Please do read this short story first, if you have not already – the following article is merely an unjustified and unrequested attempt at an author’s commentary upon that work! This is a short creative work that I was inspired to write some months ago, by way of a prompt offered by an artist group I’m part of. The prompt itself was simply to explore ‘Faerie’ (and perhaps inspired this entire blog series!) and, from the first, I knew that I wanted to examine it through a slightly novel perspective. I love Bilbo. I have always loved Bilbo as a…
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In my first post of this year’s September Series, I described Tolkien’s Shire as being a land of people in need of ‘faeriefication.’ The hobbits of the Shire are deliberately blinded to the delights of their Faerie world, and they themselves suffer a deficiency of otherworldly wonder and joy as a consequence of their small-mindedness. This may all seem like rather an unkind take, and though I do stand by it, it is also well worth considering that the Shire is only an unFaerie realm on one level – the level of the Shire itself. For, while the Shire and…
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A safe fairy-land is untrue to all worlds. J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 17 to Stanley Unwin The concept of ‘Faerie’ in Tolkien’s writings and philosophy is as important as it is nebulous. It is a state of enchantment, of belief in some secondary reality as guided by a sub-creator – yet it is also that Secondary World itself, and the things that dwell therein. Yet if On Fairy Stories is to be believed, these Faerie tales of Faerie are themselves concerned chiefly with the adventures of men in Faerie – ie, these mortals are themselves less of Faerie than Faerie itself…
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Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold…. …The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. On Fairy Stories, J.R.R. Tolkien To the budding Tolkien scholar, doubtless one of the first concepts encountered is that of ‘faerie.’ It is, in Tolkien’s works, a nuanced, layered, and complex term, encapsulating and hinting at…
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Last year, for the month of September, I did a little blog miniseries, focusing on The Hobbit and some of its less-appreciated themes and aspects. And, since I really enjoyed writing those posts, and having a theme to work towards…I decided to do it again this year! So, over the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at three stories by Tolkien…stories which, actually, aren’t under-appreciated in the same way that The Hobbit is. But they’re also stories that a lot of Tolkien fans might not pay much attention to, or even know about…and that’s a great shame, because…
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