Why Mythopoeia matters?

Perhaps an appropriate first post would be an expl(ic)anation of my choice of title: Mythopoeia. The word is inspired by an early poem written by Tolkien to a friend who said that "myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though they are 'breathed through silver." Tolkien's poem is a letter from Philomythus (lover of myth = aka Tolkien) back to Misomythus (hater of myth). Based on the subsequent writings of Tolkien's "mysomythic" friend, who was none other than C.S. Lewis, I assume that Tolkien won the day.

The lines that fascinate me within Tolkien's poem (and if anyone hasn't read it I suggest you get to a library and read Tree and Leaf asap) read as follows:

The heart of man is not compound of lies,
but draws some wisdom from the only Wise,
and still recalls him. Though now long estranged,
man is not wholly lost nor wholly changed.
Dis-graced he may be, yet is not dethroned,
and keeps the rags of lordship once he owned,
his world-dominion by creative act:
not his to worship the great Artefact,
man, sub-creator, the refracted light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move ffrom mind to mind.
Though all the crannies of the world we filled
with elves and goblins, though we dared to build
gods and their houses out of dark and light,
and sow the seed of dragons, 'twas our right
(used or misused). The right has not decayed.
We make still by the law in which we're made.

As any Silmarillion fan will notice, the words here echo a theme throughout that the human creative powers are one manifestation of our being created. That is: We create because we are created. Perhaps T.S. Eliot says it best, when in Canto IX of"Choruses From the Rock" he beautifully writes:

The Lord who created must wish us to create
And employ our creation again in His service
Which is already His service in creating

Again, man creates because he is a product of creation; however, as "images" of God we reflect his Light, or are supposed to. The light is refracted from us due to the fall and the "right" we have to "sow the seeds of dragons" is not decayed, but our use may become a misuse. Again, students of Al Wolters know this idea as it is manifested throughout Creation Regained: structure and direction.

So, before we can create a world that is in line with the Truth, and therefore in line with that which is Good and Beautiful, one needs to be aware of the Creator in charge of his creations...and subsequently their subcreations (which may even be as trite as a blog entry).


D.J. Sikkema