"On Fairy Stories," Part 2 ("Origins")

[cressidarambles]

* I found this section a little confusing, to be honest. Tolkien talks a lot about what the origins of fairy-stories are not, but he doesn't speculate much about what he thinks they are, aside from the fact that he believes they all have their roots in human experience. People could not imagine things if they had not seen or felt something

Comments

[lilan14]

I did love fairy tales as a kid and still have half a bookcase of various collections of those...and I sometimes open them now as well. I don't think the gore ever scared me much as a child -- probably for the reason roh_wyn points out, and I only came to think of such stories as very icky when I got older.

What I did mind was the creepiness, though...the kind of stuff where someone is not supposed to open a certain door and such. I think I definitely preferred the fact of something horrible happening to the knowledge that something horrible is going to happen and having to wait for it. But then, it could be just me, because this is exactly how I feel about bad stuff in real adult life.