The Flight of the Wild Gander eBook

In these essays – contemporary with his years at Sarah Lawrence and with his legendary Cooper Union lectures – Campbell explores the origins of myth, from the Grimms' fairy tales to Native American legends. He explains how the symbolic content of myth is linked to universal human experience and how the myths and experiences change over time.

To purchase a physical copy of this book, visit Bookshop.org, Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.

"If ever there was an art in which the whole community of man has worked – seasoned with the philosophy of the codger on the wharf and singing with the music of the spheres – it is this of the ageless tale."

–

"Living myths are not mistaken notions, and they do not spring from books. They are not to be judged as true or false but as effective or ineffective, maturative or pathogenic."

–

"Myths – that is to say, religious recitations – [are] conceived as symbolic of the play of eternity in time. These are rehearsed not for diversion, but for the spiritual welfare of the individual or community."

–

"The folk-tale is the primer of the picture language of the soul.