The Flight of the Wild Gander

Explorations in the Mythological Dimensions of Fairy Tales, Legends, and Symbols

Explore the origins and impact of myth

What is the “meaning” of a tree? of a butterfly? of the birth of a child? or of the universe? What is the “meaning” of the song of a rushing stream? Such wonders simply are. They are antecedent to meaning, though “meaning” may be read into them. — Joseph Campbell

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.

Included is the famed essay “Mythogenesis,” which traces the rise and decline of a Sioux legend.