J.R.R. Tolkien used the term eucatastrophe for a sudden joyful turn in a story after apparent disaster.
Tolkien coined the word by combining the Greek prefix “eu-,” meaning good, with “catastrophe,” meaning a reversal or disastrous outcome. He discussed the concept in his 1947 essay “On Fairy-Stories,” where he described the eucatastrophic turn as the highest function of the fairy story.
For Tolkien, eucatastrophe was not merely a cheap happy ending. It was a sudden, credible movement from near-despair toward joy that could produce a powerful emotional response. He connected the idea to the Christian understanding of the Gospel, while also treating it as a broader feature of storytelling.
The term is sometimes confused with “deus ex machina,” but the concepts are not identical. A deus ex machina is an external solution that resolves a plot problem, whereas eucatastrophe describes the emotional and narrative reversal toward joy. Tolkien’s discussion of the term became influential in fantasy criticism.