Aspects of the Master Builder Myth in Ibsen’s “The Master Builder”
ASPECTS OF THE MASTER BUILDER MYTH IN IBSEN’S THE MASTER BUILDER

Summary/Abstract: The paper proposes an archetypal perspective on some motives of Henrik Ibsen’s The Master Builder. The analysis aims to trace the mythical core of the archetypal idea/representation (C. G. Jung) of the drama, with a focus on the daemonic dimension and the idea of sacrifice contained in this myth (Mircea Eliade). As background, an outline of the displaced or camouflaged myth of creation – in a broader cultural context – will be drawn, with reference to the Eddic myth of the master builder, the legend of St Olaf, and the East European ballad of Manole, the master builder. The Master Builder (Bygmester Solness) could also be viewed as an archetypal image of the primordial creation myth, which, according to Eliade, expresses the myth of the eternal return.

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