In 1939, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and the father of Modern Fantasy, presented his essay “On Fairy-stories” at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

In the essay, Tolkien attempted to answer the following questions: What are fairy-stories? What are their origins? and What is their function or use?

In the interests of this discussion, we’ll be focussing on the last question.

What is the function or use of Fairy-stories?

Tolkien answered that the Fairy-story (or Fantasy, as he defined it in the essay) should provide three elements: Recovery, Escape, and Consolation.

Recovery

Tolkien defined Recovery, the first benefit of fantasy, as “a re-gaining of a clear view” and a way to “clean our windows.” Fairy-stories, he explained, offer readers a secondary world they can retreat into, and later return from, with a renewed appreciation of their primary, or real world.

Escape

Escape, the second benefit of fantasy stories, Tolkien likened to the “Escape of the Prisoner” rather than to the “Flight of the Deserter.” He described it as a means of leaving the ugliness and horror of modern life behind, at least for a while, and gaining “imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires.” Once returned, the escapees could reimagine their own reality and even react against what he termed as the “Robot Age.”

Consolation

Consolation, the final benefit of fairy-stories, Tolkien described as closely linked to Escape. He posited that all fantasy, to be deemed complete, must include the “Consolation of the Happy Ending.” He also referred to it as “Eucatastrophe” or “good catastrophe.” He maintained that “The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function,” because it provides readers with “a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart’s desire.”

He said that “however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or [adult] that hears it, when the ‘turn’ comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart.”

It is this last element , the eucatastrophe, that is most lacking in modern storytelling. And it’s the one our youth are in need of most.

It’s been almost 100 years, and we need eucatastrophic tales now, more than ever…

In January 2019, one of my former writing students died by suicide. I’ll call her M for privacy reasons.

M was 23 years old. She’d made it through high school, where I’d had the privilege of teaching her, and she’d gone on to graduate from university with a B.A. in English Lit. The last time I saw her, she was working part time at the local mall while in the process of becoming a teacher.

That day, M’s smile was as infectious as I remembered, and her eyes sparkled with laughter. She spoke quickly and vibrated visibly as we chatted, something she’d always done when engaged in a topic that interested her.

She had popped in on a writing workshop I was facilitating at the local library about 6 months earlier, so we were discussing what we’d penned since then. On the surface, she appeared to have survived the vagaries of growing up in the 21st Century.

Then, two months later, M was gone.

Unfortunately, hers is not a unique story. Within two years of her death, five more young and new adults from the same school system died by suicide. They ranged in age from 14 to 24.

Much has been published about the steady rise of teen suicide rates up until 2021, and their sudden, but slight drop in 2022 when the world returned, somewhat, to pre-pandemic normalcy. Sadly, the downward trend hasn’t lasted.

Recent information indicates our young adults are still very much at risk. An article published by the Yale School of Medicine on September 11, 2024, states that “one in five high school students seriously considered attempting suicide in 2023, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

Here in Canada, a May 2024 article published by York University provides equally distressing news. It says,

While there are no definitive studies for the most recent years for Canada as a whole, Manitoba reports a 42 per cent increase in youth suicides for 2022-2023 versus the previous reporting period, and the Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth’s office saw three times as many suicide attempts by young people in care versus the previous year.

Although it’s clear that too many of our young are thinking about, and dying by, suicide, the reasons why are not. Some researchers posit the rising numbers are linked to excessive use of social media. Others suggest poverty and the pandemic. Race, gender, sexual orientation, increasing threats of violence and war also come into play. Climate anxiety is another factor.

So what can be done?

Interrupting Mental Patterns of Hopelessness

In his book The Biology of Desire: Why Addiction is Not a Disease, neuroscientist Marc Lewis describes a radical addiction treatment initiative in the United Kingdom called Reach Out Recovery (ROR).

He says:

Shopkeepers, including newsagents, bakers, butchers, and pharmacists, are trained in brief interventions. Their “recovery-friendly” shops display an ROR sticker on the front window so addicts are aware that they can go there for help. People come off the street, perhaps buying a loaf of bread at the same time, and say, “I’ve had enough! I’m ready to quit!” Then the shopkeeper tells them they’ve come to the right place, takes a quick inventory, and advises them on what to do next.

He explains that the goal of the campaign is “to be there for addicts at the very moment when their desire for change is ignited.”

How does Reach Out Recovery relate to suicide rates in our young?

I believe that the eucatastrophic tale serves a similar purpose. It can be there, like the ROR treatment initiative, at the very moment our youth need hope the most. And, although Tolkien was talking about fantasy literature specifically, I believe any type of story can be eucatastrophic.

I make this assertion, because a novel once saved my life. Actually, it was one paragraph within the novel. The book was Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. I was 17 when I read it, and thinking of ways to kill myself. The passage that saved me takes place right after Siddhartha experiences complete hopelessness.

He thinks:

I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. But it is right that it should be so; my eyes and heart acclaim it. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace, to hear Om again, to sleep deeply again and to awake refreshed again.

“He was aware of great happiness mounting within him,” says the narrator of Siddhartha’s sudden shift of perspective. And, in that moment, over 40 years ago, like Siddhartha, “I heard the bird in [my] heart sing and followed it.”

Those lines met me at exactly the right moment. They told me I was in the right place. And for the first time in a long time, I experienced a piercing glimpse of joy, and heart’s desire.

And decided to live.

The Role of the Eucatastrophic Tale in the 21st Century

I believe the way we tell our stories can save lives. Actually, I believe the way we tell our stories, and which stories we choose to tell, can save the world. We need to start valuing stories that take people from hopelessness to hope. That find them wherever they are in their lives and save them.

We need to consciously craft stories that reach out, like the program described by Marc Lewis, and let people know they’ve come to the right place.

And, we need to craft them now.

Because something has changed. The future isn’t what it used to be. Nothing’s guaranteed. And, guess what? The sky is falling. The oceans are rising. Animals are going extinct. Ecosystems are collapsing. Pandemics are real.

The apocalypse has arrived.

In order to imagine what’s next, our youth need stories that, like Tolkien’s eucatastrophic tales, give them “a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart” and maybe, just maybe, save their lives.

If you enjoyed this post, please read Hopeful Narratives: Transforming Our Future with Imagination.

Thank you for reading. ❤️

Both novels I’m currently working on feature women in their early twenties. With these stories, I hope to meet my readers at a life-saving moment and offer them–however fantastic or terrible the adventures–Tolkien’s beat and lifting of the heart.

By the way, I do not use affiliate links.

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