On Fairy-Stories

“Yet I suspect that this flower-and-butterfly minuteness was also a product of ‘rationalisation’, which transformed the glamour of Elf-land into mere finesse, and invisibility into a fragility that could hide in a cowslip or shrink behind a blade of grass. It seems to become fashionable soon after the great voyages had begun to make the world seem to narrow to hold both men and elves.”

Here Tolkien introduces an argument that he later picks up when he discusses Children and the Fairy-story: Adult readers infantilize ideas or stories they don’t want to read. For example, here, Tolkien claims that adult readers “shrank” the importance of fairy-stories because they did not fit into the narrow world men created.

“The definition of a fairy-story—what it is, or what it should be—does not, then, depend on any definition or historical account of elf or fairy, but upon the nature of Faerie: the Perilous Realm itself, and the air that blows in that country.”

This is the culmination of Tolkien’s first major point: Fairy-tales do not necessarily involve actual fairies or fairy creatures, but rather contain qualities inherent to Faeries such as mystery, fantasy, and the fulfillment of human desire. This is also an example of Tolkien’s use of imagery, where he uses the image of the “air that blows in that country” to describe the characteristics and qualities of the place called Faerie and the idea of Faerie.

“Of course, I do not deny, for I feel strongly, the fascination of the desire to unravel the intricately knotted and ramified history of the branches on the Tree of Tales. It is closely connected with the philologists’ study of the tangled skein of Language, of which I know some small pieces.”

Tolkien uses the metaphor of the “Tree of Tales” to describe the Relationship Between Myth, History, Folklore, and Fairy-story as one organism made of many parts. This quote also contains a second metaphor, “the tangled skein of language,” which he uses to illustrate how the history of language is complex, like a spool of yarn made of many strands. Tolkien deploys ethos by reminding his audience of his scholarly work as a philologist, building his credibility.

“Even fairy-stories as a whole have three faces: the Mystical towards the Supernatural; the Magical towards Nature; and the Mirror of scorn and pity towards Man. The essential face of Faerie is the middle on, the Magical. But the degree in which the others appear (if at all) is variable, and may be decided by the individual storyteller.”

Tolkien builds on The Value and Function of Fairy-story as a mature literary genre that accomplishes lofty goals through fantasy. The middle face, the Magical, is the core of the genre, but through that fantasy, truths about religion and the nature of humankind can be revealed.

“I think it would be nearer the truth to say that the Archbishop became attached to the banana skin, or that Bertha was turned into the Goosegirl. Better still: I would say that Charlamagne’s mother and the Archbishop were put into the Pot, in fact got into the Soup. They were just new bits added to the stock. A considerable honour, for in that soup were many things older, more potent, more beautiful, comic, or terrible than they were in themselves (considered simply as figures of history).”

Tolkien extends the metaphor of the Cauldron of Story by alluding to two instances where the fairy-story and the historical figure were so entangled in one another that no one knows which came first. His larger point is that rather than one producing the other, the story, the folklore, and the history were all at one point added to the Pot, along with many other ideas that are impossible to tease out from one another.

“Fairy-stories have in the modern lettered world been relegated to the ‘nursery’ as shabby or old-fashioned furniture is relegated to the playroom, primarily because the adults do not want it, and do not mind if it is misused.”

In the paragraph preceding this quote, Tolkien raised the question about whether or not there is any required connection between Children and the Fairy-story. This quote contains the first of his claims: Fairy-stories were discarded by adults and given to children to abuse or misuse, like old furniture. This is further developing his statement earlier in the essay that fairy-stories have been intentionally disrespected by adult readers.

“But at no time can I remember that the enjoyment of a story was dependent on belief that such things could happen, or had happened, in ‘real life’. Fairy-stories were plainly not primarily concerned with possibility, but with desirability. If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearable, they succeeded.”

This is a rebuttal to Andrew Lang’s argument that Fairy-stories are more suitable for children because children are more likely to believe the stories are true to real life. Here, Tolkien reflects on his own experience as a child to prove that the effectiveness of a fairy-story does not come from making a reader believe, but rather from creating literary belief in the reader through satisfied desire. This argument foreshadows Tolkien’s later discussion on Humans as Sub-creator.

“Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and clearer is the reason, the better fantasy it will make.”

Tolkien provides a rebuttal to the claim that Fantasy goes against reason, science, and objective truth; in order for Fantasy to be effective, it must have its own internal logic. This is part of his larger argument for Humans as Sub-creator because just as the Primary World acts according to certain laws, so must the Fantasy world act in line with its own logic, otherwise literary belief is broken.

“Fantasy can, of course, be carried to excess. It can be ill done. It can be put to evil uses. It may even delude the minds out of which it came. But of what human thing in this fallen world is that not true?”

Tolkien uses allusion and rhetorical question here to reiterate his argument for Humans as Sub-creator. The logic is laid out this way: If everything Man does is affected by the Fall (the separation between God and Man in the Garden of Eden), then Fantasy being at times misused is actually further proof that it must be man-made and just as his audience would not disown nature or their own families for being “fallen,” they cannot dismiss Fantasy for its flaws.

“Spring is, of course, not really less beautiful because we have seen or heard of other like events: like events, never from the world’s beginning or world’s end the same event. Each leaf, of oak and ash and thorn, is a unique embodiment of the pattern, and for some this very year may be the embodiment, the first ever seen and recognized, though oaks have put forth leaves for countless generations of men.”

Tolkien proposes that part of The High Value and Function of Fantasy is the stories’ ability to make the reader appreciate something familiar as something new. Tolkien opposes the assumption that because fairy-stories are unoriginal (i.e., scholars have found repetitions of the same stories across different cultural groups and times) that they are not effective. He argues instead that longevity proves their continued meaningfulness. Here he uses the images of Spring and various kinds of trees to illustrate that though the pattern may be the same, the result is new.

“Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it.”

Tolkien presents a rhetorical question to claim that desiring escape is not a fault of the reader, but rather a valuable function that literature—Fantasy—can provide. In this example, there are two functions of escape: first, a literal escape from circumstance, and the second is a figurative escape using language.

“A vivid sense of that separation is very ancient; but also a sense that it was a severance: a strange fate and a guilt lies on us. Other creatures are like other realms with which Man has broken off relations, and sees now only from the outside at a distance, being at war with them, or on the terms of an uneasy armistice.”

Tolkien claims that humanity’s desire to commune with other creatures and realms is a representation of the Fall (the separation of humankind from God and paradise). In this way, Fantasy, a genre concerned with desirability, can act as an allegory for the redemption of humankind.

“The consolations 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): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially ‘escapist,’ nor ‘fugitive’. In its fairy-tale—otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur.”

This is the culmination of Tolkien’s argument regarding The Value and Function of Fairy-story: Fantasy ascends beyond just literature or storytelling but is actually a way to reflect spiritual truth, which here Tolkien calls “grace.” In a Christian context, “grace” is the gift of God’s favor and forgiveness to humans who, as sinners, do not deserve it. Tolkien also expands on his term eucatastrophe—the happy ending—which he introduced in the previous paragraph, associating this with “grace” as an undeserved and unexpected salvation.