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.

The Life of Smaug & the Dragons of the North | Tolkien Explained

Having recently viewed the hobbit trilogy, which included the Hobbit an Unexpected Journey, the Hobbit, the Desolation of Smaug, and the Hobbit the Battle of the Five Armies I was looking for more information about dragons and Smaug. This is a short treatsie on that topic.

The Lost World of Dragons Exhibit

The Lost World of Dragons is an interactive exhibit currently running at the Reading Public Museum

The Red Dragoan. These specimens move and roar.

The White Dragon. Did dragons actually exsist? Some believe they actually did.

"But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

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"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

The Dragon in Ancient China

I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril."― J.R.R. Tolkien

11 Songs Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Interesting article. So where do rock artists find the time to read?

When winter first begins to bite:

The wind so whirled a weathercock
He could not hold his tail up;
The frost so nipped a throstlecock
He could not snap a snail up.
‘My case is hard!’ the throstle cried,
And ‘All is vane’ the cock replied;
And so they set their wail up.

Bilbo Baggins

As found in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, Tales from the Perilous Realm

The Great Goblin, taunting Thorin Oakenshield

Image from The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey

"Well, well, well! Look who it is; Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, "King under the Mountain". Oh, but I'm forgetting; you don't have a mountain, and you're not a king, which makes you... nobody, really."

The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

The Great Eagle Salutation

Image from The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey

Whether Tolkien was thinking about the Roc when he wrote the Hobbit Tolkien referred to his creatures’ great eagles.

’Farewell wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at journey’s end!’

‘May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks’

The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

The Goblins Song

Clap! Snap! The black crack!
Grip, grab! Pinch, nab!
And down, down to Goblin town-
You go my lad!
Clash, crash! Crush, smash!
Hammer and tongs! Knocker and gongs!
Pound, pound, for underground!
Ho, ho! My lad!

Swish, smack! Whip crack!
Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
Work, work! Nor dare to shirk!
While Goblins quaff, and Goblins laugh,
Round and round far underground
Below my lad!

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As it were Thorin and company unknowingly made camp on the “front porch”, of Goblin town and were taken hostage and herded to the Great Goblin.

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Images from The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey, Text from The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien-The goblins song

The Misty Mountains

“Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere the break of day,
To find our long-forgotten gold,”

Having traveled far they still travel further.

“Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns dim
We must away, ere the break of day,
To win our harps and gold from him!,”

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Images from The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey, Text from The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien-The Dwarfs song

The Dilemmas of Roverandom

“Unawares, the two dogs had wandered too near to the shadows edge of the dark side, where all sorts of half-forgotten things linger, and paths and memories get confused.”

Roverandom, J. R. R. Tolkien

Further Adventures of Roveramdom

“… On the white side of the moon, the insects are very large and fierce, and often so pale and so transparent and so silent that you hardly hear or see them coming. The moonbeams only shine and flutter, and Roveramdom was not frightened of them, the big white dragon-moths with fiery eyes were much more alarming; and there were sword-flies and glass beetles with jaws like steel-traps and pale unicornets with stingers like spears, and fifty-seven varieties of spiders ready to eat anything they could catch…"

Roverandom, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Great White Dragon of Roverandom

“All white dragons originally come from the moon, as you probably know, but this one had been to the world and back, so he had learned a thing or two. He fought the Red Dragon in Caerdragon in Merlin’s time as you find in all the more up-to-date history books.”

Roverandom, J. R. R, Tolkien

Breathing a lie Through Silver

“Dis graced he may be, yet is not de-throne, and keep the rags of lordship once he owned. Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light through whom is splintered from a single White to many hues, and endlessly confined in living shapes that move from mind to mind.”

Myths are "lies breathed through silver."

On Fairy Stories, J. R. R. Tolkien

Tolkien on Magic

“Magic produces, or pretends to produce an alteration in the Primary World; it is not an art but a technique; its desire is power in this world and domination of things and wills.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories

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

10 Must-“Visit” Fictional Lands

10 Must-“Visit” Fictional Lands is a short directory of ten fictional lands created by the likes of Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burrough, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien

How Tolkien created Middle-earth

The Guardian has published an interesting article “How Tolkien created Middle-Earth”, which tells of the opening of an exhibit “Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth”. The article goes on to mention the many items that are being exhibited within the exhibit.

Palanlri (Seeing Stones)

"They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching." —Gandalf to Saruman, in The Fellowship of the Ring

The Palanlri were seeing stones. There were seven in all and were used to communicate in Middle Earth and beyond.

“The lore of the Stone’s has since been forgotten and can only be partly recovered by conjecture and from things recorded about them. They were perfect spheres, appearing, when at rest, to be made of solid glass or crystal deep black in hue. At their smallest, they were about a foot in diameter, but some, certainly, the Stones of Osgiliath and Anon Sul, were much larger and could not be lifted by one man.”

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien, pg. 472

The Drúedian

The Drúedian are a race of peoples mentioned in Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales. The Drúedian were unattractive in appearance; “they were stumpy (some were only four feet high), but very broad, with heavy buttocks and short thick legs; their wide faces had deep-set eyes with heavy brows, and flat noses. They typically grew no hair below their eye brows (with the exception of a few) a small tail of black hair in the midst of their chins.” Those who were to grow these tails were highly favored and held in high esteem.

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien