eucatastrophe
resolution of events
a happy ending
Eucatastrophe.
In the opinion piece, Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth By Michael D.C. Drout, in today’s New York Times, Dr. Drout writes:
In 1939, when he was beginning work on “The Lord of the Rings” in earnest, Tolkien gave a lecture, “On Fairy-Stories,” in which he argued that fantasy can be an escape from sorrow, even a source of joy, through what he called “eucatastrophe,” the sudden, unexpected turn that results in a happy ending.
According to Wikipedia, “The philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe, the word traditionally used in classically inspired literary criticism to refer to the “unravelling” or conclusion of a drama’s plot. For Tolkien, the term appears to have had a thematic meaning that went beyond its literal etymological meaning in terms of form. As he defines it in his essay “On Fairy-Stories”, based on a lecture he gave in 1939, eucatastrophe is a fundamental part of his conception of mythopoeia. Though Tolkien’s interest is in myth, it is connected to the gospel; Tolkien, a devout Catholic, calls the Incarnation of Christ the eucatastrophe of “human history” and the Resurrection the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation.”
Eucatastrophe.
The online dictionary defines it as, “a sudden and favorable resolution of events in a story; a happy ending.”
What do I want for Christmas for my Country?
A eucatastrophe!
It’s just what I want and I didn’t even know the word until this morning.
Wipe it clean like the incoming tide.
I want to emerge from my bath, running down the hall yelling eucatastrophe, eucatastrophe!
And this holiday season, may the eucatastrophe be yours!
No Haiku For You 