What was the title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1939 lecture about the nature and purpose of fantasy?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1939 lecture about the nature and purpose of fantasy was titled “On Fairy-Stories.”

Tolkien delivered “On Fairy-Stories” as the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews in 1939. The essay was later revised and published in print, becoming one of his most important statements about fantasy literature and the role of the fairy-story.

In the essay, Tolkien describes fantasy as involving the creation of a “secondary world” and argues that fairy-stories can provide recovery, escape and consolation. He also discusses the “eucatastrophe,” his term for a sudden turn toward joy or deliverance at the end of a story. These ideas help explain the emotional and moral structure of much of his fiction.

The title is sometimes confused with “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” another major Tolkien lecture. That earlier work focused on a specific Old English poem, while “On Fairy-Stories” addresses the broader theory and value of imaginative literature.