The Four Corners of Civilization
As an introduction of sorts, I will first
tell a little bit about the world in which I am concerned: The Four
Corners of Civilization. Sometimes referred to as The Four Corners,
or a more proper name, “Temerant,”2
the large fictional world created by Patrick Rothfuss contains seven
countries. It is the broad setting of his two Kingkiller Chronicle
novels, The Name of the Wind
and The Wise Man's Fear, as
well as the short story The Lightning Tree, and
the novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things. The
world is much like our own in the past before the use of electricity.
The key differences worth mentioning are the uses of magic and
supernatural elements. Magic is not common in The Four Corners, but
it is seen quite often in the books. As for the supernatural, people
share similar views with our own society; most folk either do not
believe in the existence of anything supernatural, or they think of
it as something that happens far away and in the past. As Rothfuss
states in Name of the Wind:
Everyone knew what he was thinking. Certainly there were demons in the world. But they were like Tehlu's angels. They were like heroes and kings. They belonged in stories. They belonged out there. Taborlin the Great called up fire and lightning to destroy demons. Tehlu broke them in his hands and sent them howling into the nameless void. Your childhood friend didn't stomp one to death on the road to Badn-Bryt. It was ridiculous. (Name of the Wind 10).1
As you can see, The Four Corners has a similar mindset as our own. We have all heard religious stories about gods and angels warring with demons, but we are all of a sudden skeptical when someone we know says they've seen one.
Throughout Rothfuss' books related to The Kingkiller Chronicle, we witness many myths and religious views from different parts of the world. As we are all familiar with some form of myth from our own world, we understand that myths may originate in one location and evolve as they travel to another. The same is true in The Four Corners. As the main character, Kvothe, travels the Commonwealth, he hears of many different myths in the form of stories, songs, and poems. Some of these are tales about living people, others are events concerning angels and demons. Some of the myths are of long forgotten lands that helped shape the existence of the present world. The most important myth of the series is quite possibly the story of The Chandrian, which occurs before there were humans, a story in which I will speak of more in a later section. All that need to be said is that the said story propels the plot as Kvothe seeks for the truth of the legend.
Concerning Myth
From the online Merriam Webster dictionary:
1 a : “A usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon”3
To analyze myth, we must first find a starting ground, a definition of myth. Though mythology can be seen as an alternative word for religion, it is often used separately. The Webster definition above implies that a myth may not be a telling of an actual event, but is significant in understanding the world views, practices, and beliefs of a people along with the natural phenomenon that occurs in their lives. In this case, myth in the Kingkiller Chronicle helps explain these things about the people in Rothfuss' Four Corners world. My goal is to show how myth in the novel series is used to color the world in which it takes place and the significance it has to understanding the story. Instead of viewing the full story as a myth, I would like to view the Four Corners of Civilization as an actual place and analyze how the myths in the world are important to and affect the peoples of the world.
In a book dedicated to analyzing the myth of fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard L. Purtill attempts to compare myth in the fantasy stories to myth in the ancient Greek world. He writes, “However, the original mythmakers did not aim only to tell an interesting story(though it is important to remember that they did intend at least that). They aim to do somehting that they would probably have expressed as a desire to honor the gods and heroes and to inspire their listeners” (Purtill 1).4 This idea of a myth in a functionalist perspective applies to the Kingkiller series because all the stories told within the books may not be historically accurate, but there are truths in all of them that has an ulterior purpose. To explain this in The Name of the Wind, Rothfuss writes, “'All stories are true,' Skarpi said. 'But this one really happened, if that's what you mean'” (Name of the Wind 203).1 Rothfuss understands the nature of myth and how they contain truths about peoples and events, even if they are not historically accurate stories.
Everyone knew what he was thinking. Certainly there were demons in the world. But they were like Tehlu's angels. They were like heroes and kings. They belonged in stories. They belonged out there. Taborlin the Great called up fire and lightning to destroy demons. Tehlu broke them in his hands and sent them howling into the nameless void. Your childhood friend didn't stomp one to death on the road to Badn-Bryt. It was ridiculous. (Name of the Wind 10).1
As you can see, The Four Corners has a similar mindset as our own. We have all heard religious stories about gods and angels warring with demons, but we are all of a sudden skeptical when someone we know says they've seen one.
Throughout Rothfuss' books related to The Kingkiller Chronicle, we witness many myths and religious views from different parts of the world. As we are all familiar with some form of myth from our own world, we understand that myths may originate in one location and evolve as they travel to another. The same is true in The Four Corners. As the main character, Kvothe, travels the Commonwealth, he hears of many different myths in the form of stories, songs, and poems. Some of these are tales about living people, others are events concerning angels and demons. Some of the myths are of long forgotten lands that helped shape the existence of the present world. The most important myth of the series is quite possibly the story of The Chandrian, which occurs before there were humans, a story in which I will speak of more in a later section. All that need to be said is that the said story propels the plot as Kvothe seeks for the truth of the legend.
Concerning Myth
From the online Merriam Webster dictionary:
1 a : “A usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon”3
To analyze myth, we must first find a starting ground, a definition of myth. Though mythology can be seen as an alternative word for religion, it is often used separately. The Webster definition above implies that a myth may not be a telling of an actual event, but is significant in understanding the world views, practices, and beliefs of a people along with the natural phenomenon that occurs in their lives. In this case, myth in the Kingkiller Chronicle helps explain these things about the people in Rothfuss' Four Corners world. My goal is to show how myth in the novel series is used to color the world in which it takes place and the significance it has to understanding the story. Instead of viewing the full story as a myth, I would like to view the Four Corners of Civilization as an actual place and analyze how the myths in the world are important to and affect the peoples of the world.
In a book dedicated to analyzing the myth of fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, Richard L. Purtill attempts to compare myth in the fantasy stories to myth in the ancient Greek world. He writes, “However, the original mythmakers did not aim only to tell an interesting story(though it is important to remember that they did intend at least that). They aim to do somehting that they would probably have expressed as a desire to honor the gods and heroes and to inspire their listeners” (Purtill 1).4 This idea of a myth in a functionalist perspective applies to the Kingkiller series because all the stories told within the books may not be historically accurate, but there are truths in all of them that has an ulterior purpose. To explain this in The Name of the Wind, Rothfuss writes, “'All stories are true,' Skarpi said. 'But this one really happened, if that's what you mean'” (Name of the Wind 203).1 Rothfuss understands the nature of myth and how they contain truths about peoples and events, even if they are not historically accurate stories.