I still wonder why the Elves, the great creators of ME, aren't also depicted as sub-creators. To what extent are their tales of the past 'embellished', & if at all, how could they get away with it, being surrounded by other Elves who had experienced the Elder days directly. Did Elves make up tales? If not, why not? I suppose the question is, did Tolkien concieve of the Elves as being sub-creators? If not, doesn't that limit their creativity? You would think they'd be the greatest inventors of stories. Especially the Noldor.
When our ancestors created their myths, they had a lot of leeway. They could give their imagination a lot of freedom to invent & embellish. The events & people they were writing or telling of, were long gone. It seems to me that the fact the Elves weren't in that position would have been more likely to push them into inventing tales.
Annunfuiniel, its not really a matter of whether there was a 'need' for an invented mythology - there was no real 'need' for poetry or calligraphy, or any of the other 'art forms' which Tolkien tells us the Elves excelled in.
Manwe, I don't think we should underestimate the importance of tales to our pre-industrial ancestors. Look at the great folk tale collections of the Grimms or campbell's 'Popular Tales of The West Highlands'. there was time, & 'hunger' especially on long winter nights, for tales. Some Tales were real epics, & would be told around the fireside over a period of weeks.
Finally, Mister Underhill, yes, there were plenty of stories & epic poems in Middle Earth, but all of them about 'actual' historical events.
[ April 11, 2003: Message edited by: davem ]
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