cover:
Fairy stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Professor Tolkien discusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre on one hand from the academics and, on the other, from those who would relegate it to 'juvenilia'. The second part of the book contains, as an apt and elegant illustration, one of Tolkien's earlier short stories, Leaf By Niggle. Written in the same period (1938-39) when The Lord of the Rings was beginning to unfold itself to Tolkien, these two works show his mastery and understanding of the art of 'sub-creation', the power to give to fantasy 'the inner consistency of reality'.

In this new addition the poem Mythopoeia (the making of myths) is published for the first time, in which the author Philomythus, 'Lover of Myth', confounds the opinion of Misomythus, 'Hater of Myth'.

Interesting reading . Misomythus is C.S. Lewis. Tolkien believes that in faeire, fantasy, romance well-imagined one "may assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation".

Sent to tomato68 for the April Book a Month offer.

Thank you for this RABCK catsalive. I hope I can get to reading it soon.