ENGL 395 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Gildor Inglorion, Samir Amin, Faerie Stories
7 Mar 2016
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The essay was first delivered as an academic lecture where his purpose, as far as i understand it, was to defend the fantasy genre (synonymous with what he calls faerie stories) against its critics. Tolkien explains several concepts that he argues are a necessary part of successful fantasy writing. Children don"t need fantasy as much as adults do. Adults need that escape, the consolation, the recovery. There are good things as well as bad. Myth delivers us ideas that we have yet to integrate into our conscious lives. Myth threatens the fabric of security of our known life, but they offer keys to the discovery of ourselves. We have to tear down the self as we cross over into the world of fantasy. Human beings need to move through different stages in our lives and fantasy helps us do this. Aragorn, the greatest traveller and huntsman of this age of the world (page 67) hero.
