Eucatastrophe [yew-kuh-tas-truh-fee] is a term coined by J. R. R. Tolkien which refers to the sudden turn of events at the end of a story which ensure that the protagonist does not meet some terrible, impending, and very plausible doom. He formed 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 ‘unraveling’ or conclusion of a drama’s plot.
For Tolkien, the term appears to have had a thematic meaning that went beyond its implied meaning in terms of form. In his definition as outlined in his 1947 essay ‘On Fairy-Stories,’ it is a fundamental part of his conception of mythopoeia (the creation of myths). Though Tolkien’s interest is in myth, it is also connected to the gospels; Tolkien calls the Incarnation (God taking a physical form, as Jesus in Tolkien’s view) the eucatastrophe of ‘human history’ and the Resurrection the eucatastrophe of the Incarnation.
It could be said that the climax of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a eucatastrophe. Though victory seems assured for Sauron, the One Ring is permanently destroyed through Gollum’s carelessness, and with it the Dark Lord and his fortress of Barad-dûr. This occurs despite Frodo, the chief protagonist, giving in to the will of the Ring and claiming it for himself. Essentially, it is an ostensibly dire situation which is nevertheless salvaged through some unforeseeable turn of events.
‘Eucatastrophe’ is often confused with deus ex machina, in that they both serve to save the protagonist. The key difference is that the eucatastrophe fits within the established framework of the story, whereas the deus ex machina, the ‘God from the machine,’ suddenly and inexplicably introduces a character, force, or event that has no pre-existing narrative reference. In ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ while some of the events may seem unlikely or even impossible, they still remain consistent with the overall story.
The Daily Omnivore 