Om eventyr, drager, det onde og det gode

DEN GODE SLUTTEN: "Eventyr er mer enn sanne; ikke fordi de forteller oss at drager eksisterer, men fordi de forteller oss at drager kan beseires." (G. K. Chesterton)
Skjermbilde fra filmatiseringen av J. R. R. Tolkiens triologi "Ringenes Herre". Inne i Morias berg møter Gandalv på balrogen, den brennende skyggen fra dypet. "Vend tilbake til Skyggen! Du kommer ikke forbi," beordrer Gandalv. "You shall not pass!"

Det er 103 år siden G. K. Chesterton uttalte seg om eventyr, drager og frykt, men fortsatt har han ordene sine i behold.

G. K. Chesterton
(1874-1936)

"Fairy tales, then, are not responsible for producing in children fear, or any of the shapes of fear; fairy tales do not give the child the idea of the evil or the ugly; that is in the child already, because it is in the world already.

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination.

What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear."

Fra Tremendous Trifles (1909)