Heroes from Literature

I came across this idea whilst sampling yonder blog, and it seems to have caught on somewhat, I thought a male perspective to complement it wouldn't be amiss.
When I first put together this list, I got about twenty-five heroes. Having just recently read a chapter in Doug Wilson’s Future Men on fairy tales and heroes, I decided to choose which of these make virtue most lovely, most commendable. Which would want to be like, if I could? After that it wasn’t so hard. Still, all these fellows I should just like to put at number one and list nine others after them.

10. Edwin Ransom from Perelandra

I can’t leave off a fellow who actually fights in hand to hand combat with a man possessed with Satan. I’d like to list him in a better spot, but there are too many others who deserve to be awarded those. In the newly created world of Perelandra (which we call Venus) he realizes that if he is to defeat the Devil and win for Perelandra the freedom from sin which was lost in our world, then he can’t try to reason with him. That might postpone evil for a while, but eventually the possessed Dr. Weston would win. He must fight him; destroy the instrument that the Devil uses to tempt the Eve of Perelandra into staying on dry land (a thing which is forbidden.) He is Perelandra's ransom.

9. Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings
I originally had Aragorn much further up the list, at third, actually, but as I wrote about the others he kept being knocked down a position. I don’t know how he got down (or up) quite this far. I can’t pin down one particular thing I like about Aragorn, he seems to be everything. A gentleman, a knight, a king. I do like the way he behaves toward Éowyn. And also the way he patiently waits and proves himself for Arwen.


8. Beren Erchamion from the Silmarillion
People tout Romeo and Juliet. Others talk of Helen and Paris. And apparently Heathcliff had a bit of a thing for Cathy. All these shoot rather wide of the mark, I’m afraid. The greatest romance is that of Beren and Luthien. Beren, a mortal man, literally goes through hell to win the elf maid Luthien’s hand (and has one of his own bitten of by a demon wolf in the process.) I don’t know if many of you know the story, but her father jokingly promises to let them marry if Beren brings him back one of the priceless jewels from the iron crown of the Dark Lord (Morgoth, not Sauron), a task which he thinks impossible. But of course, Beren takes him at his word and, with a goodish bit of help from Luthien herself, enters hell and steals the jewel, only to have the hand which held it bitten off! I won’t say any more, just read it, if you haven’t, but it is a tale of love beyond death, much more so than Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s. I guess Beren doesn’t always come across as the humblest, but the elves do tend to treat him somewhat slightingly – he is, after all, only a man. But he fights nobly to win his love against all odds, and, off course, she helps him win in every way she can.

7. Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility
I can’t rave about him as much as I can some of these others, but that is only because I don’t know him as well, having only read the book once, quite awhile ago. I can really only go by the portrayal of him the films, which is noble, kind, and good.



6. Anados from Phantastes
He enters Faerie, and all the opportunities of the land before him, and what does he do? Exactly what I would do in his position: makes a hash of everything. He lets his selfishness and ignorance rule most of his actions. When he awakens the White Lady and falls in love with her, he pursues her across Fairyland assuming that he has a right to claim her as his own, because he woke her. But then he loses her, and begins to redeem himself. Until he is able to say, when the goblins and the old hag taunt him that the Lady is to marry another, for Anados is not worthy of her, that he is glad of it. Finally he redeems himself fully when he dies protecting the Lady’s husband (who is a truly good knight.)
I also love the tale of Cosmos (a person) that Anados reads in the Fairy Queen’s Library.

5. Faramir from The Lord of the Rings
To be so hated by your father, and blamed by him for your dear brother’s death! Despite that fact, when faced with the chance to gain his father’s love by taking the Ring he passes it up. (And he handles it much better in the book than in the film.) And then, off course he saves Éowyn from despair, and gives her something to live for. He’s noble and courteous. He doesn’t want to fight, preferring his books. But when the days are dark and his people need him, then he leads them bravely. (Boromir could have easily have taken this place, a pity he couldn't fit on the list.)

4. Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings
What is there not to like about Sam? Few authors achieve the accomplishment of making a hero out of the simple folk without creating something of an obnoxious brat. Maybe it’s because Sam is so humble that he avoids this fate. He is so dedicated to Frodo, so hopeful, so cheerful, and courageous. He watches his master slowly dying in the torture of the Ring, and can do nothing but carry him up Mount Doom – which is perhaps one of the most moving acts in the book, if not in the entirety of literature. He loves his master with a manly loyalty greater than his fear and his overwhelming inadequacy for the task before him.

3. Mr. Knightly from Emma
He always does the right and decent thing, regardless of what people think of him. He honestly cares about everyone, he doesn’t fain politeness. Actually, he’s not polite. He’s good. That is, he doesn’t do what he should do, but what he wants to do (which happens to be the same thing.)
I’ve heard people say that Emma doesn’t deserve him, but that’s just it. It is almost as though he condescends to love her, but not in the proper meaning of the word. There is no pride in his make-up. Not of the wrong sort. Probably that is the wrong word altogether. It’s not that he marries Emma because he thinks it will be good for her to have him around all the time, so he can lecture her with greater ease. He does love her, and redeems her through his love, as it were. He cares enough about her to hurt her.

2. Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings
I always liked Gandalf the Grey better than the White. By which, I don’t mean I don’t like him as the White. He may basically be an incarnate angel (take a look in the appendices and the Silmarillion) with all the power of such a being, but he must work within the confines of the body of an old man. He gets tired, he gets cast down, he loses hope. But he labours on, like most of Tolkien’s characters, beyond immediate hope, because of the indefatigable knowledge of what is right and good. Although he is grey, it is only the grey of light veiled behind a cloak, not of goodness compromised. He knows that there are greater powers than that of evil. Of the five wizards who came to Middle-earth to fight Sauron, he is the only one who keeps to his purpose.

1. Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia
Who said these all had to be human? Aslan just has to be the greatest of my heroes. He strides rightfully proud though the green hills of my imagination, a blaze of gold, might and nobility. He gave his life for the traitorous Edmund, suffered gross humiliation before his enemies, and was willing to do so. (I’ve just realized that four of my heroes die and come back to life.) He always loves and protects the children, and rebukes them when they need it, in the way they need it. I don’t think I need to say anymore, we all know him. But, oh! To sink my hands into his golden mane and laugh and cry at his feet! To say nothing of the fact that he is about the best Christ figure that ficton’s got going.