1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity
Context: Transport yourselves into the early childhood of nations; the first beautiful morning-light of our Europe, when all yet lay in fresh young radiance as of a great sunrise, and our Europe was first beginning to think, to be! Wonder, hope; infinite radiance of hope and wonder, as of a young child's thoughts, in the hearts of these strong men! Strong sons of Nature; and here was not only a wild Captain and Fighter; discerning with his wild flashing eyes what to do, with his wild lion-heart daring and doing it; but a Poet too, all that we mean by a Poet, Prophet, great devout Thinker and Inventor,—as the truly Great Man ever is. A Hero is a Hero at all points; in the soul and thought of him first of all. This Odin, in his rude semi-articulate way, had a word to speak. A great heart laid open to take in this great Universe, and man's Life here, and utter a great word about it. A Hero, as I say, in his own rude manner; a wise, gifted, noble-hearted man. And now, if we still admire such a man beyond all others, what must these wild Norse souls, first awakened into thinking, have made of him!
“All actual heroes are essential men,
And all men possible heroes.”
“I don't have to be a hero, he thought in silent wonder. All I have to do is pretend.”
Ganner Rhysode, p. 261
Traitor (2002)
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, my brethren, is our hero, a hero all the world wants.”
Sermon (23 November 1879)
Letters, etc
Source: "It Didn’t Take Long for Me to Feel Empathy: Nanfu Wang on In the Same Breath" in Roger Ebert https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/it-didnt-take-long-for-me-to-feel-empathy-nanfu-wang-on-in-the-same-breath (17 August 2021)
“Hail hero, hail hero, child of the sun
All covered with flowers still having your fun”
Theme song of Hail, Hero! (1969), co-written with Jerome Moross
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Man of Letters
Source: Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, p. 89
Context: But why,' (some ask), 'why, if you have a serious comment to make on the real life of men, must you do it by talking about a phantasmagoric never-never land of your own?' Because, I take it, one of the main things the author wants to say is that the real life of men is of that mythical and heroic quality. One can see the principle at work in his characterization. Much that in a realistic work would be done by 'character delineation' is here done simply by making the character an elf, a dwarf, or a hobbit. The imagined beings have their insides on the outside; they are visible souls. And Man as a whole, Man pitted against the universe, have we seen him at all till we see that he is like a hero in a fairy tale?
“Wars may make heroes of men, but not all the time.”
Source: Briar Rose (1992), Chapter 25 (p. 146)
