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Walter Charzewski / Private Notes
But let's keep in mind that Tolkien had dozens (if not hundreds) of books at hand, most of which he had read before or during the process of creating his "mythology".
Whereas the situation in Greece was a little different, I believe. The accounts of the Fall of Troi had been passed down a couple hundred years before they were actually written down. And Homer (or whoever the authors were) could not just go to a library (or their own bookshelfs) and borrow a couple books conatining some good "myths". P was still drafting, J & E probably writing or struggling with their publishers, the Assyrs digging in Anatol and Mesopotamia trying to get hold of their Gilgamesh tablets and the design of the Library of Alexandria was still subject to brainstorming sessions... 
On a sidenote: I would assign T's "mythology" quite a few attributes (incl. marvellous, great, etc.) but I'm not sure that totally coherent and complete were among those...
<blockquote>
On 17-May-2003 5:55 PM, Alvaro wrote:<p>
Hi, I read that at David Day´s Tolkien Enciclopedya. There also says that in his life, Tolkien achieved what it took hundreds of years for the greek or roman cultures to achieve: A totally coherent and complete mythology with its own inner laws and rules.
Hope that helped.
Bye
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ToDo:Check Day's quote, make something: FAQ? Notes? Comment?
 | | Thus it is that through Eriol and his sons the [i]Engle[/i] (i.e. the English) have the true tradition of the fairies, of whom the [i]Iras[/i] and the [i]Wéalas[/i] (the Irish and Welsh) tell garbled things. | | HoMeII p. 290 |
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A hint why Tolkien considered the presence of Christian themes fatal migh be gathered from his essay "On Fairy Stories":
| | Something really 'higher' is occasionally glimpsed in mythology: Divinity, the right to power (as distinct from its possession), the due of worship; in fact 'religion. Andrew Lang said, and is by some still commended for saying that mythology and religion (in the strict sense of that word) are two distinct things that have become inextricably entangled, though mythology is in itself almost devoid of religious significance. *)
- ) This is borne out by the more careful and sympathetic study of 'primitive' peoples: that is, peoples still living in an inherited paganism, who are not, as we say, civilised. The hasty survey finds only their wilder tales; a closer examination finds their cosmological myths; only patience and inner knowledge discovers their philosophy and religion: the truly worshipful, of which the 'gods' are not necessarily an embodiment at all, or only in a variable measure (often decided by the individual).
| | "On Fairy Stories" |
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ToDo: Essay? FAQ?
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