Tree and Leaf

Fairy-stories are not just for children, as anyone who has read Tolkien will know. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, professor Tolkien dicusses the nature of fairy-tales and fantasy and rescues the genre on one hand from the academics and, on the other, from those who would relegate in to 'juvenilia'. The second part of the book contains, as an apt and elegant illustration, one of Tolkien's earlier short stories, Leaf by Niggle. Written in the same period (1938–39) when The Lord of the Rings was beginning to unfold itself to Tolkien, these two works show his mastery and understanding of the art of 'sub-creation', the power to give to fantasy 'the inner consistency of reality'.

In this new edition the poem Mythepoeia (the making of myths) is published for the first time in which the author Philomythus, 'Lover of Myth', confounds the opinion of Milomythus, 'Hater of Myth'.

'The book must be read ... it goes far to explain the nature of his art and justify his success.' – The Cambridge Review

'A hauntin and duccessful demonstration of the qualities of faerie.' – New York Times