Homer/Dante

Return of the Rings: Nordic Mythology co-created the epics of Tolkien and Wagner

Tolkien and Wagner are among the most influential artists in their respective fields. Tolkien has been (deservedly or no) been credited with being the founding father of the modern fantasy genre, and Wagner's mythic explorations not only created a new expression for opera but have also been credited (almost certainly undeservedly) for having inspired the Jewish holocaust. Both Tolkien and Wagner sought to (re)create the myths of an ancient era, giving to their audience a sense of history which transcended the momentary. Tolkien and Wagner both seem to believe that myth is necessary to the soul of the modern romantic; Tolkien approaches it as a sort of religious and linguistic door to truth, which opens vistas of hope in men's minds, while Wagner approaches myth as a metaphor for the evolution of culture, in which one...
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