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Young World
Legendary stories from Dahl
GEETHA KRISHNANKUTTY
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Roald Dahl’s contribution to literature is well-known. Remembering him on his death anniversary —November 23.
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Friendly ghosts, giants who shed tears of compassion, lady spiders and millipedes are some of the characters that hooked kids to Dahl’s books.
’A gruntel’s egg, with the claw of a craberuncher, the beak of a blabber switch, the snout of a grabiesquirt, the tongue of a catspringer…and the hair of the victim mixed together” gives a mouse-making potion. This is Roald Dahl’s recipe in The Witches through which transfiguration charms, unforgivable curses and disarming spells.
His legacy
Friendly ghosts, giants who shed tears of compassion, lady spiders and millipedes hooked kids to his books. Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Big Friendly Giant (BFG) were voted the most popular books for children opening up a totally new world.
Dahl was born on September 13, 1916, to Norwegian parents. And this is where he seems to have got the inspiration for the fairies and witches from Norse myths that are lavishly strewn in his stories. He joined the RAF as a fighter pilot at an early age and his war stories are not merely experiences of a pilot but are stories of fantasy too. The anniversary of Dahl’s birthday has recently come to be celebrated as Roald Dahl Day.
Dahl’s characters — both men and women are strangely fascinating. One collects the little finger of every person he meets, another likes to wear neck ties woven out of spider silk. A father wouldn’t mind his baby girl turning into a queen bee and a lodger revels in stuffing her customers. A boy flies like a swan, a cat claims to be the reincarnation of Liszt, a mamba that drinks milk from the cow’s udder — Dahl’s characters are super human if not super natural! Dahl died on November 23, 1990. He was suffering from a rare blood disease — myelodysplastic anaemia.
September 13, his birth anniversary is now celebrated as Roald Dahl Day.
Good vs Bad
Dahl’s stories for children are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villainesses who hate and mistreat children, and feature at least one “good” adult to counteract the villains. These stock characters are possibly a reference to the abuse that Dahl himself experienced in the boarding schools he attended. Dahl also features in his books characters that are very fat, usually children.
Dahl’s mother used to tell him and his sisters tales about trolls and other mythical Norwegian creatures and some of his children’s books contain references or elements inspired by these stories, such as the giants in The BFG.
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