N.E. Brigand
Half-elven
This post, the last in this week’s discussion of “Children”, covers the text from “It is true that the age of childhood-sentiment” to “I will consider them briefly, and will begin with Fantasy.”
There are some fine recent fairy-tales, Tolkien feels, despite the mistaken notions about their connection with children, but also many bad ones. “The old ones are mollified or bowdlerised, instead of being reserved; the imitations are often merely silly”, or talk down to children, or mock the genre. Even Andrew Lang was not immune in his new stories.
While Lang was correct that childlike “humility and innocence” are necessary to appreciate fairy-tales (and “kingdoms both less and far greater than Faërie”), these needn’t mean either “uncritical wonder” or “uncritical tenderness”. On the contrary, Tolkien cites G.K. Chesterton’s remark that “children are innocent and love justice; while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy”. Apart from a dwarf who dies in “fair fight” (a point Lang defended, though Tolkien doubts that it is less cruel to die in battle than by judgement), Lang’s villains usually survive his tales – Tolkien calls this “mercy untempered by justice”, and an example of the errors to which writing fairy-stories for children, or mistaken notions of children, can lead.
For “adult” need not be a term of opprobrium, and growing up is not…
In conclusion, Tolkien calls for fairy-stories written by and for adults, with some as “suitable introductions” for children, yet perhaps “beyond their measure rather than short of it” to “allow for growth” and even “encourage it”. With that, he turns once more to the essay’s third major question: what is the value of fairy-tales? His answer is first that good fairy-stories will share the values of all good literature –he does not say what those values are– and second, that the particular merit of fairy-tales is that they convey “Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, Consolation”, qualities which he will investigate in the essay’s last two sections.
But Tolkien gets in one last point for this section: those qualities, he notes, are “things of which children have, as a rule, less need than older people.”
If you’ve read Andrew Lang’s Chronicles of Pantouflia, did you enjoy them?
By citing Chesteron’s remarks on children and justice with approval, and using the idea against Lang, isn’t Tolkien undermining his argument that fairy-stories have no special appeal to children?
Discuss how the “appointed journey” relates to Frodo determining to set out from Hobbiton and from Rivendell, to Théoden when he receives the Red Arrow, to Niggle, or to other characters in Tolkien's work.
What does Tolkien mean when he says it is “not better to travel hopefully than to arrive”? (It reminds me of William F. Buckley being asked, “If you could choose to come back [i.e., from death] how would it be?” His answer: “Stillborn”.)
Discuss the growth from “callow, lumpish, and selfless youth” through “peril, sorrow, and the shadow of death” to achive “dignity, and … wisdom” as it relates to characters in Tolkien’s fiction. Consider, for instance, our recent discussion of Merry in “The Houses of Healing”.
Any other comments on this part, or on the “Children” section of “On Fairy-stories”?
Thanks in advance for your responses.
There are some fine recent fairy-tales, Tolkien feels, despite the mistaken notions about their connection with children, but also many bad ones. “The old ones are mollified or bowdlerised, instead of being reserved; the imitations are often merely silly”, or talk down to children, or mock the genre. Even Andrew Lang was not immune in his new stories.
While Lang was correct that childlike “humility and innocence” are necessary to appreciate fairy-tales (and “kingdoms both less and far greater than Faërie”), these needn’t mean either “uncritical wonder” or “uncritical tenderness”. On the contrary, Tolkien cites G.K. Chesterton’s remark that “children are innocent and love justice; while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy”. Apart from a dwarf who dies in “fair fight” (a point Lang defended, though Tolkien doubts that it is less cruel to die in battle than by judgement), Lang’s villains usually survive his tales – Tolkien calls this “mercy untempered by justice”, and an example of the errors to which writing fairy-stories for children, or mistaken notions of children, can lead.
For “adult” need not be a term of opprobrium, and growing up is not…
And fairy-tales can show the value of growth.
In conclusion, Tolkien calls for fairy-stories written by and for adults, with some as “suitable introductions” for children, yet perhaps “beyond their measure rather than short of it” to “allow for growth” and even “encourage it”. With that, he turns once more to the essay’s third major question: what is the value of fairy-tales? His answer is first that good fairy-stories will share the values of all good literature –he does not say what those values are– and second, that the particular merit of fairy-tales is that they convey “Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, Consolation”, qualities which he will investigate in the essay’s last two sections.
But Tolkien gets in one last point for this section: those qualities, he notes, are “things of which children have, as a rule, less need than older people.”
If you’ve read Andrew Lang’s Chronicles of Pantouflia, did you enjoy them?
By citing Chesteron’s remarks on children and justice with approval, and using the idea against Lang, isn’t Tolkien undermining his argument that fairy-stories have no special appeal to children?
Discuss how the “appointed journey” relates to Frodo determining to set out from Hobbiton and from Rivendell, to Théoden when he receives the Red Arrow, to Niggle, or to other characters in Tolkien's work.
What does Tolkien mean when he says it is “not better to travel hopefully than to arrive”? (It reminds me of William F. Buckley being asked, “If you could choose to come back [i.e., from death] how would it be?” His answer: “Stillborn”.)
Discuss the growth from “callow, lumpish, and selfless youth” through “peril, sorrow, and the shadow of death” to achive “dignity, and … wisdom” as it relates to characters in Tolkien’s fiction. Consider, for instance, our recent discussion of Merry in “The Houses of Healing”.
Any other comments on this part, or on the “Children” section of “On Fairy-stories”?
Thanks in advance for your responses.
