On Magic, Allegory, and Mythology

In our overall discussion of Tolkien's, "On Fairy-stories", quite a few people mentioned that Tolkien seemed to believe Faerie ought to be enchanted, but not extravagantly so, and that any magic within Faerie should be treated as if it were normal and generally accepted by the characters within it (the story). This bit of insight helped complete my understanding of Tolkien's purposes.

Initially I knew from my portion of the text that Tolkien thought of allegory (nature myths), mythology, and history, as being a part of the same "thread". Underlying each seems to consistently be some truth about the human condition, namely the curse of temptation. This portion makes a great deal of sense if one considers things the way Tolkien did: Stories of the truth of the human experience are invented, reinvented, passed along, altered (either in general nature or in ending), yet tend to revolve around characters that are personified or are inspired by Man. Unfortunately, it wasn't so clear to me why Tolkien was so displeased with Faerie--critiquing it more than praising it.

Again, our discussion made clear the fact that Tolkien seems to believe that Faerie would be better off if it didn't extraordinarily exist, in its own right, and if man were not the obvious creators or protagonists within it (although he was fine with subtle allegory and meaning). What makes Faerie magical is not the fact that it encompasses characters or creatures outside of what we will ever see, but that in reading or observing Faerie, we get to feel like we are in another type of reality. Other things exist that are bigger than we are, with different legend, and we get to be inhabitants of a new place.