Which essay by J.R.R. Tolkien discusses the meaning and value of fantasy and fairy-stories?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s essay discussing the meaning and value of fantasy and fairy-stories is “On Fairy-Stories.”

Tolkien developed the essay from a lecture delivered at the University of St Andrews in 1938. It was published in expanded form in 1947 and became one of his most influential statements about imaginative literature. The essay examines what fairy-stories are, why people create and read them, and how they can offer escape, recovery, and consolation.

Tolkien also introduces the term “eucatastrophe” for the sudden, joyful turn at the end of a story. He connected this idea with the emotional power of a good fairy-story, while distinguishing it from simplistic happy endings.

The essay is often read alongside Tolkien’s fiction because it helps explain his defense of fantasy as serious literature. It is separate from “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” his famous academic lecture about the Old English poem.