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Originally Posted by Lalwendė
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen...
What does the following mean in the context of the interweaving of English legends/folklore into the legendarium?
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the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth
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Lal, I actually put up a post (now deleted!!!) asking you for the reference-- which you crystal-clearly stated in, erm, your
opening post. Now I'm SO embarassed.
Anyway-- despite my embarassment, I think this is a very good statement to ponder and I'm glad you brought it up. Reading it first
out of context, what came to my mind was that many 'lesser' things-- fairy stories, myths, and &c which are "lesser" in the sense of "shorter" than Tolkien's life work-- were the 'compost' in the 'soil' that produced the legendarium in all of its magnificence. Out of context! But also true, for what its worth.
Nor for the context:
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I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of fairy story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the large backcloths
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"Lesser drawing splendour from the large backcloths" to me says "Hobbit" and "LOTR", which draw splendour from Gondolin (Hobbit) & Elrond's wisdom, &c, more thinly; and LOTR, which by the time we get past Elrond's house rests squarely on the legendarium whether the reader is particularly aware of that or not.
But then, we've also discussed (in various threads) such things as, "Smith of Wootton Major"-- does it draw from the Legendarium? Or does it draw from the same Faerie sources that the Legendarium drew from? It is "lesser" in size, but what exactly does it rest on?
What does "Leaf by Niggle" rest on?
What does "Farmer Giles" rest on?
Are we asking in terms of content-- which is how I initiallly answered a paragraph or three above-- or are we asking in terms of the compost, in which case everything drew on what came before? I often get these two ideas crossed in my own mind.
Even within LOTR, thinking back to the "It Feels Different Near the Shire" thread-- does the Old Forest, and Tom Bombadil, rest on the same thing as, say, Gondolin and Numenor?
lmp...?