In his book, “On Fairy-stories,” Tolkien said: “History often resembles myth, because they are both ultimately of the same stuff.” That helped answer my question about why, as an historical author, I’m currently writing a story that includes both historical and fantasy elements. Imaginative stories, he wrote, “…open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe.”
That is also what historical novels do. To me, these two genres are not far apart, but interconnected. In my book, “Light of the Candle,” it seemed natural for me to write about Daniel’s dreams of the future, of the giant image that haunted a king’s own dreams, of him flying through the air to hover over Jerusalem, or seeing a vision of Sarai as he sat in Babylon. Bible stories are filled with the mystical. Author Madeleine L’Engle reflected: “In art we are able to walk on water; we speak to the angels who call us; we move, unfettered, among the stars.”
Fantasy stories are not only for children, both these authors say, and I believe them. When I was a little girl, I was certain that little fairies lived in the flower beds, that my stuffed animals were alive and could talk to me, that the world contained countless wondrous things that I could not see. I spent many imaginative hours believing in the reality of magic. L’Engle lamented: “We are…taught that fairy tales and myths are to be discarded as soon as we are old enough to understand “reality.” Story, she said, “helped me to learn to live.” Tolkien said: “The association of children and fairy-stories is an accident of our domestic history.” It is a false assumption that we must “grow up” and out of fantasy and myth. Adults, too, need stories of the fantastical.
Tolkien perfectly described fantasy: “The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords….[A fairy-story] contains many things besides elves and fays, and besides dwarfs, witches, trolls, giants, or dragons; it holds the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky; and the earth, and all things that are in it: tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, and ourselves, mortal men, when we are enchanted.”
So I will write of times gone by and of whimsy and revel in it.