England's Mythology?

[Lalwendë]

I've been considering Tolkien's famous (and often mis-quoted) quote, from the Letter to Milton Waldman, 1951.

Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of fairy story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the large backcloths - which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our 'air' (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be 'high', purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land now steeped in poetry. I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama. Absurd.

Tolkien did not say that he wanted to create a mythology for England, but that at one time, he wished to create a mythology he could dedicate to England, which is a very different thing. That's the often misquoted part! I think that if we look at what he said about the content and structure of that 'Mythology', he more than acheived what he set out to do. Do his words above correctly describe what the Legendarium looks like? With different types of tale and scope for readers to develop it further?

Did he achieve the 'tone' he desired to convey? "Somewhat cool and clear"? A friend of mine has described Lord of the Rings as 'glacial' and I think he's correct.

Now about that whole idea of creating a mythology...

Tolkien's desire to create this mythology stemed from his early years, being an Englishman who loved myth and yet had no national myth cycle of his own; he admired the Kalevala, but England had nothing like that. The Kalevala stirred a Nationalistic fervour in Finland, Tolkien wished an English myth cycle might stir a moral revival. It's a high ideal. Perhaps not surprisingly as Tolkien grew older, his aims changed, as he says in his letter to Milton Waldman.

I have to pose the question whether England needed that anyway? England was still a global superpower up to WWII, under threat of invasion only for a short time; it was neither dominated nor occupied by any other country. It may have been a changing society, modernising day by day, but did Tolkien think a fictional mythology would change or halt any of that?

Tolkien made some attempts to 'tie' his mythology to the real England, for example through the Notion Club Papers, but ultimately, he left his published work as a secondary world. It is a vivd world and seems all too real, as we all know only too well! But would anyone seriously think that it really was England's true past? Does anyone think that?

England might not have a myth cycle like the Kalevala, but it certainly is not lacking in folk tales, legends and echoes of ancient history. Tolkien made use of some of these, adapting them to fit into the secondary world he created, but they are exactly that, adapted to fit. They are not preserved - some things would go unnoticed unless you knew the original stories and ideas. Other writers have done that though. Should he have preserved these folk tales if he truly wished to dedicate his work to England?

What does Tolkien use anyway? Where does he begin? Does he concentrate only on England since the Anglo-Saxon culture, which was cut down before it had chance to fully flower? If we go further back than that are we just speculating on what the stories might have been? England is also a country with a lot of influences - it would be a big mistake to think that the English are all Anglo-Saxons as even today there are distinct regional cultures, the Marches influenced by Wales, Northumbria influenced by Scotland, Liverpool very Irish, Cornwall still very Celtic. If Tolkien hoped that his work would represent England's past, did it capture the diversity that has always been part of our culture?

Tolkien has, like any other writer, a voice of his own. He is conservative, educated, Catholic. Is that the only voice of England? Much, even most, of our folklore has been preserved by uneducated people, by gypsies, farmers and folk singers. A lot of it is quite different to what we find in Tolkien's work, with violence, crime and sex, and it's not half so grand, more about the people at the bottom of the pile than about Kings.

When Tolkien wished to dedicate this work to England he did do something very important. It was not his work in and of itself that represented England's past, but it did create an incredible magic, and an urge to seek out those real stories for ourselves.

Or do we put far too much 'store' in what Tolkien said in his letter?

What do you think?

Some useful light reading:

The Single Greatest (Publishing) Tragedy in Tolkien's Life (yet another rant)

The Nazis & a Mytholgy for England