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Mythopoeia

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For the poem byJ. R. R. Tolkien,seeMythopoeia (poem).

Mythopoeia(Ancient Greek:μυθοποιία,romanized:muthopoiía,lit. 'myth-making'), ormythopoesis,is asubgenreofspeculative fiction,and a theme in modernliteratureandfilm,where an artificial or fictionalizedmythologyis created by the writer ofprose,poetry,or other literary forms. The concept, which long preexisted him, was widely popularised byJ. R. R. Tolkienin the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditionalmythological themesandarchetypesinto fiction. Mythopoeia is also the act of creating a mythology.[1]

Genre

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Joseph Campbellwrote about the role of created mythologies in the modern world.[2]

The termmythopoeiacomes fromHellenistic Greekmuthopoiía(μυθοποιία), meaning 'myth-making'; an alternative ismythopoesis(μυθοποίησις) of similar meaning.[3]The definition ofmythopoeiaas "a creating of myth" is first recorded from 1846.[1][4]In early use, it meant the making of myths in ancient times.[5]

While many literary works carry mythicthemes,only a few approach the denseself-referentialityand purpose of mythopoesis. Mythopoeic authors includeWilliam Blake,[6]H. P. Lovecraft,[7]Lord Dunsany,[8]J. R. R. Tolkien,[9]C. S. Lewis,[10]Mervyn Peake,[11]andRobert E. Howard.[12] Tolkien used the word as the title ofone of his poems,written in 1931 and published inTree and Leaf.[13]

Works of mythopoeia are often categorized asfantasyorscience fictionbut fill a niche for mythology in the modern world, according toJoseph Campbell,a famous student of world mythology. Campbell spoke of aNietzscheanworld which has today outlived much of the mythology of the past. He claimed that new myths must be created, but he believed that present culture is changing too rapidly for society to be completely described by any such mythological framework until a later age.[2]

The philosopher Phillip Stambovsky argues that mythopoeia provides relief from the existential dread that comes with a rational world, and that it can serve as a way to link different cultures and societies.[14][page needed]

Mythopoeia is sometimes calledartificial mythology,which emphasizes that it did not evolve naturally and is an artifice comparable withartificial language,and therefore should not be taken seriously as mythology. For example, the noted folkloristAlan Dundesargued that "any novel cannot meet the cultural criteria of myth. A work of art, or artifice, cannot be said to be the narrative of a culture's sacred tradition...[it is] at most, artificial myth."[9]

In literature

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Antecedents

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William Blake's mythologyis both written and illustrated. Here,Losis tormented at his smithy by theSpectrein an illustration toJerusalem.[15][16]

William Blakeset outhis mythologyin his "prophetic works" such asVala, or The Four Zoas.These name several original gods, such asUrizen,Orc,Los,Albion,Rintrah,AhaniaandEnitharmon.[17] Later in the 19th century, stories byGeorge MacDonaldandH. Rider Haggardcreated fictional worlds; C. S. Lewis praised both for their "mythopoeic" gifts.[18]

Lord Dunsany's 1905 book of short stories,The Gods of Pegana,is linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of deities who dwell inPegāna.It was followed byTime and the Gods,by some stories inThe Sword of Welleran and Other Stories,and byTales of Three Hemispheres.In 1919, Dunsany told an American interviewer, "InThe Gods of PeganaI tried to account for the ocean and the moon. I don't know whether anyone else has ever tried that before. "[19]Dunsany's work influenced J. R. R. Tolkien's later writings.[20]

T. S. Eliot'sThe Waste Land(1922) was a deliberate attempt to model a 20th-century mythology patterned after the birth-rebirth motif described by the anthropologist and folkloristJames George Frazer.[21]

J. R. R. Tolkien

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Further information:Tolkien's legendariumandMythopoeia (poem)
J. R. R. Tolkien'sbust byFaith FalcounbridgeinExeter College, Oxford

J. R. R. Tolkienwrote a poem titledMythopoeiafollowing a discussion on the night of 19 September 1931 atMagdalen College, OxfordwithC. S. LewisandHugo Dyson,in which he intended to explain and defend creative myth-making.[9]The poem describes the creative human author as "the little maker" wielding his "own small golden sceptre" and ruling his "subcreation"(understood as a creation of Man withinGod's primarycreation).[22]

Tolkien's wider legendariumincludes not onlyorigin myths,creation myths,and anepic poetrycycle, but also fictivelinguistics,geologyandgeography.He more succinctly explores the function of such myth-making, "subcreation" and "Faery"in the short storyLeaf by Niggle(1945),the novellaSmith of Wootton Major(1967), and the essaysBeowulf: The Monsters and the Critics(1936) andOn Fairy-Stories(1939). Written in 1939 for presentation by Tolkien at theAndrew Lang lectureat theUniversity of St Andrewsand published in print in 1947,On Fairy-Storiesexplains "Faery" as both a fictitious realm and anarchetypal planein thepsycheorsoulfrom whence Man derives his "subcreative" capacity. Tolkien emphasizes the importance oflanguagein the act of channeling "subcreation", speaking of the human linguistic faculty in general as well as the specifics of the language used in a given tradition, particularly in the form of story and song:[23]

Mythology is not a disease at all, though it may like all human things become diseased. You might as well say that thinking is a disease of the mind. It would be more near the truth to say that languages, especially modern European languages, are a disease of mythology. But Language cannot, all the same, be dismissed. The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale are in our world coeval. The human mind, endowed with the powers of generalization and abstraction, sees not only green-grass, discriminating it from other things (and finding it fair to look upon), but sees that it is green as well as being grass. But how powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty that produced it, was the invention of the adjective: no spell or incantation in Faerie is more potent. And that is not surprising: such incantations might indeed be said to be only another view of adjectives, a part of speech in a mythical grammar. The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power—upon one plane; and the desire to wield that power in the world external to our minds awakes. It does not follow that we shall use that power well upon any plane. We may put a deadly green upon a man's face and produce a horror; we may make the rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm. But in such "fantasy," as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.[24]

Tolkien was unable to emulateElias Lönnrot,who travelled Finland recordingoral folklore,and then reconstructed the country's mythology.[25]1912 sketch for a mural,Lönnrot and the Rune Singers,byAkseli Gallen-Kallela

Tolkien scholars have likened his views on the creation of myth to theChristianconcept ofLogosor "The Word", which is said to act as both "the [...] language of nature" spoken into being by God, and "a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM".[26][27]

Verlyn Fliegerwrote thatElias Lönnrotintentionally created theKalevalaas a mythology for Finland, giving it "a world of magic and mystery, a heroic age of story that may never have existed in precisely the form he gave it, but nevertheless fired Finland with a sense of its own independent worth."[28]In her view, Tolkien,who had read theKalevala,"envisioned himself" doing exactly the same thing, except thatthe mythology would be entirely fictive.Lönnrot had travelled the backwoods of Finland for 20 years, collecting stories and songs "from unlettered peasants".[28]Tolkien meant toinvent both the collectors and the storytellers,in his case Elves: "he would be at once the singer and the compiler, the performer and the audience."[28]

C. S. Lewis

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C. S. Lewiscreated the world ofNarnia.

At the time that Tolkien debated the usefulness of myth and mythopoeia withC. S. Lewisin 1931, Lewis was atheist[29]and liked but was skeptical ofmythology,taking the position that myths were "lies and therefore worthless, even though 'breathed through silver'".[9][30]However Lewis later began to speak of Christianity as the one "true myth". Lewis wrote, "The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened."[31]Subsequently, hisChronicles of Narniais regarded as mythopoeia, with storylines referencing that Christian mythology, namely the narrative of a greatkingwho is sacrificed to save his people and is resurrected. Lewis's mythopoeic intent is often confused withallegory,where the characters and world of Narnia would stand in direct equivalence with concepts and events from Christian theology and history, but Lewis repeatedly emphasized that an allegorical reading misses the point (the mythopoeia) of the Narnia stories.[10]He shares this skepticism toward allegory with Tolkien, who disliked "conscious and intentional" allegory as it stood in opposition the broad and "inevitable" allegory of themes like "Fall" and "Mortality".[32]

Superheroes of comic books

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Further information:Comics superheroes

InThe Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints,Thomas Roberts observes that:[33]

To the student of myth, the mythos of thecomics superheroesis of unique interest. "
"Why do human beings want myths and how do they make them? Some of the answers to those questions can be found only sixty years back. Where did Superman and the other superheroes come from? In his Encyclopedia of the Superheroes, Jeff Rovin correctly observes," In the earliest days, we called them 'gods'.

The 1938-debutingSuperman,for example, sent from the "heavens" by his father to save humanity, is a messiah-type of character in theBiblicaltradition.[34]Furthermore, along with the rest ofDC Comic'sJustice League of America,Superman watches over humanity from theWatchtowerin the skies; just as theGreek godsdo fromMount Olympus.[35]

In film

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Further information:Worldbuilding,Fictional universe,andMythology (fiction)

Frank McConnell, author ofStorytelling and Mythmakingand professor of English at theUniversity of California,called film another "mythmaking" art, stating: "Film and literature matter as much as they do because they are versions of mythmaking."[36]In his view, film is a perfect vehicle for mythmaking: "FILM...strives toward the fulfillment of its own projected reality in an ideally associative, personal world."[37]In a broad analysis, McConnell associates the Americanwestern moviesand romance movies with theArthurianmythology,[38]adventure and action movies with the "epic world"mythologies of founding societies,[39]and many romance movies where the hero is allegorically playing the role of a knight, with "quest" mythologies likeSir Gawainand theQuest for the Holy Grail.[40]

Star Wars

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George Lucas

FilmmakerGeorge Lucasspeaks of the cinematic storyline ofStar Warsas an example of modern myth-making. In 1999 he toldBill Moyers,"WithStar WarsI consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs. "[41]McConnell writes that "it has passed, quicker than anyone could have imagined, from the status of film to that of legitimate and deeply embedded popular mythology."[42]John Lyden, the Professor and Chair of the Religion Department atDana College,argues thatStar Warsdoes indeed reproduce religious and mythical themes; specifically, he argues that the work isapocalypticin concept and scope.[43]Steven D. Greydanus ofThe Decent Film Guideagrees, callingStar Warsa "work of epic mythopoeia."[44]In fact, Greydanus argues thatStar Warsistheprimary example of American mythopoeia:[44]

"The Force, the Jedi knights, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, Princess Leia, Yoda, lightsabers, and the Death Star hold a place in the collective imagination of countless Americans that can only be described as mythic. In my review of A New Hope I called Star Wars 'the quintessential American mythology', an American take on King Arthur, Tolkien, and the samurai/wuxia epics of the East..."

— Steven D. Greydanus

Roger Eberthas observed ofStar Warsthat "It is not by accident that George Lucas worked with Joseph Campbell, an expert on the world's basic myths, in fashioning a screenplay that owes much to man's oldest stories."[45]The "mythical" aspects of the Star Wars franchise have been challenged by other film critics. Regarding claims by Lucas himself, Steven Hart observes that Lucas didn't mentionJoseph Campbellat the time of the originalStar Wars;evidently they met only in the 1980s. Their mutual admiration "did wonders for [Campbell's] visibility" and obscured the tracks of Lucas in the "despised genre" science fiction; "the epicsmake for an infinitely classier set of influences. "[46]

In music

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In classical music,Richard Wagner's operas were a deliberate attempt to create a new kind ofGesamtkunstwerk('total work of art'), transforming the legends of the Teutonic past nearly out of recognition into a new monument to theRomanticproject.

While ostensibly known for improvised jamming, the rock groupPhishfirst cemented as a group while producing leading memberTrey Anastasio's senior project in college, calledThe Man Who Stepped into Yesterday.The song cycle features narration of major events in a mythical land calledGamehendge,containing types of imaginary creatures and primarily populated by a race called the "Lizards". It is essentially a postmodern pastiche, drawing from Anastasio's interest in musicals or rock operas as much as from reading philosophy and fiction.[47]The creation of the myth is considered by many fans the thesis statement of the group, musically and philosophically, as Gamehendge's book of lost secrets (called the "Helping Friendly Book" ) is summarized as an encouragement to improvisation in any part of life: "the trick was to surrender to the flow."[48]

The black metal bandImmortal'slyricistHarald Nævdalhas created a mythological realm calledBlashyrkhfilled with demons, battles, winter landscapes, woods, and darkness, described by the band as a northern "Frostdemon" realm.[49]

Organizations

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TheMythopoeic Societyexists to promote mythopoeic literature, with conferences, books, periodicals, and theMythopoeic Awards.[50]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ab"mythopoeia".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Merriam-Webster.Retrieved1 November2022.
  2. ^abCampbell, Joseph(1988)."Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth".Bill Moyers.
  3. ^New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
  4. ^"mythopoeia".Retrieved1 November2022.
  5. ^For example, "The first two, the most remote stages, are purely linguistic germs of mythology: the third is in the domain of mythopoeia, or myth-building."Bunsen, C. C. J.(1860).Egypt's Place in Universal History: an Historical Investigation in Five Books, Volume IV.Charles H. Cottrell (trans.).Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts.p. 450.
  6. ^"mythopoeia".Oxford Reference.Retrieved2 March2022.individually by a writer who elaborates a personal system of spiritual principles as in the writings of William Blake
  7. ^Norman, Joseph (2013). "'Sounds Which Filled Me with an Indefinable Dread': The Cthulhu Mythopoeia of H. P. Lovecraft in 'Extreme' Metal ". In Simmons, David (ed.).New Critical Essays on H. P. Lovecraft.New York:Palgrave Macmillan.pp. 193–208.doi:10.1057/9781137320964_11.ISBN978-1-137-32096-4.OCLC5576363673.S2CID192763998.
  8. ^"The Gods of Dunsany",The New York Times,26 January 1919 (Arts & Leisure)
  9. ^abcdDundes, quoted by Adcox, 2003.
  10. ^abAbate, Michelle Ann; Weldy, Lance (2012).C.S. Lewis.London: Palgrave. p. 131.ISBN978-1137284976.
  11. ^Sisson, Richard (2000). "Irmin Schmidt's Fantasy Opera 'Gormenghast' on CD".Peake Studies.7(1): 14–16.JSTOR24776036.
  12. ^"The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery – Black Gate".Retrieved12 May2022.
  13. ^"Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien".ccil.org.Archived fromthe originalon 9 January 2006.
  14. ^Stambovsky, Phillip (2004).Myth and the Limits of Reason.University Press of America.ISBN978-0-76182-754-2.
  15. ^"Copy Information for Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion".William Blake Archive.Retrieved11 September2013.
  16. ^Eaves, Morris; Essick, Robert N.; Viscomi, Joseph (eds.)."Object description for" Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion, copy E, object 15 (Bentley 15, Erdman 15, Keynes 15) "".William Blake Archive.Retrieved12 September2013.
  17. ^Tate."William Blake's cast of characters".Tate.Tate Gallery.Retrieved3 March2022.Blake created his own mythology populated by a host of beings that he himself had either invented, or re-interpreted.
  18. ^Lobdell 2004,p. 162.
  19. ^Wisehart, M. K. "Ideals and Fame: A One-Act Conversation With Lord Dunsany,"New York SunBook World,19 October 1919, p. 25
  20. ^Dilworth, Dianna (18 August 2011)."What Did J.R.R. Tolkien Read?".GalleyCat.Retrieved24 March2018.
  21. ^Oser, Lee (Winter 1996). "Eliot, Frazer, and the Mythology of Modernism".The Southern Review.32(1): 183 – via ProQuest.
  22. ^Tolkien, J. R. R.Tree and Leaf; Mythopoeia; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son(London:HarperCollins,2001) [first published 1964]ISBN978-0007105045.Pages 85–90
  23. ^Tolkien, J. R. R.(1964).Tree and Leaf.London:HarperCollins.pp. 11–70.
  24. ^Tolkien, J. R. R.(1964).Tree and Leaf.London:HarperCollins.p. 25, "Origins".
  25. ^Kuusela, Tommy (May 2014)."In Search of a National Epic: The use of Old Norse myths in Tolkien's vision of Middle-earth".Approaching Religion.4(1): 25–36.doi:10.30664/ar.67534.
  26. ^Coutras, Lisa (2016).Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth.Springer. pp. 92–94.ISBN978-1137553454.
  27. ^Flieger, Verlyn(2002).Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World.Kent State University Press.ISBN978-0-8733-8744-6.
  28. ^abcChance 2004,"A Mythology for Finland: Tolkien and Lönnrot as Mythmakers", pp. 277–283
  29. ^Lewis 1946,pp. 66–67.
  30. ^Menion, 2003/2004 citing essays by Tolkien using the words "fundamental things".
  31. ^Brown, Dave."Real Joy and True Myth".Geocities.com.Archived fromthe originalon 26 October 2009.
  32. ^Tolkien, J. R. R. (2014).The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 145.ISBN978-0544363793.
  33. ^Roberts, Thomas (2001).The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints.Mythcon 32, 3–6 August 2001, Berkeley, California.Mythopoeic Society.
  34. ^Knowles, Christopher,Our Gods Wear Spandex,Weiser, pp. 120–122
  35. ^International Journal of Comic Art,University of Michigan,pp. 280
  36. ^McConnell 1979,p. 6.
  37. ^McConnell 1979,pp. 5, 99: "film is a perfect model of the epic paradigm: the founder of the land, the man who walls in and defines the human space of a given culture...".
  38. ^McConnell 1979,p. 15.
  39. ^McConnell 1979,p. 21.
  40. ^McConnell 1979,pp. 13, 83–93.
  41. ^Hart, 2002. Evidently quoting Moyers quoting Lucas inTime,26 April 1999.
  42. ^McConnell 1979,p. 18.
  43. ^Lyden, John. 2000. "The Apocalyptic Cosmology of Star Wars(Abstract). "The Journal of Religion & Film4(1).
  44. ^abGreydanus, Steven D. (2000–2006)."An American mythology: WhyStar Warsstill matters ".Decent Films.Archivedfrom the original on 6 February 2012.Retrieved1 November2022.
  45. ^Hart, 2002. Quoting Ebert onStar Warsin his seriesThe Great Movies.
  46. ^Hart, Steven. 2002 April. "Galactic gasbag."Salon.com.
  47. ^Puterbaugh, Parke. Phish: The Biography. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 65–67. Print.
  48. ^"Phish.Net: The Lizards Lyrics".phish.net.
  49. ^"CoC: Immortal: Interview: 5/19/1999".Retrieved13 January2018.
  50. ^"About the Society".Mythopoeic Society.Retrieved14 January2024.

Bibliography

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toMythopoeia.
Inklings

Tolkien:

C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald:

Film-making as myth-making
  • McConnell, Frank D. (1979).Storytelling and Mythmaking: Images from Film and Literature.Oxford University Press, Incorporated.ISBN978-0-19-503210-9.

Lucas:

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