A Review of “On Fairy Stories”

“The human mind is capable of forming mental images of things not actually present. The faculty of conceiving the images is (or was) naturally called Imagination.” ~JRR Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”

With strongly stated opinions and a wealth of insight, Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy Stories” addresses the benefits of fantasy and imaginative thinking. To the Tolkien fan, it also reveals much about the author himself, his ideals, and the way “fairy stories” must have inspired him to write The Lord of the Rings. Within the essay he addresses a variety of subjects, asking such questions as, “What are fairy stories?”, “What is their origin?”, or “What is the use of them?”

A major theme Tolkien emphasizes in “On Fairy Stories” is that art itself is an essential building block of true Fantasy. Without it, a fairy story lacks the beauty and imagination it was meant to have in the first place. Tolkien mourned the fact that so many fairy stories are adapted for children, or brought down in value from other forms of literature. “First of all: if written with art, the prime value of fairy stories will simply be that value which, as literature, they share with other literary forms.” He also talks about the different types of stories that have often been called “fairy”, making it clear which ones he considers “true” fairy stories and why.

A better title for Tolkien’s essay might have been “In Defense of Fairy-Stories”. He recommends reading fantasy not only for enjoyment, but for “Recovery and Consolation”. In fact, he calls this aspect of fantasy a way of “regaining a clear view” and “seeing things as we are (or were) meant to see them”. Fairy-stories mirror our own world in such a way that reveals it to us in a whole new light; the “natural” things found in Fantasy can help us, by their very enchantment, to gain a clearer view of the world we live in. As C.S. Lewis once stated, “He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.”

“On Fairy Stories” ends on a very joyful note. Using his own word “eucatastrophe” to describe the “good catastrophe, (or) the sudden joyous ‘turn’”, Tolkien explains the importance of the happy ending. The true mark of a fairy story, he claims, is this Joy that comes of the eucatastrophe.

Reading “On Fairy Stories” helped me to understand what fairy-stories (and Fantasy in general, for that matter) really are. I often wondered why Fantasy appeals so much to people who have a taste for it. Why do we find The Lord of the Rings so fascinating? Imagination is certainly the key, but does it go deeper than that? Tolkien says yes, “the magic of Faërie is not an end in itself, its virtue is in its operations: among these are the satisfaction of certain primordial human desires.” The full extent of the essay, however, can only be discovered by the reader. Through sharing his insight in “On Fairy Stories”, Tolkien helped to spread the gifts of Imagination, Art, and Fantasy to future generations.

by Fealome