the enchanted castle
is really yalding towers, which is where gerald, kathleen, james and mabel found the ring that is "whatever you say it is," leading to the four getting up to various shennenigans, chief among them becoming invisible. (mabel comes after the 'and' because the former three are siblings, she's the niece of the housekeeper at yalding towers.)
gerald, kathleen and james were unable to go home for the holidays because their cousin betty got measles when she arrived there first (it's always measles!) and were desperately wishing for something to happen to them when they chanced upon mabel playing at being a princess asleep for a hundred years in the middle of a maze, gerald conveniently tumbling into a tunnel which led them to yalding towers - the enchanted castle, really. that's when the 'something exciting' they were hoping to happen really does happen. it's rather exciting in a horrid way for them at first, given the inadvertent wishes granted and inquisitive adults - but it was written for children, and there is always some lovely, good thing to be learnt in books about and for children.
there was harry potter, and now there's the golden compass; i wonder why no one raised a ruckus about the enchanted castle, or the story of the amulet. they were both written in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, but i haven't heard of them being decried as rank heresy, not like the "magic books" of today. and what of carbonel, talking cats and flying broomsticks and mrs cantrip's spell book which rosemary and john managed to steal from her, which led to the rainbow magic and the undoing of the silent magic?
but i think children need these things. they need to imagine, to dream, to believe in the impossible - the grown ups in all these books never seemed to believe the children, dismissing the magical happenings as "childish fancies," nodding absently when told about them and telling them to "run along, now, there's a dear" and going back to knitting and reading the papers or whatever boring and grown-up thing they were doing at the moment. aunt petunia and uncle vernon didn't believe in it, neither did lord yalding until he saw it at work for himself; how many of us would believe in magic today, especially in the pragmatic singaporean social climate?
funnily enough, it was reading the enchanted castle that made me think about whether i've been neglecting spending time with God. we don't ever want to admit to ourselves that we are i think, until we have some time alone and we feel rather - discouraged? worn? weary? and we wonder why, and ask if God has truly been working in our lives.
"don't you see now," said mabel, her eyes wider than ever, "the ring's what you say it is? that's how it came to make us invisible - i just said it . . . i say it isn't a wishing-ring. i say it's a ring that makes the wearer four yards high."
she had caught up the ring as she spoke, and even as she spoke the ring showed high above the children's heads on the finger of an impossible mabel, who was, indeed, twelve feet high.
perhaps that's what child-like faith is about, you think? believing, and carrying the precious knowledge with us each day that we can and should expect miracles if we're walking with Jesus; that if we pray and ask for things in His name, in His will, He will answer.
***
one of my favourite parts in the enchanted castle which i've quoted before in this space is when the children find the hall of granted wishes:
"many other pictures there were that these arches framed. and all showed some moment when life had sprung to fire and flower - the best that the soul of man could ask or man's destiny grant. and the really good hotel had its place here too, because there are some souls that ask no higher thing of life than ' a really good hotel.' "
which is nice, isn't it? to expect little and gain much simply because you do.
of course, there is no life without its hunger (from you raise me up, that annoying over-played over-sung song) and even though we should be content in whatever circumstances we're in, there is something more and greater we should always be looking to.
the enchanted castle ended with lord yalding finding his long-lost love - every wish the ring granted when it was a wishing ring exacted a price except from children, except for the last wish. and his long-lost love (who, incidentally, was also kathleen's french governess at school) wished that all the magic the ring ever wrought be undone, and the ring be naught more than a charm to bind herself and lord yalding forevermore.
there's still magic, whether we want to see it or not. and we don't need wishes granted, or fantastic things happening. we just need Jesus - and from Him with whom there is no changing, comes every good and perfect thing.
alright and this is rather cheesy but - above all, there are miracles because there is Love, and love. and it's true and you know it!
is really yalding towers, which is where gerald, kathleen, james and mabel found the ring that is "whatever you say it is," leading to the four getting up to various shennenigans, chief among them becoming invisible. (mabel comes after the 'and' because the former three are siblings, she's the niece of the housekeeper at yalding towers.)
gerald, kathleen and james were unable to go home for the holidays because their cousin betty got measles when she arrived there first (it's always measles!) and were desperately wishing for something to happen to them when they chanced upon mabel playing at being a princess asleep for a hundred years in the middle of a maze, gerald conveniently tumbling into a tunnel which led them to yalding towers - the enchanted castle, really. that's when the 'something exciting' they were hoping to happen really does happen. it's rather exciting in a horrid way for them at first, given the inadvertent wishes granted and inquisitive adults - but it was written for children, and there is always some lovely, good thing to be learnt in books about and for children.
there was harry potter, and now there's the golden compass; i wonder why no one raised a ruckus about the enchanted castle, or the story of the amulet. they were both written in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, but i haven't heard of them being decried as rank heresy, not like the "magic books" of today. and what of carbonel, talking cats and flying broomsticks and mrs cantrip's spell book which rosemary and john managed to steal from her, which led to the rainbow magic and the undoing of the silent magic?
but i think children need these things. they need to imagine, to dream, to believe in the impossible - the grown ups in all these books never seemed to believe the children, dismissing the magical happenings as "childish fancies," nodding absently when told about them and telling them to "run along, now, there's a dear" and going back to knitting and reading the papers or whatever boring and grown-up thing they were doing at the moment. aunt petunia and uncle vernon didn't believe in it, neither did lord yalding until he saw it at work for himself; how many of us would believe in magic today, especially in the pragmatic singaporean social climate?
funnily enough, it was reading the enchanted castle that made me think about whether i've been neglecting spending time with God. we don't ever want to admit to ourselves that we are i think, until we have some time alone and we feel rather - discouraged? worn? weary? and we wonder why, and ask if God has truly been working in our lives.
"don't you see now," said mabel, her eyes wider than ever, "the ring's what you say it is? that's how it came to make us invisible - i just said it . . . i say it isn't a wishing-ring. i say it's a ring that makes the wearer four yards high."
she had caught up the ring as she spoke, and even as she spoke the ring showed high above the children's heads on the finger of an impossible mabel, who was, indeed, twelve feet high.
perhaps that's what child-like faith is about, you think? believing, and carrying the precious knowledge with us each day that we can and should expect miracles if we're walking with Jesus; that if we pray and ask for things in His name, in His will, He will answer.
***
one of my favourite parts in the enchanted castle which i've quoted before in this space is when the children find the hall of granted wishes:
"many other pictures there were that these arches framed. and all showed some moment when life had sprung to fire and flower - the best that the soul of man could ask or man's destiny grant. and the really good hotel had its place here too, because there are some souls that ask no higher thing of life than ' a really good hotel.' "
which is nice, isn't it? to expect little and gain much simply because you do.
of course, there is no life without its hunger (from you raise me up, that annoying over-played over-sung song) and even though we should be content in whatever circumstances we're in, there is something more and greater we should always be looking to.
the enchanted castle ended with lord yalding finding his long-lost love - every wish the ring granted when it was a wishing ring exacted a price except from children, except for the last wish. and his long-lost love (who, incidentally, was also kathleen's french governess at school) wished that all the magic the ring ever wrought be undone, and the ring be naught more than a charm to bind herself and lord yalding forevermore.
there's still magic, whether we want to see it or not. and we don't need wishes granted, or fantastic things happening. we just need Jesus - and from Him with whom there is no changing, comes every good and perfect thing.
alright and this is rather cheesy but - above all, there are miracles because there is Love, and love. and it's true and you know it!
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