Vol. 9 The Golden Treasury of Children's Literature Legendary Animals

Foreword
"No one has ever seen
a unicorn or a gryphon
or a minotaur or a mock turtle
or an invisible monster.
Yet these things exist
in literature and, therefore, in our imagination.
Sometimes they are attended with anxiety and horror;
at other times, they are presented with humor. The talkative
gryphon and mock turtle are inventions of that master
of nonsense, Lewis Carroll, and appear with other
extraordinary creations in the Alice books. The unicorn
and the minotaur come down to use from ancient times;
they symbolize early man's fears as well as his fancies.
Besides tales of mythical creatures, there are stories
about actual animals performing acts and making
converstaions beyond reality. Many of these
have become legendary.
Among these are such
classics as Aesop's "Fables","The Hare and the Hedgehog," and "The King of the Cats,"
as well as Mark Twain's
farcical "Jumping Frog." "