I was just reading a popular series for children when I noticed that in the introduction, the portal of magic for this particular book was owned by Morgan Le Fay, a “magical librarian from the time of Arthur.” Now, you may have already guessed from my previous posts that I’m a great lover of fantasy, fairy tales, folklore, and science fiction. I believe they are extremely important in the ethical and literary development in children. (Our Lord is not afraid of your child’s imagination.) Too often, censoring these types of materials is done from fear that God will not triumph in your child’s life. With that defense of imaginative literature having been said, I will make my next point. When you read a reference in a story that has its roots in Biblical metaphors or literary lore, you should be aware of the character it’s pointing to...
Morgan Le Fay has several developments in Arthurian lore. But one thing that is not consistent through the literature is her goodness. In fact, most collectors of the Arthurian tales have her connected as a mother or aunt of a traitor. Usually she is depicted as an adversary of Arthur, and in many versions, she is considered an evil character. Therefore I find it odd that the writer would choose this particular character to be the owner of this wonderful portal of magic that is the backbone for the whole series. When creating a background setting whether it’s magical or historical; writers need to have an ethical responsibility for truth in literature. Her statement above implies to children an association of a good librarian type persona to a traditionally not-so-good character. And that definitely nettles me a bit. Now, I don’t want to be too hard here, because all in all, this author (purposely not named) has done a great job in motivating young children to read fantasy and adventure. What I do resent though is the trend that Christian parents generally let their children read this series, yet usually forbid Harry Potter. I don’t mind stating Harry Potter by name because I love JK Rowling and I will say that she maintains deep and consistent Biblical parallels in her metaphors --- on the same or even greater par than the Narnia series. Yes, I confess, I am -- and will remain -- a Rowling fan. You will see lots of posts referencing HP in the future.
Morgan Le Fay has several developments in Arthurian lore. But one thing that is not consistent through the literature is her goodness. In fact, most collectors of the Arthurian tales have her connected as a mother or aunt of a traitor. Usually she is depicted as an adversary of Arthur, and in many versions, she is considered an evil character. Therefore I find it odd that the writer would choose this particular character to be the owner of this wonderful portal of magic that is the backbone for the whole series. When creating a background setting whether it’s magical or historical; writers need to have an ethical responsibility for truth in literature. Her statement above implies to children an association of a good librarian type persona to a traditionally not-so-good character. And that definitely nettles me a bit. Now, I don’t want to be too hard here, because all in all, this author (purposely not named) has done a great job in motivating young children to read fantasy and adventure. What I do resent though is the trend that Christian parents generally let their children read this series, yet usually forbid Harry Potter. I don’t mind stating Harry Potter by name because I love JK Rowling and I will say that she maintains deep and consistent Biblical parallels in her metaphors --- on the same or even greater par than the Narnia series. Yes, I confess, I am -- and will remain -- a Rowling fan. You will see lots of posts referencing HP in the future.
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