One Less Gruff Billy Goat

The idea of fairy tales is one full of intrigue and mystique, almost all of us will have read a fairy tale at some point in our lives and without question every one of us knows of a fairy tale character. With the smallest amount of legerdemain the entire premise of a story can change, heroes can be either unlikely children or charming princes, villains can be witches or trolls. The possibilities within fairy tales are endless and the message is always one of hope.

The very first fairy tale that I can remember from my childhood was ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’. The premise is that three goats, discovering that where they live no longer has any grass for them to eat, set out to find new pastures so that they can become fat. However, their journey must take them across the river, where dwells a troll under a bridge. The first goat passes over the bridge but gets stopped by the troll who threatens to “gobble him up” (gobble him up is one of those lines that makes me laugh for no apparent reason) however the goat persuades the troll to wait for the second goat because he’s bigger and more of a meal so the troll lets him pass. The second goat comes along and the same thing happens as before and so then the third goat enters. I’ll stop it there, because I think that most people know how ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ ends, if you don’t then go and Google it.

Of course all fairy tales end with the standard “happily ever after” although recently I read “Arabian Nights” which is a collection of Asian fairy tales and they end with “they all lived happily until there came to them the One Who Destroys All Happiness” which I found odd yet poetic. ‘The One Who Destroys All Happiness’ meaning Death, the Grim Reaper as he’s also known. I was slightly taken aback at first, here were some fairy tales full of hope and suddenly they were cementing the fact that nobody lives “happily ever after” because death catches up to everyone.

The very first fairy tales are attributed to Aesop who lived in Ancient Greece around 620–564 BCE (slightly before our time I imagine). The power of fairy tales is so strong and so resilient that over two thousand years later some of Aesop’s’ tales are still being told to this day. I’m sure you will have heard of at least one of them, the main one that I can think of right now is ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. That story became so popular that two hundred years after it was written it became one of Zeno’s paradoxes (Google them, extremely interesting and thought provoking, the Arrow paradox is my personal favourite)

The Brothers Grimm famously wrote some of the most celebrated fairy tales in our history. Two German brothers, who were academics and even lexicographers, crafted some of the worlds greatest imaginary and magical characters. Although The Brothers Grimm did centralise their fairy tales on more darker hues they still resonated through the years with so many different people, even psychologist who felt the need to analyse them.

The fairy tale is an escape from reality, like most forms of entertainment. I do believe however that fairy tales give more power to the reader and open the imagination slightly more than any other form of literature and I’m saying that as an avid science-fiction fanatic. Whether it’s something written by Alexander Afanasyev or Hans Christian Andersen, fairy tales have the power to take you to a place where good almost always wins. The fairy tale is a door to the unknown world of endless possibilities where life feels good, Walt Disney realised that and that’s why he cashed in on so many popular fairy tales.

Nowadays people don’t write fairy tales, it’s somewhat a thing of the past which saddens me. My Dad used to make up fairy tales for me each night and they always made me so happy. They were tales of a young boy called Billy who lived in a house with a green roof. Billy went swimming with sharks and had magic powers, he loved ice cream and was my hero. My Dad doesn’t remember how any of those stories went and I was too young to retain the proper memories of them which is a crying shame because I would love to remember them in full.

The power of fairy tales will live on because they should live on. Albert Einstein once famously said “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Can anyone really disprove that? Fairy tales are more than just true and not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Every fairy tale has meaning and every single one is based on the same idea, the idea that peace and happiness can exist no matter what stands in your way.

“In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected.” – Charles Dickens

He is……

Sometimes I like to write short stories, sometimes they’re pointless and other times they just don’t make any sense. This one was one that I just sort of put together when trying to exercise my brain. It’s a short about Doctor Who. If you read my “About Me” page you’ll realise that DW holds a special place in my life.

“He never looked back, he never stopped and he never blinked. Time couldn’t catch up with him because he simply strolled through it. Of course he remembered but remembering and looking back were two different things. When the time came – just as it always does – he slowed down, just briefly, just for the shortest moment.

In every solar system, in every galaxy, in every corner possible, there was blood. Dark blood dripping from the hands of one man. If he stopped for just a minute, it would drip and drip and drip, eventually he would drown in the blood on his hands.

A warrior, a goblin, a trickster, a storm, all who he never intended to be but all who he inevitably became.

From the junkyard to the Valeyard, a Grandfather to a son in law. The longest of lives and the largest of hearts wrapped in the smallest of boxes that was bigger than thought.

The warrior, the teachers, the journalist, the shop assistant, the man in the kilt. They all came and they all left, each taking a part of him. Evolving and moving and running and dancing and crying and watching and fighting and saving and shouting and being alive, so alive.

This man was not a man, he was a hero. A hero to many and an enemy of more. The healer, the wise man, the old man, the young man, the new man, the new men! Always changing but staying the same.

The corner stone of the universe and the centre of hope. Joy and happiness and love and loss – so much loss. So much lost but so much saved. He has seen it, he has walked in the eternal light he has created stars and watched lights flicker out.

His story can’t come in a book, his story can’t be placed in chronologies, his story is for everyone to see. Every star, every planet, every solar system has been touched by him.

He is the one that always comes, the one that always runs, the one who can make time stand still and scares the monsters away.

He is the Doctor.”