Mythopoeia

{{short description|Narrative genre in modern literature and film}} {{for|the poem by [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]|Mythopoeia (poem)}} {{Other uses|Mythopoeic (disambiguation){{!}}Mythopoeic}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

'''Mythopoeia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|ɪ|θ|ə|ˈ|p|iː|ə}}, {{langx|grc|{{wikt-lang|grc|μυθοποιία}}|{{grc-transl|μυθοποιία}}|myth-making}}), or '''mythopoesis''', is a [[subgenre]] of [[speculative fiction]], and a theme in modern [[literature]] and [[film]], where an artificial or fictionalized [[mythology]] is created by a writer of [[prose fiction|prose]], [[poetry]], or other literary forms. The concept was widely popularised by [[#Tolkien|J. R. R. Tolkien]] in the 1930s, although it long predated him. The authors in this genre integrate traditional [[mytheme|mythological themes]] and [[archetype]]s into fiction. Mythopoeia is also the act of creating a mythology.<ref name="Merriam-Webster">{{cite Merriam-Webster |mythopoeia |access-date=1 November 2022}}</ref>

== Genre ==

[[File:Joseph Campbell (cropped).png|thumb|upright|[[Joseph Campbell]] wrote about the role of created mythologies in the modern world.<ref name="Moyers 1988"/>]]

The term ''mythopoeia'' comes from [[Koine Greek|Hellenistic Greek]] {{Transliteration|grc|muthopoiía}} ({{lang|grc|μυθοποιία}}), meaning 'myth-making'; an alternative is ''mythopoesis'' ({{lang|grc|μυθοποίησις}}) of similar meaning.<ref>New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary</ref> The definition of ''mythopoeia'' as "a creating of myth" is first recorded from 1846.<ref name="Merriam-Webster"/><ref>{{cite web |title=mythopoeia |access-date=1 November 2022 |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/mythopoeia }}</ref> In early use, it meant the making of myths in ancient times.<ref>For example, "The first two, the most remote stages, are purely linguistic germs of mythology: the third is in the domain of mythopoeia, or myth-building." {{cite book |last=Bunsen |first=C.C.J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2oFJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA450 |title=Egypt's Place in Universal History: an Historical Investigation in Five Books, Volume IV |publisher=[[Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts]] |others=Charles H. Cottrell (trans.) |year=1860 |page=450 |author-link=Christian Karl Josias von Bunsen}}</ref>

While many literary works carry mythic [[Theme (literature)|themes]], only a few approach the dense [[Self-reference|self-referentiality]] and purpose of mythopoesis. Mythopoeic authors include [[William Blake]],<ref>{{cite web |title=mythopoeia |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100220548 |website=Oxford Reference |access-date=2 March 2022 |quote=individually by a writer who elaborates a personal system of spiritual principles as in the writings of William Blake}}</ref> [[H. P. Lovecraft|H.P. Lovecraft]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Norman |first=Joseph |title=New Critical Essays on H.P. Lovecraft |date=2013 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |isbn=978-1-137-32096-4 |editor-last=Simmons |editor-first=David |location=New York |pages=193–208 |chapter='Sounds Which Filled Me with an Indefinable Dread': The Cthulhu Mythopoeia of H. P. Lovecraft in 'Extreme' Metal |doi=10.1057/9781137320964_11 |oclc=5576363673 |s2cid=192763998}}</ref> [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany|Lord Dunsany]],<ref>"The Gods of Dunsany", ''[[The New York Times]]'', 26 January 1919 (Arts & Leisure)</ref> [[J. R. R. Tolkien|J.{{nbsp}}R.{{nbsp}}R. Tolkien]],<ref name=adcox/> [[C. S. Lewis|C.{{nbsp}}S. Lewis]],<ref name="Abate Weldy 2012"/> [[Mervyn Peake]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sisson |first=Richard |title=Irmin Schmidt's Fantasy Opera 'Gormenghast' on CD |journal=Peake Studies |volume=7 |issue=1 |year=2000 |pages=14–16 |jstor=24776036}}</ref> and [[Robert E. Howard]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery – Black Gate |url=https://www.blackgate.com/the-demarcation-of-sword-and-sorcery/ |access-date=2022-05-12 |language=en-US}}</ref> Tolkien used the word as the title of [[Mythopoeia (poem)|one of his poems]], written in 1931 and published in ''[[Tree and Leaf]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mythopoeia by J.R.R. Tolkien |url=http://mercury.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060109194442/http://mercury.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html |archive-date=9 January 2006 |work=ccil.org}}</ref>

Works of mythopoeia are often categorized as [[fantasy]] or [[science fiction]] but fill a niche for mythology in the modern world, according to [[Joseph Campbell]], a famous student of world mythology. Campbell spoke of a [[Nietzsche]]an world which has today outlived much of the mythology of the past. He claimed that new myths must be created, but he believed that present culture is changing too rapidly for society to be completely described by any such mythological framework until a later age.<ref name="Moyers 1988">{{cite web |last=Campbell |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Campbell |title=Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth |url=https://billmoyers.com/series/joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-1988/ |website=Bill Moyers |year=1988}}</ref>

The philosopher Phillip Stambovsky argues that mythopoeia provides relief from the existential dread that comes with a rational world, and that it can serve as a way to link different cultures and societies.<ref name="Stambovsky 2004">{{cite book |last=Stambovsky |first=Phillip |year=2004 |title=Myth and the Limits of Reason |publisher=[[University Press of America]] |isbn=978-0-76182-754-2 |page= }}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2021}}

Mythopoeia is sometimes called ''artificial mythology'', which emphasizes that it did not evolve naturally and is an artifice comparable with [[Constructed language|artificial language]], and therefore should not be taken seriously as mythology. For example, the noted folklorist [[Alan Dundes]] argued that "any novel cannot meet the cultural criteria of myth. A work of art, or artifice, cannot be said to be the narrative of a culture's sacred tradition...[it is] at most, artificial myth."<ref name="adcox">Dundes, quoted by Adcox, 2003.</ref>

== In literature ==

=== Antecedents ===

[[File:Spectre over Los from William Blake's Jeruesalem.jpg|thumb|[[William Blake's mythology]] is both written and illustrated. Here, [[Los (Blake)|Los]] is tormented at his smithy by the [[Spectre (Blake)|Spectre]] in an illustration to [[Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion|''Jerusalem'']].<ref name="Blake Giant Albion">{{cite web |url=http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/object.xq?objectid=jerusalem.e.illbk.06&java=no |title=Copy Information for Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion |publisher=[[William Blake Archive]] |access-date=11 September 2013}}</ref><ref name="Blake Sample">{{cite web |title=Object description for "Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion, copy E, object 15 (Bentley 15, Erdman 15, Keynes 15)" |publisher=[[William Blake Archive]] |url=http://www.blakearchive.org/exist/blake/archive/illusdesc.xq?objectid=jerusalem.e.illbk.06&objectdbi=jerusalem.e.p6 |editor1=Eaves, Morris |editor2=Essick, Robert N. |editor3=Viscomi, Joseph |access-date=12 September 2013}}</ref>]]

[[William Blake]] set out [[William Blake's mythology|his mythology]] in his "prophetic works" such as ''[[Vala, or The Four Zoas]]''. These name several original gods, such as [[Urizen]], [[Orc (William Blake)|Orc]], [[Los (Blake)|Los]], [[Albion (Blake)|Albion]], [[Rintrah]], [[Ahania]] and [[Enitharmon]].<ref name="Tate">{{cite news |title=William Blake's cast of characters |newspaper=Tate |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-blake-39/blakes-characters |publisher=[[Tate Gallery]] |access-date=3 March 2022 |quote=Blake created his own mythology populated by a host of beings that he himself had either invented, or re-interpreted.|author1=Tate }}</ref> Later in the 19th century, stories by [[George MacDonald]] and [[H. Rider Haggard]] created fictional worlds; C. S. Lewis praised both for their "mythopoeic" gifts.{{sfn|Lobdell|2004|p=162}}

[[Lord Dunsany]]'s 1905 book of short stories, ''[[The Gods of Pegana]]'', is linked by Dunsany's invented pantheon of deities who dwell in [[Pegana|Pegāna]]. It was followed by ''[[Time and the Gods]]'', by some stories in ''[[The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories]]'', and by ''[[Tales of Three Hemispheres]]''. In 1919, Dunsany told an American interviewer, "In ''The Gods of Pegana'' I tried to account for the ocean and the moon. I don't know whether anyone else has ever tried that before."<ref name="Wisehart 1919">{{cite news |last=Wisehart |first=M.K. |title=Ideals and Fame: A One-Act Conversation With Lord Dunsany |work=[[The Sun (New York)|New York Sun]] Book World |date=19 October 1919 |page=25}}</ref> Dunsany's work influenced J.R.R. Tolkien's later writings.<ref name="Dilworth 2011">{{cite web |last=Dilworth |first=Dianna |url=http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/what-did-j-r-r-tolkien-read/37585 |title=What Did J.R.R. Tolkien Read? |work=GalleyCat |date=18 August 2011 |access-date=24 March 2018 |archive-date=17 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117070405/https://www.adweek.com/galleycat/what-did-j-r-r-tolkien-read/37585 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[T. S. Eliot]]'s ''[[The Waste Land]]'' (1922) was a deliberate attempt to model a 20th-century mythology patterned after the birth-rebirth motif described by the anthropologist and folklorist [[James George Frazer]].<ref name="Oser 1996">{{cite journal |last=Oser |first=Lee |date=Winter 1996 |title=Eliot, Frazer, and the Mythology of Modernism |journal=The Southern Review |volume=32 |issue=1 |page=183 |id={{ProQuest|}}}}</ref>

===J. R. R. Tolkien===

[[J. R. R. Tolkien]] wrote a poem titled ''[[Mythopoeia (poem)|Mythopoeia]]'' following a discussion on the night of 19 September 1931 at [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], with [[C. S. Lewis]] and [[Hugo Dyson]], in which he intended to explain and defend creative myth-making.<ref name=adcox/> The poem describes the creative human author as "the little maker" wielding his "own small golden sceptre" and ruling his "'''subcreation'''" (understood as a creation of Man within [[God]]'s primary [[Creation myth|creation]]).<ref name="Tolkien 2001">{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J.R.R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=Tree and Leaf; Mythopoeia; The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son |location=London |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |year=2001 |orig-year=1964 |isbn=978-0007105045 |pages=85–90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JW-cQ-cypwwC}}</ref>

[[Tolkien's legendarium|Tolkien's wider legendarium]] includes not only [[origin myth]]s, [[creation myth]]s, and an [[epic poetry]] cycle, but also fictive [[linguistics]], [[geology]] and [[geography]]. He more succinctly explores the function of such myth-making, "subcreation" and "[[Faery]]" in the short story ''[[Leaf by Niggle]]'' (1945)'','' the novella ''[[Smith of Wootton Major]]'' (1967), and the essays ''[[Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics]]'' (1936) and ''[[On Fairy-Stories]]'' (1939). Written in 1939 for presentation by Tolkien at the [[Andrew Lang lecture]] at the [[University of St Andrews]] and published in print in 1947, ''On Fairy-Stories'' explains "Faery" as both a fictitious realm and an [[Collective unconscious|archetypal plane]] in the [[Psyche (psychology)|psyche]] or [[soul]] from whence Man derives his "subcreative" capacity. Tolkien emphasizes the importance of [[language]] in the act of channeling "subcreation", speaking of the human linguistic faculty in general as well as the specifics of the language used in a given tradition, particularly in the form of story and song:<ref name="Tolkien 1964">{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J.R.R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=[[Tree and Leaf]] |year=1964 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=London |pages=11–70 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Mythology is not a disease at all, though it may like all human things become diseased. You might as well say that thinking is a disease of the mind. It would be more near the truth to say that languages, especially modern European languages, are a disease of mythology. But Language cannot, all the same, be dismissed. The incarnate mind, the tongue, and the tale are in our world coeval. The human mind, endowed with the powers of generalization and abstraction, sees not only green-grass, discriminating it from other things (and finding it fair to look upon), but sees that it is green as well as being grass. But how powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty that produced it, was the invention of the adjective: no spell or incantation in Faerie is more potent. And that is not surprising: such incantations might indeed be said to be only another view of adjectives, a part of speech in a mythical grammar. The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power—upon one plane; and the desire to wield that power in the world external to our minds awakes. It does not follow that we shall use that power well upon any plane. We may put a deadly green upon a man's face and produce a horror; we may make the rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm. But in such "fantasy," as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a sub-creator.<ref name="Tolkien 1964 p25">{{cite book |last=Tolkien |first=J.R.R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=[[Tree and Leaf]] |year=1964 |publisher=[[HarperCollins]] |location=London |page=25, "Origins"}}</ref>}}

[[File:Akseli Gallen-Kallela - Lönnrot and the Oral Poets (mural sketch).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Tolkien was unable to emulate [[Elias Lönnrot]], who travelled Finland recording [[oral tradition|oral folklore]], and then reconstructed the country's mythology.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kuusela |first=Tommy |title=In Search of a National Epic: The use of Old Norse myths in Tolkien's vision of Middle-earth |journal=[[Approaching Religion]] |volume=4 |issue=1 |date=May 2014 |pages=25–36 |doi=10.30664/ar.67534 |doi-access=free }}</ref> 1912 sketch for a mural, ''Lönnrot and the Rune Singers'', by [[Akseli Gallen-Kallela]] ]]

Tolkien scholars have likened his views on the creation of myth to the [[Christianity|Christian]] concept of [[Logos (Christianity)|Logos]] or "The Word", which is said to act as both "the [...] language of nature" spoken into being by God, and "a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zrLIDAAAQBAJ&q=tolkien%20logos&pg=PA92 |title=Tolkien's Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle-earth |last=Coutras |first=Lisa |date=2016 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1137553454 |pages=92–94}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L6Byko7dGpgC&q=tolkien%20logos&pg=PP1 |title=Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World |last=Flieger |first=Verlyn |author-link=Verlyn Flieger |date=2002 |publisher=[[Kent State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8733-8744-6}}</ref>

[[Verlyn Flieger]] wrote that [[Elias Lönnrot]] intentionally created the ''[[Kalevala]]'' as a mythology for Finland, giving it "a world of magic and mystery, a heroic age of story that may never have existed in precisely the form he gave it, but nevertheless fired Finland with a sense of its own independent worth."<ref name="Flieger 2004">{{harvnb|Chance|2004|loc="A Mythology for Finland: Tolkien and Lönnrot as Mythmakers", pp. 277–283}}</ref> In her view, Tolkien, [[Finnish influences on Tolkien#Kalevala|who had read the ''Kalevala'']], "envisioned himself" doing exactly the same thing, except that [[A mythology for England|the mythology would be entirely fictive]]. Lönnrot had travelled the backwoods of Finland for 20 years, collecting stories and songs "from unlettered peasants".<ref name="Flieger 2004"/> Tolkien meant to [[Tolkien's frame stories|invent both the collectors and the storytellers]], in his case Elves: "he would be at once the singer and the compiler, the performer and the audience."<ref name="Flieger 2004"/>

=== C. S. Lewis ===

At the time that Tolkien debated the usefulness of myth and mythopoeia with [[C. S. Lewis]] in 1931, Lewis was a [[theist]]{{sfn|Lewis|1946|pp=66–67}} and liked but was sceptical of [[mythology]], taking the position that myths were "lies and therefore worthless, even though 'breathed through silver{{'"}}.<ref name=adcox/><ref name="menion">Menion, 2003/2004 citing essays by Tolkien using the words "fundamental things".</ref> However Lewis later began to speak of Christianity as the one "true myth". Lewis wrote, "The story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/3505/LewisJoy.html|title=Real Joy and True Myth|first=Dave|last=Brown|work=Geocities.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091026222931/http://www.geocities.com/athens/forum/3505/LewisJoy.html|archive-date=26 October 2009}}</ref> Subsequently, his ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'' is regarded as mythopoeia, with storylines referencing that Christian mythology, namely the narrative of a great [[king]] who is sacrificed to save his people and is resurrected. Lewis's mythopoeic intent is often confused with [[allegory]], where the characters and world of Narnia would stand in direct equivalence with concepts and events from Christian theology and history, but Lewis repeatedly emphasized that an allegorical reading misses the point (the mythopoeia) of the Narnia stories.<ref name="Abate Weldy 2012">{{cite book |last1=Abate |first1=Michelle Ann |last2=Weldy |first2=Lance |title=C.S. Lewis |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave |location=London |isbn=978-1137284976 |page=131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wi8dBQAAQBAJ}}</ref> He shares this skepticism toward allegory with Tolkien, who disliked "conscious and intentional" allegory as it stood in opposition the broad and "inevitable" allegory of themes like "Fall" and "Mortality".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wi8dBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA145 |title=The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien |last=Tolkien |first=J.R.R. |date=2014 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0544363793 |page=145}}</ref>

=== Superheroes of comic books ===

In ''The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints'', Thomas Roberts observes that:<ref>{{cite conference |last=Roberts |first=Thomas |title=The Mythos of the Superheroes and the Mythos of the Saints |conference =Mythcon 32, 3–6 August 2001, Berkeley, California |year=2001 |publisher=[[Mythopoeic Society]] |url=https://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mc32-members.htm }}</ref>

{{quote|To the student of myth, the mythos of the [[comics superheroes]] is of unique interest."<br />"Why do human beings want myths and how do they make them? Some of the answers to those questions can be found only sixty years back. Where did Superman and the other superheroes come from? In his Encyclopedia of the Superheroes, Jeff Rovin correctly observes, "In the earliest days, we called them 'gods'.}}

The 1938-debuting [[Superman]], for example, sent from the "heavens" by his father to save humanity, is a messiah-type of character in the [[Bible|Biblical]] tradition.<ref>[[Christopher Knowles (comics)|Knowles, Christopher]], ''[[Our Gods Wear Spandex]]'', Weiser, pp. 120–122</ref> Furthermore, along with the rest of [[DC Comic]]'s [[Justice League of America]], Superman watches over humanity from the [[Watchtower]] in the skies; just as the [[List of Greek deities|Greek gods]] do from [[Mount Olympus]].<ref>''International Journal of Comic Art'', [[University of Michigan]], p. 280</ref>

=== In literary modernism ===

In [[Literary modernism|modernist literature]], mythopoeia served a crucial structural and philosophical function. For [[Modernism|modernist writers]], this was not a nostalgic revival of ancient stories but a deliberate aesthetic strategy to impose order and meaning upon the profound fragmentation, disillusionment, and spiritual uncertainty that characterized modern experience.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |last=Freer |first=Scott |title=Modernist Mythopoeia |date=2023 |work=The Edinburgh Companion to Modernism, Myth and Religion |pages=267–284 |editor-last=Radford |editor-first=Andrew |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/edinburgh-companion-to-modernism-myth-and-religion/modernist-mythopoeia/EB9EBB3DB65A2C18A833C3886513329F |access-date=2025-12-21 |series=Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4744-9479-3 |editor2-last=Hobson |editor2-first=Suzanne}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Freer |first=Scott |date=2015 |title=Modernist Mythopoeia |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137035516 |journal=SpringerLink |doi=10.1057/9781137035516}}</ref>

The modernist engagement with myth can be seen as a response to the collapse of traditional metaphysical certainties. As the movement grappled with a "growing alienation" from prevailing norms, myth offered a method to explore what scholar Scott Freer describes as "metaphysical perspectives that fall between material secularism and dogmatic religion".<ref name=":3"/> Exemplars include [[T. S. Eliot]]'s "Mythical Method"<ref name="Omrani 2025">{{Cite journal |last=Omrani |first=Reza |last2=Habibzadeh |first2=Hamed |date=2025 |title=Modernist Echoes: The Role of Tradition, Language, and Myth in Eliot, Shamlou, and Sepehri |url=https://ltr.atu.ac.ir/article_17989_en.html |journal=Literary Text Research |volume=29 |issue=103 |pages=126–142 |doi=10.22054/ltr.2024.81065.3882}}</ref> and [[James Joyce]]'s novel [[Ulysses (novel)|''Ulysses'']].<ref name="Omrani 2025"/>

== In film ==

Frank McConnell, author of ''Storytelling and Mythmaking'' and professor of English at the [[University of California]], called film another "mythmaking" art, stating: "Film and literature matter as much as they do because they are versions of mythmaking."{{sfn|McConnell|1979|p=6}} In his view, film is a perfect vehicle for mythmaking: "Film ... strives toward the fulfillment of its own projected reality in an ideally associative, personal world."{{sfn|McConnell|1979|pp=5, 99|ps=: 'film is a perfect model of the epic paradigm: the founder of the land, the man who walls in and defines the human space of a given culture...'.}} In a broad analysis, McConnell associates the American [[western movie]]s and romance movies with the [[Arthurian]] mythology,{{sfn|McConnell|1979|p=15}} adventure and action movies with the "[[epic poetry|epic world]]" mythologies of founding societies,{{sfn|McConnell|1979|p=21}} and many romance movies where the hero is allegorically playing the role of a knight, with "quest" mythologies like ''[[Sir Gawain]]'' and the ''[[Holy Grail|Quest for the Holy Grail]]''.{{sfn|McConnell|1979|pp=13, 83–93}}

=== ''Star Wars'' ===

[[File:George Lucas 1986 (cropped).jpg|thumb|198x198px|George Lucas]]

Filmmaker [[George Lucas]] speaks of the cinematic storyline of ''[[Star Wars]]'' as an example of modern myth-making. In 1999 he told [[Bill Moyers]], "With ''Star Wars'' I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs."<ref>Hart, 2002. Evidently quoting Moyers quoting Lucas in ''Time'', 26 April 1999.</ref> McConnell writes that "it has passed, quicker than anyone could have imagined, from the status of film to that of legitimate and deeply embedded popular mythology."{{sfn|McConnell|1979|p=18}} John Lyden, the Professor and Chair of the Religion Department at [[Dana College]], argues that ''Star Wars'' does indeed reproduce religious and mythical themes; specifically, he argues that the work is [[apocalypticism|apocalyptic]] in concept and scope.<ref>Lyden, John. 2000. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070721074055/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/LydenStWars.htm The Apocalyptic Cosmology of Star Wars] (Abstract)." ''The Journal of Religion & Film'' 4(1).</ref> Steven D. Greydanus of ''The Decent Film Guide'' agrees, calling ''Star Wars'' a "work of epic mythopoeia."<ref name="greydanus">{{cite web |last=Greydanus |first=Steven D. |title=An American mythology: Why ''Star Wars'' still matters |website=Decent Films |date=2000–2006 |url=https://decentfilms.com/articles/starwars |access-date=1 November 2022 |archive-date=6 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206024753/https://decentfilms.com/articles/starwars |url-status=live}}</ref> In fact, Greydanus argues that ''Star Wars'' is ''the'' primary example of American mythopoeia:<ref name="greydanus"/>

{{blockquote|text=The Force, the Jedi knights, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, Princess Leia, Yoda, lightsabers, and the Death Star hold a place in the collective imagination of countless Americans that can only be described as mythic. In my review of ''A New Hope'' I called ''Star Wars'' "the quintessential American mythology", an American take on [[King Arthur]], Tolkien, and the samurai/''[[wuxia]]'' epics of the East{{nbsp}}...|author=Steven D. Greydanus}}

[[Roger Ebert]] has observed of ''Star Wars'' that "It is not by accident that George Lucas worked with Joseph Campbell, an expert on the world's basic myths, in fashioning a screenplay that owes much to man's oldest stories."<ref>Hart, 2002. Quoting Ebert on ''Star Wars'' in his series ''The Great Movies''.</ref> The "mythical" aspects of the Star Wars franchise have been challenged by other film critics. Regarding claims by Lucas himself, Steven Hart observes that Lucas didn't mention [[Joseph Campbell]] at the time of the original ''Star Wars''; evidently they met only in the 1980s. Their mutual admiration "did wonders for [Campbell's] visibility" and obscured the tracks of Lucas in the "despised genre" science fiction; "''the epics'' make for an infinitely classier set of influences."<ref>Hart, Steven. 2002 April. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20071217031351/http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/ Galactic gasbag]." ''Salon.com''.</ref>

== In music ==

In classical music, [[Richard Wagner]]'s operas were a deliberate attempt to create a new kind of ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ('total work of art'), transforming the legends of the Teutonic past nearly out of recognition into a new monument to the [[Romanticism|Romantic]] project.

While ostensibly known for improvised jamming, the rock group [[Phish]] first cemented as a group while producing leading member [[Trey Anastasio]]'s senior project in college, called ''The Man Who Stepped into Yesterday''. The song cycle features narration of major events in a mythical land called [[Gamehendge]], containing types of imaginary creatures and primarily populated by a race called the "Lizards". It is essentially a postmodern pastiche, drawing from Anastasio's interest in musicals or rock operas as much as from reading philosophy and fiction.<ref>Puterbaugh, Parke. ''Phish: The Biography''. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 65–67. Print.</ref> The creation of the myth is considered by many fans the thesis statement of the group, musically and philosophically, as Gamehendge's book of lost secrets (called the "Helping Friendly Book") is summarized as an encouragement to improvisation in any part of life: "the trick was to surrender to the flow."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://phish.net/song/the-lizards/lyrics |title=Phish.Net: The Lizards Lyrics |work=phish.net}}</ref>

The [[Progressive rock]] group [[Magma (band)|Magma]] sets their songs around a musical [[space opera]] for more than fifteen albums, centering around [[fictional planet]] ''Kobaïa''. Over the course of [[Magma (Magma album)|their first album]], the band tells the story of a group of people fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on Kobaïa, where they create a spiritual [[utopia]]. Subsequently, conflict arises when the Kobaïans – descendants of the original colonists – encounter other Earth refugees. Later albums tell different stories set in more ancient times on Earth, as precursors to the later Kobaïan cycle. All of Magma's albums are sung in the [[constructed language]] known as [[Kobaian|Kobaïan]],<ref name="MacDonald">{{Cite web |last=MacDonald |first=Ian |author-link=Ian MacDonald |year=1975 |title=An Irresistible Life Force |url=http://www.orkalarm.co.uk/orkalarm04/04_an_irresistible_life_force.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227200309/http://www.orkalarm.co.uk/orkalarm04/04_an_irresistible_life_force.htm |archive-date=27 February 2012 |access-date=16 October 2009 |website=Ork Alarm!}}</ref><ref name="TinyMixTapes">{{Cite web |title=Magma: Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh |url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/Magma |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080615144824/http://tinymixtapes.com/Magma |archive-date=15 June 2008 |access-date=16 October 2009 |website=[[Tiny Mix Tapes]]}}</ref> which was constructed by frontman and baterist [[Christian Vander (musician)|Christian Vander]] because "French just wasn't expressive enough. Either for the story or for the sound of the music".<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite web |last=Culshaw |first=Peter |date=1 October 2009 |title=Magma interview for Celestial Mass |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/6250004/Magma-interview-for-Celestial-Mass.html |access-date=2009-10-16 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London}}</ref> Kobaïan is untraslated (the only song in English is the title track of ''[[Kobaïa]]'', telling a story of refugees fleeing a future Earth and settling on Kobaïa), and understanding the epic of Kobaïa centers around feeling the lyrics, a limited translation of key vocabulary and clues left in the albums' [[liner notes]].<ref name="MacDonald" /><ref name="TinyMixTapes" />

Many releases of the [[psychedelic rock]] group [[King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard]] share lyrical themes and feature characters that form a recurring cast, which appear at their lyrics, [[Music video]]s and [[Album cover]]s. The band tell stories of "gamblers, cowboys, [[Australian Rules football]]ers, people-vultures, [[Balrog]]s, [[lightning god]]s, flesh-eating beasts, sages and space-faring eco rebels", many hinting part of a larger connected universe and shared storyline.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Does King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's 'Gizzverse' Really Exist? |url=https://cosmicmagazine.com.au/features/what-is-king-gizzard-the-lizard-wizards-gizzverse-does-it-really-exist/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=Cosmic |language=en-US}}</ref> Members of r/KGATLW, a [[Reddit#Subreddits|subreddit]] dedicated to the band, popularised the term "Gizzverse" to describe the overarching narrative of their discography, about which many theories have been propagated.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Ferrier |first=Aimee |date=2023-07-01 |title=What is the Gizzverse? |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/what-is-the-gizzverse/ |access-date=2025-06-11 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> In a 2017 interview, Stu Mackenzie confirmed that the band's releases are all connected, saying, "They all exist in this [[Parallel universes in fiction|parallel universe]] and they may be from different times and different places but they all can co-exist in a meaningful way".<ref name=":1" />

The black metal band [[Immortal (band)|Immortal]]'s lyricist [[Harald Nævdal]] has created a mythological realm called [[Blashyrkh]] filled with demons, battles, winter landscapes, woods, and darkness, described by the band as a northern "Frostdemon" realm.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles.aspx?id=1-223 |title=CoC: Immortal: Interview : 5/19/1999 |access-date=2018-01-13}}</ref>

== Organizations ==

The [[Mythopoeic Society]] exists to promote mythopoeic literature, with conferences, books, periodicals, and the [[Mythopoeic Awards]].<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Society |url=https://www.mythsoc.org/about.htm |publisher=[[Mythopoeic Society]] |access-date=14 January 2024}}</ref>

== See also == * [[Campaign setting]] * [[Constructed world]] * [[Hero's journey]] * [[Mythic fiction]], literature that is rooted in tropes and themes of existing – instead of more artificial – mythology

== References == {{reflist}}

== Bibliography == {{Commonscat|Mythopoeia}}

;Inklings

Tolkien: * Adcox, John. 2003. "[http://www.mythicjourneys.org/passages/septoct2003/newsletterp8.html Can Fantasy be Myth? Mythopoeia and The Lord of the Rings]." ''The Newsletter of the [[Mythic Imagination Institute]]'', September/October 2003. * Menion, Michael. 2003/2004. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070621043345/http://www.firstworld.ca/tolkien/elvesandart.html Tolkien Elves and Art, in J.R.R. Tolkien's Aesthetics]." ''Firstworld.ca''. (commentary on the poem "[[Mythopoeia (poem)|Mythopoeia]]"). * {{cite book |last=Chance |first=Jane |author-link=Jane Chance |title=Tolkien and the Invention of Myth: A Reader |year=2004 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=0-8131-2301-1 }}

C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald: * {{cite book |last=Lobdell |first=Jared |author-link=Jared Lobdell |title=The Scientifiction Novels of C.S. Lewis: Space and Time in the Ransom Stories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cCZKg37FDEoC&pg=PA162 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=0-7864-8386-5 |page=162 |date=2004-07-01}} * {{cite book |surname=Lewis |given=C.S. |year=1946 |title=The Great Divorce |title-link=The Great Divorce |publisher=Collins |id=0-00-628056-0}}

;Film-making as myth-making * {{cite book |last=McConnell |first=Frank D. |title=Storytelling and Mythmaking: Images from Film and Literature |year=1979 |publisher=Oxford University Press, Incorporated |isbn=978-0-19-503210-9 }}

Lucas: * Hart, Steven. 2002 April. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20071217031351/http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2002/04/10/lucas/ Galactic gasbag]." ''Salon.com''. * Greydanus, Steven D. 2006. "[http://www.decentfilms.com/sections/articles/starwars.html An American Mythology: Why Star Wars Still Matters]." ''Decent Film Guide''. * Lyden, John. 2000. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070721074055/http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/LydenStWars.htm The Apocalyptic Cosmology of Star Wars] (Abstract)." ''The Journal of Religion & Film'' 4(1).

[[Category:Film genres]] [[Category:Inklings]] [[Category:Mythology in popular culture]] [[Category:Speculative fiction genres]] [[Category:Tolkien studies]] [[Category:Worldbuilding]]