Thursday, January 3, 2008

"There is no tale ever told...."

Today is the birthday in 1892 of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. He was a Christian, a Catholic, a friend of C.S. Lewis, an Inkling, a scholar, and the author of The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien wrote:
The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath.

It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy-story were found to be “primarily” true, its narrative to be history, without thereby necessarily losing the mythical or allegorical significance that it had possessed. It is not difficult, for one is not called upon to try and conceive anything of a quality unknown. The joy would have exactly the same quality, if not the same degree, as the joy which the “turn” in a fairy-story gives: such joy has the very taste of primary truth. (Otherwise its name would not be joy.) It looks forward (or backward: the direction in this regard is unimportant) to the Great Eucatastrophe. The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of the same kind; but it is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused. [J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories]

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:32 PM

    I know things are different these days in attitudes to smoking.

    But what does that picture tell us.
    He was a drug (tobacco) addict.

    Smoking, or rather sucking on a pipe is the "grown-up" equivalent of a baby sucking on a dummy for consolation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sure Freud would have disagreed....

    Not sure what your point is - although I do gather that it is intended to be disparaging.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated. I will gladly approve any comment that responds directly and politely to what has been posted.