The Hero's Journey in Game of Thrones: Samwell Tarly

What is the Hero’s Journey? It is a basic narrative pattern common across all cultures and time that seems to be shared by all heroic characters. With this in mind, mythologist Joseph Campbell designed a paradigm, also known as the monomyth, to identify the universal stages of the hero’s journey. In this series, we take a look at Game of Thrones characters and how their unfolding path follows the Hero’s Journey. This time: Samwell Tarly.

Born into the powerful House of Tarly, Samwell was intimidated by his father into giving up his birthright and joining the Night’s Watch. He is intelligent and gentle, but also bumbling, unskilled in weaponry and easily frightened. Can a Westerosi powder puff turn out to be a hero? Let’s find out.

It’s important to remember that the Campbellian Hero’s Journey paradigm is highly flexible, so not all stages need appear in order or appear at all, while others flow through many other stages. Joseph Campbell sums up the monomyth concept below:

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from his mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons upon his fellow man."

Sancho Panza and Don Quixote by Gustave Dore 1868

Please note that what we are looking at here is how the Hero’s Journey fits the Samwell character as he is presented in Game of Thrones, NOT in A Song of Ice and Fire. This article deals only with the TV show version, which means the book stories and characters have been altered—telescoped, pared down and folded into each other in a variety of ways, and influenced by the increasing creative input of producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

George R.R. Martin has often said that he hates the predictability of traditional story construction, so why apply the monomyth to Game of Thrones? The Hero’s Journey is not an unassailable formula carved in stone on the side of a pyramid. It is a flexible, living idea, a suggested blueprint of how mankind’s greatest myths bubble up and out of the shared human condition, rising from our shared subconscious across space and time, and even deeper than that, from the structural depths of the very cosmos themselves. For the bloody bard George R.R. Martin, who steeps his stories in mythology, it seems impossible that he could completely avoid Campbell’s theoretical ballpark.

That said, let’s get to it. In this article, we will compare Samwell Tarly’s journey through Game of Thrones to Campbell’s monomyth paradigm and attempt to answer four questions: first, does Sam’s journey fit into the monomyth at all? Second, if Sam’s journey fits the framework, how closely does it mirror the traditional experience of the Campbellian Hero? Thirdly, what clues can the monomyth offer us about his character’s future in Season 7 and beyond? And lastly, is Sam a Hero, or is he something else?

THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART I: DEPARTURE

1a) WORLD OF COMMON DAY: the hero, unfinished and incomplete, lives in his ordinary world before receiving the call to adventure. (This is a stage described by Vogler, not Campbell, but the world of common day is such a typical starting point for stories I decided to use the stage here.)

When we first meet Sam, he has already been ripped away from his previous life. Although he is the firstborn son of the wealthy Tarly family, his father’s disdain for his pudgy, intellectual offspring had obviously made Horn Hill a difficult place to call home.

"“Human beings are born too soon; they are unfinished, unready as of yet to meet the world.” —Joseph Campbell"

Much later, in season 6, we’ll meet Sam’s mother, Lady Melessa. One senses that she shielded Sam as best she could from his father’s disapproval. Sam will continue to need protectors for much of his journey.

1b) CALL TO ADVENTURE: the hero is presented with a challenge, problem or adventure and he can no longer remain within the safety and comfort of the World of the Common Day. He embarks on a journey into a new and frightening realm.

"“The first stage of the mythological journey—which we have designated “The Call to Adventure”—signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown. The fateful region of both treasure and danger may be variously represented: as a distant land, a forest, a kingdom underground … but it is always a place of strangely fluid and polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, superhuman deeds and impossible delight.” —Joseph Campbell"

Sam arrives at Castle Black and his woes continue. He’s beaten and humiliated during combat practice and labeled “Lady Piggy” by master-at-arms Alliser Thorne. Sam is weak and desperate and looks like a poor bet to survive. As an unlikely hero, Sam’s call to adventure has been forced upon him, as is Frodo Baggins when Gandalf arrives to recruit him in The Lord of The Rings, or Odysseus in The Odyssey. This is not an adventure Samwell wants.

"“The hero … may be carried or sent abroad by some benign or malignant agent, as was Odysseus, driven about the Mediterranean by the winds of the angered God Poseidon.” —Joseph Campbell"

As Sam relates to Jon Snow in his debut episode, “Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things” (S1, Ep4), his father, Randyll Tarly, threatened to have him killed if he remained at home:

"On the morning of my eighteenth nameday, my father came to me. “You’re almost a man now,” he said, “but you are not worthy of my land and title. Tomorrow you’re going to take the black, forsake all claim to your inheritance, and start north. If you do not,” he said, “then we’ll have a hunt, and somewhere in these woods your horse will stumble, and you’ll be thrown from your saddle to die. Or so I’ll tell your mother. Nothing would please me more.”"

2) REFUSAL OF THE CALL: the hero, not fully committed, considers turning back, but a mentor convinces him to remain.

Sam really has no choice in his commitment to the Night’s Watch. Stripped of all possessions and titles, he is stuck at The Wall. In the beginning, Sam simply yields and lies down to accept his beatings at the hands of his black brothers, but Jon Snow steps in and takes up the role of his protector.

As the friendship between Sam and Jon develops, they first look like a hero and his comical sidekick, like Sancho Panza and Don Quixote. But Sam will help anchor Jon in times of stress, as when he convinces Jon to remain at Castle Black after Jon is named a Steward (“You Win or You Die,” S1, Ep 7) and leading the party that brings Jon back to the Wall after Jon goes AWOL when he hears his brother Robb is marching to war (“Fire and Blood,” S1, Ep 10). Sam also develops valuable skills of his own, eventually outgrowing his sidekick status and becoming more of a valued peer to Jon, akin to Watson with Sherlock Holmes.

3) CROSSING THE FIRST THRESHOLD: the hero reaches the limits of his known horizon: beyond lies darkness, danger and the unknown.

Sam crosses the First Threshold by riding out of Castle Black’s gate and heading north beyond the Wall at the end of season 1, similar to how Frodo and the Hobbits leave the Shire to travel to Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

4) SUPERNATURAL AID: once the hero is committed to the quest, a mentor or guide shall appear who often awards him a magical talisman to aid with his journey.

"“For those who have not refused the call, the first encounter of the hero-journey is with a protective figure (often a little crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass.” —Joseph Campbell"

Sam is going to accumulate some supernatural items, such as the dragonglass daggers he finds at the Fist of the First Men and the Valyrian steel sword Heartsbane, but it is Jon Snow’s direwolf Ghost who saves him early on. Ghost appears from a blizzard to rescue Sam from a wight in “Valar Dohaeris” (S3, Ep 1) and later arrives to save both Sam and Gilly from assault by unsavory black brothers after Sam is beaten down in her defense (“The Gift” S5, Ep7).

Like Bran, Sam needs a lot of help to survive. He doesn’t have a specific mentor but rather a series of them, including a “village” of helpers (Maester Aemon, Jon, Ghost, Jeor Mormont) and a whole set of supernatural talismans.

5) THE BELLY OF THE WHALE: when crossing the magical threshold the hero enters a womb to be reborn, so rather than conquering what lies beyond, the hero is swallowed into the unknown and may appear to have died.

When Sam is far north of the Wall in “Valar Morghulis” (S2, Ep 10), he is left behind by the fleeing Night’s Watchmen and overrun by the wight army advancing on the Fist of the Last Men. By all measures, Sam should be killed (and reanimated) once the mounted White Walker notices him trembling behind a rock. Sam is dead meat, but strangely, the White Walker spares him.

"“This popular motif gives emphasis to the lesson that passage of the threshold is a form of self-annihilation … instead of passing outward, beyond the confines of the visible world, the hero goes inward, to be born again.” —Joseph Campbell"

Why doesn’t the White Walker kill Sam? Yes, Sam would have appeared harmless in that situation, but so would most anyone. Is there a deeper meaning to the White Walker’s action? Do the White Walkers, who have mysterious magical powers (in addition to raising the dead, remember that the Night King was able to make contact with Bran during the latter’s vision in “The Door”), know that Sam has a future role to play?

Whatever the answer to that question, Sam has now moved into the second phase of the Hero’s Journey: Initiation.

THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART II: INITIATION

6) THE ROAD OF TRIALS: the Hero must undergo a series of tests, some of which he will fail, to prepare him for his transformation.

"“Once having crossed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials. This is a favorite phase of the myth-adventure. It has produced a world literature of miraculous tests and ordeals.” —Joseph Campbell"

Like every other character on Game of Thrones, Sam is in a near-constant state of conflict. After being exiled by his father, he has had to survive numerous trials, including attacks from Night’s Watchmen, wildlings and wights. A few examples: He rescued himself, Gilly and her baby from the mutineers at Craster’s Keep, destroyed a White Walker in the night and killed a Thenn when the wildlings stormed Castle Black in “The Watchers on the Wall” (S4, Ep9).

Joseph Campbell explains why a hero’s trials can keep coming and coming:

"The ordeal is a deepening of the problem of the first threshold … for many-headed is this surrounding Hydra; one head cut off, two more appear—unless the right caustic is applied to the mutilated stump. The original departure into the land of trials represented only the beginning of the long and really perilous path of initiatory conquests and moments of illumination. Dragons have now to be slain and surprising barriers passed—again, again and again. Meanwhile there will be a multitude of preliminary victories, unretainable ecstasies, and momentary glimpses of the wonderful land."

For Sam, his trials slowly force him to understand he is capable of bravery. Like the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Sam learns that courage is the ability to act in the face of fear, as when he instinctively stands up and fights for Gilly and her baby when she and he are both attacked by Night’s Watchmen in “The Gift” (S5, Ep 7).

Sam also realizes he has something of value to offer the world: knowledge. Specifically, he’s been looking into the White Walkers and how to defeat them.We can also see parallels between Sam and Mowgli from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: the lost boy is weaker than the jungle animals around him, but he learns to rule them by looking them in their eyes.

7) THE MEETING WITH THE GODDESS: the Hero experiences losing himself in unconditional love, usually represented by finding the woman he will always love the most, his ‘soul-mate.’

"“The ultimate adventure, when all barriers and ogres have been overcome, is commonly represented as a mystical marriage of the hero-soul with the Queen Goddess of the World. This is the crisis … within the darkness and the deepest chamber of the heart.” —Joseph Campbell"

In the context of Sam’s metaphorical journey, Gilly represents the Queen Goddess of the World.

"“The meeting with the Goddess (who is incarnate in every woman) is the final test of the talent of the hero to win the boon of love (charity: amor fati) …” —Joseph Campbell"

The Goddess can appear in many forms and win the hero’s heart: a great example is Don Quixote’s lady love, Dulcinea, for whom he quests and envisions as the most beautiful woman in the world. In reality, she is a peasant girl named Aldonza. Gilly is a wildling girl with a son born of incest, but Sam is too pure of heart to care about any of that stuff: all he knows is that he’s in love. Sam begins to transform around Gilly, as he describes to Pypar just before Mance Rayder’s army attacks Castle Black in “The Watchers on the Wall” (S4, Ep9):

"Pypar: “If you’re afraid of a band of wildings how in seven hells did you manage to get a White Walker?“Sam: “I didn’t know I was going to kill it. But I had to do something, I didn’t have any choice. It was going to kill Gilly and take the baby. If someone had asked me my name, right there, I wouldn’t have known. I wasn’t Samwell Tarly anymore. I wasn’t the steward of the Night’s Watch, or son of Randyll Tarly, or any of that. I was nothing at all. When you’re nothing at all there’s no more reason to be afraid.”Pypar: “But you’re afraid now.”Sam: “Yes, well, I’m not nothing anymore.”"

Sam is all about knowledge, and Joseph Campbell explains exactly what Gilly as the Queen Goddess of the World is, knowledge-wise, to the Campbellian Hero:

"“Woman, in the picture language of mythology, represents the totality of what can be known. The hero is the one who comes to know.”"

8) TEMPTATION: the hero faces temptations, both physical and pleasurable, that threaten to stall or completely defeat his quest.

We turn to Gilly once again, this time fulfilling the role of the temptress. The age-old idea that the Hero must remain ‘pure’ and that female flesh is an unwholesome distraction is present in Game of Thrones, at least in the context of Westerosi society. Remember the part of the Night’s Watch oath that goes “I shall take no wife…[and] father no children.” As Sam points out in “The Watchers on the Wall,” this section vague in in its parameters—does it require celibacy, or simply forbid marriage and procreation?

"“…when it suddenly dawns on us … that everything we think or do is necessarily tainted with the odor of the flesh, then, not uncommonly, there is experienced a moment of revulsion: life, the facts of life, the organs of life, woman in particular as the great symbol of life, become intolerable to the pure, pure soul.” —Joseph Campbell"

For as long as we’ve known him, Sam has been very interested in girls, and speaks at length about it to Jon Snow in season 1’s “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things.” From the beginning, he is a earnest virgin looking for a goddess to attach his devotion. Gilly, every bit the Earth Mother with her newborn child, brings love into the equation. Sam is smitten instantly, and his pledge to that nebulous section of the Night’s Watch oath is no match for his feelings towards her.

In mythology, the idea of the woman as temptress is a powerful and often terrible force in the male-focused stories of Oedipus Rex (incest), Lancelot (adultery), and Hamlet. In Game of Thrones, Gilly is a powerful force for good. The love between she and Sam grows in the wilderness, and they help each other survive. She finds love, protection and a father for her son, and he finds love, a reason to be brave and the ambition to realize his dreams at the Citadel.

Gilly has seen into the true heart of Samwell Tarly. Knowing what she knows, she berates Randyll and Sam’s younger brother Dickon in “Blood of My Blood” (S6, Ep6) after Randyll calls into question Sam’s bravery and competence:

"“He drove a dagger into the walker’s heart. He risked his own life to save mine more than once. He’s a greater warrior than either of you will ever be.”"

Sam saves Gilly, she saves him, and the transformed Sam may end up saving the world.

9) ATONEMENT WITH THE FATHER: the hero must confront someone with the ultimate power over his life, often a father figure.

The Atonement stage can often be unpleasant and dangerous, such as Luke facing Darth Vader in Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back or Oedipus realizing the identity of his father in Oedipus Rex. The ‘father’ figure need not be a character’s natural father, but for Sam, there’s no doubt this archetypal role is embodied in his stern, unforgiving dad: Randyll Tarly.

When Sam returns home to House Tarly and faces the father who exiled him, he does so in order to sequester Gilly and Little Sam safely at Horn Hill while he studies at the Citadel. Although Randyll is initially accepting of Sam’s new situation, his brutal condescension soon uncovers the truth of Gilly’s wildling bloodline, and he is infuriated. Sam’s mother, continuing her role as one of Sam’s protectors, manages to provide cover for Gilly and Little Sam to remain at the castle, but the situation proves unacceptable to Sam.

"“The hero transcends life with its peculiar blind spot and for a moment rises to a glimpse of the source. He beholds the face of the father, understands—and the two are atoned.” —Joseph Campbell"

When Sam realizes that his home will never be an acceptable sanctuary for him and his family, he takes action, even though it happens under the cover of night. After being humiliated in front of Gilly, he grabs his family and departs, taking the Tarly Valyrian steel sword, Heartsbane, with him.

10) APOTHEOSIS: the hero suffers a death, either physically or spiritually, and achieves a state of knowledge and understanding to equip him upon his return.

This death or near-death scenario is an important stage in the Hero’s journey: Christopher Vogler describes Apotheosis (he calls it ‘the Supreme Ordeal’) this way:

"This is the critical moment in any story, an Ordeal in which the hero must die or appear to die so that he may be born again."

Sam’s Apotheosis is a deeply personal one, and interlocked the his Atonement with the Father stage. The man who reclaims the sword which is his by birthright and turns his back on the powerful father who always dominated him is a very different creature than the boy who was exiled and sent to the Night’s Watch. It is here where the boy Sam finally dies and the new Sam completes his transformation into a man. Sam cannot confront his father without risking the safety of Gilly and Little Sam, so he collects his sword and journeys to his destiny at The Citadel, where his new life can begin.

"“Only birth can conquer death—the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new.” –Joseph Campbell"

11) THE ULTIMATE BOON: the hero achieves the goal of his quest, the thing he has suffered so many trials to attain. The boon often appears in the form of an elixir, ability, knowledge, or a symbolic object such as the Holy Grail. The hero must then eventually return to the Common World and use the boon to everyone’s advantage.

Since Sam is not a traditional kind of hero, it seems unlikely that Heartsbane or dragonglass, both physical weapons, will prove to be the object of his quest. His ultimate boon is knowledge, and he has found its fount in the library at the Citadel.

We don’t know what Sam might learn in this magnificent place, but he’ll probably dig up something worthwhile to use against the advancing White Walker army. He’d better get studying, though: it doesn’t seem like he’s got a lot of time.

It appears that Sam’s journey is currently in this stage of the monomyth at the end of Season 6. Let’s take a quick look at what might await Sam in Season 7.

UPCOMING STAGES in THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART III: RETURN

12) REFUSAL OF THE RETURN: after having found enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the common world to bestow the boon on his fellow man.

Since it appears that Sam’s journey is currently in the Ultimate Boon stage, we’ll have to see if Refusal will apply. It seems that Sam would be all for bestowing his boon on Westeros, but then again, he may be reticent to return to a world where physical strength is prized over intellectual ability after spending time at the Citadel, where knowledge is treasured for its own sake.

13) THE MAGIC FLIGHT: if the gods have been jealously guarding the boon, sometimes the hero must risk everything to escape with it.

This is a distinct possibility, particularly if the Night King senses what knowledge Sam might have gleaned from the Citadel’s ancient tomes and tries to stop him from using it. Alternatively, the Citadel itself may not want Sam to escape with its knowledge.

14) RESCUE FROM WITHOUT: the Hero needs powerful guides and rescuers to bring him back to everyday life.

Even with his newfound independence and confidence, Sam will always require protection, just as Bran Stark does. He may soon require the aid of Jon Snow and his allies, particularly if he travels back north, where the conflict is simmering.

CONCLUSION

Is Samwell Tarly a Hero? Let’s remember our four original questions. First, does Sam’s experience fit into the Hero’s Journey at all? His journey moves through the required stages pretty smoothly.

Second, if Sam’s journey fits, how closely it mirror the traditional experience of the Hero? Sam is a meeker, less action-oriented hero, but he does experience the necessary trials and thresholds.

Third, what clues can the monomyth offer us about Sam’s future in Season 7 and beyond? The structure of Game of Thrones can be seen to roughly fit the overall three-part structure of the Hero’s Journey. Part 1 (Departure) = GoT Season 1. Part 2 (Initiation) = GoT Season 2-6 (remember that Campbell says that this is a “favorite part of the myth-adventure” so it makes sense that it would take up a lot of space), and Part 3 (Return) = GoT Remaining Seasons.

Following the upcoming stages outlined above, it seems as though Sam is perched on the precipice of Part III: Return, which perhaps means he’ll soon discover a magic formula to help defeat the White Walkers and embark on another harrowing journey back to the North in order to share it.

Lastly—is our unlikely hero a real, Campbellian Hero? Bilbo Baggins and the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings are the meekest, weakest creatures in all of Middle Earth, but it is their resilience and sense of what is good and right that saves everyone in the end. At the conclusion of that tale, even King Aragorn bows to them. In one version of the Arthurian Tales, it is Sir Percival, the most timid and quietest of King Arthur’s knights, who is only one of the two knights who find the Grail (the other is Galahad). If we agree that the meekest among us can rise to heroic status, and that Sam’s journey embodies the Campbellian model, then yes, Sam is a bonafide Hero.

Samwell Tarly’s journey is a wonderful progression from sniveling disinherited son, a weakling with a big brain and a good heart, to a man realizing his quest. Loyal and smart, Sam discovers his value among the sword-swingers and gains confidence in his battles to protect his beloved Gilly and their son. Armed with courage, Heartsbane and love for his new family, Sam’s access to the Citadel’s library may prove in the end to provide the ultimate information on how to defeat the White Walkers.

"“How many brothers can say that they’ve killed a White Walker and a Thenn? I might be the first in history.” —Samwell Tarly (“The Wars to Come” S5, Ep 1)"

I hope you enjoyed taking a quick look at Samwell Tarly’s hero’s journey through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. All quotes by Joseph Campbell are from The Hero with a Thousand Faces unless otherwise noted. All quotes by Christopher Vogler are from The Writer’s Journey unless otherwise noted.

The Hero’s Journey in Game of Thrones: Samwell Tarly

By Richard E Preston | Apr 22, 2017

THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART I: DEPARTURE

THE HERO’S JOURNEY, PART II: INITIATION

Other articles in the ARCHETYPE and HERO’S JOURNEY series:

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