Transformative Journey 'The Epic Of Gilgamesh' And ‘The Song Of Roland’

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The transformative Journey, it is a cycle that tells a tale about an individual’s story and how they become a hero. For example, “The epic of Gilgamesh” and “The Song of Roland”. They all share and differ a form of transportive journeys. Most start in the ordinary world and eventually lead to the unknown world. The unknown world is where the hero becomes who they truly are and find their inner self to become hope in their story. Gilgamesh the king of Uruk, 2700 BC, is the main protagonist in the story of “The epic of Gilgamesh”. He settles down in his kingdom and waits for the day for his equal to finally come out of the shadows. Then, starts off his journey with Enkidu. Enkidu is Gilgamesh’s other half. Eventually, they would create a bond that is like of soul brothers. Thus, after many countless majestic events with each other, they have gone into adventure around the lands of the Sumerian city and fight mystical beings and mortals. In addition, Roland, a true noble knight in “The song of Roland” starts off the transformative journey by a speech. Roland was faced with many obstacles that forced him to act, this would allow us to see how Roland’s transformative journey shared and differed with regular transformative journeys. Both these transformative journeys were created to share an ideal way of a hero’s personal life as well. Without a peek at their personal life then how does one truly understand what’s going on? Gilgamesh and Roland shared many things that correlated to the transformative journey. But to be frank, what really matters in journeys such as these ones is their culture. Hero’s need a background story of such culture to provide critical detail to the story. It is the true importance of the story.

The Epic of Gilgamesh educates us concerning the Mesopotamian culture that rose up out of this legend. Gilgamesh had an ideal body, quality and bravery. … The Epic of Gilgamesh demonstrated that Mesopotamian culture trusted nobody and can be more dominant than the gods and passing is unavoidable. Gilgamesh had a mild tone to his culture. The way of life of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic conviction framework, which implies that the general population believed in numerous divine beings rather than only one. They most likely put stock in devils made by the divine beings, which could be great or malevolence. The general population of Mesopotamia revered these other common creatures to keep the creatures glad, in such a case that one of these amazing creatures was rankled then the general population of Mesopotamia would, here and there, be rebuffed for that misery. They trusted that when something terrible occurred, regardless of whether a catastrophic event or not, it was on the grounds that the relating god resented them, so they did their best to keep the divine beings cheerful. In other words, they didn’t want to piss off the gods or punishment would be brought down upon them.

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“King Marsile, who does not love God, defends it, He serves Mohammed and prays to Apollo”. (Turold, 1.7-8). In this quote from the “Song of Roland” talks about culture. In the

absolute first stanza, the artist screws up his religious philosophy. He gets Mohammed directly since the Saracens are altogether intended to be Muslim. Be that as it may, for what reason is Apollo, the old Greek sun god, in a similar class? twelfth century Christian Europe had an exceptionally foggy comprehension of Islam, lumping what they were aware of Mohammed and the Koran with everything else that was non-Christian. The song of Roland includes this into their own form of transformative journey which the protagonist derives from.

In Gilgamesh, there are many forms of gods that are introduced in the story. For instance, Ishtar (the god of love), Anu (Father of the Sumerian gods), Enlil (Storm god), and exc. Relationship between god and man was very interesting to say the least. The gods were intrigued by man. They were associated with man just like how Ishtar was with Gilgamesh. Despite the power between man and god the gods act very similar in behaviour like humans as well in appearance. Thus, relationship between man and god is purely straight forward. In addition, the gods in Gilgamesh are part of the transformative journey as well. They tend to give the journey a backbone to the story which gives the hero a set mind to do things that isn’t normal. This illustrates the moral of the story and gives us a good picture to what makes the protagonist keep pushing forward.

In “The Song of Roland” Gods are not talked about at all in the story. Guess is, the story probably believes that they don’t need the help of gods when it came to anything. The Author of the story Turold, must of thought keeping it more of a non-fiction was the best way to really tell the tale of a hero’s journey. By doing this really emphasized Roland’s abilities on and off the battlefield as an honourable knight hero. ‘We must stand here for our king: One must suffer hardships for one’s lord and endure great heat and great cold. One must also lose hide and hair.’ (Turold 79.1009-12). This quote is stated that they must suffer for their king and not a god. This truly depicts out certain details to why gods aren’t really associated with man like how Gilgamesh was in the song of Roland. Furthermore, in comparison between the two stories, they share few things from there and here but what really shows is that they also believe in different things. Things such as different points of views, the way they act, where their pride comes from, and what they want to accomplish. Plus, not to mention one is a selfish king that appears to be a noble hero and one is an honourable knight that serves a king. In other words, one is a king and one is not so their views are critically different on life.

As for Legal authority, Gilgamesh is an overbearing pioneer who demonstrates little respect for his people. He takes what he needs from them and works them to death by building the dividers of Uruk. He lays down with ladies on their wedding night, before their spouses. It is said that nobody can oppose his capacity. The elderly people men of Uruk gripe and advance to the divine beings for help. The divine beings hear their cries and educate Aruru, the goddess of creation, to make somebody sufficiently able to go about as a counterforce to Gilgamesh. This illustrates what type of power Gilgamesh can really bestow upon his people just because he is king. In comparison between Roland, Roland doesn’t have the power as a king does like Gilgamesh. However, having the title of an honourable knight doesn’t mean you don’t have power at all. Roland can command forces just like how he does on the battlefield. Thus, the Song of Roland is a gallant epic that delineates the deplorable annihilation of Roland, the brave head of Charlemagne’s military. Inside the epic “Roland” isn’t delineated as a saint all around. I trust that Roland’s pride in the long run turns into the main driver of his inability to himself and to others. Which creates a more sustainable environment as compared to Gilgamesh.

In Gilgamesh friendship is a key term that can be described as an element. Friendship I would think is an element only because having a bond with someone can really create chemistry between the two which therefore creates a special element known as friendship. Friendship usually starts off by meeting someone causally and greet each other by shaking each other hands for the first time. However, in Gilgamesh’s case friendship is determined by facing each other in battle and hurting each other until one gives up. Enkidu “the strongest man alive” becomes the best of friends with Gilgamesh. It’s a bit Ridiculous isn’t it. Having to face your future best friend in a battle to determine who is stronger. Furthermore, their friendship slowly turns into a fealty but stays as a friendship. In other words, you can call it a friendship of fealty. Their bond grew as they continue to due more battles as time moves forward. As time moved forward, they continued to stay as friends to the bitter end. The bitter end which where Enkidu dies.

“Roland is worthy and Oliver is wise: Both have amazing courage.” (Turold, 87.1093-4). Roland and Oliver are besties, yet that doesn’t mean they’re generally in agreement. Indeed, they’re both top notch knights and respectable folks, glad to slash down several agnostics. Yet, with regards to contemplating these things and why they ought to do them, they go separate ways. Roland needs to make the wisest decision and respectable, for God and nation, regardless of whether what’s privilege and noteworthy is likewise extremely moronic. Oliver needs to do what is sensible and reasonable, regardless of whether that makes him look frail. Also, not to mention the loyalty or better yet “fealty” that Roland has for the king is top notch loyalty. Roland dares not to betray his country or do anything rash that would put him in a bad circumstance. Roland is considered a noble hero who dies for his kingdom.

In clash between the two stories, women are treated very different. Women in the “Epic of Gilgamesh” were treated as if they were just tool. Being a woman back in Greek times was very different compared to now. Because now we have equality which gives women power just as much as men do. As for the song of Roland, Ladies are not referenced frequently in the Song of Roland. They show up in just seventeen of very nearly three hundred laisses. It is on the grounds that they are incorporated so once in a while, nonetheless, that the ladies emerge in the midst of the crowd of male characters and point out the territories of the content in which they show up. One of the guideline lady characters is Queen Bramimionde, spouse of the agnostic King Marsile. She assumes a significant job toward the finish of the content, getting to be by affiliation the entire of pagandom, and it is just through her that the French sovereign Charlemagne can accomplish a genuine triumph over the Saracens. To state otherwise, Women did not have any power or credit or maybe even seen as a human being to do anything. This shows how much society has change between the Greek times and now.

Overall, you can say that the transformative Journey for these Epics is very amusing to say the least. These Epics gives a good view on how life was for noble hero’s and how life worked. Compared to today it is very much different of how everything use to work back in the Greek times. ‘The epic of Gilgamesh’ and The Song of Roland”, they all offer a type of transportive adventures. Most begin in the common world and in the end lead to the obscure world. The obscure world is the place the saint progresses toward becoming who they really are and locate their internal identity to move toward becoming expectation in their story. By stating this you get the whole picture in one simple way.  

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