What is the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay about the nature and purpose of fantasy?
Answer
On Fairy-Stories
J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay about the nature and purpose of fantasy is titled On Fairy-Stories.
Tolkien first delivered On Fairy-Stories as the Andrew Lang Lecture at the University of St Andrews in 1938. The essay was later revised and published in print. It examines what fairy-stories are, where they come from, and why they matter to readers, including adults.
The essay is known for Tolkien’s discussion of “sub-creation,” the making of internally consistent secondary worlds. It also identifies three important benefits of fairy-stories: Recovery, Escape, and Consolation. Tolkien connects these ideas to his own understanding of imaginative literature and myth.
On Fairy-Stories is sometimes confused with The Monsters and the Critics, another influential Tolkien lecture and essay. The latter focuses primarily on the study of Beowulf, while On Fairy-Stories addresses fantasy and fairy-tale tradition.