qtd. in Frankel, Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey, 5.

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elements of familiar Celtic folklore, solidifies the Heroine’s Journey in modern popular culture,
showing that female characters can be strong and emotional at the same time.
While the Heroine’s Journey is severely lacking in Celtic folktales, the Hero’s Journey
has changed enough to allow for this new genre – one that features strong female characters at the
forefront and the patriarchy taking the proverbial backseat. It is also clear that the mythological
intrigue of folkloric beliefs has survived alongside the transformed Hero’s Journey. Strong
females exist in Celtic folklore and mythology, in characters such as Medb and Rhiannon and the
Morrigan, and yet they never feature prominently in their respective tales. They are often there
for the central male character. However, their importance and strengths are undeniable aspects of
their characters. It is characters like Medb and the elements of the Hero’s Journey that have
survived in modern tales. The central female character has become an important figure in the
modern male-dominated world. The Heroine’s Journey allows young girls to believe they are
capable of their own adventures and it is through stories such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
The Mortal Instruments that allow girls to know they can battle anything just as well as any boy.
These tales are for them, the little girls who believe anything is possible when characters just like
them are at the forefront of any television show or novel or movie.

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Works Cited
Phil Cousineau. The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on his Life and Work. New York:
HaperCollins, 1990.
Kennedy, Patrick. Legendary Fiction of the Irish Celts. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969.
Frankel, Valerie Estelle. Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey: Vampire Slayer as Feminine Chosen
One. Jefferson: McFarland, 2012.
Quintelli-Neary, Marguerite. Folklore and the Fantastic in Twelve Modern Irish Novels.
Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997.