Abstract
In "On Fairy-Stories," Tolkien introduces the concept of Faerian drama: plays which the elves present to men, with a "realism and immediacy beyond the compass of any human mechanism," where the viewer feels he is "bodily inside its Secondary World" but instead is "in a dream that some other mind is weaving." It is "a potion too strong" and the viewer/participant can't help but give it primary belief while it is happening. Faerian drama is a form of Elvish art one can almost but not quite grasp and understand, something the witness/participant will ponder and work through for the rest of his life. I will suggest that Tolkien may have been influenced in his development of the concept by Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the dream-like events that Gawain experiences and what he learns from them. I will examine some examples of Faerian drama in Tolkien's fiction and poetry, concentrating especially on his final story, Smith of Wootton Major, and the experiences Smith has in Faery.