Proof that LotR is bordering on a true mythology

[The Saucepan Man]

Apparently, in a poll of 2,000 people conducted in the UK recently, 3% of people thought that the Battle of Helm's Deep really happened!

Unfortunately, this does not speak so much of LotR becoming a mythology, but more of people becoming confused between historical fact and the fiction presented in films and television.

In the same poll William Wallace, Adolph Hitler and William Wallace were thought to be fictional by some of the respondents (42%, 11% and 9% respectively), while Conan the Barabrian, Edmund Blackadder and Xena Warrior Princess were all thought by some to be real historical characters (5%, 1% and 1%).

Approximately half of the respondents thought that the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Little Big Horn were fictional events (52% and 48% respectively), while 15% thought the same of the Battle of Hastings. On the other side of the coin, 6% thought that the Martian Invasion in War of the Worlds actually happened, while 2% thought that the Battle of Endor in Return of the Jedi was a real historical event.

So much for history lessons!

What is not clear is whether the 3% who thought that the Battle of Helm's Deep actually occurred believe that Orcs really once existed, or whether they just missed the facts that the bad guys were Orcs and simply thought them to be rather strange looking and barbarous men!!??

[skadork]

well, i have been reading through a book by leslie ellen jones that my sister has, & it compares the old celtic, norse & some roman mythology to the stories that tolkien wrote. it's pretty interesting.

[Arwen Evenstar]

hmm... the comics in the newspaper mention LotR once in a while.

[Nimrothiel]

Yeah, "Foxtrot" is the best. Peter David's second book in the series "Sir Apropos of Nothing" starts out with a parody of LotR; it's similar to the style of "Bored of the Rings." Robert Asprin's twelfth book in the series "The Myth-Adventures of Aahz (pronounced as 'Oz;' no relation) and Skeeve" has a good running parody of LotR throughout the book. That's all I can think of for right now, I'll post more later.

[ElenCala Isil]

hmm... the comics in the newspaper mention LotR once in a while.

Speaking of newspapers...

Check this out...

(ignore the bluriness..you see nothing!)

[purplefluffychainsaw]

Have any of you read any of the Discworld series? There's another thead (but me having the memory of a small guppy has forgotten it) here which has a *load* of quotes from him which *were* Tolkien, eg.

See their swords? They glow blue in the precense of lawyers

And every time I write that out it gets worse...

But anyway, as I was saying, Pratchett normally just uses legends, and really well known stuff in his work. Like, there's one story which is based on Shakespear's Macbeth, "Equal rites" (Not to be read while doing Macbeth in school. . .) And then he uses bits from legends, like million in one chances always working, and gods playing games with people. He also uses bits and peices from real life or history, like the egyptians.

I think that just Pratchett using Tolkien makes Lord of the Rings a mythology... But I'm strange.

[Roa_Aoife]

As for references to LotR, I saw a road sign with a silohuet of a wizard and the words "You shall not pass!" It was a no passing zone.