“How powerful, how stimulating to the very faculty
that produced it, was the invention of the adjective: no spell or incantation
in Faerie is more potent. […] The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey,
yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things
light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into
a swift water. […] When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red
from blood, we have already an enchanter’s power – upon one plane; and the
desire to wield that power in the world external to our minds awakes. […] In
such ‘fantasy,’ as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a
sub-creator.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories”
