The Realm of Faerie

A very bright and very earnest young man asked me as a personal favor to write an article explaining J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous essay ‘On Fairy Stories’. It is a task I am honored to attempt, but inadequate.

The essay is seminal for understanding the role modern fantasy should fill but which it so often does not. It is also one of many examples of the general rule that Christians see things in their entirety, which the pagan worldview can only partially see, and to which atheists are blind.

Professor Tolkien in his opening tells us precisely what questions he means to answer in the essay: What are fairy-stories, what is their origin, what is their use? This last point is the true meat of the matter. Tolkien’s theory is that the use of fairy stories falls is Recovery, Escape, Consolation.

But he starts with a word of warning that the subject matter is itself elfin:

The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.