Between 3−4 stars rating, 08 October 2015 Tolkien's Take on "Faerie Tales"
By: Putri Prihatini
If hearing the name "Tolkien" makes you instantly imagines "Middle-earth," then you should try reading Tolkien's take on what he called "faerie tales." Tales from the Perilous Realm is an anthology book that is not related to Middle-earth (except perhaps the poetry compilation in chapter "The Adventures of Tom Bombadill"). The book consists of stories about a dog that is turned into small toy by an offended wizard ("Roverandom"), a fat, lazy farmer who accidentally becomes a 'hero' in his village and is asked to kill a dragon ("Farmer Giles of Ham"), a young blacksmith who accidentally swallows a charm in a cake... See More
and gets ability to go to faerie land (Smith of Wootton Major), a painter who wants to create a perfect painting ("Leaf by Niggle"), the abovementioned poetry compilation, and an essay by Tolkien titled "On Fairy Stories." Most of the stories are rather on the "whimsy" side, but if you are familiar with Tolkien's works, you still can see related elements with The Hobbit and LOTR in the themes, characterizations, language, and stories. Plus, Tolkien put a lot of humor in the way he described names, characters and situations, which make the stories fun to read. If you are interested in Tolkien's thoughts as a writer and scholar, his rather-long essay in the last chapter (85 pages!) will give you a glimpse of what he thought about fairy stories in literature. This is like a full-course meal in a fantasy book.
