Synopsis
"When young Mossy hears the legend that anyone who manages to find the end of a rainbow will be rewarded with a golden key, he becomes determined to do exactly that. But finding the golden key is the easy part—discovering what it unlocks is a much harder task. Together with a runaway girl named Tangle, he sets out to find the key's purpose—and they discover their own along the way." —blurb of Eerdmans edition
Notes
Word count: 10,782 in the Project Gutenberg edition of The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories.
Although this story has children as its main characters, George MacDonald wrote it for "the childlike" ("unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven"). Occasionally marketed to children but mostly appears in adult contexts.
Publications (61)
| Date | Publication | Publisher | Type | Page | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1867 | Dealings with the Fairies | Alexander Strahan | Collection | 248 | |
| 1890 | The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories | Blackie & Son | Collection | ||
| November 1890 | The Golden Key | D. Lothrop | Chapbook | ||
| November 1893 |
|
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Tales | G. P. Putnam's Sons | Collection | 172 |
| 1904 | The Fairy Tales of George Macdonald | A. C. Fifield | Collection | |3 | |
| 1906 | The Golden Key | Thomas Y. Crowell | Chapbook | ||
| 1920 | The Fairy Tales of George Macdonald | George Allen & Unwin | Collection | |3 | |
| May 1924 | The Fairy Tales of George Macdonald | George Allen & Unwin | Collection | |3 | |
| September 1967 | The Golden Key | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Chapbook | |1 | |
| 1972 |
|
Evenor | Pan / Ballantine | Collection | 177 |
| November 1972 |
|
Evenor | Ballantine Books | Collection | 177 |
| 1973 | The Gifts of the Child Christ: Fairytales and Stories for the Childlike | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. | Collection | |6 | |
| 1973 |
|
Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy | Stonehill Publishing | Anthology | |
| 1974 |
|
Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy: Novel and Stories from the Victorian Era | Hart-Davis, MacGibbon | Anthology | 391|391.1 |
| 1977 |
|
Phantasmagoria: Tales of Fantasy and the Supernatural | Anchor Books | Anthology | 54 |
| 1977 |
|
The Complete Fairy Tales of George Macdonald | Schocken Books | Collection | 210 |
| March 1978 |
|
Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy | Wallaby / Pocket Books | Anthology | 391 |
| December 1978 |
|
The Fantastic Imagination II | Avon | Anthology | 11 |
| April 1979 |
|
The Golden Key and Other Stories | Chariot Books | Collection | 11 |
| October 1980 |
|
The Golden Key and Other Stories | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. | Collection | 1 |
| May 1982 |
|
The Golden Key and Other Stories | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. | Collection | 1 |
| December 1984 |
|
The Golden Key | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | Chapbook | |1 |
| 1985 |
|
The Golden Key | Caedmon | Chapbook | |
| September 1986 |
|
The Gold Key and The Green Life: Some Fantasies and Celtic Tales | Constable & Co. Ltd. | Collection | 83 |
| October 1987 |
|
The Light Princess and Other Tales | Canongate Kelpies | Collection | 210 |
| May 1988 |
|
Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy | Tusk Books / The Overlook Press | Anthology | 391 |
| September 1988 | The Victorian Fairy Tale Book | Pantheon Books | Anthology | 229 | |
| March 1991 |
|
Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy | The Overlook Press | Anthology | 391 |
| September 1996 |
|
The Gifts of the Child Christ & Other Stories and Fairy Tales | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. | Collection | 257 |
| 1999 | The Complete Fairy Tales | Penguin Books (US) | Collection | 120 | |
| 1999 | The Complete Fairy Tales | Penguin Books (US) | Collection | 120 | |
| February 2001 |
|
The Treasury of the Fantastic: Romanticism to Early Twentieth Century Literature | North Atlantic Books/Tachyon Publications/Frog, Ltd. | Anthology | 157 |
| September 2001 |
|
The Mammoth Book of Fantasy | Robinson | Anthology | 85 |
| November 2001 |
|
The Mammoth Book of Fantasy | Carroll & Graf | Anthology | 85 |
| January 2003 |
|
The Victorian Fairy Tale Book | Pantheon Books | Anthology | 229 |
| August 2003 |
|
Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy | Del Rey / Ballantine | Anthology | 21 |
| September 2003 |
|
Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy | Del Rey / Ballantine | Anthology | 21 |
| November 2005 |
|
Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy | Del Rey / Ballantine | Anthology | 27 |
| July 2006 |
|
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Tales | Dover Publications | Collection | 71 |
| July 2006 | The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories | Project Gutenberg | Collection | ||
| April 2007 |
|
The Golden Key | NuVision Publications | Chapbook | |
| 2008 |
|
The Fantastic Imagination of George MacDonald, Volume III | Coachwhip Publications | Collection | 473 |
| January 2009 |
|
The Golden Key | christianaudio.com | Chapbook | |
| February 2009 |
|
The Golden Key | Dodo Press | Chapbook | |
| April 2009 |
|
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories | Wilder Publications | Collection | |
| December 2009 |
|
The Complete Fairy Tales | Digireads.com | Collection | |
| August 2010 |
|
Dreams and Wonders: Stories from the Dawn of Modern Fantasy | Dover Publications | Anthology | 73 |
| August 2010 |
|
Dreams and Wonders: Stories from the Dawn of Modern Fantasy | Dover Publications | Anthology | |
| May 2012 |
|
Dreams and Wonders: Stories from the Dawn of Modern Fantasy | Dover Publications | Anthology | |
| December 2012 |
|
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Stories | Library of Alexandria | Collection | |3 |
| January 2013 |
|
Fantasy Novels | Benediction Classics | Omnibus | 56 |
| February 2013 |
|
The Light Princess and Other Fairy Tales | Dover Publications | Collection | |
| August 2013 |
|
The Treasury of the Fantastic: Romanticism to Early Twentieth Century Literature | Tachyon Publications | Anthology | 137 |
| November 2013 |
|
The Mammoth Book of Fantasy | Robinson | Anthology | |85 |
| 2015 | The Golden Key | Pegana Press | Chapbook | ||
| March 2015 |
|
Victorian Fairy Tales | Oxford University Press | Anthology | 115 |
| May 2016 |
|
Victorian Fairy Tales | Oxford University Press | Anthology | |
| September 2016 |
|
The Golden Key | Eerdmans Books for Young Readers | Chapbook | |
| March 2018 |
|
The Classic Fantasy Collection | Sirius / Arcturus Publishing | Anthology | 903 |
| October 2020 |
|
Strange Lands: Short Stories | Flame Tree Press | Anthology | 278 |
| May 2023 |
|
The Golden Key | Rabbit Room Press | Chapbook |