Tales from the Perilous Realm
Tolkien's shorter fiction from outside Middle-earth, closing with the essay arguing that fairy tales were never meant for children alone.
This gathers Tolkien’s shorter fiction from outside Middle-earth: Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle, Smith of Wootton Major, Roverandom and the poems of Tom Bombadil. It closes with the essay On Fairy-Stories, where he sets out what he thought fairy tales were for and why adults were wrong to hand them over to children. Alan Lee illustrates throughout.
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Maria Popova
On March 8, 1939, J.R.R. Tolkien (January 3, 1892–September 2, 1973), celebrated as one of the greatest fantasy writers in history, gave a lecture titled “Fairy Stories,” eventually adapted into an essay retitled “On Fairy-Stories” and included in the appendix to Tales from the Perilous Realm (public library). At the crux of his argument, which explores the nature of fantasy and the cultural role of fairy tales, is the same profound conviction that there is no such thing as writing “for children.”
Article · August 2026
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