🕮 Tolkien On Fairy-Stories and Why We Love Fiction
Fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation
Mae govannen, friends! Josh here. This week’s newsletter is a guest piece from
, who previously wrote on Tolkien’s Special Soup Recipe and Sub-creation for Jokien with Tolkien. Be sure to check out her podcast 11ses, her Substack , and her Instagram as well.In today’s piece, Keela discusses Tolkien’s analysis of why we as readers are drawn to Fiction—chiefly fantasy—from his seminal essay, “On Fairy-stories.” Enjoy!
Tolkien On Fairy-Stories and Why We Love Fiction
Fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation
by
Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why you have such a deep interest in a fictional world called Middle-earth, so much so that you follow and read blogs and newsletters exploring every nook and cranny of it? Don’t worry, the creator of Middle-earth knew what he was doing and also how it might have a positive effect on his readers. In his essay “On Fairy-stories,” Tolkien argues that there is value in this type of fiction because it typically includes the concepts of fantasy, recovery, escape and consolation.
Fantasy
Tolkien begins by describing “fantasy” and how he connects it to imagination and art. Ultimately, he says that creating something in your mind that does not exist in this primary world is an act of sub-creation, which I wrote about extensively in my last guest blog post. He claims that sub-creating requires special skills, labor, and thought, “But when they are attempted and in any degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: indeed narrative art, story-making in its primary and most potent mode.”1 When we enter into a secondary world, either by reading or watching a fantastic book or movie, we are enjoying a special kind of creation inspired by the Creator Himself.
Tolkien goes on to say that “Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker.”2 The first thing we learn in Genesis 1:1 is that God is a creative God, and 25 verses later we learn humans are made in His image. This makes us prone to creativity as well. No wonder we are drawn to fantastic worlds that exist outside reality.
Recovery
After discussing fantasy, Tolkien then moves on to “recovery,” which he describes as a “return and renewal of health… regaining of a clear view.”3 Tolkien argues that experiencing something new is healthy for your mind. “Creative fantasy, because it is mainly trying to do something else (make something new), may open your hoard and let all the locked things fly away like cage-birds.”4 He describes this as a kind of mental release, which I’m sure we can all relate to when we settle in with our comfort book or movie. We are allowed to let go of the troubles of reality and have an adventure in a secondary world.
Escape
Which brings us to “escape,” which Tolkien says is “very practical, and may even be heroic.”5 He uses a metaphor of a man in prison, saying if the man is unable to get out and go home, should he be scorned if he lets his mind wander to things outside of the prison walls? Just as imagining an escape doesn’t change his reality, the world outside the prison doesn’t cease to exist because he can’t see it. Not to fandom hop, but this reminds me of a Dumbledore quote, “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry. Why should that mean it’s not real?” (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).
Tolkien continues by saying that fiction allows us to visit places we may never see in real life and experience things we could never do. Even if we aren’t talking about high fantasy sub-creation, reading about the depths of the ocean or the Renaissance period allow us to explore this primary world in a way our reality won’t let us. Tolkien concludes this section by saying we as humans ultimately long to escape death and fiction often provides examples of this, both through immortal beings like elves and through the everlasting characteristic of stories.
As an English major, I’ve had to write my fair share of literary essays, and I always found it poetic that you are to use present tense when discussing a fictional character or scene. Because at any moment, somewhere in the world, someone is reading that book and those characters are alive and well and present. This deathlessness is appealing to us because we long for a better world with no sorrow or pain.
Consolation
Finally, we love fiction because it often comes with a “consolation” of the happy ending. Tolkien uses a term “eucatastrophe” to describe the sudden joyous turn in a story that leads to this happily ever after. We don’t want stories without conflict or for the stories to be so far from reality that the fiction isn’t relatable, but we do want hope. We want there to be peace and victory at the end of the journey. We want Frodo to destroy the ring. We want Harry to defeat Voldemort. We want the girl and the guy to fall in love. “In such stories when the sudden “turn” comes we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart's desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through.”6
Echoes of a Deeper Magic
I personally believe that we long for fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation not just in fiction, but in reality as well. We build up so much anger and anxiety in this fallen world that we long for something else, something new, something better. We tend to go to fiction because it shows us a glimpse of health, hope, and happiness. Finally, all of these stories point us to Jesus, our ultimate source of the fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation that we really long for when we don’t experience them in this reality. So we enjoy our books and movies and tv shows, yes, but we remember that our true comfort and satisfaction can only come from Him.
To Discuss:
Do you find Tolkien’s analysis of Fairy-stories compelling? Insightful? Missing somthing?
What are some examples of Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, and Consolation that you can think of from Tolkien’s works? What about other fiction?
There and Back Again
Wherein I share highlights from previous years of Jokien with Tolkien
Hey there! Josh here again. This week last year I shared my Tolkien Treasures of the month and answered some reader questions. I was pleased and found it very fitting that the first item I shared in that email was my appearance on Keela’s podcast, 11ses! There was also news about Andy Serkis’ recording of the The Silmarillion, an article on LOTR and AI, and more!
Check it out here:
Appendices
It’s on the border whether or not it’s spoilers or not since the official Rings of Power accounts shared the info publicly, but consider this your spoiler warning if you’re trying to go into ROP season 2 with as few details as possible. Yesterday it was announced that Tom Bombadil will be in the second season of The Rings of Power and be portrayed by Rory Kinnear! Color me intrigued. From the Vanity Fair article, it seems like the showrunners have found a way to work him into the overall narrative that has a purpose and also does not change him all that much from the jolly, delightful, and strange figure from The Lord of the Rings.
Special shout-out and thank you to Mekky, who upgraded to a paid subscription to the Jokien with Tolkien: Extended Edition this week! This edition of Jokien with Tolkien is free to read but cost time and effort to create, so if you’d like to support me and all the guest writers of Jokien with Tolkien, consider a paid subscription here on Substack, Patreon, or throwing some change in the tip jar.
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“On Fairy-stories”
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Per your prompts, I find “On Fairy-Stories” entirely refreshing, especially (akin to your English-major point) since I elected to be trained in the academy, which meant that my currency was deconstructing and tearing things apart with little emphasis on building anything. Analysis without synthesis. Tolkien’s discussion of the aspects and necessity of story, I’m discovering, informs so many of the writers I love of late. Martin Shaw and Pádraig Ó Tuama both reference Tolkien’s fiction and scholarship, and every time I find it in their memoirs and essays, it’s like being admitted to a secret club I didn’t realize I had been waiting to be allowed to join my entire life.
If I’m going to restrain myself for your second question, I’ll toss out the idea that Frodo’s (spiritual) death and subsequent (physical) recovery at the Field of Cormallen—especially under the gentle care and healing hands of the king—is the eucatastrophe I will be been waiting my entire life to experience for myself. Maybe I already have in many ways and in many places in my biography.
“I remember damage. Then escape. Then adrift in a strangers galaxy for a long time. But l'm safe now; I found it again. My home.” (from Station Eleven)
That bit about writing analysis in the present tense always threw me. I love how you talk about it here, though; it is comforting to think of the individualities we murder to dissect in literary analysis revivifying and carrying on like our petty words didn’t even touch them.