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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.
  1. 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
  2. He was a good runner, swifter than any puppy of his size, and swifter than Lip-lip.
    — from White Fang by Jack London
  3. " 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
  4. The physician prepares the medicine, the runner runs with it, and the prince is cured.
    — from Filipino Popular Tales
  5. The Alitemnian Libyans awarded the kingdom to the fleetest runner.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
  6. So Sharpshooter went along with Lucas and Runner.
    — from Filipino Popular Tales
  7. [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
  8. 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
  9. 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

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