J.R.R. Tolkien (January 3, 1892--September 2, 1973)

"Such stories have now a mythical or total (unanalysable) effect, an effect quite independent of the findings of Comparative Folk-lore, and one which it cannot spoil or explain; they open a door on Other Time, and if we pass through, though only for a moment, we stand outside our own time, outside Time itself, maybe," writes Tolkien in "On Fairy-Stories," though the description would apply equally to his own tales.