I’m finally done my Tolkien Monroe project. My project ended up significantly narrower than my original concept. Originally, I was going to write a paper about how Tolkien’s ideas that he presents in “On Fairy-Stories” manifest themselves in his fictional works. As I started to read the secondary literature, however, I realized that that was a book-length project that I could not hope to adequately cover this summer. So, I ended up writing on one small facet of Tolkien’s essay “On Fairy-Stories.”

In my final essay, I consider the idea of the “happy ending” as Tolkien presents it in “On Fairy-Stories.” I consider the importance of having a happy ending, and the way that Tolkien structures happy endings in his fictional works, namely The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. In my readings of these works, I focus on how Tolkien mediates his happy endings. He presents the necessary happy turn in the action, the eucatastrophe, but he does not then allow the story to end. The denouement is always mediated by a continuance of action which gives the end of the written story a bittersweet tone. No Tolkienian happy ending is complete and transcendent. I connect this mediated eucatastrophe with Tolkien’s own religion. Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and emphasized the consequences of the Fall in his thinking and writing. He saw human life as unable to transcend its Fallen nature and thus unable to reach a perfect happy ending. He communicates the loss of the postlapsarian state in the mediated happy ending, while communicating the theological mystery of grace in the presence of the happy ending whatsoever. Tolkien’s faith informed his fiction.

Here’s my blog post from last week: my internet was tenuous at best, so I’m only posting this now. Since writing this I’ve taken into account many of Professor Flieger’s recommendations, and now have a working rough draft. Hopefully I’ll be done in another week or so!

I’m now in the middle of my seventh week of work on my Tolkien research project. In the past weeks, I’ve done a truly intense amount of work on this project. (The other day, I compiled my full list of works referenced, and found that I had 82 sources – although this list treated each essay used in an anthology as a separate entry.) I’ve read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and read the most known and most useful works of criticism on these two works. I’ve read some of Tolkien’s other writings, such as “On Fairy-Stories,” “Leaf By Niggle,” and “Mythopoeia.” I think that I’ve gained valuable insight into literature, on a more macro level than the workings of Middle-earth. I’ve learned something about the purpose of the fantasy genre as envisioned by one of the great writers in the evolution of the genre. I’ve learned something, too, about the purpose of such aesthetic creation. Why do we write? Why do we read? Tolkien saw the great purpose of the fairy-story as the search for – and potential for actually finding – a sense of consolation and escape in the nihilistic modern world. In my free time, I’ve been reading David Foster Wallace, who says something similar (in an interview with Bookworm on Infinite Jest): Wallace is interested in the frailties of human communication and the possibility of the written word to bridge the gap between people and create real interpersonal interaction. While Wallace is obviously more post-modern and more meta than Tolkien is, these writers are similarly interested in the power of the written word – especially the not-quite-realistic story – to forge connections and the better the emotional – as well as intellectual – life of the individual. This is what has really struck me about my research in the past weeks, and the direction that I hope to go in my essay. Fantasy is fun because of its world-building and its imagination, but it is meaningful because great fantasy has a goal besides amusing teenagers and sparking role-playing games. Fantasy can express the great problems of humanity and can do so in a context which is not tinged by the modern issues which cloud our judgement and preclude the depth of our worldview. I was interested in Tolkien because I have complete faith in the ability of well-written speculative fiction to be truly meaningful outside its fantastic context. I’ve found this faith validated in this research.

In the process of finishing my research, today I went to the University of Maryland, College Park, to meet Verlyn Flieger, a folklorist and professor who is one of the foremost Tolkien specialists. I emailed her a few weeks ago, after finding out that she didn’t work too far away from me, and we set up a meeting. I wanted a second opinion on the direction of my research, the beginnings of my paper, and my general concept of Tolkien and his works. The meeting was very helpful and confidence-building, although she certainly told me that there were things I still needed to investigate. She helped me to refine my thesis, and then suggested material that I needed to look at, given the thesis that I’ve been playing with. Despite the painfully hot and humid weather, it was a very valuable visit.

So in the next week or so, I’ll be reading The Silmarillion, parts of the manuscripts from The History of Middle-earth, and the early manuscripts of “On Fairy-Stories” as I now work towards a paper with an articulated thesis. I’ll be rereading some of the articles and books that I examined, as I figure out the exact gist of my paper: i.e., am I responding / entering into a debate with other articles? Finally – then – I’ll be sitting down to write my paper. I’ve got more work ahead of me than I had thought that I would, at this stage of the project, but I’m happy with how very much I’ve gotten done in the past six and a half weeks, and I look forward to realizing my paper.

This paper has made me feel even more strongly about Tolkien and the efficacies of fantasy than I did. Because of my interest in the subject, I do not feel burdened by the work, but look forward to reaching a goal with which I am satisfied. So, not done yet, but still enjoying it all.

I’m now in the fifth week of my research on Tolkien’s literary philosophy. I’m primarily interested in using Tolkien’s implied thesis in his essay “On Fairy-Stories” to structure my own analysis of the ideals guiding the construction of The Lord of the Rings. Since I last blogged, after my first week of research, I’ve gotten immeasurably further along.

In the past three or four weeks (since my last blog), I’ve read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and I’ve read a great deal of academic criticism on Tolkien in general and on specific facets of his fictional works. Coming into this project, I had no idea just how much criticism was out there, and I’ve found this portion of my project both interesting and helpful, although a bit overwhelming. Because of secondary research done in Tolkien studies, I feel like I now have some very useful directions to go in my own work. Tolkien’s main thesis of “On Fairy-Stories” is that fairy-stories are not for children, but have a greater purpose, which comprises: Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, and Consolation. I think that some of the research that I’ve uncovered in the last few weeks will really help me to examine how he applies these broad concepts to his specific fictional works.

Fantasy – Tolkien defends the non-realist story. He creates his own theory for imaginative fiction, building off Coleridge’s “willing suspension of disbelief.” Tolkien objects to Coleridge, because, to him, the willingness of the suspension prevents a true immersion in the story. Instead, Tolkien talks about the “inner consistency of reality” of a “Secondary World” which the reader can accept as both “true” and completely different from exterior reality. The creator of this “Secondary World” is actually a “sub-creator,” who has almost a demiurgic existence underneath the true divine Creator. I’d like to explore Fantasy in his works through references to other sub-creators and writers in his mythology. I’m also really interested in Verlyn Flieger’s study which associates sub-creation and the Secondary World with Neoplatonism, essentially equating the Creator’s Creation with the logos, which is manifested imperfectly in the sub-creator’s secondary world.

Recovery – Tolkien describes the atmosphere of the fairy-story. This is also the first of three ways that Tolkien finds psychological healing through Fantasy. In Recovery, that which has become old and mundane is now new. The reader re-experiences his world through the eyes of the characters. The reader recovers his wonder at existence. As I see it, this really pertains to Tolkien’s world-building and his appropriation of elements of folklore and history of our world into his Middle-earth. To this end, I think I can make good use of studies of the philological roots of Middle-earth, and I can also address the detail of the world-creation, both in the mythology of The Silmarillion and in The Lord of the Rings.

Escape – Tolkien defends Fantasy against charges of escapism. He argues that there is a huge difference between the flight of the deserter and the escape of the captive. Tolkien here again suggests the psychological benefits of Fantasy. Here, I’d like to extend my analysis to an examination of good and evil in Tolkien’s mythos. There have been very interesting studies that argue for or against Augustinian / Boethian or Manichaean definitions of evil in Middle-earth, and I think that this is an interesting element to examine in the context of cathartic escape from reality.

Finally, Consolation – Tolkien champions the happy ending. Tolkien here coins a word, “eucatastrophe,” which etymologically refers to the unexpected good turn of events. The eucatastrophe is the surprise triumph, and creates a feeling of pure joy in the reader. In the essay, Tolkien explicitly connects the eucatastrophe with the Gospels. Here, though, I’m interested in the strong tragic elements in The Silmarillion, which are also found – to an extent – in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien creates a realistic Secondary World with a pervading sense of loss: how does this relate to the happy ending? Here I might again tread lightly on theological grounds, exploring Tolkien’s conceptions of the Fall and of death.

Essentially, I still need to flesh out my thesis and figure out exactly where my analysis is going, but I’m truly enjoying my research. I plan to spend probably two more weeks researching, before starting on the paper itself. If I have time and can find useful scholarly articles, I’d love to advance my study to consider how these four tenets of Tolkien’s philosophy were applied or ignored by later fantasy writers.