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"On Fairy-Stories" is a 1947 essay by J. R. R. Tolkien which discusses the fairy story as a literary form. It was written as a lecture entitled "Fairy Stories" for the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, on 8 March 1939.
This category is for essays, lectures, studies, letters and other short works of non-fiction by J. R. R. Tolkien. Pages in category "Essays by J. R. R. Tolkien" The following 13 pages are in this category, out of 13 total.
"On Fairy-Stories", the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture at St Andrew's University, is a defence of the fantasy genre. "A Secret Vice" talks about creating imaginary languages, giving background to Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is a study of the medieval poem of the same name.
In his essay "On Fairy-Stories", Tolkien discusses the function of dreams in fantasy, stating that [7] [T 1] in dreams strange powers of the mind may be unlocked. In some of them a man may for a space wield the power of Faërie, that power which, even as it conceives the story, causes it to take living form and colour before the eyes.
This essay discusses the fairy-story as a literary form. It was initially written as the 1939 Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Tolkien focuses on Andrew Lang 's work as a folklorist and collector of fairy tales.
Tom Shippey notes that Tolkien made equivocal statements about fantasy, such as in his essay "On Fairy-Stories". Tolkien was similarly equivocal about the nature of evil, as seen through the One Ring, created by the Dark Lord Sauron to dominate the whole of Middle-earth; it behaves both as an inanimate object, and as a thing with constantly ...
Each story has its feet firmly planted in the real world, but serves as an epicenter for swirling fantasies. In one story, "The Lizzie Borden Jazz Babies," Sparks makes use of a tragic plot point that sets off many classic fairy tales – the untimely death of a protagonist's parent – and applies it to the father instead of the mother.
In his 1936 essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien wrote that "However good in themselves, illustrations do little good to fairy-stories." [4] [T 2] He argued that by giving somewhat generic descriptions in words, the author leaves freedom for the reader's imagination.