Author and folklorist Rosemary Sutcliff once wrote, “You can learn a lot about a people from their stories, because their stories show the way they think and feel and look at things.”1 This is the power of mythology — it allows us to see through the eyes of cultures long past. Sometimes it reveals forgotten … Continue reading On Reading The Hound of Ulster
Tag: Mythology
The Story-maker’s Medium
Story-making is an art, and the storyteller is an artist. Like the painter or the sculptor, the true storyteller strives to craft a thing of beauty from a particular medium. Rather than using marble or paint, the storyteller works with words. There are often many words to choose from, but he knows that each word … Continue reading The Story-maker’s Medium
Anglo-Saxon and Old Icelandic in Middle Earth
J. R. R. Tolkien loved mythology and languages, and desired to be a myth-maker himself. He set about crafting Middle Earth, a world complete with its own tongues and tales. He knew that in order to become good at something, one must learn from the masters that came before. So, he borrowed many elements from … Continue reading Anglo-Saxon and Old Icelandic in Middle Earth
