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Originally Posted by littlemanpoet
I can't help wondering if the assertion that cultures which build great monuments are essentially optimistic, and those that do not are essentially pessimistic, does not bear up against scrutiny. Bethberry's quotes are much to the point. Is it not just as plausible to reason that cultures that have little hope of long continuation, build monuments precisely because they expect that these will be all that's left to represent them some day? This seems to bear up when we listen to individuals in our own culture who intend to leave some kind of legacy to their own short lives. The concern for legacy seems to go hand in hand with a recognition of approaching death rather than with "lightness of being" or whatever you want to call it.
Bethberry, I think elegiac is perhaps the most useful word for the present turn of the discussion.
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No, the quotes were not to the point of what I was saying, as I was not talking about either Saxons or Elves, but about ancient Britons (and other ancient civilisations). They only cast light on what Tolkien or the author of Beowulf thought. They don't cast any light on the anonymous architects of Avebury because they can't. To look at what
they thought we must use our minds and interpret what we
have got. Not assertion but archaeological theory.
The urge to be personally
remembered is in fact more a product of modern secular society, or indeed a vain and self-centred society, witness the current Cult of Personality. That is also the ultimate in luxuries. We might create personal legacies today but then we are also a throw-away-live-for-today society. Also bear in mind how long both megalithic structures and great cathedrals took to build. Centuries. Cultures under threat of destruction simply do not have that luxury of time. You don't fiddle while Rome burns.
Elegiac might fit the sense of loss that Tolkien expresses very well, but Elegiac is definitely
not the term to use to describe the nostalgic feelings that British people as a society feel. Why? Because we aren't just mourning, but remembering the
good times. See the quote that Fea put on. He's also remembering the good laughs, the nights supping in the ale hall.
Anyway, arguing over a word is a familiar way to divert a discussion, but you won't wear me down that way. Pedantry is how people in my line of work earn their wages, and I can easily spend a two hour meeting arguing about one word in an entire document.
