Mythopoeia
Mythopoeia (
Genre
The term mythopoeia comes from Hellenistic Greek muthopoiía (μυθοποιία), meaning 'myth-making'; an alternative is mythopoesis (μυθοποίησις) of similar meaning.[3] The definition of mythopoeia as "a creating of myth" is first recorded from 1846.[1][4] In early use, it meant the making of myths in ancient times.[5] It was adopted by J. R. R. Tolkien as the title of one of his poems, written in 1931 and published in Tree and Leaf.[6]
While many literary works carry mythic
Works of mythopoeia are often categorized as
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 called artificial mythology, which emphasizes that it did not evolve naturally and is an artifice comparable with artificial language, and therefore should not be taken seriously as mythology. For example, the noted folklorist Alan Dundes argued 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."[7]
In literature
Antecedents
Later in the 19th century, stories by George MacDonald and H. Rider Haggard created fictional worlds; C. S. Lewis praised both for their "mythopoeic" gifts.[18]T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) was a deliberate attempt to model a 20th-century mythology patterned after the birth-rebirth motif described by the anthropologist and folklorist James George Frazer.[21]
J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a poem titled Mythopoeia following a discussion on the night of 19 September 1931 at Magdalen College, Oxford with C. S. Lewis and Hugo Dyson, in which he intended to explain and defend creative myth-making.[7] 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 within God's primary creation).[22]
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 scholars have likened his views on the creation of myth to the Christian concept of Logos or "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]
C. S. Lewis
At the time that Tolkien debated the usefulness of myth and mythopoeia with
Superheroes of comic books
In The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints, Thomas Roberts observes that:[33]
To the student of myth, the mythos of the
comics 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-debuting
In film
Frank McConnell, author of Storytelling and Mythmaking and professor of English at the
Star Wars
Filmmaker George Lucas speaks of the cinematic storyline of Star Wars as an example of modern myth-making. In 1999 he told Bill Moyers, "With Star Wars I 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 at Dana College, argues that Star Wars does indeed reproduce religious and mythical themes; specifically, he argues that the work is apocalyptic in concept and scope.[43] Steven D. Greydanus of The Decent Film Guide agrees, calling Star Wars a "work of epic mythopoeia."[44] In fact, Greydanus argues that Star Wars is the primary 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 Ebert has observed of Star Wars that "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 mention Joseph Campbell at the time of the original Star 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 epics make for an infinitely classier set of influences."[46]
In music
In classical music, Richard Wagner's operas were a deliberate attempt to create a new kind of Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art'), transforming the legends of the Teutonic past nearly out of recognition into a new monument to the Romantic project.
While ostensibly known for improvised jamming, the rock group Phish first cemented as a group while producing leading member Trey Anastasio's senior project in college, called The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday. The song cycle features narration of major events in a mythical land called Gamehendge, 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 band
Organizations
The Mythopoeic Society exists to promote mythopoeic literature, with conferences, books, periodicals, and the Mythopoeic Awards.[50]
See also
- Campaign setting
- Constructed world
- Hero's journey
- Mythic fiction, literature that is rooted in tropes and themes of existing – instead of more artificial – mythology
References
- ^ a b "mythopoeia". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- ^ a b Campbell, Joseph (1988). "Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth". Bill Moyers.
- ^ New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ "mythopoeia". Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. p. 450.
- ^ "Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien". ccil.org. Archived from the original on 9 January 2006.
- ^ a b c d Dundes, quoted by Adcox, 2003.
- ^ ISBN 978-1137284976.
- ^ "mythopoeia". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
individually by a writer who elaborates a personal system of spiritual principles as in the writings of William Blake
- S2CID 192763998.
- ^ "The Gods of Dunsany", The New York Times, 26 January 1919 (Arts & Leisure)
- JSTOR 24776036.
- ^ "The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery – Black Gate". Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-76182-754-2.
- ^ "Copy Information for Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion". William Blake Archive. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
- ^ 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. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
- Tate Gallery. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
Blake created his own mythology populated by a host of beings that he himself had either invented, or re-interpreted.
- ^ Lobdell 2004, p. 162.
- New York SunBook World, 19 October 1919, p. 25
- ^ Dilworth, Dianna (18 August 2011). "What Did J.R.R. Tolkien Read?". GalleyCat. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
- ^ Oser, Lee (Winter 1996). "Eliot, Frazer, and the Mythology of Modernism". The Southern Review. 32 (1): 183 – via ProQuest.
- ISBN 978-0007105045. Pages 85–90
- ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1964). Tree and Leaf. London: HarperCollins. pp. 11–70.
- ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. (1964). Tree and Leaf. London: HarperCollins. p. 25, "Origins".
- .
- ISBN 978-1137553454.
- ISBN 978-0-8733-8744-6.
- ^ a b c Chance 2004, "A Mythology for Finland: Tolkien and Lönnrot as Mythmakers", pp. 277–283
- ^ Lewis 1946, pp. 66–67.
- ^ Menion, 2003/2004 citing essays by Tolkien using the words "fundamental things".
- ^ Brown, Dave. "Real Joy and True Myth". Geocities.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2009.
- ISBN 978-0544363793.
- ^ Roberts, Thomas (2001). The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints. Mythcon 32, 3–6 August 2001, Berkeley, California. Mythopoeic Society.
- ^ Knowles, Christopher, Our Gods Wear Spandex, Weiser, pp. 120–122
- ^ International Journal of Comic Art, University of Michigan, pp. 280
- ^ McConnell 1979, p. 6.
- ^ 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...".
- ^ McConnell 1979, p. 15.
- ^ McConnell 1979, p. 21.
- ^ McConnell 1979, pp. 13, 83–93.
- ^ Hart, 2002. Evidently quoting Moyers quoting Lucas in Time, 26 April 1999.
- ^ McConnell 1979, p. 18.
- ^ Lyden, John. 2000. "The Apocalyptic Cosmology of Star Wars (Abstract)." The Journal of Religion & Film 4(1).
- ^ a b Greydanus, Steven D. (2000–2006). "An American mythology: Why Star Wars still matters". Decent Films. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
- ^ Hart, 2002. Quoting Ebert on Star Wars in his series The Great Movies.
- ^ Hart, Steven. 2002 April. "Galactic gasbag." Salon.com.
- ^ Puterbaugh, Parke. Phish: The Biography. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 65–67. Print.
- ^ "Phish.Net: The Lizards Lyrics". phish.net.
- ^ "CoC: Immortal: Interview : 5/19/1999". Retrieved 13 January 2018.
- ^ "About the Society". Mythopoeic Society. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
Bibliography
- Inklings
Tolkien:
- Adcox, John. 2003. "Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings." The Newsletter of the Mythic Imagination Institute, September/October 2003.
- Menion, Michael. 2003/2004. "Tolkien Elves and Art, in J. R. R. Tolkien's Aesthetics." Firstworld.ca. (commentary on the poem "Mythopoeia").
- ISBN 0-8131-2301-1.
C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald:
- ISBN 0-7864-8386-5.
- Lewis, C. S. (1946). The Great Divorce. Collins. 0-00-628056-0.
- Film-making as myth-making
- McConnell, Frank D. (1979). Storytelling and Mythmaking: Images from Film and Literature. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. ISBN 978-0-19-503210-9.
Lucas:
- Hart, Steven. 2002 April. "Galactic gasbag." Salon.com.
- Greydanus, Steven D. 2006. "An American Mythology: Why Star Wars Still Matters." Decent Film Guide.
- Lyden, John. 2000. "The Apocalyptic Cosmology of Star Wars (Abstract)." The Journal of Religion & Film 4(1).