Other editions of book The Golden

There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt’s stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find there a golden key. “And what is the key for?” the boy would ask. “What is it the key of? What will it open?” “That nobody knows,” his aunt would reply. “He has to find that out

THE GOLDEN KEY By George MacDonald With Illustrations by Maud Humphrey There was a boy who used to sit in the twilight and listen to his great-aunt's stories. She told him that if he could reach the place where the end of the rainbow stands he would find there a golden key. "And what is the key for?" the boy would ask. "What is it the key of? What will it open?" "That nobody knows," his aunt would reply. Now, all that his great-aunt told the boy about the golden key would have been nonsense, had it not been that their little house stood on the borders of Fairyland. For it is perfectly well known that out of Fairyland nobody ever can find where the rainbow stands. The creature takes such good care of its golden key, always flitting from place to place, lest anyone should find it! But in Fairyland it is quite different.

A selection of some of teh best of George MacDonald's short stories for children. They range from the mysterious adventure of the Golden Key to the more light hearted story of the Light Princess. But these are fables with a difference, for George uses each tale to bring home qualities of goodness and love which make these stories invaluable lessons for children of all ages.

Original and unabridged textFirst published in Dealings with the Fairies, The Golden Key is a fairy tale written by George MacDonald and is particularly well noted for the intensity of its imagery.A woman tells her great-nephew of a golden key found at the end of a rainbow. One day, he sees a rainbow and sets out to find the end. The sun sets, but as the forest is in Fairyland, the rainbow only glows the brighter, and he finds the key, and it dawns on him that he does not know where the lock is.Also on the borders of this forest, a merchant's daughter is being cared for by servants, who are such poor housekeepers that they disgust the local fairies, who resolve to get them sent away by frightening off the child. Their first attempts, by animating the furniture in her room, make her laugh, but as she has been reading Silverhair, when they make her think three bears are coming into her bedroom, she flees into the woods.