Tolkien As a Child of the Green Fairy Book (J.R.R. Tolkien‪)‬

IN HIS ESSAY "On Fairy-Stories," Tolkien identified himself as one of Andrew Lang's intended audience (39)--he was born in 1892, in the same year as The Green Fairy Book, the third in Lang's series of 12 "color" anthologies of fairy tales. In part, this reference to Lang was not much more than a courtesy, for the essay originated as the "Andrew Lang Lecture." (It was given at the University of Saint Andrews in March 1939, when he had already begun work on The Lord of the Rings.) Tolkien disliked much in Lang's work, and was by no means a follower of Lang, especially in 1939, when he was trying to write The Lord of the Rings as a story for adults, and so particularly resented the assumption that fairy tales were necessarily children's literature. But in part the reference was a genuine tribute, not just a courtesy, for although Tolkien might rebel against much of what he found in Lang, he also found much to admire and use. Being one of the Green children was an important part of his growth as a writer. His use of Lang's anthologies in "On Fairy-Stories" was thorough-going, citing not only Lang's Green preface, but also the Blue, Violet, and Lilac prefaces, and discussing in some detail Lang's choice of contents for the Blue and Lilac volumes; he also commented on The Chronicles of Pantouflia, two of Lang's own fairy tales. Lang was thus for Tolkien both an important example to follow--and to defy.