<DIV>The trickster and the hero, found in so many of the world’s oral traditions, are seemingly opposed but often united in one character. <I>Trickster and Hero</I> provides a comparative look at a rich array of world oral traditions, folktales, mythologies, and literatures—from <I>The Odyssey</I>, <I>The Epic of Gilgamesh</I>, and <I>Beowulf</I> to Native American and African tales. Award-winning folklorist Harold Scheub explores the “Trickster moment,” the moment in the story when the tale, the teller, and the listener are transformed: we are both man and woman, god and human, hero and villain.<BR>    Scheub delves into the importance of trickster mythologies and the shifting relationships between tricksters and heroes. He examines protagonists that figure centrally in a wide range of oral narrative traditions, showing that the true hero is always to some extent a trickster as well. The trickster and hero, Scheub contends, are at the core of storytelling, and all the possibilities of life are there: we are taken apart and rebuilt, dismembered and reborn, defeated and renewed.<BR></DIV>