The Forest as Allegory

This was an essay I wrote a few years ago for a class I took "Beowulf to Bilbo" it was a class which studied the hero myth. I must say that I do not study English or ancient poetry as a profession, but I am a person devoted to mythology and folklore and thus provide amateur scholarship in the above stated areas. Obviously the forest as allegory is a broad topic within the field of mythology and this post will not give it full justice. However, I hope that the reader may look beyond this and appreciate the position taken in this post.

As Joseph Campbell has stated that there is one universal monomyth in his book “A Hero with a Thousand Faces” it stands to reason that in nearly every mythology and fable there in lies the character of the forest or other wilds. The forest is a multi-faceted and ever changing presence within folklore and for each culture, civilization, and time the forest will emerge with varying and yet universal meaning.

The objective of this essay will be to examine the characteristics of the hero’s forest as a self-contained entity which will include the paradox of the forest as possessing both mystery and knowledge. Also, the forest as a representation of a threshold for the hero’s journey by which he must overcome his own fears and confront his inner demons which are physically manifested within the seclusion of the forest. Lastly, to what extent do the wildernesses or forests of mythology marry into the idea of a pre-Christian world?

The text for reference will be the pre-first millennium poem “Beowulf” which will examine many new religious aspects of the forest and what this means for the myth as a whole. The desired conclusion of this research will be to justify the necessity of the forest allegory within myth and legend.

The character of the forest within mythology and folklore is usually quite complex and riddled with an underlying balance of both good and wickedness within. The forest becomes the very embodiment of Mystery within the hero’s tale. Dense, dark, terrible, alive, magical, protected, sacred, ancient, timelessness, immobile, forever and ever-changing; the forest represents the unknown and possibly at times even evil.

The forest appears as a daunting obstacle one which echoes the past in its stillness and thunders with majesty by its silence. While most heroes do physically enter into a forest or wilderness as a preliminary step into achieving their ultimate end the forest is not always a material manifestation of a realm of trees and faerie but can also be the expression of the hero’s inner turmoil. It is, as Campbell states, to “know the dark night of the soul” (Campbell. The Monomyth. p. 21). Regardless of the form in which the forest takes it retains the same dimensions.

Most importantly the forest can be seen as the threshold which the hero must cross in order to continue on their journey. This can be seen in modern references such as the popular George Lucas Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back” the fifth film in a total series of six. In this film the hero Luke Skywalker must train as a Jedi within the confines of a forest, there he not only disciplines himself and achieves the physical and mental training necessary to advance his goal of becoming a Jedi knight, but he has also confronted his own fears and demons. Only upon conquering both may the hero exit the forest and take with him the knowledge he has achieved there.

To counter this point, Dante Alighieri in his “Divine Comedy” acknowledges that the forest in which he awakes is indeed a threshold to another plain but it ultimately remains a mystery to him. The forest which Dante encounters in his “Inferno” is one of darkness and primarily acts as a threshold through which Dante must permeate. In addition to this the hero is never alone, at least not for long, in the forest.

The role of the guide in the hero myth is to be found within the forest, one who has overcome the forest or is now such a part of the forest it is an inhabitant. It is the role of the guide to lead the hero through the forest and to emerge with the hero triumphant. This is seen in the training of Luke Skywalker by Yoda and of Virgil intercepting Dante and guiding him not only past the ferocious beasts which guard the forest but also into the very bowels of Satan’s subterranean domain.

By use of these two examples one can see that the forest acts as both a means of mystery and concealment and yet at the same time is the very vessel of knowledge essential to the fulfillment of the hero’s journey. This paradox is the very root of the allegory of the forest within mythology and fable, the double-sided story which is the sum parts of the complete whole.

The aforementioned are the typical characteristics of the forest which are timeless for every story and are what the subconscious mind derives from a primitive understanding when it is faced with the idea of the forest. However, within the story of “Beowulf” a new element to the forest can be seen, that of a religious nature. Beowulf represents the first good-Christian knight in a land of predominant darkness ruled by a kill or be killed mentality. It is Beowulf alone who armed with his faith in God can vanquish the foul monster, Grendel, the descendent of Cain who was destined for the shadows with evil burned into his very existence. Living in the imposing recesses of the land of the Danes, Grendel represents the original shedding of blood by his forefather Cain, in a land were brother destroying brother was the norm it could be said that Grendel is a symbolic representation of the world which will perish away with him and a new dawn of reason will be born out of his termination.

Destined to destroy Grendel and rid the evil from the land of the Danes forever is Beowulf who in contrast is the representation of good, knowledge, civilization, and modernity. Together these two opposites will confront the other in the ultimate display of good versus evil. The forest in the tale of Beowulf encompasses all of the land surrounding Hrothgar’s stronghold. This is a land which has remained uncharted and ergo which knowledge cannot penetrate is thus shrouded in mystery. This surrounding land has not been explored it represents a pagan wilderness where monsters still roam wild on the cusp of civilization and it is the fear of the unknown which retains these boundaries. Beowulf as the hero can confront these fears of “what lies beyond” and is thus the only one who is able to rid the demons in the story from the world.

This creates a turning point in the traditional role of the forest within mythology. The hero must embark on a crusade into the unfamiliar which now is no longer nameless but has been christened as unholy. Beowulf becomes the first Christian knight who acts as an explorer to rid the world of her monsters and dragons which are the enemies of God in the context of the poem. In this respect, the hero becomes a sort of redeemer not just for his people but for all people who will hear tales of him.

In conclusion, the forest is an essential part of the hero myth. It is a representation of the unknown both in the physical sense and in the waking sense. The hero must pass through this mysterious territory and conquer the trials presented to him within it in order to emerge as a complete being conquering both self and fear he is thus able to bring his knowledge back to the populace. The trials of the forest are to prove to the hero that he is able to complete whatever task has initially been asked of him. The forest is the threshold from which there is no return to the hero’s former self but he is instead now fully engaged upon his initiation into his new form as the conquering hero.