eucatastrophe

He also coined the term eucatastrophe, though it remains mainly used in connection with his own work.

The eucatastrophe is a classical catastrophe with an unexpected positive outcome for the protagonist.

For in every "eucatastrophe" we see a glimmer of an even deeper reality-the Christian story itself.

In his view, Eucatastrophe can also occur without the use of a deus ex machina.

The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation.

The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man's history.

And third, Tolkien suggests that fairy stories can provide moral or emotional consolation, through their happy ending, which he terms a "eucatastrophe".

Some critics have argued that eucatastrophe, and in particular the eagles, exemplify deus ex machina.

Another example of eucatastrophe is the recurring role of the eagles as unexpected rescuers throughout Tolkien's writing.

Eucatastrophe has been observed in the climax of The Lord of the Rings.

Eucatastrophe has been labelled as a form of deus ex machina, due to both sharing an impossible problem being suddenly resolved.

For him the eucatastrophic tale is the true form of the fairy-story; and the telling of a eucatastrophe is it highest function.

In the twentieth century, J.R.R. Tolkien distinguished between what he called the catastrophe and the eucatastrophe.

By mentioning the date Tolkien was presenting his 'eucatastrophe' as a forerunner or 'type'of the greater one of Christian myth.

Yet escape from death is found in the glorious afterlife with Aslan in what Tolkien calls Eucatastrophe, or a truly happy ending.

Bilbo, like Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, is saved by an unlooked-for eucatastrophe just as he faces “the end of all things”.

J. R. R. Tolkien coined the term eucatastrophe to refer to a sudden turn of events that ensures the protagonist does not meet some impending fate.

But in his essay On Fairy Stories, published just after The Hobbit, Tolkien declared: “The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history.

Others contend that the two concepts are not the same, and that eucatastrophe is not merely a convenience, but is an established part of a fictive world in which hope ultimately prevails.

Yet there is at least one moment at which Revelation seems very close and allegory does all but break through - naturally enough, a moment of 'eucatastrophe', to use Tolkien's term for sudden moments of fairy-tale salvation.

'The eucatastrophe comes as a sudden glimpse of Truth, 'your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back.

Often emphatically referred to as the Great Eagles, they appear, usually and intentionally serving as agents of eucatastrophe or deus ex machina, in various parts of his legendarium, from The Silmarillion and the accounts of Númenor to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.