Tolkin's Definition of Fairies

"Fairies are supernatural beings of diminutive size, in popular belief supposed to possess magical powers and to have great influences for good or evel over the affairs of man."

J.R.R. Tolkien, Tales from the Perilous Realm, On Fairy Stories.

Taedium Vitae

Life was so oppressive that even Oberon the King of the Faeries
become weary of life

Taedium vitae

Miscellaneous Bits from Tolkien’s On Fairy Stories

An Ancient Charm against the Fairies

Peace of God and peace of man,
Peace of God on Columb-Killey,
On each window and each door,
On every hole admitting moonlight,
On the four corners of the house,
On the place of my rest,
And peace of God on myself.

Manx Fairy Tales, by Sophia Morrison, 1919

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• The Juniper Tree
• Odin the Gath-the Necromancer, the gutter of the crows, and the Lord of the Slain
• George MacDonald
• The Golden Key
The Golden Key was written by George MacDonald

• Elder Edda
• Green Fairy Book
• Chronicles of Pantouflia

Forward of Tolkien’s Tales from the Perilous Realm

“The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things; all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril: both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords.”

Tales from the Perilous Realm, "On Fairy Stories", J.R.R. Tolkien

Magically Sweet Music

“There are windfalls of dreams, there’s a wolf in the stars,
And Life is a nymph who will never be thine,
With lily, germander, and sops in wine.
With sweet-brier.
And bon-fire,
And strawberry-wire,
And columbine.”

Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees

Riddles from a Fairy

“Who are you? Who is me?
Answer my riddle and come and see.”

“I milk blue ewes; I reap red flowers,
I weave the story of dead hours”

“What is it that’s a tree, and yet not a tree, a man and yet not a man, who is dumb and yet can tell secrets, who has no arms and yet can strike?”

“Dig and delve, delve and dig, harness the mare to the farmers gig.”

Riddles as spoken to Master Nathaniel by the fairy, Polumus.

Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees

John Childermass's Spells

Chauntlucet: an ancient spell which encourages the moon to sing. The song is said to be very beautiful and can cure leprosy or madness in anyone who hears it.

Daldalus’s Rose: a complicated procedure used to preserve emotions, vices, and virtues in amber, honey, or beeswax. The Daldalus’s Rose also had a huge number of other applications: it could be used to disperse courage to oneself or to inflict cowardice on one’s enemies. It could also provoke love, lust, nobility of purpose, anger, jealously, ambition, and self-sacrifice.

Unrobed Ladies: it is not what you might expect. Unrobed Ladies are a woodland flower used in a spell to bind a fairy’s spell.

Stokesey Vitrification: used to turn objects and people into glass.”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Lore of Fairies

“Several authorities have noted that long-lived fairies have a tendency to call any substantial period of time-‘four thousand years’. Many fairies, when asked about their ages will say they are four thousand years old; what they mean is, they do not know their actual age. Fairies are older than human civilization or possible than humankind.”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke