searching for the source of a quote

fadermcgee

2004-04-01 20:20:59 UTC

Does anyone know the EXACT source of the following quote?
"Fairy tales don't tell children that dragons exist. Children already

know

that. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed."
I know it's attributed to G. K. Chesterton (author of the Father Brown
mysteries a century ago), but I haven't been able to track down the

specific

writing in which he used it.

Found a variation at http://www.phnet.fi/public/mamaa1/chesterton.htm
"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons
exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated."
It may be well to add that to your search.
Also, Neil Gaiman's novel Coraline Attributes this version th G.K.
Chesterton, so I don't think you'd have any problems doing the same.
Another expanded version of the above is at
http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/quotes.html
"Fairy tales are not true--fairy tales are important, and they are not true,
they are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but
because they tell us that dragons can be defeated."
Sorry if you've already considered this.

C.S. Lewis, in his essay "On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (it can be
found in his posthumous anthology "Of Other Worlds,"
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York and London, 1966, ISBN 0-15-667897-7)
also pulls some weight along these lines -

"Those who say that children must not be frightened may mean... (1) that we
must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling,
pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless... Or they may
mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is
born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and
cowardice, good and evil. If they mean the first I agree with them; but not
if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a
false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is
something ludicrous in so educating a generation which is born to the OGPU
("secret police" - VPF) and the atomic bomb. Since it is so likely they
will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and
heroic courage. Otherwise, you are making their destiny not brighter but
darker."

Certainly not as elegant as the way Chesterton puts it, but I found that
Lewis' formulation gave me more explicit guidance on how to proceed with the
moral education of my sons. Your mileage may vary, of course....

VPF