J. R. Tolkien's On Fairy Stories

J.R.R. Tolkien’s work is ‘largely concerned with Hobbits’. (1) In fact, it could be argued that his ultimate success as a writer is due to Hobbits. One reason for their importance is the way Hobbits embody the experience of escape and recovery. These are crucial results for one engaging in fantasy and fairy-stories according to Tolkien. Hobbits represent the intentions and deeper meanings of Tolkien’s work in a way that other creatures could not. What he hopes the reader will experience when they encounter his writing is embodied in the story of Hobbits encountering Middle Earth.
In his essay, On Fairy Stories, Tolkien discusses the importance of Faerie as a tool of making strange, in order to bring about recovery. He explains escapism as

Frodo’s first glimpse of it causes him to gasp at the beauty he sees. Frodo describes his experience as stepping through a high window which looks out onto a vanished world and ‘…a light was upon it for which his language had no name.’(459) His description of the land has important parallels to the way Tolkien describes the experience of arrest in the making strange. The ability to see again as things were meant to be seen is described in On Fairy Stories, as cleaning one’s window (77). Frodo is able to look through a window he didn’t know existed onto a world he had never imagined. Tolkien hopes that this same experience is true of those who dive into the secondary world of Middle Earth. Frodo’s time in this land helps him to rest and process the grief of losing Gandalf before moving on in his quest. Without the retreat into this other world of peace and beauty, Frodo would not have been capable of going on. The same can be true in our own lives. So often, the constant pressure of accomplishing our task stops us from taking the time we need to appreciate where we are and what the world is truly like. Frodo gains insight into the worth of his goal, as well as seeing the deep beauty that exists in the world, reminding him of his reason for living. Tolkien commends his readers to find an escape from the ‘drab blur of

He must venture there with the Ring but then he will be safe and rest. Named the ‘Last Homely House east of the sea’, it is a place to find rest and healing. (295) As Bilbo describes, it was ‘a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all..’ (295) Rivendell represents a cure. His time there is for healing from his near-fatal injury, but it is also for meeting those who would show him what he must do next. It was never to be his final destination. To accomplish his goal, he would have to return to his journey. After returning to his task, he recalls the memory of Rivendell in times of difficulty and longs to return there for the comfort and safety it would provide. Lothlorien also provides a place of rest and rejuvenation, but it cannot be a final goal. The fellowship loses a sense of urgency when they find this tranquil realm, forgetting any sense of time passing. So easy it would be to forget the call of their quest and lose themselves in the peace of Lothlorien, escaping forever. However time and events do not slow in the world they have escaped from. Frodo recognises that these places of rest will not endure and that his own primary world of the Shire will be lost if he does not live out his purpose. His task must be completed if he is ever to recover and return. This embodies the very purpose of