I shan't call it the end, till we've cleared up the mess.
Eucatastrophe is a neologism coined by J.R.R. Tolkien from Greek ευ- ("good") and καταστροφή ("sudden turn").
In essence, a eucatastrophe is a massive turn in fortune from a seemingly unconquerable situation to an unforeseen victory, usually brought by grace rather than heroic effort. Such a turn is catastrophic in the sense of its breadth and surprise and positive in that a great evil or misfortune is averted.
Coining of the term
In his 1947 essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien described the concept:
I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have [a Happy Ending]. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite — I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function.
Tolkien would go on to say that the joyous "turn" of a Happy Ending is a "sudden and miraculous grace" that is never relied on to happen again. The use of this "eucatastrophe" does not prevent its opposite - the "dyscotastrophe" of sorrow and failure - from occurring. The possibility of dyscotastrophe is necessary to the joy that occurs when eucatastrophe is employed in a tale. In his view, a good fairy-story, however dire its circumstances, can make a person catch their breath when the eucatastrophic miraculous "turn" of a Happy Ending occurs. [1]
Tolkien would further elaborate on eucatastrophes in one of his letters:
(...)I was there led to the view that [eucatastrophe] produces [joy at the turn of a Happy Ending] because it is 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. (...) the Resurrection was the greatest 'eucatastrophe' possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.
Within the legendarium
Tolkien himself made use of the trope of eucatastrophe several times in his own writings. The most famous usage is the final destruction of the One Ring within Mount Doom. Frodo was unable to destroy the Ring by his own strength. The Ring is destroyed by the intervention of Ilúvatar after it is taken from Frodo by Gollum, who Frodo himself spared earlier in the story. Had Gollum not been there, the Ring may only have been destroyed by Frodo casting himself into the fire, if it was destroyed at all.
The other famous example of a eucatastrophe is the War of Wrath fought on behalf of the Eldar at the end of the First Age. Eärendil was able to reach Valinor and persuade the Valar to go to war against Morgoth for the sake of Elves and Men. Without the intervention of the Valar, Morgoth would never have been defeated by any mortal strength.
Luck
You don't really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?"
Luck is a concept recognizing success or failure apparently brought about by chance rather than through direct action. Bilbo Baggins was born with a fair share of it, far exceeding the usual allowance, as Thorin remarked.[3][4] Elrond noted that he did not think it was by chance that many strangers came at the same time to his council, but "rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, must now find counsel for the peril of the world."[5]
Inspiration
Tolkien scholar Joseph Pierce, referencing Tolkien's Catholicism, argues that "luck" is a euphemism for "a supernatural dimension to the unfolding of events in Middle-earth, in which Tolkien shows the mystical balance that exists between the promptings of grace or of demonic temptation and the response of the will to such promptings and temptations. This mystical relationship plays itself out in the form of transcendent Providence, which is much more than 'luck' or chance."[6]
External links
References
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Tree and Leaf, "On Fairy-Stories"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, "The Last Stage"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, "Flies and Spiders"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, "Inside Information"
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, "The Council of Elrond"
- ↑ Joseph Pierce, "'The Hobbit' and Virtue" December 14, 2012, catholiceducation.org, accessed 9 September 2021