Storybook Topic Research: Tolkien and the Greek Underworld

After research and consideration, I have decided to do my storybook on Tolkien's underworld. Tolkien very rarely mentions what happens to characters after they pass, especially men. There is an obvious afterlife as evidenced by Gandalf's journey into death before he comes back as Gandalf the White, the literal green and glowing ghost army, and more. That being said, we are unsure what the actual underworld is like. For my storybook project I will be researching the Greek Underworld and using it as inspiration for an underworld for Arda, the world Tolkien created. 

• Story 1: The Underworld
• The Greek underworld is wide and sprawling with several different sections that make up its geography. I think using a loose map of the Greek underworld will be extremely helpful in developing the Tolkien underworld. The six rivers that represent emotions are something that strike me as Tolkien-ish, and I think I will use them in my own creation story.  
• Story 2: Erebus
• Throughout The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books/movies, there is a darkness throughout Middle Earth that is not necessarily a person or being. I think a good counterpart to this is the Greek deity of Erebus. He is described as not a person but a place and state of being, although he does physically appear as a man. I think using him as inspiration to describe the darkness of Middle Earth will be very helpful. 
• Story 3: Thanatos
• One thing I believe it is critical to recognize about Tolkien's view of death is that it is not necessarily negative. Like Gandalf says when comforting Pippin in The Lord of the Rings, "Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."
• The thing I like about Thanatos, and something I will draw inspiration from when designing the Tolkien underworld, is that he is described as a gentle and non-violent god of death. His twin brother is Hypnos, the god of Sleep, which I think is very beautiful and a nice touch to add to the storybook. The story linked is a good depiction of the god. 

A gravestone depicting Thanatos.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Topic Brainstorm Session

"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them." -J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

(Wikimedia Commons)

    

    The first topic I am interested in should come as no surprise to anyone if they have read the post of my favorite places for The Lord of the Rings, and the mythology in the legendarium of the Tolkien universe, is something that greatly intrigues me. When it comes to background knowledge on this topic, I have a general idea of the mythology surrounding the world that Tolkien created over his lifetime, but there is still a lot that I do not know. I think one could spend years studying his world and never truly know all the ins and outs of all the lore. There are some things that are considered pre or post canon, but I think narrowing it down to the canonical lore would be helpful. More specifically, I would love to examine the lore of what happened to the other Rings of Power from the time Sauron gained control over the One Ring to the time it was destroyed. Neither the Lord of the Rings books nor the films give any real indication into what happened to them, other than the division of them among the inhabitants of Middle Earth and that some of them lost power after the destruction of the One Ring. This is the topic I am leaning toward for my project, but it is still to be determined. This Wikipedia page seems like a promising resource in doing this project.

    The second topic I am potentially interested in is the stories surrounding women pirates. As far as background knowledge on this topic is concerned, I am severely lacking. I definitely do not have a grasp on really any of the stories surrounding famous female pirates, but they have always been intriguing to me. Stories of powerful women are always a good time, but powerful women pirates? Now that seems really fun. I would like to learn general knowledge of the famous female pirates, such as Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and Rachel Wall, who were all mentioned in the UnTextbook. Furthermore, I think it would be very interesting, and make for a cool project, to study the ways these women lead their ships that were different than their male counterparts. Perhaps studying three or four different women who crossed paths in their time might be interesting as well. This website seems like a good place to start researching.

    The third topic I could see myself doing a project over would be over the Greek Underworld. I tend to enjoy dark/spooky things in life, and the underworld has always intrigued me. All I really know about the underworld of Greek mythology is the major characters like Hades, Persephone, and Cerberus. I know a bit about how Persephone was taken to be with Hades and her story, but I do not know any of the lore about the way the underworld was formed, how it works, or any of the other rulers of it. I would like to gain knowledge on all the different rulers of the underworld and their roles in the way it works. Specifically, I think it would be interesting to write about a few of the goddesses, like Nyx, Styx, or Keres, and the ways they work together in the underworld. This Wikipedia page will be useful in researching this topic.

    The last topic I am interested in for the project is the tales of the Brothers Grimm. As I said, I like the dark/spooky things in life, and I think I have talked about my love for the origins of popular fairytales before, but I genuinely do enjoy the horrific or twisted endings to classics (I am not sure what that says about me as a person, but that's a thought for another time). One of my favorite shows I sued to watch was simply titled "Grimm" and was about the truth behind modern fairytales, so I have a decent background on this topic, but there are so many tales that I haven't read or watched. I think I would love to do a project on the ways we have taken the original text and made it so it is palatable for young audiences. Perhaps a Disney themed project would be cool. I would potentially examine a few common tales, like Cinderella, Rapunzel, or Sleeping Beauty, and work with the origins of them. Perhaps I could do something where I take stories written in the same time periods and weave them together, but that is to be determined. This Wikipedia page will be helpful for this topic.