Archetypal Analysis of Biag Ni Lam-ang

In literature, an archetype is a typical character, an action, or a situation that seems to represent such universal patterns of human nature. So this blog will try to look at the epic poem Biag ni Lam-ang to see if this has these certain archetypes. To start with, here’s a very short background about the epic.

                Biag Ni Lam-ang (Life of Lam-ang) is a pre-Hispanic epic poem of the Ilocano people of the Philippines. The story was handed down orally for generations before it was written down around 1640 assumedly by a blind Ilocano bard named Pedro Bucaneg.

                We have various archetypes right? In the epic Biag Ni Lam-ang, we can find some of it. As said, an archetype may be a character, a theme, a symbol or even a situation. For archetypes in character, we have the hero and it’s pretty obvious that Lam-ang is the hero in the epic. His father, Don Juan, can also be considered one because they both exhibit goodness and struggles against evil in order to restore harmony and justice to society. Don Juan went to the mountains in order to punish a group of their Igorot enemies and Lam-ang set out on a journey to avenge his father’s death. Both of them seek for justice making them the hero of the story.

                Another archetype found in the epics is the mother figure. Namongan, Lam-ang’s mother, belongs to this archetype. Ines Kannoyan, Lam-ang’s wife, can also be considered belonging to the mother figure. Both women in Lam-ang’s life guided, directed and nourished him. His mother guided him for nine months before he decided to set out on a journey to look for his father. Prior to that journey, Namongan surely has done everything to take care of Lam-ang; she surely has guided him and nourished him to grow up brave. It is her duty as a mother. Ines Kannoyan, on the other hand, shown this mother figure role when she had Marcos get Lam-ang’s bones.

                A doppelganger is also present in the epic. I’m referring to the doppelganger of Lam-ang. In the epic, though he is the hero, Lam-ang has some characteristics that are somehow not pleasant. We can observe that he is a little boastful evident when he was asked of the dowry that is to be given to the family of Ines. The parents agreed to a marriage with their daughter if lam-ang would give them a dowry valued at double their wealth and lam-ang said he has no problem in fulfilling this condition. I find this part, this side of Lam-ang, a little boastful. Another negative characteristic of Lam-ang is his love for revenge; his passion for killing. This is evident when he looked for his father; when he found the tribe that killed his father and killed all of them leaving one alive. These events showed Lam-ang’s duplicate or shadow representing the evil side of his personality.

                And the antagonists in the story: the Igorot tribe, Sumarang (one of one of Ines’ suitors), the fish Rarang and the Berkakan. They are the villains whose main function is to go to any extent to oppose the hero or whom the hero must annihilate. These are the archetypes in character that can be found in the epic poem Biag ni Lam-ang but we are not stopping there.

 We also have several archetypes in situation. We have the journey. The main character, Lam-ang, takes on a journey that is physical and emotional to understand his personality and the nature of the world and also to seek revenge. The story revolved around this journey that Lam-ang had. The clash between Lam-ang and the Igorot tribe shows the Good vs. Evil archetype. There is a clash of forces that represent goodness with those that represent evil. And the last is the fall. This happened when Lam-ang dived into that river and went directly into the mouth of the river monster Berkakan which caused his death. Here, Lam-ang has fallen from grace in consequence of his own action. These are the archetypes that I have found in the epic. For you to be able to relate with everything that I have written here, you have to read the epic yourself J J

The use of archetypal characters and situations give a literary work a universal acceptance as readers identify the character and situation in their social and cultural context. By using common archetype, the writers attempt to impart realism to their works, as the situation and the characters are drawn from the experience of the world.