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A review by brucefarrar
The Golden Key by George MacDonald
5.0
Fascinated by a tale told him by his great-aunt about a golden key hidden by the fairies at the end of the rainbow, a boy sees a rainbow in the woods at sundown, and goes to investigate. Fearful that the three bears of her story book are at her door a girl escapes from her bedroom window and runs into the woods. Thus Mossy the boy and Tangle the girl embark on their adventure in Fairyland.
Their fairy tale quest is also a surreal and metaphysical tale of recurring existence, filled with hints of Christian metaphors. Three times is often the charm for MacDonald beginning with the reference to the folktale Silverhair (more commonly known now as Goldilocks and the three bears). The protagonists, Mossy, the boy and Tangle, the girl, encounter three men in various stages of their lives: old, young, and infant. These men or boys aid them on their way. Mossy and Tangle themselves also experience these three ages, but like their three guides, it’s not necessarily in the usual chronological order, indicating that the fairyland through which they journey is outside the bounds of time and space. It is a place of reoccurrence and resurrection and also one of separation and reunion. And as Yolen points out in the afterword, it’s also “an extended metaphor of life and death.”
Their fairy tale quest is also a surreal and metaphysical tale of recurring existence, filled with hints of Christian metaphors. Three times is often the charm for MacDonald beginning with the reference to the folktale Silverhair (more commonly known now as Goldilocks and the three bears). The protagonists, Mossy, the boy and Tangle, the girl, encounter three men in various stages of their lives: old, young, and infant. These men or boys aid them on their way. Mossy and Tangle themselves also experience these three ages, but like their three guides, it’s not necessarily in the usual chronological order, indicating that the fairyland through which they journey is outside the bounds of time and space. It is a place of reoccurrence and resurrection and also one of separation and reunion. And as Yolen points out in the afterword, it’s also “an extended metaphor of life and death.”