Of fairy tales, princesses & dragons
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
- G. K. Chesterton, quoted as an epigraph in Neil Gaiman’s novel ‘Coraline’
“How could we forget those old myths which are to be found in the beginnings of every people; the myths of the dragons which are transformed, at the last moment, into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our life are princesses, who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrifying is at bottom the helplessness that seeks our help.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ (translated by Reginald Snell)
Advertisement
