“I said the sense “stories about fairies” was too narrow. It is too narrow, even if we reject the diminutive size, for fairy-stories are not in normal English usage stories about fairies or elves, but stories about Fairy, that is Faerie, the realm or state in which fairies have their being. Faerie contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons: it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fantasy Stories
Tolkien’s Concept of Enchantment
- Fantasy is not an escape from reality—it is a way of seeing reality more clearly.
- The goal of fantasy is to reawaken the sense of wonder—to restore the enchanted perception of the world.
- He rejected the idea that fantasy should be dismissed as mere fiction; rather, he saw it as a sacred act of sub-creation.
B. Fairy Tales as the Real World Without the Disenchanted Human
- Tolkien suggested that the world of Faërie is not a separate realm, but this world seen with unclouded vision.
- Myth is not a fictional escape but a return to the original enchantment of existence.