ABSTRACT
One of Tolkien’s most memorable lines in “On Fairy Stories”, an essay bursting with remarkable statements, comes when he’s complaining about the limitations of stories meant for stage: “if you prefer Drama to Literature (as many literary critics plainly do) … you are apt to misunderstand pure story-making, and to constrain it to the limitations of stage-plays. You are, for instance, likely to prefer characters, even the basest and dullest, to things. Very little about trees as trees can be got into a play” (emphasis added).1 This line is notable for any number of reasons, not the least of which is Tolkien’s perennial arboreal fascination.
