Tree and Leaf is the Tolkien work containing “On Fairy-Stories” and “Leaf by Niggle.”
The volume was first published in 1964. It brought together Tolkien’s influential essay on fantasy with his allegorical-leaning short story about Niggle, a painter who struggles to complete a picture of a tree. The book also included Tolkien’s poem “Mythopoeia” in its original arrangement.
“On Fairy-Stories” developed ideas Tolkien had presented in his 1939 Andrew Lang lecture. In the essay, he discusses the nature and value of fairy stories, including concepts such as recovery, escape, and consolation. “Leaf by Niggle” is a much shorter imaginative work, but it is often read alongside the essay because both address creation and the role of imaginative art.
Tree and Leaf is not a Middle-earth narrative collection like Unfinished Tales. Its title comes from the imagery of the tree and leaf that Tolkien uses in discussing the relationship between a large imaginative world and its individual details.