Papers
Unfortunately, I have no real way of cutting my papers to any shorter length (i.e. a link of some sort), and as such both will be posted in complete glory here. I am sorry for an inconvience it creates.
Read, enjoy, or don't read, and still enjoy.
Myth and the Fantastic
One of the great threads of humanity is myth. Through all cultures and all time, stories which one can call mythic pervade. They are not, as many consider them, limited to religion, or even, in fact, often about religion at all, nor is religion inherently myth. Rather, myth is an examination of who people are and how they work in the world, as well as a study of culture. Myth reveals the way things are, not why they are as they are. In the modern world, many claim that we have lost myth or the only place it may be found is within religion. Myth, in fact, is not dead, nor is it encompassed in religion, but rather it has been placed in an innocent-seeming genre of fiction: fantasy. Fantasy, today, is the major creator of myth, describing the world in complete, yet hidden, terms.
The myth of Fantasy is not solely limited to literature, though it is born out of the literary works of the day. For the past fifty years many different works of fantastic literature have become popular, and each has spawned some form of external activity, whether games, movies, or other stories. It are these things which constitute the fantastic myth, not just the work itself.
One of the most well known and visible myths is that of Middle-Earth, drawn from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published during the nineteen fifties but only becoming popular during the sixties and seventies. No other modern story, mythic or otherwise, has created anywhere near the interest or response that The Lord of the Rings has. (Though Harry Potter comes close, it will probably prove a more fleeting interest.)
When The Lord of the Rings was first released it was well received (for a work of fantasy) but did not have particularly high interest. As more and more people became interested in the work, a slew of Lord of the Rings-related material began to appear, from reference books to art work (the most famous artists include Alan Lee and the Hildebrand brothers). During the late sixties The Lord of the Rings became the book to read and discuss. Songs were written about Middle-Earth, children were named Galadriel, and subways were marked by graffiti proclaiming “Frodo Lives!”
It is this last occurrence that is of the most interest to us, for it provides a glimpse into the mindset of those who read the work (though, like all glimpses, it is stereotypical and slightly biased, ignoring vast portions of the populous). The promulgation that Frodo lives suggests that there is the possibility he could die, which means he must exist in some capacity beyond the imagination of a British author and professor.
It is this supposed existence which reveals the mythic qualities of The Lord of the Rings. The very belief that supposing it important to talk about Frodo in a realistic sense shows that one believes that there is something more to Middle-Earth, something beyond a story. It is this willingness, even desire, to search for that more that causes myth to be born.
If average Americans were asked to describe an elf, they would probably say they are pointy-eared, tall, and good at archery (or they may talk about Santa). If asked about dwarves, the answer would have to do with mining and axes. Both of these descriptions are drawn straight from the world of Middle-Earth, but the creatures are far older. Elves originated in the literature of the Celts and were short, mischievous sprites (though they do bear resemblance to Fairies who were often larger in size). Dwarves are born of Scandinavian folklore, and are far from friendly. In fact, they are more closely related to the Trolls of Tolkien’s mythology than the dwarves, being unfriendly to men, ugly, and prone to become stone when exposed to sunlight.
How, then, were these names associated with Tolkien’s vision instead of the older myth? First, the books were very popular, and many people were exposed to them first. In addition, many of the common forms of modern fantasy (such as Dungeons and Dragons and the novel Eragon) steal Tolkien’s creatures wholesale (some D and D fans attempt to argue that the elves and dwarves there are based on older sources, but all arguments fall apart when one comes to the halflings, who are based on Hobbits, an invention of Professor Tolkien). In short, The Lord of the Rings view of the world, with elves, dwarves, and dragons, has taken over the popular mindset, making itself the new myth of the world.
A new power is rising in the world of myth today, that of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Something about the books has captured the imagination of the generation, and the books have become a phenomenon unto themselves. People go out and perform ceremonies for Harry Potter, whether it be waiting in line for the books while in costume, or going to the Library to take part in a wand-making class.
Just like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter is changing the popular understanding of certain ideas. The phoenix is no longer simply a flaming bird of myth, it is now the personal pet of Albus Dumbledore, and a fiercely loyal friend. Centaurs are studiers of the stars, and giants are simply misunderstood. It would be unsurprising if, in ten years, most people assumed that drinking unicorn blood was always considered a route to immortality, despite the fact that this is an invention of J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter, due to its incredible popularity in modern culture, is well on its way to become a myth of the modern age.
Myth has never been simply believing in something that is unseen or unknown. It is not attached to faith, nor is faith nothing more than believing in myth. Myth is, instead, stories we could see being real, or tales one wishes to be real. They tell about man and his ages and are echoes of a culture. Modern America has been without myth for sometime, but has recently found it in the great works of fantasy around today.
Shakespeare and Middle-Earth
Illyria. Belmont. The Green World. Middle-Earth. All these are incarnations of Faerie, the far country that is not so distant. For hundreds, if not thousands, of years Faerie has occupied a place in the mythology and folklore of the people of the British Isles. These other worlds are not really all that different from the land that man knows, but they attract the imagination and desire of all people, offering the chance to escape or, better yet, to truly find oneself. Shakespeare was not the first, nor the last to use the concept of Faerie within his writing. Faerie stretches through time and its most powerful recent incarnation is Middle-Earth, the land of elves and dwarves, born of the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien. Middle-Earth, had it been ‘discovered’ earlier, would not be foreign to Shakespeare; rather, it may very well have been central to his plays, just as the Green World and all the other incarnations of Faerie were central in his day.
Shakespeare is, to a large part, beyond understanding. He is either a genius or a madman (or very possibly both). This means, however, that any study of Shakespeare is an incomplete study; that is to say one cannot hope to cover all there is to cover without a plethora of works on the subject. Seeking to see Faerie in the eyes of Shakespeare, translated into the eyes of today, is a project far beyond the scope of any one study, so I shall concentrate on the issue of Faerie as part of our world.
Faerie is another world, but never a far distant world. It only takes a short crossing, whether over a river, or at crossroads at twilight (or even the place where three roads meet), to pass over into this reflection, or echo, of this earth. To reach Belmont, one simply needs to cross water. A similar method is employed to reach Illyria. The rivers and the roads, these are the borders with the other world, keeping them apart, but not far removed.
Shakespeare spent his time on these borders (at least while writing, his personal time having been left mostly unstudied), though he was never truly there. Major events in his plays fall along the border places, whether the coasts of rivers, the edges of cliffs, or during the twilights of the day. Men and women cross these borders, drifting into Faerie and the ancient world of myth and legend.
Faerie has not vanished, rather people are no longer looking for it. Today Messaline has become Middle-Earth, Illyria the Undying Lands far to the west. Faerie is Hogwarts, Narnia, and Middle-Earth that far distant country from where few travelers have returned. It is that land we cannot see yet we know is there.
Both Tolkien and Shakespeare knew Faerie, not in the way they knew Oxford or London, but in the way you know a friend who lives far away. The world was real to them, to some degree. They had never been there, nor really ever seen it, but they knew it was there. Their two understandings of Faerie, however, were quite dissimilar, suggesting not the same other world, but similar other worlds.
To Shakespeare, Faerie was the land of mystery, magic, and change. People entered into Faerie and come out transformed, not necessarily visibly (though one cannot forget Bottom) but thoroughly different. It was the Green World, the natural world, the free world, without bond but nature. Few people live there, but many come to visit. Lear and the Fool, the Duke and his party of merry men, Viola and Sebastian, Macbeth and the Witches, all come to the Green World, an often empty world, and there they are changed.
For Tolkien, Faerie was not an empty world, but a full world, occupied by men and elves, people of myth and beasts of legend. It is a much more difficult world to reach, for it is not simply, to him, another place, but another time, a lost time. Middle-Earth, Faerie, was a place, long ago, but is no longer. The only way one can reach it is by regressing in time, reaching back through thought and memory.
Faerie usually hides itself in Shakespeare and Tolkien, pretending to be something it is not. It is this camouflage that makes it so very real, for it seems to always be there, just outside the edges of law and order. In reading these authors, we do not see Faerie unless we look for it, just as one rarely crosses the Borders into Faerie without desiring it.
It is this want, this desire, that takes people across the river into the Real World of Faerie, from the fake world of law and oppression. No man truly knows Faerie, but it is always there, just beyond the edge of ones vision and inside the very farthest reaches of the imagination of man.
Read, enjoy, or don't read, and still enjoy.
Myth and the Fantastic
One of the great threads of humanity is myth. Through all cultures and all time, stories which one can call mythic pervade. They are not, as many consider them, limited to religion, or even, in fact, often about religion at all, nor is religion inherently myth. Rather, myth is an examination of who people are and how they work in the world, as well as a study of culture. Myth reveals the way things are, not why they are as they are. In the modern world, many claim that we have lost myth or the only place it may be found is within religion. Myth, in fact, is not dead, nor is it encompassed in religion, but rather it has been placed in an innocent-seeming genre of fiction: fantasy. Fantasy, today, is the major creator of myth, describing the world in complete, yet hidden, terms.
The myth of Fantasy is not solely limited to literature, though it is born out of the literary works of the day. For the past fifty years many different works of fantastic literature have become popular, and each has spawned some form of external activity, whether games, movies, or other stories. It are these things which constitute the fantastic myth, not just the work itself.
One of the most well known and visible myths is that of Middle-Earth, drawn from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, first published during the nineteen fifties but only becoming popular during the sixties and seventies. No other modern story, mythic or otherwise, has created anywhere near the interest or response that The Lord of the Rings has. (Though Harry Potter comes close, it will probably prove a more fleeting interest.)
When The Lord of the Rings was first released it was well received (for a work of fantasy) but did not have particularly high interest. As more and more people became interested in the work, a slew of Lord of the Rings-related material began to appear, from reference books to art work (the most famous artists include Alan Lee and the Hildebrand brothers). During the late sixties The Lord of the Rings became the book to read and discuss. Songs were written about Middle-Earth, children were named Galadriel, and subways were marked by graffiti proclaiming “Frodo Lives!”
It is this last occurrence that is of the most interest to us, for it provides a glimpse into the mindset of those who read the work (though, like all glimpses, it is stereotypical and slightly biased, ignoring vast portions of the populous). The promulgation that Frodo lives suggests that there is the possibility he could die, which means he must exist in some capacity beyond the imagination of a British author and professor.
It is this supposed existence which reveals the mythic qualities of The Lord of the Rings. The very belief that supposing it important to talk about Frodo in a realistic sense shows that one believes that there is something more to Middle-Earth, something beyond a story. It is this willingness, even desire, to search for that more that causes myth to be born.
If average Americans were asked to describe an elf, they would probably say they are pointy-eared, tall, and good at archery (or they may talk about Santa). If asked about dwarves, the answer would have to do with mining and axes. Both of these descriptions are drawn straight from the world of Middle-Earth, but the creatures are far older. Elves originated in the literature of the Celts and were short, mischievous sprites (though they do bear resemblance to Fairies who were often larger in size). Dwarves are born of Scandinavian folklore, and are far from friendly. In fact, they are more closely related to the Trolls of Tolkien’s mythology than the dwarves, being unfriendly to men, ugly, and prone to become stone when exposed to sunlight.
How, then, were these names associated with Tolkien’s vision instead of the older myth? First, the books were very popular, and many people were exposed to them first. In addition, many of the common forms of modern fantasy (such as Dungeons and Dragons and the novel Eragon) steal Tolkien’s creatures wholesale (some D and D fans attempt to argue that the elves and dwarves there are based on older sources, but all arguments fall apart when one comes to the halflings, who are based on Hobbits, an invention of Professor Tolkien). In short, The Lord of the Rings view of the world, with elves, dwarves, and dragons, has taken over the popular mindset, making itself the new myth of the world.
A new power is rising in the world of myth today, that of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Something about the books has captured the imagination of the generation, and the books have become a phenomenon unto themselves. People go out and perform ceremonies for Harry Potter, whether it be waiting in line for the books while in costume, or going to the Library to take part in a wand-making class.
Just like The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter is changing the popular understanding of certain ideas. The phoenix is no longer simply a flaming bird of myth, it is now the personal pet of Albus Dumbledore, and a fiercely loyal friend. Centaurs are studiers of the stars, and giants are simply misunderstood. It would be unsurprising if, in ten years, most people assumed that drinking unicorn blood was always considered a route to immortality, despite the fact that this is an invention of J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter, due to its incredible popularity in modern culture, is well on its way to become a myth of the modern age.
Myth has never been simply believing in something that is unseen or unknown. It is not attached to faith, nor is faith nothing more than believing in myth. Myth is, instead, stories we could see being real, or tales one wishes to be real. They tell about man and his ages and are echoes of a culture. Modern America has been without myth for sometime, but has recently found it in the great works of fantasy around today.
Shakespeare and Middle-Earth
Illyria. Belmont. The Green World. Middle-Earth. All these are incarnations of Faerie, the far country that is not so distant. For hundreds, if not thousands, of years Faerie has occupied a place in the mythology and folklore of the people of the British Isles. These other worlds are not really all that different from the land that man knows, but they attract the imagination and desire of all people, offering the chance to escape or, better yet, to truly find oneself. Shakespeare was not the first, nor the last to use the concept of Faerie within his writing. Faerie stretches through time and its most powerful recent incarnation is Middle-Earth, the land of elves and dwarves, born of the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien. Middle-Earth, had it been ‘discovered’ earlier, would not be foreign to Shakespeare; rather, it may very well have been central to his plays, just as the Green World and all the other incarnations of Faerie were central in his day.
Shakespeare is, to a large part, beyond understanding. He is either a genius or a madman (or very possibly both). This means, however, that any study of Shakespeare is an incomplete study; that is to say one cannot hope to cover all there is to cover without a plethora of works on the subject. Seeking to see Faerie in the eyes of Shakespeare, translated into the eyes of today, is a project far beyond the scope of any one study, so I shall concentrate on the issue of Faerie as part of our world.
Faerie is another world, but never a far distant world. It only takes a short crossing, whether over a river, or at crossroads at twilight (or even the place where three roads meet), to pass over into this reflection, or echo, of this earth. To reach Belmont, one simply needs to cross water. A similar method is employed to reach Illyria. The rivers and the roads, these are the borders with the other world, keeping them apart, but not far removed.
Shakespeare spent his time on these borders (at least while writing, his personal time having been left mostly unstudied), though he was never truly there. Major events in his plays fall along the border places, whether the coasts of rivers, the edges of cliffs, or during the twilights of the day. Men and women cross these borders, drifting into Faerie and the ancient world of myth and legend.
Faerie has not vanished, rather people are no longer looking for it. Today Messaline has become Middle-Earth, Illyria the Undying Lands far to the west. Faerie is Hogwarts, Narnia, and Middle-Earth that far distant country from where few travelers have returned. It is that land we cannot see yet we know is there.
Both Tolkien and Shakespeare knew Faerie, not in the way they knew Oxford or London, but in the way you know a friend who lives far away. The world was real to them, to some degree. They had never been there, nor really ever seen it, but they knew it was there. Their two understandings of Faerie, however, were quite dissimilar, suggesting not the same other world, but similar other worlds.
To Shakespeare, Faerie was the land of mystery, magic, and change. People entered into Faerie and come out transformed, not necessarily visibly (though one cannot forget Bottom) but thoroughly different. It was the Green World, the natural world, the free world, without bond but nature. Few people live there, but many come to visit. Lear and the Fool, the Duke and his party of merry men, Viola and Sebastian, Macbeth and the Witches, all come to the Green World, an often empty world, and there they are changed.
For Tolkien, Faerie was not an empty world, but a full world, occupied by men and elves, people of myth and beasts of legend. It is a much more difficult world to reach, for it is not simply, to him, another place, but another time, a lost time. Middle-Earth, Faerie, was a place, long ago, but is no longer. The only way one can reach it is by regressing in time, reaching back through thought and memory.
Faerie usually hides itself in Shakespeare and Tolkien, pretending to be something it is not. It is this camouflage that makes it so very real, for it seems to always be there, just outside the edges of law and order. In reading these authors, we do not see Faerie unless we look for it, just as one rarely crosses the Borders into Faerie without desiring it.
It is this want, this desire, that takes people across the river into the Real World of Faerie, from the fake world of law and oppression. No man truly knows Faerie, but it is always there, just beyond the edge of ones vision and inside the very farthest reaches of the imagination of man.
posted by J.M.R. Burgard | 4:53 PM
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