Literary notes about runner (AI summary)
The term "runner" is employed with considerable versatility throughout literature, often denoting both literal and figurative meanings. In some narratives, it vividly describes a person renowned for speed and physical prowess—a participant in competitive or dangerous pursuits, as seen when a runner darts forward to elude enemies ([1], [2], [3]). In other instances, the runner serves as a messenger or intermediary, a role that bridges distant worlds and imparts crucial information, whether in tales of adventure or historic epics ([4], [5], [6], [7]). Moreover, the word sometimes takes on a more symbolic dimension, embodying themes of progress, fate, or the foretelling of significant change ([8], [9]). Through such varied uses, "runner" emerges as a multifaceted literary device that enriches narrative depth by linking speed, communication, and transformative forces.
- I thought that again I might with my skill as a runner elude my enemies at this game, and so with all my speed darted forward.
— from Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker - He was a good runner, swifter than any puppy of his size, and swifter than Lip-lip.
— from White Fang by Jack London - " Forthwith uprose fleet Ajax son of Oileus, with cunning Ulysses, and Nestor's son Antilochus, the fastest runner among all the youth of his time.
— from The Iliad by Homer - The physician prepares the medicine, the runner runs with it, and the prince is cured.
— from Filipino Popular Tales - The Alitemnian Libyans awarded the kingdom to the fleetest runner.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - So Sharpshooter went along with Lucas and Runner.
— from Filipino Popular Tales - [514] Chief Brant, from whom a runner has just arrived all the way from the entrance to the Detroit river.
— from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding - I was now immeasurably alarmed, for I considered the vision either as an omen of my death, or, worse, as the fore-runner of an attack of mania.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Long-continued effort, in spite of failure and defeat, is the fore-runner of complete success.
— from Garden Cities of To-Morrow by Sir Ebenezer Howard