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Original and unabridged text

First published in Dealings with the Fairies, The Golden Key is a fairy tale written by George MacDonald and is particularly well noted for the intensity of its imagery.

A woman tells her great-nephew of a golden key found at the end of a rainbow. One day, he sees a rainbow and sets out to find the end. The sun sets, but as the forest is in Fairyland, the rainbow only glows the brighter, and he finds the key, and it dawns on him that he does not know where the lock is.

Also on the borders of this forest, a merchant's daughter is being cared for by servants, who are such poor housekeepers that they disgust the local fairies, who resolve to get them sent away by frightening off the child. Their first attempts, by animating the furniture in her room, make her laugh, but as she has been reading Silverhair, when they make her think three bears are coming into her bedroom, she flees into the woods.