The Significance of Myths and Fairy Tales

Many Christians believe that myths and fairy tales can be harmful and bad influence on children. They don't want to expose the children by seeing magic, witch craft, or evil demonic creatures. But in reality it delivers them a well- meaning of a Christian knowledge. The book that I read of Telling the Truth, talks about the gospel as a fairy tale. Buechner said, "That is the Gospel, this meaning of darkness and light and the final victory of light. That is the fairly tale of the Gospel with, of course, the one crucial differences from all other fairy tales, which is the claim made for it is that it is true, that it not only happen once upon a time but has kept on happening ever since and is happening still."(p.89) Myths and legends  can fall into the same category as fairy tells. Classical stories like the Chronicles of Narnia, The Legend of King Arthur, or The Little Red Ridding Hood, may not be myths, but children who hear or read fairy tales can learn about the christian faith. Usually stories teaches valuable lessons to the children. They teach how to be good, having good manners, and the consequences of people doing bad things. Tolkien says that fairy tales are specifically for children, but there essential to the society.

"The Gospels contain a fairystory, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy."
~~J.R.R Tolkien On Fairy Stories~~