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What is a fairy tale? For examples, we immediately think of traditional stories like Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin’s Lamp, Rumpelstiltskin, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and many others. What is a fairy tale? First, it is a good story, second, it usually has magical elements in it, and third, virtue is rewarded and evil punished. There are also often some allegorical elements. A fairy tale can be a good teaching tool, as well as a good read. Modern fairy tales, such as The Selfish Giant and The Happy Prince, by Oscar Wilde, have their moral qualities underpinned by Biblical truth and definitely have allegorical elements that add to the depth of the stories.
George MacDonald (1824-1905), a Scotsman, specialized in fairy tales, some of them novel-length, that give Biblical truth clothed in the traditional elements of fairy tales, mixed together with a beautiful creativity that results in a lovely story that is worth reading, reading aloud to children, then repeating. C.S. Lewis was greatly influenced by George MacDonald’s fairy tale stories. Lewis said that another book of MacDonald’s, Phantastes, was influential in his eventual salvation just because it combined fairy tales, which Lewis loved all his life, with spiritual truth, which he had always rejected until his late 20’s. Lewis’ book, The Great Divorce, featured MacDonald as a major character. George MacDonald was trained at the college level in chemistry and physics then later became a pastor. He then turned to writing, both fairy tales, historical novels, and sermons, to support his family of eleven children. He was a friend and mentor to Lewis Carroll and encouraged him to submit Alice in Wonderland for publication. G.K. Chesterton was profoundly influenced by MacDonald’s book The Princess and the Goblin.
This review is on two books from MacDonald that go together in a series: (1) The Princess and the Goblin and (2) The Princess and Curdie. The reading level is probably upper middle school and older. Just because they are fairy tales does not mean they are only for children!
In The Princess and the Goblin, the princess is Princess Irene, and she is helped by her friend, an older boy named Curdie, who works in the mines under the kingdom digging up valuable ore. There is a fairy grandmother, who is much older and represents more than she seems, who watches over Irene and Curdie. Then there are the goblins, a cruel race that live in caverns that connect with the deep mines that supply the ore on which the kingdom’s wealth is based. In The Princess and the Goblin, Curdie is sure that the goblins are up to something and in the darkness, he tries to find out their evil plan. In the palace, Irene meets her grandmother and is told that there is a task appointed for her. The whole novel has a dream-like quality to it, though there are daring adventures and dangerous misunderstandings that unfold along the way to a satisfying conclusion.
The Princess and Curdie continue the story, one year later. Irene has gone away with her father, the King, who is a good man. Curdie, after his heroism in the first book, is gradually growing morally coarser. Then he meets Irene’s grandmother, and starts to change. After a time, he meets her again and she gives him a gift: if he takes the hand of anyone, he can immediately feel if they are good and human, or evil and turning into an animal in their heart. Curdie is also able to tell what kind of animal they are turning into. Irene’s grandmother gives him a mission: to travel far and rescue Irene from an evil plot against her and her father. He will be accompanied by Lina, a grotesque creature like a cross between a leopard and a fox, whose paw indicates to Curdie that she is slowly turning human and good. Other bizarre creatures like Lina play a large role in helping Curdie to defeat the evil rebels. The Princess and Curdie is a deeper book than The Princess and the Goblin, with fascinating insights into people and spiritual truths. However, it is still primarily a wonderful, adventurous story illuminated by the courage and ingenuity of Princess Irene and her miner boy, Curdie.