North Wind is perhaps the most mysterious of all these good women fairy-angels…”

Yet the vague and mystical tone allows for a wider breadth of interpretation, which explains why MacDonald is no less beloved by those who do not necessarily imbue his fairy and fantasy stories with Christian themes and symbolism. To a Christian reader they speak in ways like God sometimes does. “It is their curious blend between the angelic and human that makes these creations of MacDonald’s so fascinating. There are clear limits to what these wise fairy-angel women know and can do. They are not drawn as direct portrayals of God, but more as fairy-angels who see and speak high truth and are commissioned (whether commissioned specifically by God depends on how much Christian interpretation one reads into the stories) to help their human charges (Anodos, Diamond, Curdie, Princess Rosamond) in various ways. “MacDonald’s “wise women” (in their cottages and garrets, with their mirrors and spinning wheels and fires of rose petals and flights over London) are curiously all-wise yet less than all-knowing. Now, however, the series of enigmatic mystical episodes of Anodos’s adventures (whose ultimate meaning remains obscure) is scaled down into a so-called “children’s story,” and is thus far easier to read and understand (though the flavor of mysticism remains). MacDonald will return to both again and again. “Two recurring themes reappear from Phantastes as foundational to North Wind’s story-the dream motif, and the all-wise woman-figure. ABOUT At the Back of the north wind, FROM GEORGE MACDONALD, A WRITER’S LIFE

At the back of the north wind