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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Myth of Origin

Tagged: Theme.

A Creation Myth provides an emotionally satisfying explanation for how the world and humanity came to be; a Myth of Origin pretends to explain some small facet of the world. The Prometheus story is a Myth of Origin for the discovery of fire; the tale of Romulus and Remus mythologizes the founding of Rome. Folktales contain many examples; e.g., the Grimm Brothers' "The Straw, the Coal and the Bean": these objects' adventures conclude with the bean literally splitting with laughter and being sutured with black thread – so "all beans since then have a black seam". Rudyard Kipling created several joyous Myths of Origin for animals' shapes in Just So Stories (coll 1902). Lord Dunsany's "The Sword and the Idol" (1910) mythologizes the discovery of iron-smelting and Ernest Bramah's "The Story of Wan and the Remarkable Shrub" (1928) does the same for tea.

A story-form related to the Myth of Origin is the onomastic tale which purports to explain a place's or person's Name; several such anecdotes appear in the Mabinogion, some lacking their punchlines. John James's Votan (1966) is a Myth of Origin in another sense, an anti-myth reducing the Norse Aesir to Rationalized Fantasy: squabbles and killings in the mundane village called Asgard are seen as Underliers from which the Myth will grow. [DRL]



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