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Eragon
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Themes
The Hero’s Journey
The principal theme of the novel adheres closely to a mythological template known as the Hero’s Journey. This notion of a world monomyth that all cultures possess was first popularized by professor of comparative religion Joseph Campbell. Eragon follows the mythical archetype in its initial stages. The book begins with Eragon living in the ordinary world as a medieval peasant youth in a rural village. He is soon thrust into the realm of the supernatural when he finds a dragon’s egg that hatches in his presence. His decision to keep the dragon and name her represents another step in the hero’s journey: the call to adventure.
Even though Eragon still has one foot in the ordinary world and goes about his usual daily chores, his attention is now diverted by the need to care for the baby dragon. He is wrenched even further out of the realm of the normal by the arrival of the Ra’zac and the murder of his uncle. Because Eragon’s past has been destroyed, he arrives at a crisis when help appears in the form of Brom. Brom advances Eragon to the next step of the hero’s journey as the mentor who must provide the necessary training to advance the quest. The mentor also leads the hero away from the ordinary world to complete his transition into the realm of the magical. Brom performs this function both literally and figuratively as he leads Eragon out of Carvahall and also teaches him some rudimentary magic and physical fighting skills.
As the companions turn their backs on the past, they advance to the stage in the hero’s journey where he will encounter challenges, elude or battle enemies, and find allies. All of these archetypical encounters are demonstrated in Eragon’s fight with the Ra’zac, his loss of Brom, and the arrival of Murtagh, his new ally. The rest of the novel consists of avoiding capture, racing to save Arya, and forging new alliances with the Varden, elves, and dwarves.
In the mythical archetype, the hero’s journey continues through a series of more tests and adventures until the object of the quest is attained. At that point, the hero has been transformed in some fundamental way and can return to the ordinary world from which he started. Because Eragon is only the first book in the four-volume Inheritance Cycle, we can assume that the title character will continue to parallel the mythical archetype until journey’s end.
The Pursuit of Power
Eragon’s depiction of a mystical world in which anything is possible inevitably leads to an examination of the pursuit of power. As is true of most heroic genre literature, one finds an archvillain who is obsessed with ruling the world. In this novel, that person is Galbatorix. Ironically, the king of the Empire was once a Dragon Rider himself. In the novel, Riders are seen as benign figures who use their power constructively to protect the populace from harm and injustice. When Galbatorix loses his dragon to death, he becomes unhinged. The novel suggests that the dragon-Rider connection is a stabilizing influence that keeps power from going to the head of the Rider. Without his dragon, Galbatorix seeks to recover the power he lost and then covets more.
Not only is Galbatorix corrupted by power, but he also manages to corrupt other Riders to join him. All of them become obsessed with power for its own sake, and all of them perish because of it. It is worth noting that these characters began as heroes. Their desire to rule echoes a figure like Lucifer in Biblical lore. He was an angel who aspired to become a god. Galbatorix has much the same ambition since he has dabbled in the dark arts to make himself nearly immortal.
The Thirteen Forsworn and their leader are not the only figures in the book who crave more power than they have. Durza only became a Shade after he grew too adept at dark magic. He was tempted to command spirits to increase his power. Instead, he became the victim of demonic possession as a result of overreaching. The Twins, who are spellcasters in Ajihad’s court, are also dark magicians. They lead a faction and court both Eragon and Angela to join their ranks to augment their own power. Wisely, the two refuse to be recruited for this purpose.
Eragon himself walks a fine line. With Brom’s help, he has become adept at magic. Saphira only increases those innate abilities. In addition, she gives him the power of flight and serves as a formidable protector to keep him from harm. As a result of all these powers, Eragon becomes a coveted prize. Galbatorix wants to recruit him. Ajihad also wishes him to side with the Varden. Arya and the elves might find a use for him at their court. Eragon is keenly aware of his dilemma, but he has learned from the mistakes of those around him. The pursuit of power as an end in itself only leads to disaster.
Self-Determination
The book’s final theme of self-determination is closely linked to the pursuit of power. At more than one point, Eragon declares that he won’t be a pawn in someone else’s game, but he doesn’t express this insight until the final pages of the novel. Such a late epiphany suggests that self-determination has been elusive for the bulk of his hero’s journey. Because of the radical series of transformations that Eragon undergoes, he might legitimately be perceived as someone in the throes of an identity crisis. When the story begins, he is a simple farm lad who happens to be a skilled hunter. This is a fairly straightforward persona, but Eragon’s identity is clouded from the very start. His mother disappeared shortly after his birth. This act leaves him with the suspicion that he was deficient in some way. Although it may be an irrational notion, he concludes that there was something wrong with him: “Eventually he had learned to live with it, but he always had a nagging suspicion that he had not been good enough for his mother” (20). To exacerbate his confusion, Eragon doesn’t know who his father is at all.
He then finds himself thrust into a chance encounter with a dragon’s egg. Through no fault or action of his own, the egg hatches. As will become clear in later sections of the book, the dragon chooses its Rider and not the other way around. All these circumstances place Eragon in a passive role. This continues to be true as events unfold that sweep him forward. His possession of a dragon singles him out as a coveted prize for Galbatorix. The Ra’zac try to capture him, as do the Urgals. His life is saved at the last moment by Brom and later by Murtagh.
While his original identity crisis might lead him to ask, “Who am I?,” subsequent events would lead him to add, “Why is this happening to me?” As a novice Rider and apprentice magician, Eragon often finds himself in the role of reactor rather than actor. He is still accumulating information about the odd new world he inhabits. It is only after he develops skills in magic and combat that he begins to take control of the conditions surrounding him. The significance of his declaration to be nobody’s pawn can only be understood in retrospect. For most of the novel, he is exactly that—everybody’s pawn.
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