Mythopoeia!
(It's pronounced - with a lisp - Miss Oh Pee A)
This amazing word came into being as a result of J.R.R. Tolkein's conversion conversation with C.S. Lewis.
During the course of that debate, Lewis claimed that myths were "lies breathed through silver," and Tolkein answered this insult with a poem.
I'm working my way slowly through this amazing piece of poetry.
The first little bit is copy/pasted below.
To one [C.S. Lewis] who said that myths were lies and therefore worthless, even though 'breathed through silver'.
Philomythus to Misomythus
You look at trees and label them just so,
(for trees are 'trees', and growing is 'to grow');
you walk the earth and tread with solemn pace
one of the many minor globes of Space:
a star's a star, some matter in a ball
compelled to courses mathematical
amid the regimented, cold, inane,
where destined atoms are each moment slain.
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