In this groundbreaking classic, Robert Bly writes that men now know the images of adult manhood offered by popular culture are worn out - and that they can no longer rely on them. He searches for a new vision of what a man is or could be, drawing on psychology,anthropology, mythology, folklore and legend. The result is a work that has been hugely influential, a bestseller round the globe, and still of immense importance today.

Bly, a major American poet who won a National Book Award in 1968, appears regularly at workshops for men. The book's title refers to a mentor-like figure in a Grimms fairy tale who serves as Wild Man, initiator, and source of divine energy for a young man. This marvelous folktale of resonant, many-layered meanings is an apt choice for demonstrating the need for men to learn from other men how to honor and reimagine the positive image of their masculinity. Bly has always responded to Blakean and Yeatsian intensities, preferring to travel the path lit by mythic road signs. His intent here is to restore a lost heritage of emotional connection and expose the paltriness of a provisional life. For many men capable of responding imaginatively to allegory and myth this will be an instructive and ultimately exculpating book. Others may regard it as an inscrutable attempt, intuitive at best, to find merit in male developmental anxieties. For all collections emphasizing family or gender studies.

Author's Note

Preface

ONE

The Pillow and the Key

TWO

When One Hair Turns Gold

THREE

The Road of Ashes, Descent, and Grief

POUR

The Hunger for the King m a Time with No Father

FIVE

The Meeting with the God-Woman in the Garden

SIX

To Bring the Interior Warriors Back to Life

SEVEN

Riding the Red, the White, and the Black Horses

EIGHT

The Wound by the King's Men

EPILOGUE

The Wild Man in Ancient Religion, Literature,and Folk Life

The Story of Iron Tohn

Notes

About the Author