I read ‘The Iliad,’ ‘The Oddysey,’ and ‘Beowulf’ when I was in high school. Followed by parts of ‘Inferno’ and ‘Cantebury Tales.’ In college when studying Japanese, I read ‘The Tale of Genji.’
The long form of ‘sagas,’ whether in poetic or prose form, pull me in. What are some long-form myths and tales you enjoy?
I’ve also read the first three and parts of the next two. So we’re on par with that. I think the Iliad and the odyssey are amazing. I named my bong in college Little Ajax.
I’m a huge Tolkien fan, and some may know that he aspired to create a mythology for Britain. At least for the time being I’d figure it’s fine to discuss the silmarillion at least within this community, if not Tolkien’s entire corpus.
Would you say Grimms fairy tales fit in here too?
Trying to gauge if it needs to be actual mythology
I just bought a copy of the original Grimms and look forward to digging in. I believe a Saga usually follows one character or a family of one character, I could be wrong, though.
The Silmarillion was a huge surprise when I read it. I remember thinking it reminded more of the Bible than Lord of the Rings… but in a good way.
Yeah it’s a really unique book. Fascinating to see how Tolkien’s Christian worldview is incorporated into his fantasy mythology. You could teach a whole class analyzing the relationship between Christianity and Tolkien’s work. And I would bet that class already exists somewhere.