Tolkien's Faerian Drama: Origins and Valedictions

Abstract

In his essay ON FAIRY-STORIES, TOLKIEN INTRODUCES the of Drama: plays which the elves present to men, with a and immediacy beyond the compass of any human mechanism, where the viewer feels he is inside its Secondary but instead is a dream that some other mind is weaving rather than a dream of his own. drama is a form of Elvish art a human can almost but not quite grasp and understand, something the witness/participant may ponder and work through for the rest of his or her life. While Tolkien describes Faerie in ambivalent terms at different points in drafts of On Fairy-Stories, both suggesting its actual reality and treating it as a conceit (one version includes the phrase [t]he marvels of Faerie are true, if at all, only on a different plane 265), the of faerian drama is a useful tool for thinking about the profound work the subconscious does, in cases where the mind is deeply conflicted or in need of major change or growth and thus receptive when presented with an opportunity for a transformative experience. The relevant passage is lengthy, but dense with meaning: Now Faerian Drama--those plays which according to abundant records the elves have often presented to men--can produce Fantasy with a realism and immediacy beyond the compass of any human mechanism. As a result their usual effect (upon a man) is to go beyond Secondary Belief. If you are present at a drama you yourself are, or think that you are, bodily inside its Secondary World. The experience may be very similar to Dreaming and has (it would seem) sometimes (by men) been confounded with it. But in drama you are in a dream that some other mind is weaving, and the knowledge of that alarming fact may slip from your grasp. To experience directly a Secondary World: the potion is too strong, and you give to it Primary Belief, however marvellous the events. You are deluded--whether that is the intention of the elves (always or at any time) is another question. They at any rate are not themselves deluded. This is for them a form of Art, and distinct from Wizardry or Magic, properly so called. They do not live in it, though they can, perhaps, afford to spend more time at it than human artists can. The Primary World, Reality, of elves and men is the same, if differently valued and perceived. 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 (p.32), 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. (On Fairy-stories [OFS] 63-64) This is all well and good, but as Flieger and Anderson point out in their commentary, definition of what the faerian [drama] consists of is given [and] no examples of such 'plays' or 'abundant records' are given; Tolkien's description actually does little to clarify the concept (Editors' Commentary 112) or show how the experience of faerian drama truly differs from an ordinary dream or vision. However, there is a hint here about the purpose of this art form that may set us on the right path to a good definition. I think we can find this purpose clearly described elsewhere in On Fairy-Stories, and use it for the basis of a preliminary definition of the faerian drama: The artistic goal of faerian drama, like that of the fairy tale itself, is to awaken in the witness/participant an openness to Fantasy, Escape, Recovery, Consolation, and the possibility of Eucatastrophe. …