Fantasy and Reality: J.R.R. Tolkien\u27s World and the Fairy-Story Essay

Examines how Tolkien applied a central concept of “On Fairy-stories,” the idea that fantasy must be firmly based in reality, to his writing of The Lord of the Rings

J. R. R. Tolkien and the Matter of Britain

Suggests that Tolkien’s legendarium is in some ways modeled on the Arthurian story and that he had the Matter of Britain in mind as he worked on his own stories

How Trees Behave-Or Do They?

Flieger takes as her departure point a passage on tree-spirits in one of the manuscripts for “On Fairy-stories,” and considers the development of Tolkien’s ideas about more-or-less enspirited trees throughout his oeuvre. Begins with the earliest appearance of Old Man Willow in the Tom Bombadil poems, progressing through his maturation as an idea in The Lord of the Rings. Pays special attention to Treebeard and the Huorns, and ends with the birch tree in Smith of Wootton Major

A Fearful Weapon

The changes to Tolkien\u27s cosmology introduced in Myths Transformed were not well received. Certainly their realism is a 180% turn for the man who declared unequivocally that Fantasy remains a human right (72). Have Tolkien\u27s revisions, radical as they are, been “a fearful weapon” against his own creation? And if they have, how has the perception of that creation changed since the publication of Morgoth\u27s Ring in 1993? Has Tolkien\u27s weapon destroyed his imaginary world

The Arch and the Keystone

The growing body of writing both by and about Tolkien insures that not only can we no longer read the unknown book I discovered in 1956, we can\u27t even all read the same book in 2019. We have too many opinions based on too much information from too many sources to come to a consensus. In spite of his fame, in spite of his position at the top of the heap, in spite of The Lord of the Ring\u27s established position as Waterstone\u27s Book of the Century, the world has and probably will continue to have trouble agreeing on who/what he is

The Language of Myth

Guest of Honor address, Mythcon 25. Discusses the uses of language among contemporary fantasists, both invented and native, and reminds us of the mythic underpinnings of our own everyday language

The Dragon and the Railway Station

The curious substitution of Bletchley Station for Paddington Station between two versions of “On Fairy-stories” may have a simple origin in Tolkien’s interest in code-breaking, but on investigation (as with most things Tolkien-related) goes deeper

Missing Person

Notes that while Arda has parallels to many events of the Judeo-Christian story—God, angels, Satan—it lacks a complete parallel to Christ. It has a number of saviors (Gandalf, Aragorn) but no Redeemer, though Frodo comes closest

A Question of Time

Uses the ambiguous nature of time’s passage in Lórien to discuss the nature of time and timelessness in Middle-earth. Uses Tolkien’s other writings to suggest the symbolic meaning of time in Middle-earth