FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan
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Major FitzRoy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan (10 June 1885–1964) was a British soldier, beekeeper, farmer and independent scholar. He is best known for his book The Hero, where he systematises hero myths.
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The Hero
Raglan's best-known work, The Hero, A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama, was published in 1936. The book's central thesis is that hero figures of mythology had their origin in ritual drama, not historical fact. In the book's most influential chapter, he outlined 22 common traits of god-heroes. They are:
- The hero's mother is a royal virgin;
- His father is a king, and
- Often a near relative of his mother, but
- The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
- He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
- At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather, to kill him, but
- He is spirited away, and
- Reared by foster parents in a far country.
- We are told nothing of his childhood, but
- On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future kingdom.
- After a victory over the king, and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
- He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor, and
- Becomes king.
- For a time he reigns uneventfully, and
- Prescribes laws, but
- Later loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
- Is driven from the throne and city, after which
- He meets a mysterious death,
- Often at the top of a hill.
- His children, if any, do not succeed him.
- His body is not buried, but nevertheless
- He has one or more holy sepulchers.
Raglan then encapsulates the lives of several heroes and awards points (marks) for thematic elements for a possible score of 22. He dissects Oedipus, Theseus, Romulus, Heracles, Perseus, Jason, Bellerophon, Pelops, Asclepios, Dionysos, Apollo, Zeus, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Watu Gunung, Nyikang, Sigurd or Siegfried, Llew Llawgyffes, Arthur, and Robin Hood. Oedipus earns the highest score with 21 marks.
Thus Raglan calculated the likelihood that these protagonists were actual historical figures. Unlike Joseph Campbell, who published The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1943, Raglan was not interested in the psychological or personal aspects of hero myths, only their factual basis.
The Hero established Raglan as a leading proponent of the "myth-ritual" theory of the origin of religion, whose antecedents included Sir James Frazer and the Cambridge Ritualists. The myth-ritual theory had a profound influence on literature and subsequently on literary criticism, reaching its height in the 1960s. Because of its succinct presentation of the theory, Raglan's scale is still frequently used as a teaching tool in cultural anthropology and comparative literature.
Significantly, Raglan excludes Jesus from the study, even though he "is reputed to be the son of a god", returned to his future kingdom, and met a mysterious death on the top of a hill, and was not buried. Raglan later claimed to omit Jesus to avoid conflict with his original publisher. The idea of Jesus as a god-hero is sometimes used by both sides in the debate over the historicity of Jesus.
Politics
Though less well known today as a political commentator, Raglan applied the same deductive reasoning to political science as to anthropology, with similarly controversial results. In The Science of Peace (1933), he denounced nationalism as an artificial construct independent of linguistic, racial or economic divisions, and a leading cause of war. At the same time, he opposed disarmament and the League of Nations and believed imperialism was an effective antidote for rampant nationalism. He advocated the "civilization of women," including access to education, and believed that people of African descent were just as capable of developing advanced civilization as Europeans.
In 1934, publishing house Methuen invited a number of prominent intellectuals to write on what they would do if granted dictatorial power in England. In If I Were Dictator, Raglan responded in typically idiosyncratic and sometimes inflammatory style. The book was written as a thought exercise and not, as it has sometimes been represented, a descriptive or prescriptive formula for being a dictator.
Quotations
- "Culture is roughly everything we do and monkeys don't."
- "It is often said that 'there is no smoke without fire.' What those who use this expression mean by it is that their wish to believe any story or part of a story makes it historically true. They never apply it to a story which they know to be historically untrue, however much 'smoke' it may have emitted." (Preface to The Hero)
- "If, instead of saying that thieves will go to prison or liars will go to hell, we could make people think that stealing is as bad as going to a funeral in a coloured tie, or lying as bad as frying a sausage on the parlour fire, we should achieve a colossal reformation."
- "I believe that before many centuries have elapsed, there will not be a single person in America without a certain portion of Negro blood."
Bibliography
- Jocasta's Crime, 1933
- The Science of Peace, 1933
- If I were Dictator, 1934
- The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama, 1936, (reprint 2003: ISBN 0-486-42708-0)
- How Came Civilisation?, 1939
- Death and Rebirth, 1945
- The Origins of Religion, 1949
- Monmouthshire Houses, with Sir Cyril Fox, Vols. 1-III, ISBN 0-9520009-9-7
- Temple & the House, 1964
