Mature Mythological Depictions in Children’s Literature
Children’s literature is a genre of novel that is typically read by children and adults alike. As such, the content has to be appropriate for the children—or at least go over the heads of children—and, in addition, must also be engaging enough for the adult presumably reading it too. The depiction of the ‘child hero’ is unlike what real children would be akin to; instead, it’s almost as though the body is a child and the mind and heart is mature beyond their years, like an adult wearing a child’s body. A prominent theme of children’s literature draws on fairy tales and classical mythology. Due to the mythological nature employed, there are some very adult-like themes communicated through the stories, particularly given the characters draw off of symbolism and characteristics of ancient myths and deities—none of which were children. Beyond this, there is a deviation in the depiction of gender portrayal, where boys are based off of nature gods above ground, deities such as Pan, The Green Man, Somnus, and Dionysus such as Peter Pan in Peter Pan in Kensington / Peter Pan and Wendy by J. M. Barrie and Mr. Tumnus in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. Meanwhile, the girls, such as Alice from Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass and Irene from The Princess and the Goblin are based off of underground deities and figures from Greek mythology such as Persephone and Ariadne.
In “The Resurrection of Pan,” Paul Christensen asserts that the rediscovery of paganism is as a result of the shortcomings of duality in Christianity, and that polytheism was better able to explore our natures as the complex thing it is (506). In fiction, mythology is frequently used as symbolism. More specifically, Greek mythology (or it’s Roman equivalent) is often employed simply as a direct result of our way of life being so innately connected to the past as explored by Leone Garvey in “Children’s Literature—Old” (479). While we don’t worship these Pagan deities anymore, many modern beliefs stem from Greek and Roman ideals – even to the point of modern justice. Therefore, it makes a certain amount of sense to teach our children through these myths since the gods and goddesses are ideas and concepts personified.
“If twentieth century literature has a central theme, it may well be the rediscovery of polytheism, magic, the animacy of nature, all those structures of thought and belief that belong under the general, and tainted, name of paganism."
(Christensen, 506)
Children’s Literature is a method of exploring the world, unencumbered by logic and rigidity. As such, children’s literature is truly the perfect vessel to utilize mythology: if done correctly. Leone Garvey explores this topic – about the appeal of the fantastical to children. Many fairy tales are rooted from mythology, and many contain very dark themes. The original purpose of this was likely to deter children from danger, conveying through stories that not everyone will have their best interests at heart. This seems a useful lesson. Much of mythology is adult in nature, particularly with certain gods such as Pan and Dionysus. What is riveting about mythology is its ability to conjure up dynamic ideas just through a single image. Due to this, however, one must be mindful of the imagery being conveyed in Children’s literature even subliminally. The journey of the girl hero differs greatly from the boy hero, and put simply, the girls typically have a mental journey while the boys have a physical one. By and by, both employ symbolism through setting, but where the stories are character driven for the boys, it is plot driven for the girls.
The setting plays an integral role to the depiction and themes communicated through characters. In Peter Pan in Kensington / Peter and Wendy, and in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, we have the characters Peter Pan and Mr. Tumnus. Peter Pan has the appearance of The Green Man and the spirit of Pan while Mr. Tumnus has the appearance of Pan and the spirit of Somnus and Dionysus. Each of these deities are well-known for their wild nature; Pan and The Green Man in particular are known for eternal youth, fertility, and being, shall we say, unruly. Pan is neither good nor evil, but instead reflects the potential of nature to be as cold and unyielding as it can be warm and giving, and The Green Man easily supports this notion. In fact, the only outlier is Somnus in the sense he is the only one that abides by rules of any sort.
Peter Pan is a boy who never wants to grow up; he wants to be a kid forever. This is not ideal. The mythological influences attributed to Peter Pan include Pan and The Green Man; he is nature personified, and though nature is a dualistic concept, Peter Pan depicts the darker side to it where it can be menacing, harsh, cold, and unyielding. His appearance is an obvious allusion to The Green Man, and the two indicators of Pan’s influence in his appearance, since he does not have any goat features, is his set of reed pipes (a notorious symbol of Pan) and his eternal youth. Where his personality is concerned, he is solely Pan, although it could be argued that there is a trace of Hermes with the mischievous and sometimes even cruel actions he displays and ability to fly. Finally, the setting surrounding Peter Pan, Neverland, a land of eternal youth, sets him firmly in the summer season, a symbolic time of year where males are usually depicted.
Pan is a god from the Greek Pantheon and he is depicted as half man and half goat; a deity of the wild, he plays pipes, and is significant in symbolizing youth and fecundity. He is also, uncomfortably, a deity that is known for his sexuality. Pan is the reason we also get the English word, ‘Panic’ because his reed pipes could work mortals into a frenzy, or into an altered state. With the combination of all these aspects, it’s easy to see how Peter Pan could be the unquestioned leader of the group when no other character has much in the way of mythological characterization.
The Green Man is a symbol of male fertility, of creation, and the fruitful side of nature in a seasonal sense. The Green Man does not have a definitive origin, though it is assuredly a Pagan image and likely Celtic. He is depicted with foliage upon his head, and sometimes elsewhere, and is clad in all green, if not in a tree-like fashion; trees were symbolically seen as male with the sap and roots that reach into mother earth. It’s certainly not children’s material. The Green Man can most often be found in Gothic architecture as it was a symbol of the cycles of life and death and the ceaseless ability for nature to procreate. It is a symbol of regeneration, and is, because of the connotative associations with the Green Man, an uncomfortable character to overlay on a supposed child figure in children’s literature considering that Peter Pan is dressed in all green with a tunic shaped like a tree.
Peter Pan is the spitting image of The Green Man, wearing leaves and greenery, and exists in the wild. The Green Man is, unfortunately, a symbol of reproduction, as is Pan. The application of two sexual deities to describe eternal youth, while in a sense can be reconciled as truth where nature is always in a cycle of life, death, and rebirth, is perhaps not an ideal depiction when considering the age of Peter Pan and the intended audience. According to The Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes, The Green Man is considered, by some, to be a later version of Dionysus, who, while in modern times is mostly concerned with wine, is actually a major contender for cults of mysteries, untamed spirit, wilderness, magic, and male procreation (Illes, 362). While eternal youth can be conceived of in nature through the seasons, humans cannot retain it through the seasons except at heart. When one becomes an adult, the way most people connect with their inner child again is by having children of their own. Peter Pan never wants to grow up, and denies the match between himself and Wendy. Instead, he wishes to take Wendy’s descendants for his own having had nothing to do with the process.
In the myths where Pan is mentioned, he is not considered to be handsome, but he is charismatic and has power with his voice. Peter Pan too has an alarming influence over others with his voice, be it is rhetoric or his musical pipes. Peter Pan is the leader and all others look to him for absolute rule. We get the modern English word, ‘Panic’ from Pan. While the modern definition is most associated with fear, there are still other definitions and applications, and frenzy or hurry might be the most accurate when compared with Pan. Peter Pan can stir the others into action whenever he so chooses. When he says, “Eat,” they eat, even if it’s make believe eating; when he says, “Fight,” they fight. It seems nearly like mind control.
It is understandable, to an extent, why these Pagan gods were used to depict Peter Pan, but it seems counterintuitive to the message being delayed: you cannot separate the qualities of gods to be used as you wish without taking with the application of their innate natures and also imprinting them. You cannot take sexual gods and apply it to a child and then say the child possesses none of the qualities from which it was born—rather, the mythology and depiction clashes with the attempted reality within the fiction rendering the story irreconcilable when the nature of Peter Pan is put into question; he is obviously not an ideal, so the contention does not lie with poor role models, but rather the point falls short when what Peter symbolises is at odds with how his conduct is portrayed. A figure of the wild, of nature, of growth and abundance, therefore, seems hollow in the application of a child who never grows old, never reproduces, never procreates and instead just wants a mother—not of his children, but a caretaker for himself forever. Nature needs no caretaker. Wilderness does not yearn to be tamed – by definition, the wild cannot remain wild if tamed and would, if the wilderness yielded, would necessarily cease to be wild and would thus become domesticated. Peter Pan is not domesticated nor can he be; if anyone tries, they fail because Peter Pan does not ever yield his nature. It just simply rings untrue. The plot would be far less problematic if it was general fiction and not directed specifically at children.
When considering the obvious application to the forever man-child, Peter Pan, the great god Pan is not a comfortable connection to make on an island populated by kids. It’s one that’s narrowly avoided through the Freudian Oedipus Complex that is laid upon Peter Pan with Peter wishing all women to be his mother—strictly non-sexual despite the clear advances the two girls make on him in wanting “more”. There are parallel allusions to ‘kissing’ as stated by Maimie in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (58) and by Wendy in Peter and Wendy (95) who both, at Peter’s ignorance of kissing, refer to a thimble instead so as not to embarrass him but both clearly want to. It didn’t have to go there. The sexual ‘creation’ aspects of the gods he is derived from is also circumvented through the ‘imagination’ trope where make believe substitutes any actual biological creation. It makes Wendy and Maimie look unchaste and Peter look like a saint when he is the one comprised of sexual nature gods. It’s just doesn’t fit.
The setting itself is a metaphor for Peter’s nature personified. The depiction of Peter Pan as a summer child is a very interesting take when compared with the feminine counterparts are depicted in the gestation period in the comparative seasonal sense (winter, or underground.) Another difference in depiction of the male characters based off of nature gods is that they are already, in a sense, developed. They don’t have the typical hero journey, and in fact, there is little development where Peter Pan is concerned. The caveat of wanting to forever be young is that one can therefore never grow—can never blossom. The female counterparts being underground seems to therefore signify the waiting period before exponential growth, the development of the seed before the upward shoot above ground. There is a definitive character arc where the women are concerned, and a very obvious stagnation in Peter Pan.
Though Mr. Tumnus is not a main character and is really just an instigating side character, his actions are influential enough that without him, the plot would not have unfolded the way it did. In addition, the blatant mythology connection is too good to resist. The mythological influences seen within Mr. Tumnus span across three different mythologies: Christianity, Greek mythology, and Roman mythology through Pan, Somnus, Dionysus, and the Devil/Judas. In appearance, Mr. Tumnus is a clear dead ringer for the God pan, but by extension of pan, he also resembles the Devil in the half goat symbolism aided by his horns. Personality wise, he is again, a blend of Pan and Dionysus, and the Devil if the Devil had a redemption arc. Finally, the setting of the wintery cave and the thawing of Narnia symbolizes the opposite arc to Peter Pan: Winter to Spring and forward moving growth and character development after purgatory in the White Witch’s castle in his frozen / sleeping state.
Where Mr. Tumnus is concerned, his appearance is an obvious nod to Pan. He is a faun who plays the pipes, just like Pan. Satyrs and Fauns, though similar, are not the same. Satyrs were the Greek version of the half-goat/half-man beings while Fauns were the Roman equivalent. Physically, they are the same, but in nature, they are different. The Greek satyr was a helpful nature spirit, one that often aided the heroes in their endeavors; however, the Roman fauns were considered more disruptive than anything else, and untamed as well as lascivious. Mr. Tumnus is expressly called a Faun and not a Satyr.
On a linguistic note: in addition to the Pan aspect, Mr. Tumnus has elements of Somnus / Hypnos the God of sleep and dreams. His name, whether circumstantially or not, seems to incorporate “Somnus” through the second part of his name “mnus”, with ‘tumultus’ or ‘tumultuous’ of Latin origin which means disorder and is synonymous with Pan. His name seems to be derivatives of the god of sleep married with the god of the wild which seems clever word play if that is, indeed, the case. Mr. Tumnus, upon learning Lucy was a daughter of Eve, betrays God out of fear, brings her to his home, feeds her, plays his pipes and puts her to sleep in order to kidnap and give her over to the White Witch.
Interestingly, the God Pan disappears from the Greek Pantheon, but he is actually extrapolated into Christianity through the character of the Devil, horns and all. Given that Narnia itself is allegorical of the bible in a way to explain Christianity to children, it’s interesting to see how Pan became the Devil in portrayal from a mythological standpoint as Pan is nature personified; that nature itself became a symbol for evil is certainly a questionable take. Physically, he is human from the waist up and beast from waist down. Further inquiry in this direction will not be explored, but given that he sequesters a child from the dark, brings her home, feeds her, and puts her to sleep with nefarious intentions... well, that is certainly a scary thought. Lewis seems to be making the case that the rational mind of the human must prevail because Mr. Tumnus makes the right choice in attempting to aid Lucy after realizing his folly.
In addition to the imagery of Pan, there is also the nature of how one comes into contact with Pan, and how he makes appearances to mortals. I could not make this up if I tried:
“Pan is the spirit of corners, thresholds, borders, and edges. He is most likely seen at twilight at the edge of the woods from the corner of your eye.”
(The Encyclopedia of Spirits, pg. 817)
Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus, at twilight, and spots him after he steps out from behind a tree, visible only because of the lamp in a clearing nestled at the edge of a forest—a crossroad and border marker. (The Chronicles of Narnia, pg. 113-115).
Deception is a motif of the Devil, but that metaphorical association predates Christianity and actually comes from Pan. C. S. Lewis wrote Narnia as a clear way to explore Christianity with children, and Mr. Tumnus is a way of showing that temptation can be disguised as a friend, and that to trust people blindly may not be the safest course of action. Somnus is affiliated with night and dreams, and the overlapping of Christianity mythology with Greek is a very interesting dichotomy. When Mr. Tumnus is frozen by the White Witch, his time in this state is like purgatory, where souls await the judgement of God.
Contrary to Peter Pan who is depicted as the summer cycle with the appearance of the Green Man, Mr. Tumnus is firmly placed in the winter with the depiction of Dionysus and Pan. Narnia is in a permanent state of winter thanks to the White Witch, and Mr. Tumnus turned-coat out of fear. The winter was the dominion of Dionysus, his festivals always celebrated each month from November through to February (Citation). Again, unlike Peter Pan, Mr. Tumnus has character growth and his growth is moving from Dionysus to Pan, or Winter to Spring. Pan is symbolic of Spring, but he moves in the opposite direction of Spring to Winter, which is an unnatural state of affairs.
Mr. Tumnus’s journey is about salvation as opposed to stagnation in the sense that he commits a crime, attempts to rectify, gets caught, is punished, and comes out the other side reborn when he is revived by Aslan as a good Christian once more. Peter Pan, has the opposite effect where, at first, his life seems wonderful, but by the end the reader can see it’s sad and empty. To intentionally remain frozen and wish to remain there is, by the metaphor of Narnia, to forever live in sin, removed from salvation, and frozen in time in the White Witch’s castle. Both Mr. Tumnus and Peter Pan have motifs of Winter, Spring and Summer, and they are excellent character foils when put side by side: both have the same pagan influences in their character and represent the same time of the year, and both go through a period of being “frozen”. Mr. Tumnus learns from his mistakes and chooses a better path while Peter Pan remains stuck in his ways and dies in a very meaningful way if not in body then in mind, heart, and soul. They have the same abilities and potential, but one is realized and the other is not.
Contrarily to how the boys are portrayed, with fertility gods of nature, the women are portrayed by figures of mythology who reside below ground or who have clear associations with subterranean settings. The mythological representations of Alice in “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” are fewer than in the case of “Peter Pan” and “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, but the mythology is more deeply rooted in one goddess than superficially divided between many gods and goddesses. “Alice in Wonderland” seems to be a retelling of the myth of Persephone, though it might not be readily apparent. The same is the case the case for Princess Irene from “The Princess and the Goblin”, with the myth of Ariadne, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth. Both Alice and Princess Irene go through a trial of the seasons,
In “Innocence as a Super-Power”, by David Emerson, the theme of the female hero is explored. To begin, Emerson explores what makes the hero journey different for a girl than a boy. An explicitly feminine journey would have to rely on feminine traits and not just be a girl who can act as well as boy such as the employment of physical strength (Emerson, 133). In “Girl, Implicated”, by Greer Gilman, the topic of Ariadne is specifically brought up, where a solitary little girl is separated from her family, and must, through her wits and courage, navigate to the imprisoned man and free him for him to save the day (Gilman, 199). The exploration of the feminine journey seems to start with leaving their comfort zone and ends with wisdom gained when they return – a change in worldview. They have to have faith and be clever about how they proceed as opposed to having brute strength to deal with problems. Both Alice and Princess Irene have absurdly mature minds for the cloistered children they are, but it’s necessary for them to possess some power.
The myth of Persephone was created to describe the seasons, and so it clearly describes the cycles of life through the descent, the trials below ground, and the eventual ascent before it repeats again the next year. It’s a metaphor for planting seeds, growth, and ascension and the cycles of agriculture since her mother is the goddess of Agriculture, and Persephone is the Goddess of spring – she “springs” up from below ground like all of nature does and then “falls” below the earth when planted where she is dormant for the winter with Hades in the underworld. There is very little to indicate what Persephone truly looked like in terms of colouring, but almost every account agrees she was a pleasant-looking young woman. In many cases, Demeter, Persephone’s mother is depicted as blonde, but there’s no way to know for sure. Most modern renderings show darker colouring.
Alice is young, blonde and blue-eyed, and she wears a blue dress, so, therefore, Alice’s appearance truly has little to do with any mythological perceptions, quite unlike the depictions of the boys where the appearance was a poignant statement to communicate ideas through association without needing to state them outright. The similarities between Persephone and Alice are far more extensive than might be originally conceived, and it goes beyond falling through the earth to the land below. Though the most apparent match, it is not the only instance that is similar. If the first example of an equivalent is falling from a field of flowers into the world below, the next would be the motif of food being different than above ground, and the final being a similarity in the inclusion of the trial in the setting.
The connection with Persephone is not a matter of physical manifestations, but more in plot beats and setting. There is the first case of the descent into the underworld, there is the matter of food and drink symbolism while in the underworld—a parallel to the pomegranate that forces Persephone back each fall and winter—and finally in the returning cycle of reaching the surface only to be called back as in the case of Alice’s return in Through the Looking Glass. Both are pulled from their world through a hole in a field of flowers from among friends where they remain for a time, and both encounter issues with food down below – pomegranates and cakes or beverages – and both end up returning to the surface only to be pulled back into the world below.
Wonderland can easily be seen as a utopian sort of Underworld, a world that is separate from the land above; it is more like an alternate dimension rather than a dwelling of the dead. Like Persephone, lured below from a field of flowers and taken by Hades below ground, Alice too is lured away from a field of flowers, in the process of contemplating whether or not to make a daisy chain when she sees the rabbit with pink eyes and falls into Wonderland (Carroll, 9).
Alice navigates through wonderland, and through the aid of food, is able to alter her stature to accommodate her adventure through wonderland. Persephone, for eating pomegranate seeds, seals her fate, unbeknownst to her, and must remain in the underworld as Hades’s wife for a portion of the year. Though it’s not identical in application, food is a motif that’s employed rather regularly even if the results are not themselves parallel and are instead used for different aims. In Persephone’s myth, it’s a metaphor of reproduction, but in Alice’s case, it’s more a case of transformation. Both, are inherently transformational, but not quite equivalent given that Alice has no sexuality attached to her character or story in any obvious way.
Another observable equivalent between the Underworld and Wonderland is the trial. In the Greek myths, the underworld has a council who judges the fate of where souls go, whether to Tartarus, the fields of Asphodel, or to Elysium, and it’s determined by the deeds of the person from their mortal life. The Queen of hearts and her trials are a mockery of justice and are due to the stealing of her tarts (which are, in fact, not even stolen); her solution is “Off with your head” to every person who takes the stand (Carroll, 109). Alice observes the trial, and, through logic, is able to escape with her life before waking up. Upon waking, she is a changed person having had this adventure, even if it was simply a dream.
Similarly to Alice, Princess Irene is also an instance of the setting being more inherently relevant than the mythological basis drawn from and is more an exploration of plot than character as is the case for Peter Pan and Mr. Tumnus. In the case of Princess Irene, there is an obvious parallel with Ariadne. Ariadne is a Cretan princess from Greek myth, though by many accounts, she is older than the Greek Pantheon. There are multiple versions, but the most widely accepted is that Ariadne was a princess who falls in love with Theseus, a Greek hero. Theseus finds himself in trouble below ground in the twists and turns of the Labyrinth where the Minotaur lives. Ariadne helps Theseus, which is seen as a betrayal, and she does so with a spool of thread. In exchange, Theseus promises to marry her, but instead, once he’s safely out of the labyrinth, he abandons her.
Princess Irene is incredibly sheltered, and is not allowed to leave her castle grounds under any circumstances, though the rule is broken in several instances. She knows little of the world as a result of this, and is essentially an orphan in the castle as her mother is dead, and her father, the King, is absent. She meets a young man named Curdie outside of the castle grounds, a boy who is cast as a Theseus figure. Curdie is a miner, and he is the hero archetype to go into the maze to face the minotaur, or in this instance, face the goblins. Things go awry for Curdie and he is trapped by the Goblin King in the mines below the castle; Princess Irene, who has been aided by her great-great grandmother (who is a placeholder for the Fates with their divine string) and has been given special thread which, by fate, leads her to save Curdie from harm. She saves him, they escape, and he betrays her in a sense by essentially calling her a liar about how she was able to rescue him. There is also the end where, although cordial, they depart and move in separate ways which is similar to the ending of the myth though it’s not under the same circumstances by any means. It is a rather faithful retelling within the parameters of children’s literature.
The mentioning of Pan, even in the name, draws in the imagery of the great god, Pan. It is not just isolated to the untamed great outdoors, and anyone familiar with the myths of Pan and the madness, dancing, and sexual nature attached is immediately going to be uncomfortable, especially when those things are being subliminally attached to children. The problem is that Pan is not employed specifically, but vaguely. In the case of Alice and Princess Irene, it’s a lot less problematic in application because specific myths were chosen as opposed to using imagery of gods. Alice in Wonderland and The Princess and the Goblin are focused enough on specific stories that other associations are not drawn. If, for example, Aphrodite had have been employed for symbolism, or Eros, but only in vague terms and not in specific instances, then a whole slew of inappropriate associations could be made, and even Artemis, the maiden goddess of the hunt. The trick with employing mythology in stories is wielding it specifically, and not vaguely.
The fact that the symbolism in Peter Pan is in the periphery instead of the forefront necessarily draws the eye, and since it’s the details that one should analyze, it draws a lot of contextual evidence from the myths that don’t seem appropriate because one cannot cherry-pick portions of myths. Peter Pan would absolutely work as is to explore Narcissism and the effects it can have on others, but it’s not really a message conducive to children learning about the world; in fact, I imagine most children would enjoy Peter Pan and not be utterly afraid of what he represents – because it’s not obviously done. Where Peter Pan remains forever a youth, Wendy ends up being over-protective and too mature to balance it out, and neither state is healthy or ideal. It seems too easy to take the wrong message away from Peter Pan because it is done with clashing ideas.
In conclusion, children’s literature is an integral way of exploring the world in a safe way. Many dark themes may be employed to serve as deterrents from certain behaviour and to cultivate, as an example, a distrust for strangers like Peter Pan, or Mr. Tumnus. If a boy creeps into your room at night, it’s probably not a good sign, and if a stranger invites you to their house, don’t go. Fairy tales and folk tales often explore dark themes, but there seems to be a right way to do it and a not so helpful way. It is very difficult to write children’s material without also overlaying adult themes and connotations, even if it’s only done subconsciously. It is indeed possible to apply Geek mythology to children’s literature – even when depicting Pan and Dionysus – as in the case of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, and still have it be appropriate for young ones. With the focal point, one does not need to analyze too much because it’s right there intentionally; instead, it’s the background that one need analyze. Children learn from example, so in children’s literature, it seems imperative to have a main character be a “hero” and not an antagonist, armed with admirable qualities to depict model behaviour.
[WORKS CITED]
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Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Edited by Peter Hunt, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Christensen, Paul. “The Resurrection of Pan.” Southwest Review, Vol. 78, No. 4, Autumn 1993, pp. 506–527., https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/43470513.
Emerson, David. “Innocence as a Super-Power: Little Girls on the Hero's Journey.” Mythlore, Vol. 28, No. ½ (107/108), Fall/Winter 2009, pp. 131–147., https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26815467.
Garvey, Leone. “III. Children's Literature—Old.” Elementary English, Vol. 41, No. 5, May 1964, pp. 475–483., https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41385673.
Gilman, Greer. “Girl, Implicated: The Child in the Labyrinth in the Fantastic.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 19, No. 2 (73), 2008, pp. 199–203., https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24352452.
Illes, Judika. The Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods, and Goddesses. First Edition ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 2009.
Lewis, C. S. “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” The Chronicles of Narnia, First American Edition ed., HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, 2001, pp. 107–198.
Macdonald, George. The Princess and the Goblin. Penguin Random House UK, 2016.