Fantasy week 4

How does Tolkien define fantasy?

Tolkien uses a variety of explanations to describe his definition of fantasy. Imagination is at the forefront of what fantasy is created from. Tolkien states “the power of giving to ideal creations the inner consistency of reality” (p44) His fantasy ideally comes from nature and he uses elements of nature within his themes. An example of this is in The Lord of the Rings with the battle of Isengard when the trees of Fangorn rise up against Isengard. Isengard used to be a forested area but had been turned into the representation of what we know as an industrial area. Within this there were blacksmiths, forgers and the like who were preparing and breeding Orcs for war. In the fantasy, the race of trees, the Ents fought back against the Orcs as a representation of nature’s beauty overpowering the advantages of technology.

Tolkien speaks of the mind of fantasy being able to change what was once thought, into something magical. The example he uses is making things that are heavy, light or able to fly. Making yellow gold from grey lead and something that is still like a rock into something moving like the water. These images in the mind come from a place of imagination that flows into a space of fantasy. These notions of Tolkiens could perhaps identify him with the Romantics who were at the time that science and technology were advancing and rising and talked of the alternative view of nature, having everything that is needed and provided a more romantic ideology.

Tolkien did not believe that everything in fantasy had to be wholesome or even beautiful. He saw fantasy as a “natural human activity” one that does not have to defy reason or obscure scientific fact. Because Tolkien studied and understood languages and mythology he was able to make his fantasy so real to those who read it that at times the line between fantasy and reality was hard to see. He believed that by creating a secondary world the writer needs to have it flowing from reality.

Tolkien talked of the difference between folklore and mythology. He sees the beginning of fantasy coming from nature-myths as a way of people explaining what was going on as at that time they didn’t have the science and technology to explain it as we do today. These nature-myths became localised and humanized with heroes and in turn became folk tales, myths and legends. An example of this is how the ancient Greeks told of Apollo drawing the sun across the sky in a chariot and more localised of Maui fishing the Islands of Aotearoa from the sea.