Pastor Rick
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Myth and places
When a world setting is based around a existing mythological body of work such as all the stories of the elves or King Arthur is it better to do research and use the place names associated with them or create totally new place names and such?
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6/11/2009, 4:19 pm
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Firlefanz
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Re: Myth and places
That depends a bit on how closely you want to link the story to that set of myths.
If you want to build on the myth, then you should do research, yes.
--- - Firlefanz
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6/11/2009, 5:19 pm
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Reythia
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Re: Myth and places
I agree with Firle. Also, I'd add that the amount of research you need to do depends strongly on how specific the myth is. Some myths are awfully specific about some things -- so leaving those out would be a bad call. But many other myths are very general, or even contradictory of other similar tales. In those cases, exact names and information is less important.
The two examples you gave -- King Arthur and elves -- are really two contrary examples. To write anything involving King Arthur, you've GOT to know a lot about the legends and other stories concerning him. I mean, if you tell a King Arthur story without mentioning Merlin, or if you end it with him living happily ever after, you're REALLY going to annoy your readers. And maybe more importantly, if you're going to change the whole story and the characters in it, you're not really writing the story of King Arthur. With a known character, you have to stick at least basically to the known plot, too.
On the other hand, consider a story about elves. Now, there are lots of myths and stories about elves, too. But whereas the King Arthur tales all run more or less parallel to each other, stories about elves are often radically different from each other. For example: where do they live? Can they die? Are they physical or incorporeal? Visible or invisible? What sort of magic (if any) can they do? Are they human-sized, or smaller? Etc, etc. There aren't any hard and fast rules on elves, so you have a lot more lee-way when writing about them. Meaning that you don't need the same quantity of research as you would if you wrote about King Arthur.
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6/11/2009, 10:13 pm
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Pastor Rick
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Re: Myth and places
Thank you both for the examples and insight. The nature and abilities of the beings I am working with jump all over the place in mythology as well as where and how they lived so I am guessing that a good approach would be for me to create my own list both of abilities and places that I will accept as true for the purpose of the story.
On mythological characters such as King Arthur or Merlin I trust that adding plausible descendants to them would be called "building on the mythos" so this is a acceptable story tool yes?
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6/12/2009, 5:02 am
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Firlefanz
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Re: Myth and places
Yes, I think you can add plausible descendants. There may be something in the myths about King Arthur (or you invent an illegitimate child), but I think there is little said about Merlin having children.
Still, I would think that's acceptable. 
--- - Firlefanz
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6/12/2009, 6:36 am
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Pastor Rick
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Re: Myth and places
It has to be a descendant of Merlin and "The Lady of the Lake" for my story and I have the hook for that 
It was either that or create a whole new mythos and so far my little snippets do not point that direction...
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6/12/2009, 2:37 pm
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Reythia
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Re: Myth and places
Yeah, Rick, I think that's definitely do-able. Good luck with it!
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6/12/2009, 3:36 pm
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dragonlady
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Re: Myth and places
From an academic point of view (I'll try and make this interesting not dry) mythology can be a very flexible thing -and I say this despite being something of a pedant about it at times.
It's always good to do some research, just so you get a feel for the characters/setting you are using, and perhaps get an idea of how the mythology works. However building on it is perfectly acceptable, and if done well can be an interesting addition to the mythology.
Though with the King Arthur stuff I'd suggest trying for something more traditional like Reythia said.
Don't do what the BBC has done with Merlin. www.bbc.co.uk/merlin
It's a good family programme but very different to the myth, and kinda like a Smallville version of Arthurian legends.
Last edited by dragonlady, 6/13/2009, 3:19 pm
---
"Why sometimes I've believed as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast" -- Red Queen, Lewis Carrol
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6/12/2009, 4:02 pm
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Pastor Rick
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Re: Myth and places
Not that no way 
I needed a character with some of the "old world" magical abilities attributed to Merlin but he was supposed to be the only one of his kind (the son of a incubus and human woman). The mythos says Viviane (The Lady of the Lake) imprisoned Merlin in a tree to prevent his sexual advances. I am thinking this may have been a ruse on Vivianes part so she could still claim innocence but in fact she actually succumbed to said advances and had a child as a result.
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6/13/2009, 4:24 am
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Firlefanz
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Re: Myth and places
That would neatly fit, Rick. I like that idea.
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6/13/2009, 6:28 am
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Reythia
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Re: Myth and places
Good call, Rick. That'd work nicely!
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6/13/2009, 6:48 pm
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