Leaf by Niggle

Leaf by Niggle is a short story written by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1938 and 1939 and first published in the Dublin Review in January of 1945. It can be found most notably in Tolkien's collection titled Tree and Leaf. Along with the seminal essay "On Fairy-Stories", "Leaf by Niggle" helps to reveal the underlying philosophy (i.e. "creation" and "sub-creation") of much of Tolkien's fantastical writings. 
In 1997, Leaf by Niggle was included in the official collective publication of Tolkien's short stories, Tales from the Perilous Realm. In 2003, an audiobook of this story and Smith of Wootton Major was released, narrated by actor Derek Jacobi.
==Synopsis==
An artist named Niggle lives in a society that does not value art. Working only to please himself, he paints a canvas of a great tree in the middle of a forest. He invests obsessive attention to detail in every leaf of his tree, making every leaf uniquely beautiful. Niggle ends up either discarding all his other artwork or tacking pieces onto the main canvas, which becomes a single vast embodiment of his vision.
However, many mundane chores and duties prevent Niggle from giving his work the attention it deserves, so it remains incomplete and not fully realized. 
At the back of his mind, Niggle knows that he has a great trip approaching and must pack his bags, but he keeps delaying the task.
Niggle's next door neighbor, a gardener named Parish, is always needing help with various jobs since he is lame of foot and has a sick wife; Niggle, having a good heart, takes time to help, though he does so grudgingly. Niggle catches a chill doing errands for Parish in the rain.
At last, Niggle is forced to take his trip. He is not prepared and therefore ends up in an Workhouse Infirmary where he must perform menial labor each day.
He is eventually paroled from the Workplace Infirmary and is sent to a place in the country to work as a gardener in a forest. To his joy, he discovers that the forest is in fact the Forest of his great painting, which is now long abandoned and nearly destroyed (except for one perfect leaf which is placed in the Town Museum). The Great Tree in the Forest is the true realization of his vision, to which the flawed and incomplete form of his painting could not do justice.
Niggle is reunited with his old neighbor, Parish, who now proves his worth as a gardener, and together they make the Great Tree and Forest even more beautiful. Finally, Niggle journeys farther and deeper into the Forest and beyond the Edge into the great Mountains that he only faintly glimpsed in his painting.
==Allegory==
"Leaf by Niggle" has been interpreted as an allegory to life, death, purgatory, and heaven: Niggle is not prepared for his unavoidable trip, as humans often are not prepared for death. His time in the Workhouse Infirmary and subsequent discovery of his Great Tree represent purgatory followed by paradise. The story also gives insight to Tolkien's religious philosophy of creation and sub-creation: "true creation" is the exclusive province of God, and those who aspire and create things only make "echoes" (good) or "mockeries" (evil) of the truth - while "sub-creation" of work that echo the true creations of God is a way for mortals to honor him.
==Appearances and mentions==
==Translations==
Foreign Language 	Translated name
Afrikaans 	Blad deur Niggle
Albanian 	Fletë nga Niggle
Arabic 	ورقة نبات بواسطة نيععلي
Azerbaijani 	Niggle tərəfindən yarpaq
Basque 	Niggle-ren hostoa
Catalan 	Fulla de Niggle
Croatian 	List po Niggle
Czech 	List od Nimrala
Danish 	Nørkles blad
Dutch 	Blad van Klein
Esperanto 	Folio per Niggle
Finnish 	Niukun lehti
French 	Feuille, de Niggle
Galician 	Folla por Niggle
Georgian 	ნიგლის ფოთოლი
German 	Blatt von Tüftler
Gujarati 	નિગ્ગલ દ્વારા પર્ણ
Haitian Creole 	Fèy pa Niggle
Hebrew 	עלה לפי ןיגגלי
Hindi 	णिग्ग्ले द्वारा पत्ता
Hmong 	Nplooj ntoos los ntawm Niggle
Icelandic 	Lauf af Niggle
Irish Gaelic 	Duilleog ag Niggle
Japanese 	ニグルの木の葉
Javanese 	Godhong kanthi Niggle
Kurdish 	Pel bi destê Niggle (Kurmanji)
Latin 	Folium a Niggle
Latvian 	Lapas ar Niggle
Lithuanian 	Lapas, nutapytas Niekelio
Luxembourgish 	Blat vum Niggle
Macedonian Cyrillic	Лист од Ниггле
Manx 	Duillag er Niggle
Marathi 	निग्गल करून लीफ
Nepalese 	पत्ता द्वारा निगले
Norwegian 	Blad av Niggle
Old English 	Lēaf to Niggle
Pashto 	پاڼه د نیګګلې
Persian 	برگ توسط نیگگله
Polish 	Liść, dzieło Niggle'a
Portuguese 	Folha por Niggle
Romanian 	Frunză de Niggle
Russian 	Лист кисти Ниггля
Slovak 	List podľa Niggle
Slovenian 	List z Niggle
Somalian 	Caleen by Niggle
Spanish 	Hoja, de Niggle
Sundanese 	Daun ku Niggle
Swahili 	Jani na Niggle
Swedish 	Blad av Niggle
Turkish 	Niggle tarafından yaprak
Vietnamese 	Lá của Niggle
Western Mari 	Нигглын ӹлӹмӓшӹжӹ
Yiddish 	בלאט דורך ניגגלע
==External links==
*Leaf by Niggle - a symbolic story about a small painter
*The volume Tree and Leaf that contains "Leaf by Niggle" along with other works by Tolkien, available at Amazon.com
Category:Works by J.R.R. Tolkien
de:Blatt von Tüftler
pl:Liść, dzieło Niggle'a
ru:Лист кисти Ниггля
fr:Feuille de Niggle
es:Hoja de Niggle
Category:Short stories