What was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1939 lecture about fantasy and fairy tales?
Answer
On Fairy-Stories
On Fairy-Stories was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1939 lecture about fantasy and fairy tales. He delivered it as the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
The lecture was later revised and published in essay form. Tolkien discusses what fairy stories are, where they come from, and what they can do for readers. He argues that fairy stories are not merely childish entertainment and that their settings need not be restricted to stories about fairies.
The essay is especially important because it presents Tolkien’s ideas about fantasy, recovery, escape, and consolation. He also describes the “eucatastrophe,” a sudden turn from sorrow toward joy that he considered a defining feature of the best fairy-story endings.
On Fairy-Stories is often read alongside “The Monsters and the Critics,” Tolkien’s influential 1936 lecture on Beowulf. The two works address different subjects: one develops a theory of fantasy and fairy stories, while the other argues for a literary reading of the Old English poem.