As both a creative writer and a teller of Traditional Folktales (and occasional singer of Traditional Folk Songs) I'd say that the very foundation of narrative morphology depends on the archetypal. On another thread we've been having fun discussion notions of Traditional Folk Song with respect of their evident collectivity being born, somewhat paradoxically, from the individuals who made, re-made, carried & sang them. Some can't see the wood for the trees; others can't see the trees for the wood, but both the trees and the wood have their roots buried in a far greater wonderment of the cultural subconscious which is carried collectively but manifest individually. We are each and every one of part of this; our every word and concept is defined by it, which I why I think of creativity as a mediumistic phenomenon which is about the manifestation of archetypes for the purposes of the Greater Cultural Catharsis we might overlook as simple Entertainment, which is anything but simple. All narrative is replete with such mythic elements - on Saturday Rapunzel and I went to see District 9, a masterpiece of robust storytelling shot through with humour, searching metaphor and a touching tenderness (rather than sentimental mawkishness) that left me in tears. Sci-Fi at its best I'd say, brimful of archetypes, and the interweaving of light and darkness in the classic Gnostic tradition. A ballad, indeed, of the highest order, with (quite possibly) elements of Tam Lin in there too...