Friday, November 4, 2011

Fairy Tales


"It was in fairy-stories that I first divined the potency of the words, and the wonder of things, such as stone, and wood, and iron; tree and grass; house and fire; bread and wine. 

Far more powerful and poignant is the effect of joy in a serious tale of Faerie. In such stories, when the sudden turn comes, we get a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart's desire, that for a moment passes outside the frame, rends indeed the very web of story, and lets a gleam come through. 

I would venture to say that approaching the Christian story from this perspective, it has long been my feeling that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. 

The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. ...and among its marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation." 

- JRR Tolkien

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