Believability of Myth - Character and Audience

    In class, we discussed the nature of subcreated universes and the capacity to prove or disprove their existence. Since they have no fundamental texts outside of the stories themselves, the events are not provably true or provably false; the only question left is whether one believes in their existence or not. Although, the Legendarium is slightly different than many subcreated universes in the fact that it has fundamental texts referenced in the stories to self-consistently prove the history of Middle Earth as seen by the characters inside of it. Furthermore, Middle Earth in the third age has its own mythology, namely the story of the Silmarilli. This gives an interesting frame of analysis, as it allows us to view the mythological stories of The Silmarillion as written by Tolkien and contrast them with the stories of the Silmaril believed by LotR characters, namely Frodo and Sam. When Sam and Frodo relate their story to the story of the Silmarilli at Cirith Ungol, they show that subcreated mythology cannot be believable to an audience outside a subcreated universe if it is not believable to the characters inside the subcreated universe.

    In order to be believable, myth must have kernels of fundamental truth. In his letter to Milton Waldman justifying the combination and publication of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien explains subtleties of mythological storytelling, saying that "Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religious truth (or error), but not explicit, not in the known form of the primary 'real' world." (Letters 131) Loosely, Tolkien is noting how subcreated myths must both concern morality and religion, but in a manner wholely separate from the material world. This may be biased because of Tolkien's preference for writing myths and fairy stories rather than nonfiction, but Tolkien is arguing implicitly that fantasy stories have the capability to be more `real' than nonfiction stories, when written correctly. Namely, mythological stories with no connection or far-too-explicit connections to the morality and righteousness of the material world are useless. For, fantasy stories that meander aimlessly or exactly recapitulate (allegory) are not as believable as those that hint at morality and truth implicitly.

    In order for myths to be believable, they must be relatable, especially to the characters in the mythological universe. On the steps of Cirith Ungol, Sam compares his and Frodo's calamity with that from the Silmarillion, even going as far as to say that their situation isn't as bad as the one Beren found himself in. For "Beren now, he never thought he was going to get that Silmaril from the Iron Crown in Thangorodrim, and he did, and that was a worse place and a blacker danger than ours." (LotR Bk 4, Ch 8) For context, Beren is an "outlawed monal" who "with the help of Luthien,...penetrates the stronghold of the enemy [Morgoth] and wrests one of the Silmarilli from the Iron Crown [of Morgoth]" (Letters 131) in the Silmarillion. To Sam's defense, Sauron is the descendant in spirit of Morgoth, so by logic in the next paragraph, Sam and Beren share the same danger. However, the main point is that Sam's belief in the Silmaril mythology is augmented by the story being relatable enough for Sam to see himself and his situation in the characters.

    Finally, myths must be lived and believed by the characters to be believable by a general audience. After comparing his story with that of Beren, Sam comes to the realization that they have "some of the light of it in that star-glass that the Lady gave you! Why, to think of it, we're in the same tale still!" (LotR Bk 4, Ch 8) Sam is referring to the Phial of Galadriel, gifted to the Fellowship during their time in Lorien, which contains light from the brightest star in the sky (aka a Silmaril). The Phial of Galadriel can be viewed as a symbol, encapsulating the power of mythology and belief in mythology, as it has mythological origins and belief in its power allows Sam to prevail over Shelob. This symbolism deepens our understanding of the narrative because it connects its literal presence with its mythological power.

    One may challenge this argument by saying that if Sam's story and the Silmaril's story are the same, then mythology is simply written history, which is easily believed with no impact on general believability. While the Silmaril story may live on with the Phial of Galadriel and Sam, the two tales are fundamentally distinct, despite their overlap. Notably, stories have an inherent timescale to them, and the timescale of the Silmaril story is much longer than the timescale of a hobbit's life. To say that Sam's story began with creation of the Silmaril is false, and to say that the Silmaril story is entirely concerned with the affairs of hobbits is also false. As such, the mythology of the Silmaril lives on with Sam, but the two stories are not the same. Actually, belief in the elongated story of the Silmaril is what allows Sam to overpower Shelob, emphasizing the connection between mythology and belief.

    To conclude, myths are only as believable as the characters find them to be, and belief in myths is a literary device used to entice believability for characters and audience.

-Calder (BP1)

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