THE FAIRY TALE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20490, 15 February 1930, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE FAIRY TALE.

IS IT PASSING) 1

BY KATHERINE CARR.

Nothing that bears tho mark of antiquity or traditions goes uncriticised to-day. Tho " little folk " of Fairyland could not hare hoped to escape. So we find a writer in a London journal confessing his reluctant conclusion that the fairy-talo is an anachronism and that it no longer has the power to interest and amuso our children. Furthermore, ho quotes the dictum of an American IJ'eachers' College which urges that Fairyland and all its " utterly ridiculous tales " should be definitely banished from tho school and tho nursery. Alas, poor Fairyland! And is this tho gratitude that* wo who are grown-up now and so full of modern conceit and scepticism yould return for the magic spells you wove for lis when we were very young ! Fairv-lore is as old as tho imagination

of-man, and as widespread as the human race. Some primeval instinct —the prompting perhaps of ignorance, fear and superstitition —lias 1 to the creating of spirits, - or sprites, in the minds of primitive men wherever life exists. Fear created demons find Hobgoblins, wizards and witches and all the powers of evil and darkness. But hope which flickers eternally in the minds of men gave birth to the fairies, the children of light and benevolence and kindliness to mortals. That the oldfashioned fairy-tale does not appeal to every ' child is perfectly true—and has always been true. The child who lacks the priceless gift of imagination can never get a thrill out of the transformation of n puni'pkin into a beautiful gilded coach, of trapped mice into prancing white horses and of a ragged Cinderella into a princess, but to the child whose mind can visualise these wonders what a web of enchantment and romance enmeshes him with the bed-time story! There is something £0 satisfying about the well-chosen and well-told fairy-tale. Evil deeds are so easily punished and virtue rewarded 50 generously. Man-eating giants (if tlie thrill of horror must be introduced) can bo despatched with one blow of a hatchet, or tipped head-first into the sea. lhe evil-doer is always slain or locked up in a mountain, or changed into a toad in tho- ideal fairy-tale while purity and truth and all the other virtues flourish triumphant. That some of our fairy-tales and folklore, however, could be improved by a jittlc modern* revision is undeniable. A clever story-teller can quite well omit or alter appropriately any incidents that make light of cruelty and wholesale slaughter. The primitive killing instinct is ingrained in us quite deeply enough Without being strengthened through the medium of tho fairy-tale. Rather than have Red Riding llood'3 grandmother gobbled up by the wolf we should dispose of her temporarily in some more inirenius fashion and rescue her joyously at tho close of the story. - Even grownup people find it hard enough to accept the most artistically presented " unhappy ending " to a tale, so as far as we can we "should let the children's stories have a satisfying conclusion, and cut out or alter those that have not. But as for banishing the whole population of fairyland from the school and story-book and refusing to pass on to the children our wondrous heritage of myth and story,- the idea is absurd. Though life changes with'the march of progress, the imagination of the child mind is no less vivid than of old and though I have told numberless tales to rnanv different children I have never yet known the fairy-tale to have lost its old enchantment. The' one -essential' is to suit tho tale 4.0 occasion and the company and the fairies themselves will steal in through the wincU'ws and weave their spell.