adventurer

Even Soldiers of Fortune have to sing! 1958 record album

An adventurer or adventuress is a term that usually takes one of three meanings:

• One whose travels are unusual and often exotic, though not so unique as to qualify as exploration.
• One who lives by their wits.
• One who takes part in a risky or speculative course of action for profit or position.

In fiction, the adventurer figure or Picaro may be regarded as a descendant of the knight-errant of Medieval romance. Like the knight, the adventurer roams through episodic encounters, usually involving wealth, romance, or fighting. Unlike the knight, the adventurer was a realistic figure, often lower class or otherwise impoverished, who is forced to make his way to fortune, often by deceit. The picaresque novel originated in Spain in the middle of the fifteenth century. Novels such as Lazarillo de Tormes were influential across Europe. Throughout the eighteenth century, a great number of novels featured bold, amoral, adventuring protagonists, who made their way into wealth and happiness, sometimes with and sometimes without the moral conversion that generally accompanies the Spanish model.

Under Victorian morality the term, used without qualifiers, came to imply a person of low moral character, often someone trying to marry for money (Lord Barkis Bitteren of the movie Corpse Bride is such a character).

In comic book handbooks such as Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and , the term "adventurer" is used as a synonym for "super-hero" when listing a character's occupation.

In role-playing games, the player characters are often professional adventurers, who earn wealth and fame by adventure, such as undertaking hazardous missions, exploring ruins, and slaying monsters. This stereotype is strong enough that the adventurers can often be used as a synonym for the player characters. However non-player character groups of adventurers can also exist, and can be an interesting encounter for the players.

See also: adventure.

List of adventurers

Historical adventurers

• Captain John Smith
• Bartholomew Gosnold
• Francisco de Miranda
• Edward Maria Wingfield
• Martha Jane "Calamity Jane" Canary-Burke
• Mata Hari
• Richard Francis Burton
• Jørgen Jørgensen
• T. E. Lawrence
• Che Guevara
• F.A. Mitchell-Hedges
• Alexander von Humboldt
• Ranald MacDonald
• Percy Fawcett
• Edward John Trelawny
• Marco Polo
• Count Alessandro di Cagliostro
• Roy Chapman Andrews
• James Holman

Modern adventurers

• Steve Fossett
• Mike Horn
• Benedict Allen
• Michael Snell
• John Goddard (adventurer)
• Thor Heyerdahl
• Heinrich Harrer
• George Kourounis
• Robert Young Pelton
• Ed Viesturs
• Brandon Reynolds
• Sir Peter Blake
• Ranulph Fiennes
• Rory Maclean
• Bertrand Piccard
• David Mayer de Rothschild
• Stein P. Aasheim

Fictional adventurers

• Conan the Barbarian
• Lara Croft
• Robin Hood
• Indiana Jones
• MacGyver
• Rick O'Connell
• Xena of Amphipolis
• Jack Flanders
• Allan Quatermain
• Han Solo
• Doc Savage
• Lord Asriel
• Corto Maltese
• Sir Harry Flashman

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