How Tolkien's Concept of 'Eucatastrophe' Connects Easter With All Other Fairy-Stories
Joy Like Swords And The Greatest Eucatastrophe In History
Hello all and Happy Easter!
Here's a piece from the archives on how Tolkien's concept of 'eucatastrophe' connects Easter and all other fairy-stories.
Namárië, friends. He is risen!
How Tolkien’s Concept of ‘Eucatastrophe’ Connects Easter With All Other Fairy-Stories
Happy Easter! Today is the perfect time to discuss Tolkien’s concept of Eucatastrophe and how he saw Easter’s place in his understanding of fairy-stories.
According to Tolkien — who coined the term in his essay “On Fairy-Stories” — a ‘eucatastrophe’ is “the consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous ‘turn’ (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale)” (“On Fairy-Stories,” The Tolkien Reader, 86). This ‘good catastrophe’ gives “a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief” (Ibid.). Tolkien continues:
It is the mark of a good fairy-story…that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality.
So a eucatastrophe is the “joy of the happy ending” or “the sudden joyous ‘turn’” in a fairy-story. Tolkien’s own stories contain wonderful examples of this: Bilbo’s cry of “The Eagles! The Eagles! …The Eagles are coming!” during the Battle of Five Armies in The Hobbit, Gandalf arriving with reinforcements at Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers, the arrival and charge of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King, or the destruction of the Ring itself. Each of these moments are ones where, whether you are reading the books or watching the movies, you might experience that “catch of the breath” or “beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears” Tolkien describes.
While all successful fantasy hopefully draws upon and is grounded in reality in manifold ways, Tolkien considers this joy not just a drawing upon reality but a “glimpse of the underlying reality or truth” of the primary world (“On Fairy-Stories,” 88). For a moment the curtain is drawn back, and we experience something ultimate, something absolute and real. And what truth is Tolkien, a devout Catholic from boyhood, ultimately referring to? The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In the Epilogue to “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien goes into further detail and applies the concept of ‘eucatastrophe’ to our own history:
The birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. (88–89)
In a letter to his son Christopher, Tolkien expands on what he means about the resurrection being a eucatastrophe:
The Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love. Of course I do not mean that the Gospels tell what is only fairy-story; but I do mean very strongly that they do tell a fairy-story: the greatest.
—Letter 89
This weekend Christians all over the world will gather together to celebrate Easter and the “greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible”—the defeat of Death itself when all hope seemed lost. Where in a fairy-story the curtain is pulled back and truth breaks through for a moment as we glimpse the Joy beyond the walls of this world, Christians like Tolkien believe that in the gospel Truth himself has broken through from the far shores of eternity into time itself and torn the veil separating us. What greater Joy could there be than this? What greater ‘turn’ or happy ending?
At the conclusion of The Return of the King, the Host of the West is gathered together. To celebrate the victory over Sauron, a minstrel sings the song of “Frodo of the Nine Fingers and the Ring of Doom.” And his song produces a tearful joy like this among all who are gathered there:
And all the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.
This description of the effect that the story of Frodo produces in the Host of the West has several close parallels with Tolkien’s own beliefs as well as with details from the story of Easter that he would have known. The hearts of the men are pierced by the song until they overflow with Joy. The Gospel of John records that Jesus’ side was pierced by a spear and blood and water flowed out (John 19:34). Tolkien describes the tears of joy in this passage as “the very wine of blessedness.” Jesus likened his suffering to a cup that he did not want to drink — praying “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” in Luke 24:22 — and compared his blood to the wine of the new covenant (1 Corinthians 11:25).
And much like the story of the eucatastrophe of Frodo destroying the Ring produced “joy like swords” in the men of the Host of the West who gathered to hear it, the story of the eucatastrophe of Christ’s Resurrection produces in Christians a “Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.”
Ultimately, the Easter story is the deep inspiration for Tolkien’s own understanding of the concept of ‘eucatastrophe’ as well as the tales he told that reflected the patterns found in that story.
As Christians gather all over the world today like the victorious Host of the West, we gather to sing of and remember the story of One who was pierced so that we could be healed, One who for the joy set before him went to the cross and suffered death. One in whom Joy and Sorrow meet, who drank the cup of wrath so that we might taste the wine of blessedness, who died so that we might live. And this risen One offers us the chance to join him in this joy, if we will only accept him.
Happy Easter, friends. He is risen and that eucatastrophe is Good News for us all.
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Absolutely loved this, Josh. Tolkien’s stories have been a comfort for me throughout my life because of the concept of “eucatastrophe”. Thank you for writing this on a day I needed to read it.
He is risen! Happy Easter!