Proof that LotR is bordering on a true mythology

[warrenerd]

it's not exactly a book, but i've heard led zepplin mention lotr a few times. i thought that was interesting.

[Imladris]

To be a mythology, would that not have to be a belief system that is no longer believed? Like the Greek and Roman mythologies were once believed in as true religions but no one today worships Jupiter, Jove, Hera, Athena, etc etc.

Ah, in that you are correct and I quite frankly forgot about that (stupid memory). But But Greek and Roman mythology pervades our very lives. Like the heart pierced with the arrow that lovers sign their cards with. It comes from Cupid of course. Even though we no longer believe in Cupid, it's still there in our lives. It has become a part of everyday lives. That's what I meant by Tolkien. It is becoming a part of our society. I remember in the magazine Credenda Agenda that the writers took the word Mordor and changed it into an adjective (but I'm too tired to remember it just now). That's what I meant.

But I think that I'm taking you too seriously, considerring your smilies.

[Bruce MacCulloch]

Actually, Professor Tolkien's specific intent was to create a mythology. He even consistently referred to it as such. (Read the Letters regarding it.)

[Sharkû]

Since there is practically no new thing under the standing stone, there was a similar topic already: Middle-Earth references in the Modern World. There's nothing wrong with continuin the discussion here, but I recommend you read all the references already posted to the older thread.

[Child of the 7th Age]

The most recent issue of Forbes magazine features a lead story "Lord of the Rigs" with the logo emblazoned in bold letters across the cover.

OK, I admit. I took a look at it while standing in line at the grocery....

Child

[Bêthberry]

I wonder if all references are equally valid. Are there qualitative differences? Does motivation count?

I would think that such a headline in Forbes magazine represents a marketing strategy, to jump on a bandwagon in order to increase sales: is this, too, how mythologies spread? Is this fundamentally different from Imladris's Stephen King reference?

This raises the question of whether there are differences between cultural production and marketplace production. If Tolkien can manufacture one, why can't corporations.

[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!!??