fairy story

In the end it’s just a fairy story, really.

“This is sort of a fairy story — I’d never done anything onstage in my life, but I wrote to Britten and I said, ‘I think I am eminently suited to the role of Oberon.’”

One excited listener wrote: "I first clapped the phones to my ears, a recitation was in progress, and then a voice announced 'Now, children, listen to this lovely fairy story'."

McKay notes that Tolkien emerged from World War I with a complex fairy story, unlike many of his literary peers who were writing about wastelands and darkness.

So, as in all good fairy stories, it was the court jester who solved the problem, not without some slight deception but to the satisfaction of the Princess Lenore.