Mythopoetics of Literature: a Symbolic Language of British and American Fantasy and Science Fiction

Modern fantasy literature, as well as classical literature, willingly appeals to a number of ancient mythopoetic images, using a wide palette of their symbolic potential. Among the most popular images, in particular, are a tree, a raven and a snake (dragon).

The tree as a mythopoetic image is present in various mythological systems in its original form – the World Tree, as well as in a number of invariants, transformations and isofunctional images: the Tree of fertility, the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of life, stairs, column, cross, throne, etc. Thus, he creates a global picture of the world, destroying binary oppositions. According to Meletinsky, the "plant" constituting model of the cosmos – the World Tree – can be contrasted with an anthropomorphic one, or merge with it, being created by an anthropomorphic primordial being ^{[1, p. 213]}. Speaking about the meaning of the myth of the World Tree, E. Benveniste points to three components of the image: the trunk and crown, located on earth; the roots going into the underworld and the upper branches, resting on the vault of heaven. Thus, the tree is the basis of the world, its axis ^{[2, p. 16]}.

The most illustrative in this respect is the image of the German-Scandinavian tree – Yggdrasil. The giant ash tree is a vertical projection of the cosmos, in which three levels are combined: heavenly Asgard – the world of the gods and a paradise for warriors who died on the battlefields, earthly Midgard – the abode of people and underground Hel – the kingdom of the dead. At the very roots live the norns – the goddesses of fate – and the great Nidhegg – the cosmic serpent. At the top is a wise eagle, while the Ratatosk squirrel runs along the trunk.

Another example is Sycamore, a giant golden tree found in Egyptian mythology. It is also the Axis of the Earth: its crown touches the firmament, the branches on which precious stones grow give shelter to the heavenly goddess Chickpeas. In the images of the XIII century BC, you can see the Mother Goddess sitting on a huge tree and distributing food and drinks.

In the Upanishads of ancient Indian mythology, ashwatha – the sacred fig tree – is located in the center of the universe; its components can be attributed to various parts of the cosmos, as well as to the corresponding social structures. In ancient China, there was an idea of an immense mulberry tree, on the upper branches of which a rooster lives, and ten three-legged suns live in the crown. The sacred ficus – the Bo (Bodhi) tree – is sacred in Buddhism. It is believed that it was under him that Gautama gained enlightenment.

The pagan Aryans believed in the existence of three heavens, the first of which was the kingdom of air and clouds, the second – the blue vault, the third – the kingdom of light, from which a fig tree grew, sheltering the gods and the souls of the blessed with its crown.

In one of his studies, A.N. Afanasyev gives a description of the World Tree: "And in the middle of paradise there is an animal tree, a hedgehog is a deity, and the top of that tree is approaching to heaven. The tree is golden in fiery beauty; it covers the whole paradise with branches, has leaves from all trees and fruits too; a sweet fragrance comes from it, and 12 springs flow with milk and honey from its root" ^{[3, p. 214]}. According to the sources of Slavic mythology, the World Tree grows at the very edge of the universe – near the Lukomorye: its trunk symbolizes the path to other dimensions, along which only gods are able to pass. Bayan, the hero of the "Words about Igor's Regiment", travels through the Tree, "turning into a mouse (corresponds to the earthly world), into an eagle (corresponds to heaven) and a wolf (hell)" ^{[4, p. 375]}. In the tradition of the Slavs, the oak is associated with the World Tree. According to legend, there are two oak trees in the center of the world ocean, on which two pigeons sit, who created the earth, sky, sun and moon from sand and stone from the seabed. Afanasyev mentions a story in which it is told that the universe is an iron oak holding water, fire and earth, rooted in the "power of God" ^{[3, p. 215]}.

The image of the Tree as a universal concept of the world originates in Europe and the Middle East in the Bronze Age. It is realized in various types of art – folklore, architectural monuments, artistic images and sculptures; the tree was also used in some rituals and games. This mythopoetic image as a system-forming component actualizes the ideas of ancient peoples about the fundamental laws of the world order. In the ancient Paleolithic, there was an idea of the universe as total chaos, as evidenced by rock carvings devoid of clear binary oppositions, such as the sky::earth, earth::lower world, water::fire.

The world becomes more structured only with the advent of the Bronze Age, when the Tree acquires the features of the dominant image, which the British anthropologist and sociologist James Fraser associates with geographical factors, since "at the dawn of history, Europe was covered with boundless primeval forests, and scattered cleared areas were islands in an ocean of greenery" ^{[5, p. 76]}. In "The Worship of Trees", the tenth chapter of the scientist's main work "The Golden Bough", he cites a significant number of forests of the European part of the continent: the Hercynian forest east of the Rhine, the Anderida forest in the southeastern part of England, the Zimin forest, which served as the natural border between Rome and Central Etruria in the IV century BC, Greek forests of Arcadia, etc.

However, the image of the World Tree reflected not only man's ideas about the universe – it also served as a way of realizing himself and the stages of his own life. The components of the Tree correlated with the space-time divisions of the universe. So the sky triad::land::the underworld is consistent with the past::present::future. Also, the elements of the Tree can symbolize the continuity of generations: ancestors::currently living::descendants; human body parts: head::torso::legs; elements: fire::land::water. The roots, trunk and top correspond to a certain type of animal. Snakes, rodents, and chthonic creatures are located at the roots; the trunk is associated with ungulates; the top is associated with birds. The vertical division of the Tree also reflects the idea of conception and fertility.

While the vertical structure belongs to the mythological sphere, the horizontal one turns out to be associated with the conduct of various rituals. In this regard, the trunk becomes the central component, on both sides of which people and animals are placed. This kind of projection points to the four cardinal directions, the same number of seasons and time of day. In combination with the vertical system, it creates an integral, universal, cultural model ^{[6, p. 52]}, which separates "the cosmic world from the chaotic world, introducing the first organization and making it available for expression in sign systems of texts" ^{[7, p. 404]}.

The Judaistic Old Testament image of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil played an important role for European culture. Another variant of the World Tree is the Tree of Life. In various cultures, such trees as oak, sycamore, willow, larch, cedar, sycamore, banyan, etc. symbolize life in all its manifestations; immortality is hidden inside them. The image of the Tree of Life is opposed to the image of the Tree of Death. The latter can be found in Slavic folklore about Kashchei the Immortal.

Functioning as the axis of the world, the mythopoetic image of a tree is the best suited for creating secondary worlds. In fiction literature , it seems possible to distinguish three varieties of this image: 1) a tree is a creature, 2) a tree is a house, and 3) a tree is a symbol. The first type is quite common, both in fantasy and in other genres of fantasy literature. The most illustrative example is Tolkien's ents. The oldest creatures of Middle-earth, outwardly resembling trees, they guard the forest, being the force that opposes industrialization:

"I would say that ents are created from philology, literature and life itself. They owe their name to the Anglo-Saxon eald enta geweorc and their connection with stone ruins. <...> I dreamed of creating conditions in which trees could really go to war" ^{[8, p. 311]}.

In addition to Tolkien, the Polish science fiction writer Andrzej Sapkowski interprets the tree in a similar way in his cycle about the Witcher. Living trees are also found in Farmer's work in the novel "The Great Devourer", in Simak in "The Highway of Eternity, in Rothfuss in "The Chronicles of the King's Murderer", in Jordan in "The Eye of the World", in Giles in "On Mercury", in Wyndham in "The Day of the Triffids", etc.

The image of a tree-house is exploited by both science fiction and fantasy, in the latter having received the greatest distribution. The forest is the habitat of magical creatures: elves, dryads, fairies, goblins, etc. In the crowns of ancient trees, they build their houses, sometimes erecting bizarre cities, like, for example, Tolkien's forest elves. In Vance's novel "Houses of Islam", a bizarre image of conscious and self-willed house-trees has been created:

"This truth has not been questioned: all tourists come to Ism with the sole purpose of stealing a female at Home" ^{[9, p. 237]}; "Houses grew through unequal lengths along canals and streets. Their heavy knobby curved stems supported the lower pods, an array of broad leaves and, finally, the upper pods, half buried in foliage" ^{[9, p. 241]}.

The third kind of tree is a symbol tree, the meanings of which go back to the most ancient mythology. In fiction, the most common are allusions to the Scandinavian Yggdrasil, as well as to the Celtic cult associated with trees. In this regard, Tolkien's works are very illustrative, in which several interpretations of the image of a tree are presented. Among them are the Ents on the verge of extinction, ready to engage in battle with the White Magician in order to resist the spreading evil. The White Tree of Gondor is also distinguished by its artistic originality – it withers as soon as the kingdom loses its sovereign. In Tolkien's novel, the disappearance of unique trees marks the loss of magic and the destruction of the fundamental foundations of the universe. Another example is the "Silmarillion" trees – their fruits produce light, symbolizing the light of the sun and moon:

"And the Light of Valinor was visibly revealed in Two Trees, Silver and Gold. The enemy killed them out of spite, and darkness fell on Valinor, although the light of the Sun and Moon was taken from them before they finally died" ^{[8, p. 219]}.

In the context of Tolkien's work, a tree is an image that foundations the cultural tradition of Europe as a whole.

George Martin interprets the mythopoetic image of a tree in a similar way. His weirwood from The Song of Ice and Fire is a tree with a human face carved on the trunk; its juice is the color of blood:

"The bark of the tree was white with weathered bone, the dark scarlet leaves seemed like a thousand palms stained in blood. A face, long and thoughtful, was carved on the thick trunk; the eyes, deeply sunk into the bark, swam with frozen juice and seemed strangely attentive" ^{[10, p. 27]}.

According to legend, it was through him that the gods observed the world of people. Wildlife is the basis of the life and outlook of the Northerners. In ancient times, there was a tradition to break the godswood at each castle, thereby creating a place of worship for the old gods. According to Martin's plan, Westeros is the northern land of courageous and noble people. It is there that this ancient custom has been preserved to this day. The North is a place where a close connection with nature has not been lost: the Stark children grow up with the direwolves, the wild forest surrounding the castle is a favorite place for their games. Wildlife is what shapes Northerners. The new faith of the seven gods that has come into their world is planted by insidious Southerners who have cut down most of the godswoods. The rapid disappearance of the weirwood trees in the novel symbolizes the impoverishment and depersonalization of the world.

The reader also finds a synonymous image of a tree in the works of Roger Zelazny. In the Chronicles of Amber, it is the Igg Tree (an allusion to the already mentioned Germano-Scandinavian ash Yggdrasil), planted by Oberon and serving as a sentry on the border of Amber and the Courts of Chaos:

"– I'm not an ordinary tree. He [Oberon] planted me here to mark the border. – What abroad? – I am the frontier of Chaos and Order: depending on which side you look at me from. I mark the barrier. Other laws rule on the other side" ^{[11, p. 113]}.

The familiar abbreviation of his name reveals the author's obvious irony, which gives the reader the right to assume that there is a rhizomatic (as opposed to tree–centric) scheme of the world order in the novel ^[12] - this is confirmed by the further development of the narrative. On a superficial reading, it seems as if the world of Amber is built in accordance with binary logic, which, according to Deleuze and Guattari, is "the spiritual reality of the tree-root" ^{[13, p. 9]}. Amber represents the world order, opposing the Courts of Chaos. The Princes of Amber get the opportunity to control the fabric of the Universe and create their own worlds after passing through an Image – maze that repeats the structure of the fabric of being. In turn, the Chaosians gain the ability to create magic only after taming the Logrus, which resembles a snake in shape and does not have a clear and stable structure, which is characteristic of every Chaos object:

"They, those who live in the Domain of Chaos, have a similar place, they call it the Logrus – it's such a chaotic maze. Constantly changing. Very dangerous. He is even able to disrupt the balance of consciousness for a while. To be there is little joy" ^{[14, p. 658]}.

Zelazny admitted that it was the concept of the Tree of Life, namely the Sefirot of Kabbalah, that underlies the Image he created in the novel. In the Hebrew mystical teaching, this concept is characterized as ten divine emanations, collectively forming the Tree of the Sefirot, otherwise the Tree of Life is a dynamic unity embodying God. Just as in Kabbalah, the consistent overcoming of all the steps of the Tree of Life symbolizes the path of knowledge and self–improvement, overcoming the Veils in the "Chronicles of Amber" – places of the strongest resistance that require significant physical costs, but instead endow with wisdom and strength - is the essence of the most important test, i.e. passing through the Image. In Zelazny's novel, there is also an image of the forest (Arden), referring to the works of Shakespeare and serving to create a sense of inviolability and order – the ancestor of the Yantarites (creators of the world) Unicorn lives in it.

Another mythopoetic image closely related to the image of a tree, significant for world culture, is the image of a bird (raven). The key symbolic meanings attached to it are danger, cunning, cunning, theft and, finally, death. The latter is most vividly revealed in ancient and earlier Egyptian and Babylonian myths, as well as in the myths of northwestern America and Oceania, where there is a legend about a bird that takes the soul of the deceased to the afterlife - the soul driver Ielh and the sacred Ibis Toth.

It is the raven that accompanies in ancient mythology those heroes and gods who are associated with the underworld, war, agriculture, as well as the sky and the sun: Athena, whose helmet resembles a crow's head, Apollo, being his messenger, bringing water, and, finally, Kronos himself. In the mythology of the Germano-Scandinavian tribes, the ravens Hugin and Munin are Odin's companions and are associated with war and the kingdom of the dead. In The Elder Edda, a flock of ravens accompanying Odin's army prophesies an early victory in the battle with the enemy. In the folklore of the ancient Slavs, the raven, on the contrary, marks a failure in battle ^{[15, p. 135]}. 

The traditional attitude to the raven as a bird symbolizing the messenger of evil forces, which later became traditional, has its roots in the Old Testament legend about the Flood and the associated division of all living beings into pure and unclean. The raven is the bearer of vice and bad news – the black bird is depicted on the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, from the branches of which Eve plucks the forbidden fruit. The raven appears as a symbol of the dark power that corrupts the human soul, and is also associated with loneliness – for this reason, its image can often be found on the emblems of various saints (for example, the prophet Elijah and the hermits Anthony and Paul, to whom the raven brought bread and meat). Later, in the Middle Ages, a black–feathered bird with a white head – a symbol of the stage of clarification of matter before its transformation into a philosopher's stone - was depicted next to a tombstone or skull.

The raven, along with the coyote, according to Levi-Strauss, has a dual nature, being a "mediator" between earth and heaven, the world of the living and the dead, water and land, wisdom and stupidity ^[16]. He can present himself as both a demiurge and a trickster at the same time. Thus, in Slavic mythology, the raven is often represented as wise, endowed with the gift of human speech and able to predict, it is often described as a prophetic bird ^{[3, p. 123]}.

One of the most notable examples of the appeal of science fiction writers to the image of a black-winged creature are the previously mentioned "Amber Chronicles", in particular the first five parts of the novel, known as the Corwin cycle. Raven acts as one of the key images of the book associated with the main character – Crown Prince Corwin. The name itself is saying: Corvinus from corvinus, i.e. having the properties of a raven. Corwin's colors – gray and black – resemble bird plumage. On the hero's map, among other attributes, a black bird is depicted. Corwin is closely related to her, both in the Celtic and Scandinavian interpretation of this image. Like the Celtic goddesses of war and fertility, Morrigan, Nemain and Badb, who have the "blessed raven" as their attribute and are able to take his form, Corwin begins the struggle for the throne. Like the character of Irish myths Bran, whose name translates from Irish as "raven", yantarit is a heroic personality, the only person capable of resisting the impending chaos. Corwin's journey to the Courts of Chaos correlates to a certain extent with Bran's journey to the otherworld.

The image of Corwin turns out to be connected with one of the most influential gods of the Danu tribe – Lugom, who has two magic crows in his service: in the last part of the first cycle of the Chronicles, Corwin, struggling with the entropy of his universe, resorts to the help of red and black ravens. The latter, named Hughie, plays a special role in the Corwin cycle. His name refers the reader to Odin's Scandinavian companion Hugin, whose name translates from Old Norse as "the thinker". Corwin meets a bird on the border of Chaos and Order – after making sure that "the prince" is in front of him ^{[11, p. 114]}, Hugi declares his intention to become his companion:

"You don't mind being accompanied by a bird that is a bad omen, do you, Corwin?" ^{[11, p. 114]}.

Hughie turns out to be the most suitable traveling companion for Corwin. Raven's words are the fears and doubts of Corwin himself, so Hughie is not so much a companion as an alter ego of the hero. In the Chronicles, it is the dispute that arose between Corwin and Hughie that leads the former to a fateful decision to fight for the preservation of Amber, and eventually to victory over the all-destroying Chaos.

As for the red bird, its image was created by Zelazny in the last part of the Chronicles, in the episode in which Oberon sends Corwin to the Courts of Chaos, having previously created a bird the size of a raven from his blood. The purpose of this magical creature is to deliver to the Prince at the crucial moment the Talisman of the Law necessary to create a new Image – the very foundation on which the world of Amber rests. Unaware of his father's plan, Corwin obediently follows his instructions. In this regard, the image of the red bird can be correlated with the Phoenix, which appears in the city of the Sun every five centuries to burn itself in the rays of the Sun and come back to life again. So Corwin, having spent many years away from his native world, having lost the memory of the past, by the will of fate returns home again, in order to save the dying universe at the cost of his own life.

The connection of the central character of the Chronicles with the image of the raven also indicates Zelazny's allusion to the Arthurian cycle. According to one of the legends about King Arthur, after his death he turned into a raven that will forever fly over England, protecting its borders. And like the Tower six crows, Corwin, like Arthur, is the defender of his kingdom, and as long as he lives, his world will not be destroyed.

Another significant mythopoetic image, widely demanded by fantastic literature, is the image of the serpent, which goes back to the "beast of the earth" from Ethiopian mythology and to the "son of the earth" from Egyptian. Later, these images were transformed into the "world serpent" Shesha in ancient India, on which the earth rests, and Mehenta in Egypt, whose name literally means "surrounding the earth". The images of the World Tree and the serpent in many cosmogonic myths of Eurasia and America turn out to be identical. So in Eastern Bolivia there is a myth about how the serpent separated heaven from earth; among the Aztecs, the sky and the earth were created by Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, taking the form of a snake and defeating the monster. In the Old Testament, the serpent becomes the tempter, while in the tradition about Moses, this image acquires the features of the savior: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life" (John. 3: 14–15). In the Kabbalistic interpretation, the images of the World Tree and the serpent are intertwined: "the descending movement along the Sephiroth tree is depicted as a symbol of lightning, each bend of which corresponds to the next stage of evolution; reaching the earth, it generates upward movement: from the top of the tree, which now becomes its root, a snake rises to its source" ^{[17, p. 79]}. In the Germano-Scandinavian myths, the serpent Ermungand, which lives in the world ocean and surrounds the earth, is also the embodiment of evil. Such duality can be found in various mythological systems: among the ancient Jews (the serpent is the tempter, the one who is more cunning than all the beasts of the field), the Egyptians (Uraeus) and the Greeks (the Lernaean hydra, snakes on the head of the gorgon Medusa).

The transition from a positive perception of the serpent image in early cosmogonic myths to a negative one in later mythological systems is explained by the connection of the serpent with the lower world. Later, a winged serpent becomes his personification. The dragon combines two worlds reflected in the image of the World Tree: the upper one, where birds live, and the lower one, the habitat of snakes, mice and frogs. In the Chinese mythological system, one of the most significant images is the azure dragon – a symbol of wisdom, kindness, a defender of the hearth. He is often depicted holding a pearl in his paw, which means the unity of matter and spirit.

The dragon's image is associated with the motive of the hero's search for treasures guarded by a fire-breathing monster. Thus, one Slavic legend tells about three snake palaces (copper, silver and gold), in a German fairy tale – about three forests surrounding three palaces – the domain of dragons, etc. ^{[15, pp. 135-136]}. The motive of the search, in turn, is connected with the motive of killing a dragon by a hero, which originates in an ancient rite, which consisted in sacrificing girls to the spirit of the waters in gratitude for a good harvest.

In ancient Egypt, the main winner of snakes was Ra. According to legend, every day the sun god had to overcome the serpent Apop, whom he met on his way; the text describing the struggle of god with the serpent from the "Book of the Overthrow of Apop" was put into the hands of the deceased and had to protect him in the afterlife. Another iconic snake wrestler is George the Victorious, whose legends tell about how he overcame the chthonic monster, saving the girl from death. In the Middle Ages, the image of the Mother of God trampling a snake, a symbol of evil, was widespread. Propp notes that the snake-fighting motif, as a distinctive feature of statehood, is represented in many ancient state religions ^[18].

Illustrative examples of the appeal of the authors of fantastic literature to the mythopoetic image of the serpent are found in Tolkien's work. So, his Smaug the Magnificent, the Great White Dragon of the Moon, Glaurung the Golden are symbols of evil. Possessing cunning and magical properties, they are both full of greatness and meanness. At the same time, in the fairy tale "Farmer Giles of Ham" Tolkien creates a slightly different image – the dragon Chrysophylax Dives, belonging to an ancient royal family, but submissively surrendering to the mercy of the farmer:

"...Chrysophylax Is Magnificent. His name was so because he came from an ancient and noble family and was very rich. Chrysophylax was cunning, sneaky, greedy and possessed excellent armor. True, this dragon was not particularly brave, but, in any case, he was not afraid of flies or other insects at all..." ^{[19, p. 176]}.

The reader finds a similar image in Zelazny's story "There are Dragons Here", created jointly with illustrator Vaughn Bode. The very name of the story refers to the Latin phrase “Hic sunt dracones” – a paraphrase of “Hic sunt leones”, which was used on medieval maps to sign lands on the edge of the ecumene. In an uncharacteristic fairy-tale narrative for his work, the American science fiction writer draws the image of a dragon as a bearer of wisdom significantly superior to human. Despite the fact that originally the Dragon King, Belkis (from Greek. "bel" – "master, master") appears in an unexpected form for the dragon (a tiny lizard named Bell), in the end, he regains his traditional appearance – a majestic mythical creature that inspires terror and fear. The process of such transformation is described as follows by Zelazny:

"It continued to grow until it filled half of the huge hall. He opened his mouth and roared. Flames burst out of the palace windows and lit up the courtyard. The tapestries are charred. The women screamed and backed up against the walls. Seven knights fainted, and the captain of the Royal Guard hid behind the throne" ^{[20, p. 38]}.

The analysis of various texts of English-language fiction literature allows us to find numerous examples of the authors' appeal to traditional mythopoetic images of world culture, performing various functions and amenable to multiple interpretations. In some cases, a classic set of their symbolic meanings is "embedded" in the text of a modern work; sometimes science fiction writers, starting from the original interpretations, offer new interpretations, thereby expanding the boundaries of interpretation of the symbolic content of the oldest images.