On Fairy-Stories
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On Fairy-Stories
"On Fairy-Stories" is an essay by J. R. R. Tolkien which discusses the fairy story as a literary form. It was written as a lecture entitled "Fairy Stories" for the Andrew Lang lecture at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, on 8 March 1939. The essay is significant because it contains Tolkien's explanation of his philosophy on fantasy and thoughts on mythopoeia. Moreover, the essay is an early analysis of speculative fiction by one of the most important authors in the genre. Alongside his 1936 essay " ''Beowulf'': The Monsters and the Critics", it is his most influential scholarly work. Literary context J. R. R. Tolkien was a professional philologist as well as an author of fiction, starting with the children's book ''The Hobbit'' in 1937; he had not intended to write a sequel. The Andrew Lang Lecture was important as it brought him to clarify for himself his view of fairy stories as a legitimate literary genre, rather than something intended exclusively for children. ...
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Leaf By Niggle
"Leaf by Niggle" is a short story written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1938–39 and first published in the '' Dublin Review'' in January 1945. It can be found, most notably, in Tolkien's book titled '' Tree and Leaf'', and in other places (including the collections '' The Tolkien Reader'', ''Poems & Stories'', ''A Tolkien Miscellany'', and '' Tales from the Perilous Realm''). This is notable because the book, consisting of a seminal essay called " On Fairy-Stories" and "Leaf by Niggle", offers the underlying philosophy (Creation and Sub-Creation, see below) of much of Tolkien's fantastical writings. "Leaf by Niggle" is often seen as an allegory of Tolkien's own creative process, and, to an extent, of his own life. Plot summary In this story, an artist, named Niggle, lives in a society that does not value art. Working only to please himself, he paints a canvas of a great Tree with a forest in the distance. He invests each and every leaf of his tree with obsessive attention to deta ...
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Charles Williams (UK Writer)
Charles Walter Stansby Williams (20 September 1886 – 15 May 1945) was a British poet, novelist, playwright, theologian, literary critic, and member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group associated with C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien at the University of Oxford. Early life and education Charles Williams was born in London in 1886, the only son of (Richard) Walter Stansby Williams (1848–1929) and Mary (née Wall). His father Walter was a journalist and foreign business correspondent for an importing firm, writing in French and German, who was a 'regular and valued' contributor of verse, stories and articles to many popular magazines. His mother Mary, the sister of the ecclesiologist and historian J. Charles Wall), was a former milliner (hatmaker), of Islington. He had one sister, Edith, born in 1889. The Williams family lived in 'shabby-genteel' circumstances, owing to Walter's increasing blindness and the decline of the firm by which he was employed, ...
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Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. Biography Lang was born in 1844 in Selkirk, Scottish Borders. He was the eldest of the eight children born to John Lang, the town clerk of Selkirk, and his wife Jane Plenderleath Sellar, who was the daughter of Patrick Sellar, factor to the first Duke of Sutherland. On 17 April 1875, he married Leonora Blanche Alleyne, youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and Barbados. She was (or should have been) variously credited as author, collaborator, or translator of '' Lang's Color/Rainbow Fairy Books'' which he edited. He was educated at Selkirk Grammar School, Loretto School, and the Edinburgh Academy, as well as the University of St Andrews and Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first c ...
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The Ring (2) By John Bauer 1914
The Ring may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a Japanese horror media franchise Literature * ''The Ring'', a 1967 novel by Richard Chopping * ''The Ring'', a 1988 book by Daniel Keys Moran * ''The Ring'', a 1980 novel by Danielle Steel, which formed the basis for the 1996 film * ''The Ring'', a 1964 children's book by John Updike * ''The Ring'' (magazine), a boxing periodical * "The Ring" (poem), by Heinrich Wittenwiler * '' The Ring: Boxing the 20th Century'', 1993 book Film * ''The Ring'' (1927 film), by Alfred Hitchcock * ''The Ring'' (1952 film), by Kurt Neumann * ''The Ring'' (1985 film), a Romanian film * '' The Rings'', a 1985 Iranian horror mystery film * ''The Ring'' (1996 film), or ''Danielle Steel's The Ring'', a TV film * ''Ring'' (film), or ''The Ring'', a 1998 Japanese horror film ** ''The Ring'' (2002 film), a remake * ''The Ring'' (2007 film), a Canadian drama film Television * "The Ring" (''Angel''), a 2000 episode of ''An ...
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The Monsters And The Critics, And Other Essays
''The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays'' is a collection of J. R. R. Tolkien's scholarly linguistic essays edited by his son Christopher and published posthumously in 1983. All of them were initially delivered as lectures to academics, with the exception of "On Translating ''Beowulf''", which Christopher Tolkien notes in his foreword is not addressed to an academic audience. Essays The essays are: * " ''Beowulf'': the Monsters and the Critics" looks at the critics' understanding of '' Beowulf'', and proposes instead a fresh take on the poem. * " On Translating ''Beowulf''" looks at the difficulties in translating the poem from Old English. * " On Fairy-Stories," the 1939 Andrew Lang lecture at St Andrew's University, is a defence of the fantasy genre. *"A Secret Vice" talks about creating imaginary languages, giving background to Tolkien's Quenya and Sindarin. *"''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight''" is a study of the medieval poem of the same name. *"English an ...
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Del Rey Books
Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House and, in turn, by Penguin Random House. It is a separate imprint established in 1977 under the editorship of author Lester del Rey and his wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. It specializes in science fiction and fantasy books, and formerly manga under its (now defunct) Del Rey Manga imprint. The first new novel published by Del Rey was '' The Sword of Shannara'' by Terry Brooks in 1977. Del Rey also publishes the ''Star Wars'' novels under the LucasBooks sub-imprint (licensed from Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios division of The Walt Disney Company). Authors * Piers Anthony *Isaac Asimov * Stephen Baxter * Amber Benson *Ray Bradbury *Terry Brooks * Pierce Brown *Bonnie Burton *Jack L. Chalker *Arthur C. Clarke * James Clemens *Dan Cragg *Brian Daley * Maurice G. Dantec * Philip K. Dick *Stephen R. Donaldson * David Eddings * Philip José Farmer * Mick Farren *Joe Clifford Faust *Lynn Flewel ...
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The Tolkien Reader
''The Tolkien Reader'' is an anthology of works by J. R. R. Tolkien. It includes a variety of short stories, poems, a play and some non-fiction. It compiles material previously published as three separate shorter books ('' Tree and Leaf, Farmer Giles of Ham,'' and '' The Adventures of Tom Bombadil''), together with one additional piece and introductory material. It was published in 1966 by Ballantine Books in the USA. Most of these works appeared in journals, magazines, or books years before the publication of ''The Tolkien Reader''. The earliest published pieces are the poems "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late" and "The Hoard", both of which were first published in 1923. They were reprinted together with a variety of other poems in the book''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'' in 1962, and the entire book was included in ''The Tolkien Reader'' in 1966. The section titled ''Tree and Leaf'' is also a reprint. It was published as a book bearing the same name in 1964, and consi ...
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Tree And Leaf
''Tree and Leaf'' is a small book published in 1964, containing two works by J. R. R. Tolkien: * a revised version of an essay called " On Fairy-Stories" (originally published in 1947 in ''Essays Presented to Charles Williams'') * an allegorical short story called " Leaf by Niggle" (originally published in the '' Dublin Review'' in 1945). ''Tree and Leaf'' was the first publication in which ''On Fairy-Stories'' and ''Leaf by Niggle'' became readily available to the general public. The book was originally illustrated by Pauline Baynes. "Mythopoeia" was added to the 1988 edition (). Later versions also include " The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son". Both pieces were re-issued in the collection ''The Tolkien Reader ''The Tolkien Reader'' is an anthology of works by J. R. R. Tolkien. It includes a variety of short stories, poems, a play and some non-fiction. It compiles material previously published as three separate shorter books ('' Tree and Leaf, Farme ...'' (1 ...
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HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp. The name is a combination of several publishing firm names: Harper & Row, an American publishing company acquired in 1987—whose own name was the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers (founded in 1817) and Row, Peterson & Company—together with Scottish publishing company William Collins, Sons (founded in 1819), acquired in 1989. The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray. HarperCollins has publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, and China. The company publishes many different imprints, both former independent publishing houses and new imprints. History Collins Harper Mergers and acquisitions Collins was bought by Rupert Murdoch's News C ...
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The J
J is the tenth letter of the Latin alphabet. J may also refer to: * Palatal approximant in the International Phonetic Alphabet * J, Cyrillic letter Je Astronomy * J, a provisional designation prefix for some objects discovered between May 1 and 15 of a year Computing * J (programming language), successor to APL * J# programming language for the Microsoft .NET Framework * J operator, a programming construct * J (operating system), an operating system for ICL's System 4 series of computers Genetics and medicine * Haplogroup J (mtDNA) * Haplogroup J (Y-DNA) * ATC code J ''Antiinfectives for systemic use'', a section of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification System Mathematics * J, symbol used to denote the Bessel function * ''j'', used as the symbol for the imaginary unit (\sqrt) in fields where ''i'' is used for a different purpose (such as electrical current) * ''j'' and ''j2'' (or \bar) are also used for the complex cube roots of unity * ''j'', a num ...
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Inklings
The Inklings were an informal literary discussion group associated with J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis at the University of Oxford for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy. The best-known, apart from Tolkien and Lewis, were Charles Williams, and (although a Londoner) Owen Barfield. Members The more regular members of the Inklings, many of them academics at the University, included: * Owen Barfield * Jack A. W. Bennett * Lord David Cecil * Nevill Coghill * Hugo Dyson * Adam Fox * Robert Havard * C. S. Lewis * Warren Lewis (C. S. Lewis's elder brother) * J. R. R. Tolkien * Christopher Tolkien (J. R. R. Tolkien's son) * Charles Williams More infrequent visitors included: * James Dundas-Grant * Colin Hardie * Gervase Mathew * R. B. McCallum * Courtenay Edward Stevens * John Wain * Charles Leslie Wrenn ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massa ...
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