Pullman and Rowling appropriate both English and wider European folk-tradition in the worlds of their novels: house-elves and black dogs jostle with giants, witches and fairies, talking bears and hippogriffs. The detailed fountain at Witley Court portrays the Ancient Greek hero Perseus saving a maiden, Andromeda, from a deadly sea monster. These authors wrote initially for a young adult audience, but the children and teenagers that learned to love this kind of story-telling grew up to appreciate — and to write their own — fantasy of various kinds.
From the Star Wars films, which depend on classic models of the hero and the princess, good and evil, quests and family identity, to the powerful mythological elements that underlie the work of George R. The tale of Atlantis is reflected in the history of Valyria, and Westeros has its very own King Arthur, the lost heir who must reclaim his kingdom, in the form of Jon Snow.
Vampires and werewolves, creatures from European tradition symbolise contrasting elements in human nature: violence and desire, beauty and horror, featuring in titles such as the Twilight series and Buffy the Vampire-Slayer. Also drawing on myth from Scandinavia is the Thor franchise, while other superhero series use similar tropes of hero and monster, re-tooling and modernising many of the characters, themes and stereotypes of myth and legend.
They are staples of video games that are often set in fantasy universes and structured around the quest as a framework. Alongside the grand figures of gods, demi-gods, heroes and monsters that feature in the great myths and legends of the British Isles, there are many less well-known stories that often adhere to particular landscapes and places.
Many famous historic sites of the British Isles have long and fascinating pasts, and have played their part in the events that have shaped the nation. He was a legendary smith, the most skilled craftsman of all, whose brutal story of maiming and cruel vengeance is retold in Anglo-Saxon sculpture and poetry, and in Old Norse legend.
Carolyne Larrington teaches medieval literature at the University of Oxford and researches widely into myths, legends and folklore, in particular in Old Norse-Icelandic and Arthurian literature. Myths, legends and folktales are well established in the fabric of English culture.
But where do these often fantastical stories come from? Carolyne Larrington, Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford, examines the origins of these stories, from dragons, kelpies and hobs to the legend of King Arthur. Skip to main content. Myths are stories that are based on tradition. Some may have factual origins, while others are completely fictional. But myths are more than mere stories and they serve a more profound purpose in ancient and modern cultures.
Myths are sacred tales that explain the world and man's experience. Myths are as relevant to us today as they were to the ancients.
Myths answer timeless questions and serve as a compass to each generation. In the selection below, Graves dictates the myth about the creation of Mount Olympus, where the gods and goddesses reside and rule. Scholars of mythology see the dozens of myths that he covers in his collection as some of the most accurate and well-developed representations of these ancient tales.
The passage below describes Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom:. Apparent stood; there, grasping her bright spear[. As can be seen, Homer draws from both Greek and Roman mythology in the development of both epics. A creation myth explains the creation of man, the universe, or some other element of life. A flood myth usually depicts a great flood sent by the gods to essentially destroy mankind, often as a form of punishment for forgetting the power and importance of divine rule.
Furthermore, most religions have a form of creation myth to explain the existence the universe and mankind. The blockbuster film Troy is about the mythological heroes of Trojan War. Actor Brad Pitt plays the great Greek warrior and hero Achilles, who sails with the Spartan army for their attack on the city of Troy.
In the clip below, he contemplates his part in the war with his mother Thetis; the goddess of water:. In this scene, Achilles is ultimately deciding his fate. He knows that if he goes to war he will never return; he also knows he has a significant part to play in it because he is a legendary warrior. For Achilles to fulfill his destiny he must die, and while he may be a hero with some superhuman qualities and godlike fighting abilities, he is ultimately a mortal man.
The Walt Disney Corporation is famous for retelling and adapting well known myths, legends , and fairy tales into family movies. For instance, the animated Disney film Hercules retells the ancient Greek myth of the hero Hercules mentioned above in a way that families can enjoy:. Adaptations like these are valuable form for the retelling of myths.
Films like Disney classics let children enjoy bright and appealing stories about age-old characters and themes. By presenting the stories in a way that is popular and relevant, children are encouraged to learn about classics. Every mythology has its obscurities, inconsistencies, and absurdities, but the crucial point is that myths attempt to give form to the cosmos and meaning to human life.
Most modern scholars divide the subject into three principal categories: pure myth, heroic saga, and the folk tale. Pure myth is both primitive science and primitive religion. It consists of stories that explain natural phenomena such as the sun, stars, flowers, storms, volcanoes, and so on, or of stories that show how men should behave toward gods.
These myths recount how the world came into being, who the various gods are and what powers they control, how these gods affect the world and men, and the means by which men can propitiate these powers. Gods can be personified natural agents such as fire, sky, earth, water, and the like. But more often they are beings that use specific areas of nature to effect their purposes, just as men operate machines to produce some end. Gods are often visualized as having human shape, feeling human emotions, and performing human acts, even if they are immortal and infinitely more powerful than men.
This renders the cosmos more intelligible than it would be if it were ruled by impersonal, capricious forces that were indifferent to man's welfare. Gods, even at their cruelest, are much preferable to stark chaos. And gods that look and act as human beings do make the world appear more bearable, because they sanctify human beauty and strength by giving them supernatural precedent.
In interpreting nature, myths use analogical reasoning, relating the unfamiliar to the familiar by means of likeness. Thus, things in heaven happen the same way they do here on earth. Why does the sun move across the sky? Because some deity is pushing it, riding it, or sailing it through the universe each day. And just as beasts and men beget progeny by copulation, so the primordial elements of nature procreate on each other in most mythologies.
Or to give another example, the ancient Greeks must have wondered why the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor never set below the horizon, whereas other groups of stars did. The mythological solution, related by Ovid in his tale of Callisto, is that they were outcasts. Hera hated those stars and ordered the sea never to let them sink, since they were once the living mistress and son of Hera's mate, Zeus.
This shows mythological reasoning and the projection of human feelings onto the natural world. A coordinate branch of myth deals with the art of getting the gods to effect human purposes. This involves primitive religion with a technological overcast.
The gods, having some human qualities, may respond to worship, ritual, supplication, and sacrifice. They are never obliged to help human beings, but they can if they so desire.
Gods sometimes show partiality by rewarding a few mortals with good fortune. But generally nature is incalculable. One can never tell where lightning will strike, storms sink ships, wars and plagues ravage, earthquakes wreck cities, or flood, drought, and hail ruin crops. Yet psychologically a man is never totally impotent if he has gods to whom he can appeal. Myths frequently deal with the tributes one should pay a god, the chief of which is piety.
Yet there is an older, darker region of myth involving magic. Magic is also an attempt to influence the gods to fulfill human wishes. The Greeks pretty much expurgated or transmuted this element in their myths, but it has a fairly sizable place in the myths of primitive peoples and in the ancient Near Eastern and European mythologies.
Magic seeks to influence nature by imitation, by mimicking the results one wants. It depends upon analogical thought, whereby like produces like.
The savage rite of human sacrifice was supposed to guarantee a plentiful harvest in neolithic societies, because the sprinkling of human blood on the ground would bring the necessary rain to the crops. In ancient cults throughout the Near East and Europe magic was associated with the worship of the triple-goddess, usually in agricultural communities presided over by a matriarchal queen.
The triple-goddess stood for the three phases of the moon — waxing, full, and waning; the three phases of nature — planting, harvest, and winter; and the three phases of womanhood — virgin, mature woman, and crone.
In her earthly incarnation as queen she often took a male lover each year, and when his period was through he was ritually murdered. Traces of this archaic religion can be found in Greek mythology, but the Greeks with their patriarchal worship of Zeus managed to suppress it fairly thoroughly. While men might use religious ritual or magic to induce the gods to grant their requests, it was extremely dangerous to antagonize a supernatural force.
The gods were invariably ruthless in punishing acts of impiety or overweening pride. King Ixion, for attempting to ravish the goddess Hera, was struck dead by Zeus's thunderbolt, lashed to a turning wheel in hell, and bitten eternally by snakes. In the Gilgamesh epic the mighty Enkidu contracted a fatal illness for insulting Ishtar, the Babylonian fertility goddess.
Dozens of myths vividly portray the folly and dire results of neglecting or provoking the gods.
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