The Sunny Country of Common Sense
Elfland, Here I Come!
Friday, May 26, 2006
The Meaning Behind the Title

Because I know you're all dying to know. :)

In "The Ethics of Elfland" in Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton says "Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense. It is not earth that judges heaven, but heaven that judges earth; so for me at least it was not earth that criticised elfland, but elfland that criticised the earth. I knew the magic beanstalk before I had tasted beans; I was sure of the Man in the Moon before I was certain of the moon. This was at one with all popular tradition. Modern minor poets are naturalists, and talk about the bush or the brook; but the singers of the old epics and fables were supernaturalists, and talked about the gods of brook and bush. That is what the moderns mean when they say that the ancients did not "appreciate Nature", because they said that Nature was divine. Old nurses do not tell children about the grass, but about the fairies that dance on the grass; and the old Greeks could not see the trees for the dryads."

A bit of the old magic is still in this world--and I love it when I spot it.

But really, I just chose the title because I like it. Elfland, here I come!
3 Comments:
Blogger Danielle said...
I'm just testing the comment section.

Blogger Deborah said...
muy bueno, senorita.

Blogger Patrick Davis said...
I want to congratulate you on your reasons for choice of title- your presentation of why is excellent, and I love your thoughts. You know, you have made me rethink the whole Father Christmas thing since your comments a few months ago.
You need to ask me to explain why we parents taught you so differently someday- life was so different back a few decades ago.
Dad