Right of way Book

A collection of Tolkien’s short “fairy tales” and poems. Pauline Baynes' illustrations enhance the stories. I wanted to re-read Tales from the Perilous Realm, but my library doesn't have it. This book has several of the same stories.

Farmer Giles of Ham is about a simple farmer who finds himself fighting a giant and a dragon with luick and wits.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is a collection of 16 poems. Disappointingly, only two feature Tom Bombadil (three, if you count The Stone Troll, which mentions a "Tom"). My favorites are The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late, The Stone Troll, and The Hoard.

In The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Tom encounters Goldberry, Old Man Willow, and a barrow-wight, among others. At the end he catches and marries Goldberry.

In Bombadil Goes Boating, Tom encounters hobbits, and he and Farmer Maggot tell each other about events near the Shire.

I liked The Hoard, which tells of a treasure that passes from elves to a dwarf to a dragon to a king before being lost and forgotten. Many of Tolkien’s works emphasize the value of the enjoyable things in life (friends, food, song, etc.) over treasure.

The Last Ship is about a mortal woman who sees the last elvish ship row towards the Gray Havens on its way to Elvenhome.

The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late, The Stone Troll, and Oliphaunt appear in The Lord of the Rings.

Tom Bombadil's name was probably given to him by Bucklanders.

Smith of Wooton Major is the tale of a smith who on several occasions leaves his village to adventure in Faery. The villagers don’t believe in Faery; they’re oblivious to the influence of its inhabitants and their “magic.” They laugh at Faery as something silly and childish. This was my favorite part of this book; it read like a fairy tale.

Leaf by Niggle is an allegory about the process of creating, the wise use of time, life, death, afterlife, and God’s grace. One can see many of Tolkien’s attributes in Niggle. I really enjoyed it (though I disagree with some of Tolkien's Catholic understanding of the afterlife, specifically the existence of purgatory).

On Fairy-Stories is Tolkien’s essay on reading, evaluating, and writing fairy stories. It was fairly interesting.

Tolkien believes that children shouldn’t be spared the “gruesome” aspects or “horror” of fairy stories, “unless they are spared the whole story until their digestions are stronger.” He says, “...in my opinion fairy-stories should not be specially associated with children.” He says, “If fairy-story as a kind is worth reading at all it is worthy to be written for and read by adults. They will, of course, put more in and get more out than children can.”

Tolkien presents his idea of eucatastrophe: "the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good
catastrophe, the sudden joyous 'turn' (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale)."

Tolkien says that even with the option of reading science, people still like fairy-stories because “there is a part of man which is not ‘Nature’, and which therefore is not obliged to study it, and is, in fact, wholly unsatisfied by it.”

Quotes
On Fairy-Stories
“The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things:... shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.”A ‘fairy-story’ is one which touches on or uses Faerie… Faerie itself may perhaps most nearly be translated by Magic — but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from the vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific, magician. There is one proviso: if there is any satire present in the tale, one thing must not be made fun of, the magic itself. That must in that story be taken seriously, neither laughed at nor explained away."But fairy-stories offer also, in a peculiar degree or mode, these things: Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, Consolation, all things which children have, as a rule, less need than older people."We need a word for this elvish craft, but all the words that have been applied to it have been blurred and confused with other things. Magic is ready to hand, and I have used it above ... but I should not have done so: Magic should be reserved for the operations of the Magician. Art is the human process that produces by the way (it is not its only or ultimate object) Secondary Belief. Art of the same sort, if more skilled and effortless, the elves can also use, or so the reports seem to show; but the more potent and specially elvish craft I will, for lack of a less debatable word, call Enchantment. Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of their senses while they are inside; but in its purity it is artistic in desire and purpose. Magic produces, or pretends to produce, an alteration in the Primary World. It does not matter by whom it is said to be practised, fay or mortal, it remains distinct from the other two; it is not an art but a technique; its desire is power in this world, domination of things and wills."Fantasy remains a human right: we make in our measure and in our derivative mode, because we are made: and not only made, but made in the image and likeness of a Maker."The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially 'escapist', nor 'fugitive'. In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history. … There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath. … The Christian joy… is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true.Farmer Giles of Ham
“The time was not one of hurry or bustle. But bustle has very little to do with business. Men did their work without it; and they got through a deal both of work and of talk.” - Narrator

Smith of Wooton Major
"… he soon became wise and understood that the marvels of Faery cannot be approached without danger, and that many of the Evils cannot be challenged without weapons of power too great for any mortal to wield."In Faery at first he walked for the most part quietly among the lesser folk and the gentler creatures in the woods and meads of fair valleys, and by the bright waters in which at night strange stars shone and at dawn the gleaming peaks of far mountains were mirrored. Some of his briefer visits he spent looking only at one tree or one flower; but later in longer journeys he had seen things of both beauty and terror that he could not clearly remember nor report to his friends, though he knew that they dwelt deep in his heart. But some things he did not forget, and they remained in his mind as wonders and mysteries that he often recalled.“Do not be grieved for me, Starbrow. Nor too much ashamed of your own folk. Better a little doll, maybe, than no memory of Faery at all. For some the only glimpse. For some the awaking.” - The Queen of Faery, to Smith, referring to the dancing figure placed on the Great Cake at the Children’s Feast.

Leaf by Niggle
“Things might have been different, but they could not have been better.” - Niggle, to Parish.