Today is J.R.R. Tolkien’s 117th birthday. Since the theme here has been fairy tales lately, here are a couple of Tolkien quotes that get to the heart of it.
On Myth:
“History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.” ~ “On Fairy-Stories”
On Eucatastrophe:
Endings of this sort suit fairy-stories, because such tales have a greater sense and grasp of the endlessness of the World of Story than most modern “realistic” stories…. In its fairy-tale-or other world setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. ~ “On Fairy-Stories”
Samwise Gamgee on being in stories:
What a tale we have been in, Mr. Frodo, haven’t we? I wish I could hear it told! Do you think they’ll say: Now comes the story of the Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom? And then everyone will hush, like we did, when in Rivendell they told us the tale of Beren One-Hand and the Great Jewel. I wish I could hear it! And I wonder how it will go on after our part. ~ Samwise Gamgee, The Return of the King
diva_alix on 
Arabella Figg on 
Ally on 
Travis Prinzi on 
Gifty on 
Robin on 
Loading ...
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy Birthday, Tolkien!
This part of the quote above sums it up quite well: “it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”
And does this not bear witness to the ultimate Eucatrastrophe, the God-man hanging dead on the cross?
Connecting this also to The Simarillion, it’s not a book I read often, because it seems on the surface to be a book filled with utter defeat & poignant loss & yet full of an inexpressible joy & longing, of a victory that is a reality but hidden deeply under the overlying story of the elves’ losing battle against Morgoth. I have a hard time putting it into words.
I’d forgotten about that wonderful quote from Sam. I just checked for when it comes in the narrative, and found what comes after it:
But even while he spoke so, to keep fear away until the very last, his eyes still strayed to the north, north into the eye of the wind, to where the sky far off was clear, as the cold blast, rising to a gale, drove back the darkness and the ruin of the clouds.
So there they are, on a slowly vanishing patch of rock surrounded by rivers of fire. And Sam stops to take stock of their probable place in myth and history. Gives their tale a good name too. Self-aware, but in a fashion totally resonant with the tone of the epic story he has a supporting role in. All the while trying to see if help is on the way so their part in the story won’t end then and there.
I love Sam. Love Tolkien too, for giving us Sam and his perspective, to keep things human and real amongst the pantheon of stern warriors and immortal elves.
@revgeorge, That’s precisely what I love about The Silmarillion, the “utter defeat & poignant loss” in the midst of “inexpressible joy & longing”. Real life rarely has moments of what I like to call “irrevocable loss” — at least, we often don’t know enough about the situation to know that a loss is irrevocable — in the way that mythic narratives can. The most powerful example to me in The Silmarillion is the burning of the ships at Losgar; once the ships are burned, you know beyond any doubt that there is no going back. Ted Nasmith has three paintings in the 2004 illustrated version of The Silmarillion that reflects this nicely (the middle painting is my favorite by Nasmith and I think really captures the essence of The Silmarillion).
Teleri Ships Drawn by Swans
The Kinslaying at Alqualondë
The Burning of the Ships
Death is one of the few times in this life that we experience what we know to be irrevocable loss, and I think that’s why many of the great stories are about death. Some believe in a life after death (the greatest eucatastrophe after a seemingly irrevocable loss), while others do not — but I think it’s undenaible importance to human art is related to its (at least seeming) irrevocable-ness.
Randy,
Thank you for putting it a bit more clearly than I did. Sometimes I think there are feelings we have, those feelings of inexpressible joy & longing, that are hard to put into words. And it is by having those feelings that I can definitely connect to what both Tolkien & Lewis say about such a feeling. And does not Rowling paraphrase Tolkien in saying that all the good stories are about death?
The burning of the ships at Losgar is also poignant because it is the sign to Fingolfin that he & his host have been betrayed & abandoned by Feanor & left to make the bitter crossing of the ice. One gets the sense in reading of Feanor that he is almost, if not as much, a great a villain as Morgoth is.