Crafting a mythology

        One of the large focuses of class was Tolkien's attempts at making a connection between our worlds history and geography, and that of his Legendarium. In letter 151 Tolkien says that the "new situation, established at the beginning of the Third Age, leads on eventually and inevitably to ordinary History."  This is further evidenced by Frodo's song in Book one Chapter nine. One of the notable verses goes as follows:

"With a ping and a pong the fiddle-strings broke!

the cow jumped over the Moon,

And the little dog laughed to see such fun,

And the Saturday dish went off at a run

with the silver Sunday spoon."

Regarding the song Tolkien wrote that "[o]nly a few words of it are now, as a rule, remembered." This poem is particularly similar to the English nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle which similar verses such as "The cow jumped over the moon" and "And the dish ran away with the spoon." Clearly Frodo's song is written as a predecessor to Hey Diddle Diddle.

        Tolkien doesn't only include historical connections to our reality, but he includes geographical connections as well. In letter 294 he even attributes locations in Middle-earth to locations in Europe. "The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. [...] If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are about at the latitude of ancient Troy." These connections to the real world raise the question of how Tolkien intended his audience to think of his Legendarium. Did he want us to believe it as historical fact, mythology, or something else?

        One indication of his intentions can be seen in letter 183. "I am historically minded. Middle-earth is not an imaginary world. [...] The theater of my tale is this earth, the one in which we now live, but the historical period is imaginary." And later in letter 184 he writes that "[t]he 'etymology' given in my book is of course quite fictitious, and made up simply for the purposes of my story." So, the fact that Tolkien says that the historical period is imaginary and that the etymologies are fictitious allows us to dismiss the idea that Tolkien intended his audience to think of the Legendarium as historical fact. Why then would he connect it so clearly to the real world?

        More evidence of Tolkien's desires come out in The Notion Club Papers (Part Two). During a discussion Jeremy says that "I have a queer feeling that, if one could go back, one would find not myth dissolving into history, but rather the reverse: real history becoming more mythical." Later regarding myths he says that "[t]hey're not wholly inventions. And even what is invented is different from mere fiction; it has more roots." When asked what these roots are in he responds that they're "in human being; and coming down the scale, in the springs of History and in the designs of Geography." So Jeremy's argument is that mythology evolves out of history. The process of this creation is such that there are strong ties to actual people, events, and geography. These roots in reality can be seen from the christian influences on epics such as Beowulf. Furthermore locations in Greek mythology are based on geographical locations such as mount Olympus.

        Furthermore, Jeremy asserts that these myths are more than just "lies, or casual fiction" and that the "major kind that has acquired a secondary life of its own passes from mind to mind." Ramer argues that this "second life" of the myths constitutes in "the profundity of the emotions and perceptions that begot them, and from the multiplication of them in many minds [...] They are like an explosive: it may slowly yield a steady warmth to living minds, but if suddenly detonated, it might go off with a crash: yes: might produce a disturbance in the real primary world." So, this type of myth, according to Ramer, manifests itself in peoples minds in an extremely powerful way. Maybe this was Tolkien's goal. By creating a story with strong roots in reality, he can essentially make a true mythology. This true mythology is true in the sense that it could've been distilled from real history. In this way it would reflect, not only the history and geography or the real world, but the people as well. This reflection of reality could be what gives a story its power which Ramer argues affects our reality.

-YA