Once upon a time

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales."

--Albert Einstein

We picked up a beautiful array of Hans Christian Anderson illustrated fairy tales at the library this morning and spent a quiet afternoon reading our favorites and admiring the appealing artwork. One of the things I like best about sharing old fairy tales is the strong religious faith evident in so many of them. In Anderson's "The Little Mermaid," for example, the mermaid desires with all her heart to become a human because, unlike her kind who may expect to live a few hundred years, human beings possess an immortal soul and the potential to reach Heaven.

This is a bit of the text from the original version:

"'If human beings are not drowned,' asked the little mermaid, 'can they live forever? Do they never die as we do here in the sea?'

"'Yes,' replied [her grandmother], 'they must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. We sometimes live to three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here we only become the foam on the surface of the water, and we have not even a grave down here of those we love. We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; but, like the green sea-weed, when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. Human beings on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, lives after the body has been turned to dust. It rises up through the clear, pure air beyond the glittering stars. As we rise out of the water, and behold all the land of the earth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall never see.'

"'Why have we not an immortal soul?' asked the little mermaid mournfully. 'I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars.'"

Check the shelves for these Hans Christian Anderson titles on your next library visit:

The Snow Queen, illustrated by P.J. Lynch

The Tinderbox, adapted and illustrated by Barry Moser (post civil war version)

The Nightingale, retold by Stephen Mitchell

The Steadfast Tin Soldier, illustrated by Thomas Di Grazia

Thumbelina, illustrated by Arlene Graston

Comments

[Dawn]

Alice, thank you for reminding me of these beautiful stories (and showing them in a new light). I am heading to the library this morning and will look for some books to bring home!

[Leonie]

Thanks for the reminder . I must read some of these , again, with my youngest....

[Mary G in Greenville]

Alice --
I'm reviewing Maureen's book about Catholic HSing and there's a chapter written by Monica Sohler where she talks about the value of fantasy:

"Fantasy has at its core a search for truth, beauty, and goodness, figuratively explained."

She goes one to explain the further benefits but I thought you'd enjoy this quote.

Blessings!

[Alice Gunther]

Many thanks Dawn, Leonie, and Mary. Mary, I love that quote!