What ain't there and ought to be.

[Lalwendë]

Bethberry and Child have prompted me into some 'mad' thinking again.

The wildwood of the UK had already started to disappear when people began farming, so the existence of an extensive wildwood is indeed well beyond the annals of history. Yet even now, 2% of the UK is said to be covered by 'wildwood', so it definitely exists, even if it is not as extensive, although it will rarely be a place of peace as it will be beset with pleasure seekers, as are the remnants of Sherwood today, sadly. But tales of the wildwood do exist, and this suggests that such tales must have been carried down through the ages.

When Tolkien claimed he wanted to create a mythology for the English he set out his stall very clearly, yet I always hope that when he made that impressive statement of intent that he meant a particular type of mythology, i.e. a written one. This is something which is lacking in comparison to some other cultures, but I hope that he did only mean this, as the English never have lacked a mythology. There is a wealth of myth and legend in England, much of it never written down, and which as a result has shifted over time through invasion, impositions of language (e.g. with the Normans, Latin was imposed for 'formal' use), religious oppression and change, and finally, early urbanisation in comparison to most other countries.

What myths already exist? There are the Robin Hood tales, which may not have been formalised until the medieval period, but we can say the same of tales about Arthur, and we accept that such tales must have existed orally before they were formalised. Robin Hood may have developed from a number of figures, who go by a variety of names including The Green Man, Cernunnos, The Horned God, John Barleycorn etc. Unfortunately, written tales simply did not exist, and so instead of a 'mythology', we have instead a 'folklore', the preserve of the ordinary people. One good source of older information might be found in folk song, which is particularly rich in images and was mostly untainted by the kind of religious or social impositions that might have restricted the kind of ideas presented in books or manuscripts.

The sense of the wildwood has never fully left English culture, even though it does not exist, and we can see this in how tales of Robin Hood, descended from those of the Old Gods, have remained popular to this day. Possibly, even the English obsession with gardening stems from a sense of something 'lost', that we all seek a little piece of wildwood of our own? On a small island, without much room for an extensive Wildwood, there are still some pockets existing today, and they are attractive to visitors, as anyone who has been in Sherwood on a Sunday will agree - though there is a deep irony in seeing queues of cars creeping along just to disgorge people who wish to visit the Major Oak and eat an ice cream as they gawp.

Yes, the English countryside had very definitely been 'tamed' thousands of years ago, but the stories remain to this day. And I do like to think that Tolkien knew this, and that he did mean he was creating, specifically, a written mythology. The evidence that he made use of 'the Old Gods' in his work is so strong that I cannot help thinking he was keenly aware that their stories had never been written down, that he wanted to include their stories in his work.