Notes on the Golden Key

Subheading

The story first appeared in 1867 in "Dealings with the Fairies" (see Shaberman p. 30). It was never serialized, though it did appear in a single volume in the 1880's (Boston: Lothrop).

Like John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, George MacDonald's "The Golden Key" (1867) is an extended parable of the individuals spiritual journey through life. It is a quest, but with the subtle difference that the key (Christ?) has already been found. The question is where is the door that it opens and where does it lead?

The two children stumble into Fairyland (notice that they already live on its borders) by each following the strange and wonderful "air-fish" to the Wise Woman/ Grandmother's cottage.

After eating the "air-fish" the girl, Tangle, finds that all her senses are heightened, for Fairyland is a place of perception, where the marvellous lies hidden in the mundane (Raeper, p. 318).

As MacDonald tells us at the beginning of his story:

"Things that look real in this country look very thin indeed in Fairyland, while some of the things that here cannot stand still for a moment, will not move there."

Mossy (the boy) finds a golden key and is sent out, by the Wise Woman on a journey to find the keyhole that it fits and with it "the country whence the shadows fall."

A central theme in "The Golden Key" is that death is a transformation not an end (witness the air-fish). When Tangle is reluctant to leave the Wise Woman's cottage she is told:

"You must go with him Tangle. I am sorry to lose you, but it will be the best thing for you. Even the fishes, you see, have to go into the pot, and then out into the dark."

Along the way the two children grow old and grey, and they are separated from each other. We continue on the journey with Tangle. The Old Man of the Sea gives her a bath of water from which she is renewed to continue her journey to find the Old Man of the Earth.

Then the Old Man of the Earth stooped over the floor of the cave, raised a huge stone from it, and left it leaning. It disclosed a great hole that went plumb down.
"This is the way," he said.
"But there are no stairs."
"You must throw yourself in. There is no other way."
She turned and looked him full in the face--stood so for a whole minute, as she thought: it was a whole year--then threw herself headlong into the hole."

In the secret heart of the earth she finds the Old Man of the Fire, who is the oldest of all, but is in appearance a little naked child.

"He went on busily, tirelessly, playing his solitary game, without looking up, or seeming to know that there was a stranger in his deep-withdrawn cell. Diligently as a lace-maker shifts her bobbins, he shifted and arranged his balls. Flashes of meaning would now pass from them to Tangle, and now again all would be not merely obscure, but utterly dark."

He hatches a serpent out of an egg for Tangle which leads her to Mossy. Reunited they find the keyhole in the rainbow and, using the key to open the locked door, ascend a long winding stair within the rainbow to reach "the country whence the shadows fall."

Some of the symbolism of The Golden Key can appear at first glance mystifying (as also is that in MacDonald's masterpiece Lilith which was written toward the end of his life) and it is helpful to read the his essay, The Fantastic Imagination, in order to learn his purpose in writing.

The late William Raeper in his biography of MacDonald writes, "He is offering a myth to live by. It is the readers task to realise that myth within him or herself" (Raeper, p. 318). It is not MacDonald's way to provide simple answers to deep questions. Rather, he leads the reader on a personal journey of discovery and revelation. In a real sense the key is both within and without.

Bibliography

William Raeper. George MacDonald. Lion Publishing, 1987.

© 2001, Michael J Partridge.