Death and the Desire for Deathlessness: Beagle and J. R. R. Tolkien on Fantasy and Mortality

Although an early promoter of J. R. R. Tolkien’s works, Beagle would come to downplay the influence of Tolkienian secondary-world fantasy on his own writing. This chapter closely analyzes the relationship between the works of Tolkien and Beagle primarily in light of concepts put forth in the former author’s theory of the fantasy form. Beagle’s greatest debts to Tolkien lie not in any formal imitations, but rather in similar thematic concerns and jointly shared perspectives on the higher functions of fantasy. The many symbolic associations of the Red Bull can, for example, be understood within this framework as reflecting a fear of oblivion and meaninglessness, against which fantasy’s strategies of meaning-making and reenchantment can act positively.