England's Mythology?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by davem

So I'd say the Legendarium both is, & is not, a 'mythology for England'.

Originally Posted by narfforc

In the LotR we get all of the above, and it doesn't matter how many generations have gone by here, or in our old colonies, we still dream and love tales of the old days, when Odin walked the Earth.

Originally Posted by lindil

Of course in everybody, how we absorb, understand and live out our myths is different, but to me M-E IS the 'real' mythological history for me...

It's clear that Tolkien's work awakened something within many people, or perhaps even reawakened what was already there. What interests me is that his story is his own, his own 'take' on the myths which already existed. Any references to England's existing myths are altered and presented in a very different way. If we wanted to read those myths and folktales, Tolkien would be the wrong place to go to for them (Elves and Hobbits are very different to witches and boggarts), but it would be the right place to start. Maybe we wouldn't start at all until we had read Tolkien.

It interests me that he may have written his story as a way of making us aware of the 'truth', much in the same way that Lewis wrote Narnia to make young readers 'aware' of the Christian story.

Does Tolkien's work gather together myth and folklore and present it in a new way? And for what reason?

Is what he did a new mythology, based on the old tales, but developing something new and remarkable out of them?