Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mythopoeia
Mythopoeia
Contents
Genre
In literature
Antecedents
J. R. R. Tolkien
C. S. Lewis
In film
Star Wars
Superheroes
In music
Organizations
See also
References
Bibliography
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 themes, only a few approach the dense self-referentiality and
purpose of mythopoesis. Mythopoeic authors include Tolkien,[7] C. S. Lewis,[8] William Blake,[9] H. P.
Lovecraft,[10] Lord Dunsany,[11] Mervyn Peake[12] and Robert E. Howard.[13]
Works of mythopoeia are often categorized as fantasy or science fiction but fill a niche for mythology in the
modern world, according to Joseph Campbell, a famous student of world mythology. Campbell spoke of a
Nietzschean world 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]
In literature
Joseph Campbell wrote
about the role of created
mythologies in the modern
Antecedents
world.[2]
William Blake set out his mythology in his "prophetic works" such as Vala,
or The Four Zoas. These name several original gods, such as
Urizen, Orc, Los, Albion, Rintrah, Ahania and Enitharmon.[17]
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]
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]
Tolkien's wider legendarium includes not only origin myths, creation myths, and an epic poetry cycle, but
also fictive linguistics, geology and geography. He more succinctly explores the function of such myth-
making, "subcreation" and "Faery" in the short story Leaf by Niggle (1945), the novella Smith of Wootton
Major (1967), and the essays Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics (1936) and On Fairy-Stories (1939).
Written in 1939 for presentation by Tolkien at the Andrew Lang lecture at
the University of St Andrews and published in print in 1947, On Fairy-
Stories explains "Faery" as both a fictitious realm and an archetypal plane
in the psyche or soul from whence Man derives his "subcreative" capacity.
Tolkien emphasizes the importance of language in 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]
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]
Verlyn Flieger wrote that Elias Lönnrot intentionally created the Kalevala as 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."[25] In her view,
Tolkien, who had read the Kalevala, "envisioned himself" doing exactly the same thing, except that the
mythology would be entirely fictive. Lönnrot had travelled the backwoods of Finland for 20 years,
collecting stories and songs "from unlettered peasants".[25] Tolkien
meant to invent 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."[25]
C. S. Lewis
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." [37] 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."[38] 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.[39] Steven D. Greydanus of The Decent Film Guide agrees,
calling Star Wars a "work of epic mythopoeia."[40] In fact, Greydanus argues
that Star Wars is the primary example of American mythopoeia:[40]
"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 ..."
George Lucas
— 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."[41] 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."[42]
Superheroes
In The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints, Thomas Roberts observes that:[43]
To the student of myth, the mythos of the comics superheroes is 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'.
Superman, for example, sent from the "heavens" by his father to save humanity, is a messiah-type of
character in the Biblical tradition.[44] Furthermore, along with the rest of DC Comic's Justice League of
America, Superman watches over humanity from the Watchtower in the skies; just like the Greek gods do
from Mount Olympus.[45]
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.[46] 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."[47]
The black metal band Immortal's lyricist Harald Nævdal has created a mythological realm called Blashyrkh
filled with demons, battles, winter landscapes, woods, and darkness, described by the band as a northern
"Frostdemon" realm.[48]
Organizations
The Mythopoeic Society exists to promote mythopoeic literature, partly by way of the Mythopoeic Awards.
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
List of religious ideas in fantasy fiction
References
1. "mythopoeia" (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mythopoeia). Merriam-Webster
Dictionary. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
2. Campbell, Joseph (1988). "Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth" (https://billmoyers.co
m/series/joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-1988/). Bill Moyers.
3. New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
4. "mythopoeia" (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/mythopoeia). Retrieved
1 November 2022.
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 (https://books.google.com/books?id=2oFJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA450). Charles H. Cottrell
(trans.). Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts. p. 450.
6. "Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien" (https://web.archive.org/web/20060109194442/http://mercur
y.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html). ccil.org. Archived from the original (http://mercury.ccil.or
g/~cowan/mythopoeia.html) on 9 January 2006.
7. Dundes, quoted by Adcox, 2003.
8. Abate, Michelle Ann; Weldy, Lance (2012). C.S. Lewis (https://books.google.com/books?id=
Wi8dBQAAQBAJ). London: Palgrave. p. 131. ISBN 978-1137284976.
9. "mythopoeia" (https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100220
548). 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"
10. 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 (https://doi.org/10.1057%2F9781137320964_11).
ISBN 978-1-137-32096-4. OCLC 5576363673 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5576363673).
S2CID 192763998 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:192763998).
11. "Mythology And Mythology In Percy Jackson By Percy Jackson" (https://www.bartleby.com/e
ssay/Mythology-And-Mythology-In-Percy-Jackson-By-PCWK6AWPN6). Bartleby research.
Retrieved 2 March 2022.
12. Sisson, Richard (2000). "Irmin Schmidt's Fantasy Opera 'Gormenghast' on CD". Peake
Studies. 7 (1): 14–16. JSTOR 24776036 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/24776036).
13. "The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery – Black Gate" (https://www.blackgate.com/the-dem
arcation-of-sword-and-sorcery/). Retrieved 12 May 2022.
14. Stambovsky, Phillip (2004). Myth and the Limits of Reason. University Press of America.
ISBN 978-0-76182-754-2.
15. "Copy Information for Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion" (http://www.blakearchi
ve.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=jerusalem.e.illbk.06&java=no). William Blake
Archive. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
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)" " (http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/illusdesc.xq?objectid=jerusalem.e.illb
k.06&objectdbi=jerusalem.e.p6). William Blake Archive. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
17. Tate. "William Blake's cast of characters" (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39/
blakes-characters). Tate. 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."
18. Lobdell 2004, p. 162.
19. Wisehart, M. K. "Ideals and Fame: A One-Act Conversation With Lord Dunsany," New York
Sun Book World, 19 October 1919, p. 25
20. Dilworth, Dianna (18 August 2011). "What Did J.R.R. Tolkien Read?" (http://www.adweek.co
m/galleycat/what-did-j-r-r-tolkien-read/37585). GalleyCat. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
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 (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JW-cQ-cypwwC) (London: HarperCollins, 2001)
[first published 1964] ISBN 978-0007105045. 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. Chance 2004, "A Mythology for Finland: Tolkien and Lönnrot as Mythmakers", pp. 277–283
26. Coutras, Lisa (2016). Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence
in Middle-earth (https://books.google.com/books?id=zrLIDAAAQBAJ&q=tolkien%20logos&p
g=PA92). Springer. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-1137553454.
27. Flieger, Verlyn (2002). Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=L6Byko7dGpgC&q=tolkien%20logos&pg=PP1). Kent State
University Press. ISBN 978-0873387446.
28. Lewis 1946, pp. 66–67.
29. Menion, 2003/2004 citing essays by Tolkien using the words "fundamental things".
30. Brown, Dave. "Real Joy and True Myth" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091026222931/htt
p://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/3505/LewisJoy.html). Geocities.com. Archived from the
original (http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/3505/LewisJoy.html) on 26 October 2009.
31. Tolkien, J. R. R. (2014). The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (https://books.google.com/books?id=W
i8dBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA145). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 145. ISBN 978-0544363793.
32. McConnell 1979, p. 6.
33. 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...".
34. McConnell 1979, p. 15.
35. McConnell 1979, p. 21.
36. McConnell 1979, pp. 13, 83–93.
37. Hart, 2002. Evidently quoting Moyers quoting Lucas in Time, 26 April 1999.
38. McConnell 1979, p. 18.
39. Lyden, John. 2000. "The Apocalyptic Cosmology of Star Wars (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0070721074055/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/LydenStWars.htm) (Abstract)." The Journal of
Religion & Film 4(1).
40. Greydanus, Steven D. (2000–2006). "An American mythology: Why Star Wars still matters"
(https://decentfilms.com/articles/starwars). Decent Films. Archived (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20120206024753/https://decentfilms.com/articles/starwars) from the original on 6
February 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
41. Hart, 2002. Quoting Ebert on Star Wars in his series The Great Movies.
42. Hart, Steven. 2002 April. "Galactic gasbag (https://web.archive.org/web/20071217031351/htt
p://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/)." Salon.com.
43. Roberts, Thomas (2001). The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints (http
s://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mc32-members.htm). Mythcon 32, 3-6 August 2001, Berkeley,
California. Mythopoeic Society.
44. Knowles, Christopher, Our Gods Wear Spandex, Weiser, pp. 120–122
45. International Journal of Comic Art, University of Michigan, pp. 280
46. Puterbaugh, Parke. Phish: The Biography. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 65–67. Print.
47. "Phish.Net: The Lizards Lyrics" (http://phish.net/song/the-lizards/lyrics). phish.net.
48. "CoC: Immortal: Interview : 5/19/1999" (http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles.aspx?id=1
-223). Retrieved 13 January 2018.
Bibliography
Inklings
Tolkien:
Adcox, John. 2003. "Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings (http://w
ww.mythicjourneys.org/passages/septoct2003/newsletterp8.html)." 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 (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20070621043345/http://www.firstworld.ca/tolkien/elvesandart.html)."
Firstworld.ca. (commentary on the poem "Mythopoeia").
Chance, Jane (April 2004). Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader. University Press of
Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2301-1.
C. S. Lewis, George MacDonald:
Lobdell, Jared (1 July 2004). The Scientifiction Novels of C.S. Lewis: Space and Time in the
Ransom Stories (https://books.google.com/books?id=cCZKg37FDEoC&pg=PA162).
McFarland. p. 162. 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.
ISBN 978-0-19-503210-9.
Lucas:
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; additional terms may apply. By
using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.