What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1939 lecture on fantasy later published as?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1939 lecture on fantasy was later published as On Fairy-Stories.

Tolkien delivered the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews in Scotland in 1939. The essay examines what fairy stories are, who reads them, and what purposes they can serve. It later became one of Tolkien’s most influential statements about fantasy and imaginative literature.

On Fairy-Stories discusses ideas including recovery, escape, consolation, and the “eucatastrophe,” Tolkien’s term for a sudden joyful turn in a story. It also argues that fairy stories are not merely children’s literature and can offer serious artistic and emotional value.

The essay was first published in 1947 in Essays Presented to Charles Williams. It is sometimes confused with “The Monsters and the Critics,” another important Tolkien lecture, delivered in 1936 and focused on Beowulf. The two works are both scholarly essays but address different subjects.