Adventurer Totally Explained

Everything about Adventurer totally explained

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

Alexander von Humboldt

Bartholomew Gosnold

Che Guevara

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro

Edward John Trelawny

Edward Maria Wingfield

Ibn Battuta

Marco Polo

Martha Jane "Calamity Jane" Canary-Burke

Mata Hari

Percy Fawcett

Rafael de Nogales Méndez

Ranald MacDonald

Richard Francis Burton

Roy Chapman Andrews

T. E. Lawrence

Modern adventurers

Bear Grylls

Benedict Allen

Bertrand Piccard

David Mayer de Rothschild

Ed Viesturs

Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski

George Kourounis

Heinrich Harrer

John Goddard (adventurer)

Les Stroud

Mike Horn

Sir Peter Blake

Ranulph Fiennes

Richard Halliburton (1900-1939)

Robert Young Pelton

Rory Maclean

Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz

Steve Fossett (1944-2007)

Thor Heyerdahl

Walt Balenovich (disabled adventurer)

Fictional adventurers

Allan Quatermain: An adventurer, most famous for appearing in the book, King Solomon's Mines. His adventures are in Africa, during England's Victorian Era.

Baron Munchausen

Bilbo Baggins: The main protagonist in The Hobbit. He's a hobbit and lives in a fantasy world with elves and dragons. His most famous adventure was helping thirteen Dwarves reclaim an ancient mine that had been horded by a dragon.

Conan the Barbarian

Corto Maltese

Dirk Pitt: A modern day adventurer created by writer, Clive Cussler. His adventures take him to different places and countries, where he's often pursued by villains, trying to beat him to some hidden treasure he's looking for.

Doc Savage

Frodo Baggins: One of the nine main protagonists in the books, The Lord of the Rings; the sequel to The Hobbit. He lives in the same fantasy world as Bilbo Baggins, and in the book, Frodo must journey across this world in order to destroy an ancient ring which contains the power of an ancient dark lord.

Han Solo: A space pirate and trader from the Star Wars franchise. He is portrayed by Harrison Ford in the film trilogy. Han Solo first became part of the rebel group against the evil empire after running into Luke Skywalker.

Indiana Jones: An archiologist. He is also portrayed by Harrison Ford. Indiana Jones collects ancient treasures and sells them to museums. However, his simple plans are often thwarted by the Nazis, who are almost always trying to collect the treasure first.

Jack Flanders

Lara Croft

Lemuel Gulliver

Lord Asriel

MacGyver

Rick O'Connell

Robin Hood: A theif from Dark Age times. He is best known for robbing the rich to feed the poor. Later, he was also known for rescuing Maid Marian from the evil Prince John.

Steve Zissou

Xena of AmphipolisFurther Information

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