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By Root 5321 0

is, of course, entirely familiar. As the story of a young man's growing up, we see how he can only do this by showing a balance of qualities, masculine and feminine. All the way through his journey it is as though he comes to a succession of doors, each of which must be opened in the right way. Initially he makes mistakes, but is saved by the fact that he is ultimately acting not for himself but in some greater, selfless cause. Eventually he learns to control his impulses and to trust his instincts, and it is this degree of self-mastery which, in his crucial encounter with the Dark Mother/Queen, wins him his unshakeable alliance with the anima/ Princess. Nevertheless he still, at the critical moment when he is within sight of the goal, makes his worst mistake through a lack of awareness, and again it is only the `helpful animal' of instinct which saves him. But he is now finally on his own. As he reaches the climax of the story he has to prove himself by relying on his own qualities; and on the fact that his previous heroism and good-heartedness have won him the total loyalty of his three mysterious `allies' waiting for him in the castle. For the last time the Rule of Three operates in the last three `tests'. Ivan himself is the `fourth' who brings his three allies to life. As in many other stories, we see a `three' becoming a 'four' at the end, to symbolise the final emergence of a perfect totality. The hero is revealed at last in his true identity, is united with his `other half' and can succeed to his father, to rule wisely over the kingdom he has redeemed.

Robin Hood

The legend of Robin Hood again presents us with the picture of a kingdom - twelfth-century England - which has fallen under a terrible shadow. The true, just ruler of the kingdom, Richard, has disappeared abroad. In his absence his rule has been usurped by his wicked brother John, both weak and tyrannical. Power in the kingdom is no longer being exercised in a just or orderly fashion, and a symptom of this is the way the Norman barons abuse their position, behaving arbitrarily and heartlessly. Our attention focuses on one corner of the kingdom where one local Norman lord, the Sheriff of Nottingham, has become a particularly noxious Tyrant, and where the ordinary people, the Saxons, are reduced to fear and misery under his cruel sway.

But in the shadows cast by this dark figure - more precisely in the shadowy world of the great forest of Sherwood - a little community has gathered round the hero of the story. Robin Hood, half-Norman, half-Saxon (thus representing both parts of the divided kingdom), is the dispossessed orphan son of a great noble, the Earl of Huntingdon. Having lost his father in childhood, he has grown up to be confronted with the Dark Father/Tyrant figure of the Sheriff of Nottingham as his particular `dark opposite. And he has now gathered round him a group of followers in the forest who represent a kind of `inferior kingdom, under the rule of their shadowy `king' Robin and his `queen' Maid Marian. With their differentiation of skills and personalities, Little John, Will Scarlett, Friar Tuck and the rest add up to a kind of balanced community, an image of potential wholeness. But nothing about them is out in the open or properly resolved. They are outlaws, who can only show themselves to the outer world in disguise. Robin himself is having to live under an assumed name, disguising his true noble identity. We learn how he fell in love with Marian at an early stage in the story and how they were almost married; but how, on the steps of the altar, their wedding was interrupted by the dark power, so that they are not yet properly and fully united (hence the fact that she is still a `Maid'). Yet we are in no doubt that Robin and his followers are figures of light. Robin is an outstanding leader, wholly a man; yet at one with his inner feminine, exercising his strength selflessly on behalf of the poor and oppressed. His loving Marian, with her skill as an archer, is a perfect anima-figure, both entirely feminine and yet with the inner strength