Communications Manager Kyla Merwin recommends the short story, “Leaf by Niggle,” in Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Tomorrow, March 25, those of a certain Fellowship celebrate a seminal event: The downfall of Sauron, lord of Mordor, the One Ring, the Orc and the Uruk-hai, and all things evil. In the modern vernacular, we call March 25 Tolkien Reading Day.
So, let’s take a journey together—an inescapable journey between desire and responsibility, hope and despair …
… far away from Middle-earth, orcs and elves, wizards and hobbits. Specifically, to a tree in a very different place inside the grand landscape of a little man named Niggle.
Niggle is an artist. His current passion project is a tree—with ever expanding branches and twigs and leaves, painted in exquisite detail. He sacrifices all of his other creative endeavors in favor of this tree, sometimes attaching abandoned works to the fringes and margins of the landscape in which this tree grows.
Niggle has a good heart, a talent for painting and for procrastination, and a sincerely needful neighbor. Negotiating a life that consistently pulls him away from his painting, Niggle neglects to prepare for a great, imminent journey—a journey, we may infer, that we must all take.
Scholars suggest that Niggle is a reflection of the author himself, and that “Leaf by Niggle” is allegorical to the journey of death, purgatory, redemption, and – shall we say? – the Undying Lands.
Interestingly, Niggle’s quiet struggles mirror Frodo’s epic quest in The Lord of the Rings. Where Frodo carries the crushing burden of the One Ring to Mount Doom, Niggle carries the quieter burdens of duty and compassion, repeatedly sacrificing his own desires to care for others.
Both journeys demand personal sacrifice. Both reveal that true heroism is often found in loyalty, not glory.
But where Frodo walks through the dramatic wastelands of Mordor, Niggle traverses profound, interior landscapes of the soul. Tolkien layers meaning into every one of the story’s brief twenty-seven pages, weaving together art, mortality, and hope.
What remains is a sweet and powerful reminder: small acts of kindness, persistence, and creativity matter in this life. And perhaps, the unfinished works we leave behind—our dreams, our art, our regrets—might, in some better world, find completion. Or, as Tolkien might have put it, find their place in the Undying Lands.
Find Tales from the Perilous Realm in our collection here.
Note: This review was revised with AI assistance.
