Tolkien originally wrote the essay in 1939 for his lecture on the subject of Fairly Tales in general to an audience at University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Afterwards, it was first published within Essays Presented to Charles Williams in 1947. It was then subsequently published with Leaf by Niggle in Tree and Leaf as well as in The Tolkien Reader, around 1966. It has since been renewed as an Expanded edition (pictured right), edited by Tolkien scholars Verlyn Flieger and Douglas Anderson, in 2008.