Briar Rose

"They seem to be instructing him that the prize here without may well exceed the prize within, that in effect his prize lays not before him but behind, already passed, or rather, that the test is not of his valor or judgement..."

This quote seems to reiterate the saying that "it's not the journey, not the destination." The hero of Briar Rose thinks that the prize he is seeking, fame and glory, may already lie in his past. The point of this quote is that the main point of the story is not what it seems. It could be a bit of self-discovery along the way to the castle, not getting the princess from the castle.