The Capturing of Myth - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

davem · 09-30-2004, 02:29 AM

Yet, the creation of a mythology for England was Tolkien's (original) motivation, so He clearly believed it was possible for an individua to create a mythology.

That aside, Tolkien did make use of mythic themes & elements, & his approach was, in large part to re-create what had been lost. My own feeling is that the sense we have that LotR is 'mythic' derives from this - the Legendarium itself may not be genuine myth, but there is enough genuine myth in there for it to affect us in the way genuine myth does.

Aragorn may not have existed prior to LotR, but Arthur, did, Gandalf may only have come into being with Hobbit & grown with LotR, but Merlin had existed long before.

The point for me, is that LotR communicates the remanants of our mythology in an incredibly effective way - & I think that has a lot to do with the form Tolkien uses - literature. The movies don't communicate the mythic dimension to me, & I think that's because they make the characters too 'real', too 'everyday'. The magic, the mythic elements are played down, in order to make the characters acceptable & believeable for a modern audience.

09-30-2004, 02:29 AM	#29
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	Yet, the creation of a mythology for England was Tolkien's (original) motivation, so He clearly believed it was possible for an individua to create a mythology. That aside, Tolkien did make use of mythic themes & elements, & his approach was, in large part to re-create what had been lost. My own feeling is that the sense we have that LotR is 'mythic' derives from this - the Legendarium itself may not be genuine myth, but there is enough genuine myth in there for it to affect us in the way genuine myth does. Aragorn may not have existed prior to LotR, but Arthur, did, Gandalf may only have come into being with Hobbit & grown with LotR, but Merlin had existed long before. The point for me, is that LotR communicates the remanants of our mythology in an incredibly effective way - & I think that has a lot to do with the form Tolkien uses - literature. The movies don't communicate the mythic dimension to me, & I think that's because they make the characters too 'real', too 'everyday'. The magic, the mythic elements are played down, in order to make the characters acceptable & believeable for a modern audience. __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."