Everything is Hunky-Dory

The one thing I have learned over the years is never to trust what I have learned (Catch-22, anyone?).

So much of what we think we know is Myth, and so much of what we are taught turns out to be only one side of the story.

Take Hunky-dory.

It is a relatively younf phrase, first appearing just after the Civil War (1866). Despite its youth, no one really knows where it came from. The most common theory is that it was the name of a major street in Yokohama, Japan, but what is common is not always true.

The most supportable theory is that it comes from Honk the Dutch for 'goal' (as in tag) or 'safe,' and Dory was simply added from another source (possibly also Dutch).

Now you must be asking yourself what the heck this has to do with Myth. Do not worry, friends, I will tie it all togther (unless your here from Shakespeare, and in that case no dice). Languag is Mythic, as it grows and is formed from the thoughts of man. No one sets out to create a language (at least, no one did before Tolkien), just as no one sets out to create a myth (once again, before Tolkien). Keep your eyes open. Myth and language will come together constantly, not just in the power of language in myth (or myth in language, as revealed by such words as echo), but in the very traits they hold in common.

When you speak, you take part in the mythic world, for word is as myth, fleeting in existence, but eternal in memory.