Fairy Folk Magic

Glodwyn the Gnome is a bit of a rebel. His job is to watch over the ancient woodland, but his good-natured interest in the human world seen through the eyes of his unknowing "friend", Walter the Stacker Truck Driver at the local factory, leads him to interfere in their affairs, with interesting results for all concerned. With his help, the Fairy Folk rescue a little boy from drowning, save the life of an injured cat, and later that of a confused old lady who collapses in the Wood.

This revised, expanded, and updated edition of the 1979 landmark Breaking the Magic Spell examines the enduring power of fairy tales and the ways they invade our subjective world. In seven provocative essays, Zipes discusses the importance of investigating oral folk tales in their socio-political context and traces their evolution into literary fairy tales, a metamorphosis that often diminished the ideology of the original narrative.