Northern Air

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

All it needs is a ruddy big dragon to descend with flames of fury to make it complete.

This kind of writing, together with the intimate re-imaginings of folklore (e.g. Tom and the Hobbits), is to me where Tolkien really excels. He just tells the story, no matter how violent, with no narratorial interruptions or asides, and it's left to you, the listener, to get your kicks. It's fey and fell and all of that.

Does anyone else get the urge to go on a rampage and burn a few ships after reading that kind of thing?

I rather think that such desire to rampage in the Primary World is not Tolkien-endorsed and defeats the purpose of Tolkien's concept of fairie.

Originally Posted by Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories

The dragon had the trade-mark Of Faërie written plainly upon him. In whatever world he had his being it was an Other-world. Fantasy, the making or glimpsing of Other-worlds, was the heart of the desire of Faërie. I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood, intruding into my relative safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear.

Any work which compels readers to go out and actually act the dragon or the Viking or seek them would, I suspect, be regarded by Tolkien as pornography.