Tag: The Shire

And That Means Comfort – On the Shire as anti-Faerie

Everard Proudfoot from Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring, sweeping and shaking head

And That Means Comfort – On the Shire as anti-Faerie

Published September 6, 2024 by Alexander

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…