Fiction in Middle Earth

[Child of the 7th Age]

Davem and everyone,

YES! This was exactly what I was trying to say in my earlier post, only my own thoughts were not as explicit as yours and I used different descriptive terms. See quote below:

If you think of it from Tolkien's perspective, rather than the terms of modern fantasy books, the residents of Middle-earth, and specifically the Elves, have done exactly what Tolkien did. They've taken their own past history and woven them into marvelous, miraculous tales. They've created something I would call "lore", which has one foot in history (at least in Tolken's terms) and one foot in faerie.

I was talking about sub-creation when I said the Elves "did exactly what Tolkien did" regarding the creation of their own history. I called these "miraculous tales" and "lore" but these terms come more naturally to me as an historian, and they are, I believe, the same thing you, Davem, term "Art".

If we are honest about what our past is, I believe that the very best written or oral history, whether you are talking about Men or Elves, involves an act of sub-creation or Art, and, by implication, the creation of alternate worlds (or realities). Believe me. There is no "objective" history, once you get beyond a certain level. Man is merely copying the practices of the Elves in this regard, but our results are not as fine as theirs.

sharon