The 'Primary World' is a term used by J.R.R. Tolkien to describe the modern world, or our actual reality. It contrasts with his concept of the Secondary World(such as Middle-Earth) which is the immersive, imaginary world created by an author, or "sub-creator". Tolkien envisioned his mythologies as a fictional, forgotten, and mythical past of our own Earth.
Background:
Tolkien defined these concepts in his essay "On Fairy-Stories," stating that a successful story creates a "Secondary World" that the reader's mind can enter and believe in while within. Tolkien explicitly stated that Middle-earth is our world, but set in an imagined period of antiquity. He intended to create a mythology for England, his home country, while linking his own works to European mythology and history. Tolkien often emphasized that the "Secondary World" must hold internal consistency, or the reader will be pulled back into the "Primary World," breaking the immersion.[1]
Sources
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien(1947), On Fairy-Stories, pages 17-25