The Participation in Myth

We all wish to partake in myth, or at least bring a myth to our present day. We may not be directly involved in it, but it still exists if we wish to approach it. Myth prevades our very existence.

For example, a found an interesting way in which someone not only brought the Lord of the Rings up the present, but united it with another myth, that of the X-Files (Middle-Earth is a perfectly valid subject of myth, for it is not age that makes something a myth, but rather its universitality. Middle-Earth as we know it is only about fifty years old, yet it is an myth, and a powerful one.)

If you go here you will find evidence indicating Fox Mulder is a decendent of Aragonr, son of Arathorn, of the Lineage of Luthien. The mythic past is brought into the mythic present.

And speaking on the participation of myth, in the Capstone class we were discussing peoples desire to enter into their mythic worlds, whether by making themself a vampire or leaning on the barrier between platform 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station. Man desires to enter into myth.

We then discussed peoples desire to go to Middle-Earth (for some reason I am always the my Professor's example on this), but I have to say that is simply not possible, due to the fact that Middle-Earth is not a place one can presently go to. Not because it isn't real, but rather because it's reality is our reality. We still live in Middle-Earth, the world has changed, the elves have passed beyond the western sea, and it is now the age of men (we can argue whether it is still the fourth or, as I hold, we have entered into the fifth age, later).

Myth surrounds us, and those who realize it eagerly desire to be part of the myth, even today. At the sounding of the horn we will rise up to answer the call, to war and to honor, riding forth to the mythic end of all things.

The Past may be dead, but Myth lives on in the heart of men.