Smith of Wootton Major in Middle Earth?

[davem]

Might be worth considering John Crowley's novel Aegypt in this context http://www.pd.org/Perforations/perf21/bess.html

Crowley,.... creates a mythic world in which the popular origin of the Gypsies, not in Egypt but in "Aegypt" is taken to represent the birth of wisdom in a fabled land of the imagination, someplace older than and farther in than the merely literal Egypt.

As Crowley has it in the novel "There is more than one history of the world." There's the 'factual' one we find in the history books, & constructed through historical record & archaeology, but alongside that one (or beneath/underlying it) is another made up of Tradition, folklore/music, myth & folklore. Both are equally 'valid', but valid in different ways, & both serve different purposes. Unfortunately the former has come to dominate (in the past the latter dominated).

Or, once Egypt (as Aegypt) was very much within the realm of Faery, but over time we have removed it. Yet this is what we do - we turn Merlyn's Isle of Grammarye into a realm of brutal warlords vying for power. Interestingly, we do this to both Aegypt & Albion by our desire for Faery - we want Arthur, Merlin & Hermes to be 'real' so we attempt to fit it into our world, our history, yet the only way we can do that is by removing all the magic from it - we draw Arthur into our world, but end up not with the destined King, with his magical blade, his wizard counsellor, Grail, Lady of the Lake & the fabled Isle of Avalon, but with a fifth century warlord absent all magic - we can have King Arthur in our world, all we have to do is sacrifice everything that we found attractive about him.