Tolkien which discusses the fairy-story as a literary form. Excerpt: 'On Fairy-Stories' is an essay by J. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Tolkien, Sigelwara Land, a Secret Vice, Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics, the Devil's Coach Horses, Beowulf and the Critics, Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiohad, English and Welsh, the Name 'nodens'. More: http: ///?id=2272Ĭhapters: On Fairy-Stories, Finn and Hengest, the Letters of J. In particular, his stories together with those. Tolkien was among the pioneers of the genre that we would now call fantasy writing. Moreover, the essay is an early analysis of speculative fiction by one of the most important authors in the genre. The essay is significant because it contains Tolkien's explanation of his philosophy on fantasy and thoughts on mythopoiesis.

The length of the essay, as it appears in Tree and Leaf, is 60 pages, including about ten pages of notes. On Fairy-Stories was subsequently published with Leaf by Niggle in Tree and Leaf, as well as in The Tolkien Reader, published in 1966. However, Williams died suddenly on May 15, 1945, and the book was published as a memorial volume. The volume of essays was intended to be presented to Williams upon the return of the OUP staff to London with the ending of the war. This allowed him to participate in gatherings of The Inklings with Lewis and Tolkien. Charles Williams, a friend of Lewis's, had been relocated with the Oxford University Press staff from London to Oxford during the London blitz in World War II. It first appeared in print, with some enhancement, in 1947, in a festschrift volume, Essays Presented to Charles Williams, compiled by C. It was initially written for presentation by Tolkien as the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, in 1939.

Read full overviewĬhapters: On Fairy-Stories, Finn and Hengest, the Letters of J. Tolkien, Sigelwara Land, a Secret Vice, Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics, the Devil's Coach Horses, Beowulf and the Critics, Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiohad, English and Welsh. Chapters: On Fairy-Stories, Finn and Hengest, the Letters of J.

Finn and Hengest by J.R.R. Tolkien