90 Nietzscheeven if it amounted to nothing more than a delusion. Ideally, reason and
imagination should go hand in hand to create a new synthesis of mean-
ing. The authors of this essay called their project "mythology of rea-
son." The early Romantics conjectured that it would grow out of a
collaborative effort of poets, philosophers, musicians, and painters and
take the place of established religions, which had lost their vigor. This
"mythology of reason" was to be fashioned "from the most profound
depths of the mind... like a new creation straight from the void"
(Schlegel 301).
The second motive for the quest for new myths stemmed from a trau-
matic experience of social upheaval in the early nineteenth century. Late
feudal society was collapsing, and there was a sense of the painful loss
of an overarching idea of social life. Mindless egoism and economic util-
itarianism dominated the field; a new mythology could carry out the task
of "uniting people in a common view" (Frank 12).
The Romantics imagined that the experiment with new myths would
provide a foundation, orientation, and set of bounds for reason and
bring about social unity. They were convinced that myths of this sort
could be created with great artistry, even if serviceable traditions were
wanting. From tradition, they had learned that people cannot manage
without myths. The spirit of their era, which held that all things are pos-
sible, infused them with the confidence to imagine themselves capable
of crafting myths of this kind. And yet they were unable to move
beyond the initial stages and soon had recourse to tradition. The Grimm
brothers collected fairy tales and compiled materials for a Deutsche
Mythologte (German Mythology, 1835). Qemens Brentano and Achim
von Arnim edited an anthology of folk songs called Des Knaben
Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn, 1805-8), and Hölderlin conjured up
the heaven of the Greek gods. Nietzsche admired the boldness of a ven-
ture to establish a new mythology. It was Wagner, half a century after the
early German Romantics, who was equal to the task of carrying out this
venture. His plan took shape at the barricades of the Revolution of 1848
in Germany.