Of gods and dwarves
So, there's a great deal of bitchin', back-and-forth on social media, over Amazon's reimagining of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings fantasy world. It's kinda funny, watching grown men and women, but mainly [cough] men
, get so animated about the arcane details in stories of elves and dwarves. Hey-ho, if it floats their boats, at least it's harmless.
But, I did see an excerpt of Christopher Tolkien, reading from one of his father's letters, explaining the aegis of the whole Middle Earth mythology. And it got me thinking.
I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own (bound up with its tongue and soil), not of the quality that I sought, and found (as an ingredient) in legends of other lands. There was Greek, and Celtic, and Romance, Germanic, Scandinavian, and Finnish (which greatly affected me); but nothing English, save impoverished chap-book stuff. Of course, there was and is all the Arthurian world, but powerful as it is, it is imperfectly naturalized, associated with the soil of Britain but not with English; and does not replace what I felt to be missing.
J.R.R. Tolkien, letter to Milton Waldman, publisher, 1951
What I take from this, is that Tolkien was writing a mythology for the English, to backfill the historical lack of anything in comparison to other cultures. Which is clearly bollocks, and he was, just as clearly, batshit.
Firstly, he wrote fucking loads, and only dedicated nerds read fucking loads. Certainly not your average Englishman and -woman on the street.
Secondly, and more importantly, it completely misses the point of mythology. Something that, as an Anglo-Saxon scholar, Tolkien would've been well aware of: Greek, Norse, and other ancient mythologies developed over centuries, catering to the needs of primitive people. Gods to pray to, to ensure good harvest; fertility; health; success in battle. An explanation for natural phenomena, such as the changing of the seasons; the ebb and flow of the tides; and the rise of the mountains. Sagas, to maintain the historical record, and to entertain during long evenings around the hearth.
By the time that Tolkien set to writing Lord of the Rings, traditional religion and secularism had long-replaced superstitions; science and learning had explanations for most phenomena of daily concern; and storytelling around the hearth had given way to radio, cinema, and television. So his mythology for the English was, essentially, redundant before it was even born.
And there's a another consideration. Ancient mythologies grew with their cultures, shaping them. They were woven into the tapestry of their people's lives, and it's why they're so embedded in their people's psyche even today. Tolkien's mythology could never be as important to the English, because it'd passed the time for such relevance by at least a millennium. Although based on folklore, his work couldn't even attain that status, because the contemporary audience is now too sophisticated to believe in elves; dwarves; dragons; and the like. None of it can be retrospectively ingrained into the English psyche in the same manner as those ancient mythologies. It's just for show and entertainment, nothing more.
Effectively, in creating a mythology for the English, Tolkien was answering an unasked question. And he wasn't even writing about England, but some larger make-believe world. It doesn't imply that his world-building, characters, and stories are irrelevant though.
All that said, I think it's petty and unimaginative to simply bastardise his work for the benefit of mo' rep
and lesser writers' inclinations. If his work doesn't suit their world view, why do they not create something new that does? Such is creative bankruptcy, I guess. (shrug)