Mythic Writers Blog

Just in case anyone missed me yesterday…the day completely got away from me.  Sorry!  I will be back with a regular post tomorrow.  Meanwhile, check out Sur la Lune for some great stuff to read.   Annotated fairy tales, with histories and notes on similar tales from different cultures…very good stuff.

Just a quick post. A list, really—just a few things you might enjoy. I’m in the midst of a writing binge, and I just can’t quite stop to write a real post. I’d apologize, but I must admit I’m not really sorry. I’m just excited to be approaching the end of my first draft!

But I didn’t want to leave you with nothing at all, so go check these things out:

From Charles de Lint’s newsletter, I found Kim Antieau’s blog with, among other things, author interviews including one with CdL himself! And from there, I found her Old Mermaids Journal. Good stuff—fun, whimsy, poetry, mermaids with fantastic names. Go have a look.

While you’re poking around, go have a look at Terri Windling’s recent post at Endicott Redux. It’s about an Arthurian series that looks scrumptious! I think those will be gracing my shelves sometime soon—must feed my Arthurian addiction.

Next, from Neil Gaiman’s journal, you’ll find a link to Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother published under a creative commons license if you want to download it. But if you like it, please do consider buying a copy or two.

Finally, what I’m listening to right now—a new album at Magnatune. Dreadnought by Mountain Mirrors. You should go check it out, especially track #10, “A Spell to Block the Sun.” And track #2, “Field of Grass.” Check out the whole site. Magnatune is delicious and ethical—fifty percent of any money you pay goes to the artists. And you can listen to everything before you buy. And you can find music to fit any mood over there.

Have fun! I’ll be back Monday and might even have something to say. Have a great weekend!

I got Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With a Thousand Faces from the library a while ago, and I finally read the first few pages over the weekend.

If the rest of the book goes the way the first page went, it’s going to be slow going. Just on the first page, I found two amazing statements that resonated with me so deeply I had to stop reading just to think, and then I read had to read them again and stop for a while again before I could move on.

First, this statement: “It will be always the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.”

That, right there, pinpoints one of the main attractions of mythic fiction. It beautifully explains the fascination with myths and folklore and fairy tales and the stories built around them. The allure lies in that ever present hint that there’s something more. Even in the midst of a story, even living inside a myth, there is that intimation that there is something further, maybe just ahead, just around the next corner, hidden behind the next tree. And that is one of the great magics of mythic fiction. The magic the story shows us is only a small part of the magic it lets us know is all around us.

Then, just after the thrill of this little revelation, the next paragraph held this: “The myths of man have flourished; and they have been the living inspiration of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind…myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.”

And there, right on the same page, we have a further explanation of why myth and mythic fiction enthrall us. If these myths are indeed the seeds of all of human dreams and accomplishments, then of course we are mesmerized. When we encounter myth, we are encountering the genesis of all creative things. It’s like encountering God. Amazing and overwhelming, and you can’t help but go back for just a little more whenever you get the chance.

I am really looking forward to reading more and gaining more insights from Campbell’s work. My reading will have to be sporadic since I’m in the middle of finishing a novel so I can pitch it at an upcoming writers’ conference, but whenever I get to read a bit, I’ll make sure to share my insights here, and I hope if anyone else has thoughts on what I write, you’ll leave a comment so we can all share in it.

I’m returning to one of my favorite topics today: What is mythic fiction? I try to move on to other things, but this just seems to creep back into my thoughts when I least expect it.

Last week, I was completely convinced that ghost stories—at least some of them—are mythic fiction. Today, as I toyed with the idea of the Frankenstein monster and wondered if he’s been around long enough that monsters of his ilk can be considered mythic, I started thinking about vampires. Are they mythic? Suddenly I’m not sure about them or about the ghosts.

I tend to think of mythic fiction as involving some sort of “otherworld” or otherworldly beings becoming entwined with a real world setting or real world characters. (So for ghosts, I guess the fact that they aren’t entirely here might be what qualifies them?.)  And vampires, if they exist, would be of this world, right? But they’re still creatures of myth and legend…

I think there might be part of the definition I’m just not pinpointing yet. Some stories that would traditionally be categorized as horror— mostly vampires, werewolves, ghosts—fit into the mythic fiction category, too. I’m just not sure of my reasons for calling some of these stories mythic fiction. But I’m working on it. The definition will come, just not all in one piece I guess.

I’m tempted to fall back on the old “I can’t define it but I’ll know it when I see it” bit. But that would be a complete cop out. And not nearly as entertaining as turning the idea over and over in my head while I work to hone my thoughts.

So I guess what I’m coming out of this brainstorming session with is a question: to be mythic fiction, does a story have to involve some sort of other world or beings from another world (not to be confused with from another planet!), or can the story be about something from mythic or legendary from our own world that has just remained hidden thus far? I’m leaning toward the second option, but my reasons will have to wait for another post, after I’ve figured out exactly what they are.

Oops! Missed a day, didn’t I? I have an excellent excuse—I was reading. I had a few days off from work, giving myself a nice, four-day weekend, and yesterday was reading day.

I finally had the chance to finish the last 150 or so pages of Christopher Golden’s The Myth Hunters which I had set aside for awhile to get some other reading done.

Fantastic book! (Of course that pun was intended.) It is somehow intricate and deep and yet still a quick and easy read. I love the crossing back and forth between our normal world and the world of legend (in the book, the living legends only use the word “myth” as an insult against one another). And since we get most of our information about the otherworld from the perspective of our modern American protagonist, we get the full impact of the wonder and sometimes horror of the land of the legends.

I was half excited and half frustrated to find that there are two—yes, two—sequels to Myth Hunters. The Borderkind and The Lost Ones. My summer reading list continues to grow…

I rounded out the day of reading by starting and finishing Greywalker by Kat Richardson. Completely different from Myth Hunters and generally a really good time. I enjoyed it quite a lot, loved the idea of the Grey (you’ll just have to read it, won’t you?), and now I have to go get the sequel, Poltergeist. The book was a fun read, plus the author briefly touches on an interesting aspect of vampiric feeding that I’d like to know more about.  So I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of these.

So that’s what I did on my mid-spring, mini-vacation. I’ll be sure to give opinions on the other books in the two series as I read them—assuming I can make myself put them down long enough to get to the keyboard!

I love ghost stories. Especially gothic type ghost stories with spooky mansions on a cliff above the sea, complete with hidden passages and ancient ancestral paintings. So I’ve been thinking about ghost stories lately, trying to decide if I think they fit into the mythic fiction category.

I think they do. Some people will claim that ghost stories belong in the horror genre. They do. Some people will say they belong in the supernatural sub-category. They do. Some people will say that the type of ghost story I’m particularly fond of belongs in the new paranormal romance category. They do (well, some of them do).

I don’t think fitting into those other categories keeps a story from being mythic fiction. I think mythic fiction is a sort of vesica pisces, the place where multiple genres cross over. It is the common ground between horror and fantasy and sci-fi and all the sub-genres we might find in those categories.

How do ghosts fit into mythic fiction? I know that often when we think of myths, we think of stories of gods and nymphs and dragons and unicorns—the traditional stuff of legend. But ghost stories have been around for millennia, too. The ancient Greeks traveled to the underworld to speak with shades. There are ghosts in Beowulf. Gilgamesh has at least one ghost that I can remember. There are even ghosts in the Bible. So I think ghosts have at least as long a connection with myth and folklore as dragons or unicorns do.

None of this has much to do with anything else right now. I have just been thinking of ghost stories lately, and I have obviously been thinking about mythic fiction, and I thought I’d share my musings even if they haven’t reached any sort of conclusion. I am toying with a ghost story idea which might be why ghosts are on my mind a bit more than usual lately. Or maybe it’s because tonight is “Ghost Hunters” night. Or maybe I don’t need a reason.

For now, those are my thoughts.  But there will assuredly be more later–don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Thunk. That would be the sound of a clue hitting me in the back of the head.

My good friend Laura reminded me on Friday that the gwragedd annwn story I’m working with actually has a way into Faerie that isn’t accidental. Before someone just had to go and take a flower and get us banned forever, humans were invited into the gwragedd annwn’s realm as long as they knew where the correct rock with the doorway was located. So, yeah, obviously that’s not accidental.

She then went on to mention reading a legend that says if you walk around a fairy mound nine times you can get in to Faerie. Thunk. There’s another clue. I knew this bit of folklore! As a matter of fact, I know I’ve read it more than once. How could I forget?

What’s especially embarrassing is that I think that’s actually how the main character in Stephen Lawhead’s Song of Albion trilogy got into the Otherworld, and I was just writing about that series and didn’t remember that part. I can’t believe I forgot all of that! I’m going to blame it on sleep deprivation and move on.

So there we have it. Now we know of at least two ways to purposefully cross into Faerie. There are probably more. I hope if anyone tells me about them I don’t discover that I already knew them and forgot. I’m not sure my ego could stand the embarrassment!

At least knowing about these ways into Faerie is good news for my story. I now have two ways to get there on purpose. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to make up something for my characters, some way for them to get into the door in the rock that has nothing to do with knowledge from folklore. I can do that. I’m a fiction writer! But it’s good to know that there’s historical (folkloric?) precedent for humans crossing into Faerie. Having some folklore for my characters to research so they can cross over might just be the trick I need. I’m going to go write this down before I forget!

I think I mostly don’t believe that one day I might turn around to find myself enmeshed in some faerie world adventure. Mostly. Still, I dream of it. I think about it a lot, wondering what might happen, how I would react, what I would do. I wonder how it would start.

If such things were possible, how would they start? What do you think would be just the thing to do to get the otherworldly ball rolling?

Naturally, there are the various run-ins with fairy rings—stepping into them or falling asleep in them seem to be the classics. Then there are the chance stumblings through rends in the veil or thin spots in the veil—also classics in fairy lore.

I’ve read a few stories about fairy mounds being portals into the otherworld. Stephen R. Lawhead’s Song of Albion trilogy (The Paradise War, The Silver Hand, The Endless Knot) starts out with an exploration of a mound that leads to a crossing. But again, this is an accidental crossing into the faerie realms. (Okay, I admit I did get distracted after the first book and haven’t returned to the other two—shame on me!—so I don’t know for certain that the accidental crossing is the only one that happens in the series.)

How would someone go about purposefully transporting himself to the faerie lands? I am sure I’ve read stories where it happened. I think I’ve read some bits of folklore about it. Now that I want to know, can I find any of them? Of course not. But I just started this search yesterday, so I must be patient and keep looking.

Still, if anyone out there knows any stories or folk tales where a purposeful entry into the faerie realms happens, leave me a note, will you? Even if you just sort of remember a tale you once read but don’t know the name of, a note about what you do remember would be most appreciated. Meanwhile, I will carry on with my search and let you know if I find anything good.

When I started out, this post was going to be about how we often see mythic elements more in children’s stories than in adult literature. But then I stopped myself. Is this really true? We definitely see a lot of magical elements in children’s stories, but does that necessarily mean that they are mythic in nature? Is something magical automatically something mythic? What exactly makes a story specifically mythic as opposed to just fantasy or fantastical?

It’s really a fine line. Think of J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Mythic? I’m not sure. Maybe. Are there any typically mythic elements? Sure—we have wizards and dragons and a werewolf. Those are mythic elements, right? Is that enough to make these mythic fiction stories? No, mythic elements alone don’t make a mythic fiction tale.

But there are modern, mundane world elements (you know—Muggles), which is one of the standard elements of a mythic fiction story. Does the combination of mythic elements and modern elements automatically make mythic fiction? Maybe. If so, then Harry Potter seems to fit my broad, sketchy definition of mythic fiction. I’m clearly going to have to work on refining my definition before I can answer all of these questions.

Maybe mythic fiction is more about the meeting of the mundane with the magical. Maybe that element of two worlds colliding is what makes it mythic. We need mythic or archetypal elements—I don’t think we necessarily need specific mythic figures to have a mythic story. And we need the contrast of a “normal” world set against these mythic elements.

Well…This post has veered from its starting point. At least I have a slightly clearer view of what constitutes mythic fiction as separate from fantasy. But I may have created more questions than I’ve answered. That’s all right. For now, I’ll leave it this way. Any input or answers you have will be most welcome. Tell me what you think makes a story mythic fiction. I’d love to hear your ideas as I work to hone my own.

Last September, I had the wild good luck to get into a workshop on mythic fiction taught by Charles de Lint up in Seattle at Richard Hugo House. One thing we had to do was take a myth or fairy tale or folk tale with us to work with, which was so much fun to research.

I chose the story of the gwragedd annwn. They are Welsh water fairies who live in cities beneath the waters of lakes and rivers. (I read that the Lady of the Lake might have been one of the gwragedd annwn. I actually found out about them while looking up Lady of the Lake stories.)

Long ago, the gwragedd annwn used to allow humans into their beautiful, magical garden on an island in the middle of one of their lakes. But, as usual, one human just had to do the one thing he was told not to, and he ruined it for all of us. The gwragedd annwn kicked him out, sealed the door in the rock, and their realm was closed to us forever. Maybe.

I’m poking through the research I did in the fall, thinking of turning the snippet I wrote in the workshop into an actual story. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to work out, but I’m making notes on it to see if I come up with anything I want to work with.

I’m trying to find stories about people who purposefully found their way into the otherworld. Does anyone know any stories like this? I need to figure out how my characters are going to get inside that rock!

Didn’t Tam Lin’s lover find a way to get into the fairy realm to rescue him? Or did she have to wait until they came out into our world? I’m going to have to find a good telling of that story and read it to refresh my memory. If I find anything good, you can probably guess what my next post will be about. Until then, I’m back to my work.