On Fairy-Stories

Tolkien draws heavily on the corpus of European Literature in order to support and exemplify his argument. The opening paragraphs make it explicit that this approach is key to his rhetorical strategy: “I will try to give answers to these questions […] primarily from the stories themselves” (109). Tolkien cites in detail at all stages of his argument. For example, he references Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Micheal Drayton’s Nymphidia, and Andrew Lang’s Lilac Fairy Book to demonstrate how more popular stories have created the notion that fantasy must involve fairies (111). He provides the earliest use of the word “faerie” from the poet Gower in Confessio Amantis: “as if he were a faerie” (112). Later on in his argument, Tolkien analyzes the myth of Thor and the story of the goose girl to show how folklore, myth, and fairy story relate to one another across history and cultures. Tolkien directly interrogates certain literary works, such as Shakespeare’s Macbeth, as counter-examples to his claims about literary belief and drama. The essay also contains direct quotes or reading from other literary works: Thomas the Rhymer by Sir Walter Scott and The Tale of Two Brothers in the Egyptian D’Orsigny papyrus. These lengthier examples allow Tolkien to point to specific words and phrases that support The Value and Function of Fairy-story. This approach clearly shows Tolkien’s grounding as an academic as well as an author, and the essay’s form a traditional piece of academic analysis, although phrased to be delivered verbally. The argument of the essay is shown to be based in textual evidence from literature, and Tolkien’s erudition as a leading scholar is on display.

A metaphor is a device in which one thing is referred to by an expression which usually means a different thing. Metaphor is different from simile in that, with metaphor, the resemblance is assumed as a conceptual identity rather than directly stated as a comparison. “That man is a pig” is metaphor; “that man is like a pig” is simile. Metaphor is used to create combinations of ideas and associations in an efficient and suggestive way. Tolkien uses the device in “On Fairy-stories” to make his complex arguments more tangible, and therefore more understandable, to the reader and listener. For example, Tolkien refers to the tangled Relationship Between Myth, History, Folklore, and Fairy-story as “The Tree of Tales,” expressing the way in which these forms are branches of the same larger organism (120). A common critique against The Value and Function of Fairy-story at the time was that the stories were too similar to one another, containing the same elements or tropes, and that they therefore could not be serious literature. Tolkien rehabilitates the idea of shared motifs as key to his argument on universal meaning and dignifies this concept with the metaphorical name “The Tree of Tales.” Similarly, Tolkien develops the metaphor, “Cauldron of Story” to communicate how historical figures might be attached to, or combined with, folklore or fairy-story over time (125). He provides this image as a counter-argument to the notion that stories must be original to have any value, evoking associations of magic and creativity through the mixing of ingredients.

Ethos refers to the rhetorical strategy where a speaker or writer relies on their authority or expertise on a subject to persuade their audience. It is an Ancient Greek word meaning “character”: Ethos, along with “logos” (logic), “pathos” (emotion) and “kairos” (time), was one of the essential elements of Classical rhetoric. Tolkien establishes his credibility in three key ways: creating boundaries for his academic argument, referencing only relevant personal experience, and relying on text-supported claims. At the time of this lecture, Tolkien was a well-known children’s author and a well-respected philologist at Oxford. In the first paragraph, Tolkien sets up his personal connection to fairy-stories, but also immediately sets aside any notion that he might be overstepping his academic bounds: “for though I have been a lover of fairy-stories since I learned to read, and have at times thought about them, I have not studied them professionally” (109). Interestingly, Tolkien creates credibility by outlining what he is and is not an expert in, assuming a position of honesty and relative humility, and recognizing that his audience were themselves experts whose specialties intersected with his own. This boundary setting is immediately followed by Tolkien’s methodology, where he references the stories themselves to prove his points. Text-supported arguments would have been expected for scholars, especially in philology, which concerned itself with ancient texts. Although Tolkien could have relied on his personal experience as a writer and reader of fantasy, he instead chooses to organize his thoughts in an academic style, reinforcing his authority and expertise.