My Girl Back Home: Difference between revisions

''Their charms fail to bind me.

''And my heart goes back to Erin's Isle,

 

In cultures with a tradition of adventuring, there is often a yearly tragedy in which families are temporarily split up because some of the men have to be away [[Intrepid Merchant|trading]], or [[Proud Warrior Race|fighting]] or [[Cattle Drive|bringing animals to market]] or the like. This brings in the character known as '''My Girl Back Home'''. She is almost [[Always Female]] (hence the title), though a child or an old man would work. The male version of Girls Back Home waiting for female adventurers are only a recent storytelling innovation, as adventuring was mostly masculine work in most cultures and time periods and stories reflected that.

* Penelope in ''[[Odyssey|The Odyssey]]'': [[Ur Example]]. She waited ''twenty years'' for her husband to return.

* Both of the wives of ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]''.

** Both Eowyn and Faramir are this while in the Houses of Healing as well.

*** Interestingly, it is implied that the strain of being the girl/boy back home for their respective friends is what drew them together in the first place. They wound up happily married by the end of the series.