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ItarildeSirfalas
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Post Ancient Mythology
on: May 05, 2015 01:42
Any other CoE members here Mythology fans? (I should hope so, as Tolkien was inspired by it!)

I personally really love Mythology, namely, Greek and Norse mythologies. I grew enjoying tales of Zeus (or Jupiter, if you've read the Roman equivalents!) and of Odin and Thor, and this was partially why I looked into Tolkien's works

I'd have to say my favourite mythological figures would be Zeus from the Greek myths(mainly because he got away with mostly anything), and Loki from Norse mythology, as once again, he was just mischievous!

I've been trying to get into Celtic and East Asian mythology,(growing up in Hong Kong didn't really spurn much of an interest in my youth), but they just don't grip me as well as others do!

Oh, I also find Egyptian mythology fascinating, but there's so much I can only focus on one mythological backdrop at once (with Greek/Roman being the exception!)
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tarcolan
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on: May 17, 2015 07:18
The most ancient written story is the Epic of Gilgamesh, so it is there you should start. Alas there are only fragments of it left now, but in it you will recognise the important ingredients of all great stories. You can find a few different translations at gutenberg.org

I would also recommend the Elder Eddas, also available from the same site. You will find some old friends there.
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Gandolorin
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on: May 18, 2015 03:33
I have a very interesting book about the Epic of Gilgamesh written by an Astronomer. It has to do with the fact that certain stars and constellations disappear below the horizon (in the northern hemisphere) at certain dates as summer, autumn and winter follow on each other, and reappear as winter gives way to spring and summer. He shows convincingly that some odd statements found in the epic only make sense if one considers it a description of these disappearances and reappearances. But this is only if you consider the dates valid roughly 4500 years ago, because of the phenomenon called precession (see Wikipedia). In approximation, the date of dis-/reappearance changes by about one day every 72 years, so today's dates differ by almost an entire season compared to those at the time of writing of the epic.

Short conclusion: those old Sumerians were pretty good astronomers ages ago.
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ItarildeSirfalas
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on: May 19, 2015 09:56
Hmm, thanks guys. I might take a look into this 'Epic of Gilgamesh'. I recall hearing that name before, but I can't for the life of me think where it was, aside from here that is.

Gandolorin - is that precession similar to the phenomenon that occurs in Magnetic Resonance Imaging? I ask as that's exactly what my exam is on tomorrow, and it's quite interesting that it has some relevance to planetary occurances too
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"Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." ~ Elrond ♥
tarcolan
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on: May 21, 2015 03:24
Not really Itarilde, it has nothing to do with magnetism. If you've ever had a gyroscope or simply spun something (teapot lid!) like a top, you will see that as it slows down it starts to wobble. The axis of spin is precessing. This is what the earth is doing. Here's a handy link:
Precession of the earth.
MRI depends on the precession of the magnetic field of a spinning hydrogen nucleus.

[Edited on 05/21/2015 by tarcolan]
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ItarildeSirfalas
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on: May 21, 2015 04:35
Ah I see, I thought it would have possibly a similar 'background', as in it's a similar phenomena, but not the exact same thing. I know MRI depends on the hydrogen nuclei, but I hadn't heard about the astronomy version of precession. I've never really looked into it, but now I have, I think it's quite intriguing!
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"Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." ~ Elrond ♥
Gandolorin
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on: May 22, 2015 02:05
An another ancient Mythology - or rather Mythologies - that I have done some reading on are the Irish pre-Christian Myths, especially the Ultonian (Ulster) cycle centering on Conor mac Nessa, Cuchulain, and the Red Branch, assumed to have taken place about the time of the birth of Christ; and the Ossianic Cycle, centering on Finn mac Cumhal, whose son Oisin(or Ossian) is supposed to be author of the cycle, assumed to have taken place in the third century A.D.

[Edited on 05/22/2015 by Gandolorin]
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findemaxam48
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on: May 23, 2015 07:57
I really like Greek Mythology. I am taking a college class on it in the near future. Its so interesting how many modern pieces of literature are influenced by it.
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ItarildeSirfalas
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on: May 23, 2015 09:47
I wish I'd been able to take a class on Greek Mythology, but I never got the chance, so I bought plenty of the literature myself.

Gando - I'll have to take a look into those, they sound intriguing
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"Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." ~ Elrond ♥
Elfeawen Lomiondil
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on: October 23, 2015 01:30
I love mythology, especially Norse, Greek, and Egyptian. They others all look interesting too, but I just don't know enough about them.

I also really like contemporary fiction inspired by mythology. I was thinking of starting a thread about all media based on Norse mythology, but I haven't completed my search yet to make sure one like it doesn't already exist. I wonder if it would be alright to talk about it here, or is this thread only for the original myths?
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Gandolorin
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on: October 24, 2015 02:13
Elfeawen Lomiondil said:... I was thinking of starting a thread about all media based on Norse mythology, but I haven't completed my search yet to make sure one like it doesn't already exist. I wonder if it would be alright to talk about it here, or is this thread only for the original myths?


No, my guess is this is the right place for such a thread,as it is "Off Topic", which I would consider to mean non-Tolkien. There are many such threads here, especially in the Games threads (which I am most familiar with).
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Estel Telcontar
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on: December 20, 2015 06:00
I like Norse, Celtic and Greek myths!
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