I don’t find Jungian archetypes compelling, but if I did, I’d be drawn to the archetype of the Involuntary Explorer: Men who, due to events beyond their control, stranded in faraway lands, having adventures. A big part of the appeal is that the adventures are involuntary, which removes the suspicion that they are tourists.
If I had to name this archetype after someone, it’d be Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe, while famous, is also fictional, but fortunately there are plenty of real-life examples too. Here are some that I’ve encountered over the years and that come to mind easily:
- Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer who fled to Tibet in 1939 to escape internment by the British and became the tutor of the Dalai Lama, as described in his book Seven Years in Tibet and a 1997 movie by the same name
- Robert Adams, an American who was enslaved in Africa in 1810 and was the first Westerner to see Timbuktu, as described by Tahir Shah in Timbuctoo
- Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer whose visit to the Gulf of Mexico in 1527, as described in Paul Schneider’s Brutal Journey (previously reviewed here)
- Bjarni Herjólfsson, a Viking who almost discovered America in 989 because of a navigation error
While we admire those who follow a call from within, those who follow the call of destiny and bad fortune make for better stories.
Nehaveigur 