The Other Way 'Round - Page 17
© Michael Martinez
But though some will undoubtedly argue that applicability says far more about Tolkien's connection with Greek mythology than Tolkien himself, Tolkien spoke passionately about Greek history and literature on numerous occasions, as in a letter (No. 94) he sent to his son Christopher during the Second World War:
Mr. Eden in the house the other day expressed pain at the occurrences in Greece 'the home of democracy'. Is he ignorant, or insincere? [Greek word for 'democracy'] was not in Greek a word of approval but was nearly equivalent to 'mob-rule'; and he neglected to note that Greek Philosophers -- and far more is Greece the home of philosophy -- did not approve of it. And the great Greek states, esp. Athens at the time of its high art and power, were rather Dictatorships, if they were not military monarchies like Sparta! And modern Greece has as little connexion with ancient Hellas as we have with Britain before Julius Agricola....Well, perhaps the modern Greeks would take exception to Tolkien's last comment, but it is completely ironic and somewhat tragic that modern Anglo-Saxonists might take exception to any attempt to document his extensive connections to ancient Greek literature, language, and myth. Even in The Book of Lost Tales, the "mythology for England", Tolkien could not help but rely upon the Greek word "Gnomos" (thought, intelligence) as the root for his "Gnomes", the precursors of the Noldor of Middle-earth (Letter 239). There is certainly no denying the strong connection between Tolkien's work and the Anglo-Saxon language, poetry, and literature. He also drew extensively upon Middle English poetry and literature. But, as Tolkien might put it, the Anglo-Saxonists are not wholly correct or in the right because, to their great detriment and the diminishment of those who seek to learn from them, Tolkien owed a great debt to Greek language, myth, and literature. Nothing is Anglo-Saxon in the beginning, not even Middle-earth. If the reader perceives only an echo of Aethelflaed or, worse, no more than a shadow of Brunhild in Eowyn, and fails to note the tragic beauty and strength of Penthesileia in the fair maiden lying amid the carnage of battle, did Tolkien succeed in creating his mythology, or has his work only been mythologized?
...The other way round seems rather like describing a place (or stage in a journey) in terms of the different routes by which people have arrived there, though the place has a location and existence quite independent of these routes, direct or more circuitous.(Letter 209)
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