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A eucatastrophe is a sudden turn of events in a story which ensures that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and plausible and probable doom.^[1] The concept was created by the philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien in his essay "On Fairy-Stories", based on a 1939 lecture. The term has since been taken up by other authors, and by scholars.

Origins

The philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe, the word traditionally used in classically inspired literary criticism to refer to the "unravelling" or conclusion of a drama's plot. For Tolkien, the term appears to have had a thematic meaning that went beyond its literal etymological meaning in terms of form.^[2] As he defines it in his essay "On Fairy-Stories", based on a lecture he gave in 1939,^[3] eucatastrophe is a fundamental part of his conception of mythopoeia. Though Tolkien's interest is in myth, it is connected to the gospel; Tolkien, a devout Catholic, calls the Incarnation of Christ the eucatastrophe of "human history" and the Resurrection the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation.^[4]

Eucatastrophe in fiction has been labelled by some as a form of deus ex machina, due to both sharing an impossible problem being suddenly resolved.^[5]^[6] However, differences between the two have been noted, such as eucatastrophe's inherent connection to an optimistic view on the unfolding of events in the narrative of the world.^[7] In Tolkien's view, eucatastrophe can occur without the use of a deus ex machina.^[8]

Examples

The best-known and most fully realized eucatastrophe in Tolkien's work occurs in the climax of The Lord of the Rings. Though victory seems assured for Sauron, the One Ring is permanently destroyed as a result of Gollum's waylaying of Frodo at Mount Doom.^[9]

Another example of eucatastrophe is the recurring role of the eagles as unexpected rescuers throughout Tolkien's writing. While their role has been described as that of a deus ex machina,^[10] Tolkien described Bilbo's "eucatastrophic emotion" at the eagles' appearance in The Hobbit as one of the key moments of the book.^[11]

In work by other authors, the explosion of the Death Star in Star Wars, or the kiss that saves Snow White, have been characterized as eucatastrophes. Longtermists such as Owen Cotton-Barratt and Toby Ord have adopted the word to refer to any hypothetical future transition that would provide "existential hope" of not only averting human extinction, but also hope of an "efflorescence" of future abundance.^[12]