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CONCLUSION:
MYTHIC CONSCIOUSNESS
Myths are stories which address the fundamental mysteries
of life, death, love, hate, good and evil – the eternal questions. Through
his fiction, Tolkien asserts that literature has the potential of performing
basic functions once held by lore and legend while adding its own layers
of psychological and narrative depth. Tolkien's Secondary World is an amalgam
of many diverse sources, literary, mythological and philological, each adding
unique colours to his creative spectrum. As his legendarium matured with
a lifetime of revising, rethinking, adding and refining, Tolkien carried
it past its derivative beginnings and it remains to this day the ultimate
model of independent subcreation. As an author, his works reflect a firm
belief in avoiding the explicit: the matters closest to his heart are "felt
rather than" made "explicit", as the opening quote on myth asserts. Indeed,
Tolkien's appeal to the reader is often sharpened by subtlety; a subtlety
which allows narrative effects to be unconsciously felt, but that deliberately
obscures the cause62 .
Yet in spite of the momentous themes which are absorbed
into the tales, Tolkien's primary motive was always that of a story-teller
striving to "hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and
at times maybe excite them or deeply move them". Therefore, for those inclined
to look, there runs an ever-present thread of moral (in fact Christian) wisdom
through Tolkien's work - but at no time does it sag toward the didactic.
Tolkien is not an antiquarian in the static, unvarying
sense of the word. This study explores an author struggling with his own
century; writing beyond it, or, as it may seem, in spite of it. Reinstating
a nobility of past times, while addressing permanent and complex issues,
Tolkien's authorship is the manifestation of a distinct creative vision.
As such, his achievement rests upon the power to balance lived experience
with mythical and metaphysical expression.
Human consciousness is many-layered and contains both
mythic and rational needs and inclinations. In a modern, scientifically structured
world where only the latter appetite is satisfied, desire for the ennobling
qualities of myth will seek other outlets. I would venture further and say
that in order to retain its true essence, and reinforce its applicability,
a myth must be retold and reshaped; translated, one could say, across the
gulf of different ages and cultural climates. Without this, we see the shadow
side of myth. Myth gone cold. Its great power to influence the mind remains:
through the aggressive preservation of dogma, the "unquestioned assumption".
Indeed, the dark side of myth manifests itself as fundamentalism – whether
in science, religion or politics – fuelled by what is essentially mythic
rhetoric. By constantly re-examining and re-evaluating his ancient sources,
Tolkien sustains the cyclical nature of mythology. For Middle-earth is indeed
a scene of passing and renewal, fusing the mythical with the historical;
allowing it both to transcend the limitations of our rational age and arouse
the basic human yearning for other "stages of imagination".
62The opening quote referred to
is this: "The significance of myth is not to be pinned on paper by analytical
reasoning. It is at its best when it is presented by a poet who feels rather
than makes explicit what his theme portends; who presents it incarnate in
the world of history and geography…." – J.R.R. Tolkien on Beowulf.
Tolkien's narrative style corresponds closely to this, working through subtlety
and poetic effects rather than "analytical reasoning". back
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