Every’ nation has its fairy tales. May of which are
very ancient, and have come down from the old days when people really believed
in the existence and powers of fairies, and other supernatural beings. Some of
the most beautiful fairy tales come from ancient Greece, like those of Theseus
and the Minotaur, Perseus and Andromeda, Pandora’s Box, Jason and the Golden
Fleece, and many’ other famous ones. The old German stories were collected into
a book by a scholar called Grim, and are known as Grimm’s “Fairy Tales”.
England has many. And Pakistan is specially’ rich in them, and ‘The Arabian Night”
is a famous collection of old Eastern tales of magic and mystery.
Some of these stories are not only’ very old, but
are found with slight differences in many different nations and languages for
example, the story of Cinderella and ‘the Glass Slipper, Blue Beard and his
Wives, and the Sleeping Beauty. Scholars think that such stories go back to the
time when the Aryans were once united people, before they split up into
different nations, some of which occupied Europe, and some went east and
settled in Persia and Subcontinent.
Besides these old stories of ancient folklore, many
beautiful fairy tales have been written in modern times by writers of genius, like
Hans Andersen in Germany, and Chases Kingston, James Barrie and Walter de la
Mare in England -- whose stories are read with delight, not only by children,
but also by grown up people.
Of course no one now a -- days believes in fairies,
except ignorant and superstitious villagers, and, perhaps, children. And yet
even authors of genius still write fairy tales, and people still read them with
pleasure. Children still love fairy stories and their mothers still think it is
a good thing to tell them.
We live in a very practical and matter of fact age,
and our daily drudgery an -our monotonous lives cannot satisfy the craving for
romance that is more or less in all human beings. So we seek for romance in
fiction; and grown up people read novels, and children love to hear fairy
tales. Though we know the novels are fiction, anew even children no longer
really believe in fairies, we still fin pleasure in such tales, because they
take us away for a little tine from our dull, everyday life.
Moreover, fairy tales are good for children,
because the express and keep alive the sense of wonder, which is a very value
possession for adults as well as children. The universe is full a “history, and
life is a mystery. Modern science has not cleared it mystery up. And the oldest
and wisest men cannot explain Hun life. But people who get a little knowledge,
think they can expel; everything, and pretend to wonder at nothing. In reality,
wonder the beginning of all knowledge, and when we cease to wonder, cease to
learn.