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Sub-creation

I propose to speak about fairy-story....

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 sorrow and joy as sharp as swords. In that land a man may (perhaps) count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very riches and strangeness make dumb the traveller who would report it. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates shut and the keys be lost. The fairy gold too often turns to withered leaves when it is brought away (1, 2). [Numbers refer to Works Cted.].

The above quote is the key to understanding The Lord of the Rings. The story is fantasy, of course. Yet multiple genres are employed in the weaving of the novel. Chief among them is fairy-story.


If I were to tackle a radio dramatization of Rings, I would begin with the scene at the Ivy Bush, an inn on the Bywater road. The Gaffer, AKA Hamfast Gamgee, is in converse with two other hobbits. (By the way, Hamfast derives from the Old English hám-fæst, literally “home-fast”, where fæst means, among other things, “fortified” and “steadfast” (3, 4)).


Their discussion concerns Buckland and the hobbits who live there, primarily Brandybucks. Old Noakes opines that Brandybucks are “queer”.


Daddy Twofoot chimes in, “And no wonder they're queer… if they live on the wrong side of the Brandywine River, and right agin the Old Forest. That's a dark bad place, if half the tales be true.”


The Gaffer adds his two cents by pointing out that Brandybucks “fool about with boats on that big river—and that ain't natural….” That supports his prior statement that Brandybucks are “a queer breed” (The Fellowship of the Rings, 22). 


Above, where I defined hám-fæst I left out “stay-at-home”. Where Ham Gamgee is concerned, that definition is most accurate. He is parochial. Yet there's more going on in the above gossip than three hobbits expressing their overtly narrow views of hobbits living in so-called foreign parts.


What's up with JRRT

differentiationg between

the Shire and Buckland?


Tolkien aims to distinguish between Buckland and the Shire because the novel's heart is in the Shire, generally speaking, and in Bag End in particular. Bag End is the novel's home and heart. Furthermore, the distinction is seminal to Tolkien's world-building.


In Tolkien's world there is the Divine Author's Creation and, also, the gift of creativity. Tolkien refers to the first type of creation as primary creation and the second type as sub-creation, or secondary creation. In universe, the primary creation is the Shire, and the center of the primary creation is Bag End. The novel's fantastic aspect—its fantasy—as seen by the Gaffer and his friends is Buckland. Put another way, the vast majority of Shire hobbits believe that Buckland is perilous, home to what Tolkien calls “the perilous realm”, also, at times, “Faerie”. By any name, it is where Elven magic is most potent. (I drop the article “the”, leaving Perilious Realm, since I conceive of Elfland, one and the same as Perilious Realm, as living. More on that in the next post.)


Mythopoeia


A poem Tolkien wrote to CS Lewis, Mythopoeia, is an apology Lewis would have been proud to have written save that he did hold the paradigm defended in the work. What follows is a brief portion of Tolkien's argument for our right to create. ("his"refers to people, perhaps, more specifically, artists.)


his world-dominion by creative act:

not his to worship the great Artefact,

Man, sub-creator, the refracted light

through whom is splintered from a single- White

to many hues, and endlessly combined

in living shapes that move from mind to mind.

Though all the crannies of the world we filled

with Elves and Goblins, though we dared to build

gods and their houses out of dark and light,

and sowed the seed of dragons, 'twas our right

(used or misused). The right has not decayed.

We make still by the law in which we're made (3rd verse, 5).


“The law in which we're made” is a God-given gift:viz, viz., creativity. Therefore, we are sub-creators. Our creative work and the genius involved therein emanate from the Creator, from God.


The challenge depicting the secondary creation (the sub-creator's artwork) in Rings is tied up with a medieval conceit Tolkien employed. To wit, The Lord of the Rings is said to be a modern English translation of the Red Book of Westmarch, the story of the war of the Ring from the hobbit's standpoint. That's the primary creation when considering the novel in literary terms instead of focusing on the story's fundamental mythic theme.¹ Ergo, the distinction between Brandybucks and Shire hobbits, between Buckland and the Shire, and the significance of the conversation we looked at in the opening of this post. The hobbit's opinions cue the reader to the separation of the two places and the two groups of hobbits. Obviously the distinction is framed as pejorative; nonetheless, it is significant.


Fairy-Story


I have contended that Fairy-Tale plays a large role in The Lord of the Rings sans supporting the idea. We return to the chitchat overheard at the Ivy Bush. Ham Gamgee is speaking. Retelling a warning he gave his son, Sam:


Elves and dragons!.... Cabbages and potatoes are better for me and you. Don't go getting mixed up in the business of your betters, or you'll land in trouble too big for you (italics in text, The Fellowship of the Rings, 24).


The Gaffer is the wise old man of fairy-stories. The one who tells the hero to "Stay in your own lane”, to mind his business. Embedded within the scene at the Ivy Bush and coming at the end of the second of two discussions, the latter of which involves the reputed wealth of Bilbo Baggins. The first-time reader may miss the weight of the gaffer's statement.


In On Fairy-Story Tolkien points out that the wise old man's admonition is given to keep the would-be hero from trespassing on a taboo. In this case, if Samwise accompanies his master (Frodo), he will risk shattering social norms. As it turns out, Sam shatters quite a few norms. Ham's concern is that his son might end up tarnishing the family's reputation, bringing shame upon them, to say nothing of a father's worry for his son's well-being. As for the import of respecting taboos, Tolkien observes:


“[B]ecause of the great mythical significance of prohibition. A sense of that significance may indeed have lain behind some the taboos themselves (2).


I suppose the best-known example to support Tolkien's view is forbidden love. Whether Maria and Tony or Juliet and Romeo, forbidden love is a very well-known and oft used literary trope. Come to think of it, so is love at first sight. In both West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet, that force brings the two couples together. And in each story, the taboo is tribal—the tribes' strong objections to the lovers' attention to one another and, because of their relationships, the fulfillment of their desires.


In the next episode, a look at Perilious Realm as living and a consideration of perhaps the novel's most significant character: the Ring. (The image below is of Goldberry and is by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt.)




End Note


  1. The fundamental theme, according to Tolkien, is "death". I don't agree, although I will save that affair for another post. However, I will say this as pertains to my comments in this post. Given the conceit of Rings as a translation, the translators have to be a part of both the primary creation (real time when the translation was composed) along with the secondary creation. It also follows that where the work of translating was done is a part of primary creation. What was written about the Quest: the people they met, the places they traveled through, the experiences they had—all that is Perilous Realm.


    Following, a link to a video clip of JRRT's remark regarding death as the most important theme of his novel. https://youtu.be/8FXG7y9uQ5g


Works Cited:



  1. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories. Accessed 9 October 2025 https://coolcalvary.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/on-fairy-stories1.pdf


  1. Gaffer Gamgee etemology. Accessed 9 October 2025 https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Gaffer_Gamgee#Etymology


  1. Etymology of hám-fæst. Accessed 9 October 2025 https://www.etymonline.com/word/fast


  1. Etymology of Faerie. Accessed on 9 October 2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy





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